The Hebrew or Greek which are translated into English as “sackcloth” are rendered into Chamula Tzotzil as “sad-heart clothes.” (Source: Robert Bascom)
Pohnpeian and Chuukese translate it as “clothing-of sadness,” Eastern Highland Otomi uses “clothing that hurts,” Central Mazahua “that which is scratchy,” Tae’ and Zarma “rags” (Source: Reiling / Swellengrebel), and Tangale as “torn clothes that show contrition on the body” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin). In the English translation by Goldingay (2018), “put on sackcloth” is translated as wrap on sack.
“In Turkana, a woman removes her normal everyday skin clothes and ornaments and wears rather poor skins during the time of mourning. The whole custom is known as ngiboro. It is very difficult to translate putting on sackcloth because even material like sacking is unfamiliar. The Haya, on the other hand, have a mourning cloth made out of the bark of a tree; and the use of this cloth is similar to the Jewish use of sackcloth. It was found that in both the Turkana and Ruhaya common language translations, their traditional mourning ceremonies were used.” (Source: Rachel Konyoro in The Bible Translator1985, p. 221ff. )
Click or tap here to see a short video clip showing what a sackcloth looked like in biblical times (source: Bible Lands 2012)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Esther 4:2:
Kupsabiny: “Then, he went towards the home of the king, but ended at palace gate, because nobody was allowed to enter that home while wearing funeral clothes.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “He [only] went up to the main gate of the royal palace, because no one who was wearing sackcloth was allowed to enter the palace.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “But he was only up to the outside of the entrance/gate of the palace for no one is allowed to enter the palace wearing/clothing a sack.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Eastern Bru: “He went up to the gate in the wall of the place where the king lived. But he couldn’t go into the inside of the wall, because a person who is wearing mourning clothes cannot enter the place where the king lives.” (Source: Bru Back Translation)
English: “He stood outside the gate of the palace, because no one who was wearing sackcloth was allowed to enter the palace.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Some languages do not have a concept of kingship and therefore no immediate equivalent for the Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin that is translated as “king” in English. Here are some (back-) translations:
Ninia Yali: “big brother with the uplifted name” (source: Daud Soesilio in Noss 2007, p. 175)
Nyamwezi: mutemi: generic word for ruler, by specifying the city or nation it becomes clear what kind of ruler (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Ghomála’: Fo (“The word Fo refers to the paramount ruler in the kingdoms of West Cameroon. He holds administrative, political, and religious power over his own people, who are divided into two categories: princes (descendants of royalty) and servants (everyone else).” (Source: Michel Kenmogne in Theologizing in Context: An Example from the Study of a Ghomala’ Christian Hymn))
Faye Edgerton retells how the term in Navajo (Dinė) was determined:
“[This term was] easily expressed in the language of Biblical culture, which had kings and noblemen with their brilliant trappings and their position of honor and praise. But leadership among the Navajos is not accompanied by any such titles or distinctions of dress. Those most respected, especially in earlier days, were their headmen, who were the leaders in raids, and the shaman, who was able to serve the people by appealing for them to the gods, or by exorcising evil spirits. Neither of these made any outward show. Neither held his position by political intrigue or heredity. If the headman failed consistently in raids, he was superceded by a better warrior. If the shaman failed many times in his healing ceremonies, it was considered that he was making mistakes in the chants, or had lost favor with the gods, and another was sought. The term Navajos use for headman is derived from a verb meaning ‘to move the head from side to side as in making an oration.’ The headman must be a good orator, able to move the people to go to war, or to follow him in any important decision. This word is naat’áanii which now means ‘one who rules or bosses.’ It is employed now for a foreman or boss of any kind of labor, as well as for the chairman of the tribal council. So in order to show that the king is not just a common boss but the highest ruler, the word ‘aláahgo, which expresses the superlative degree, was put before naat’áanii, and so ‘aláahgo naat’áanii ‘anyone-more-than-being around-he-moves-his-head-the-one-who’ means ‘the highest ruler.’ Naat’áanii was used for governor as the context usually shows that the person was a ruler of a country or associated with kings.”
He went up to means that he went as far as the gate. FOX says “he came up to the King’s Gate but no farther.” The Hebrew is literally “until the face of the gate,” meaning he stopped in front of the gate. Mordecai stopped at the palace entrance, because no one dressed in sackcloth was allowed to enter the palace. Wearing sackcloth within the palace was prohibited, not merely because of the crude appearance of sackcloth, but because it symbolized mourning and death.
While some translations like Revised Standard Version and New International Version use the verb he went, others like Good News Translation and FOX say “he came.” The difference in the two verbs is in the perspective of the author, who sees Mordecai going toward the palace, and therefore away from the one telling the story, or who sees Mordecai coming toward the palace and therefore toward the one telling the story. This difference is not specified in the Hebrew verb, but it is made explicit in the English went and “came.” Translators will need to choose a word in their language that is consistent with the way the story is being told.
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Noss, Philip A. A Handbook on Esther (The Hebrew Text). (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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