Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 23:5:
Kupsabiny: “And if you (sing.) find a donkey of your enemy having fallen down with luggage on its back, do not pass by but you should rescue/save it.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there, but must help him.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “If you (plur.) see the donkey of your enemy has-fallen because its load is too heavy, you (plur.) should- not -leave- it -alone/be but-instead you (plur.) should-help-(it) to-stand.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Bariai: “And if you (pl.) see your enemy’s donki fall down with its load/bundle, you must help him to lift his donki up. Don’t leave it so that it remains on the ground.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
Opo: “And one who hates you [eye], if you will see his donkey fall with thing on its back, you (sing., imp.) not (imp.) him abandon, you (sing., imp.) help him [that] you lift it.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
English: “If you see someone’s donkey that has fallen down because of its heavy load, help the owner to get the donkey up again, even if he is someone who hates you. Do not just walk away without helping him.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
The Hebrew, Ge’ez, and Greek that is translated as “donkey” in English was translated in the 1900 Kalaallisut (Greenlandic) translation (a newer version was published in 2000) as siutitôĸ or “‘something with big ears.” “[This] is based on the word siut ‘ear’ combined with the same suffix –tôĸ (-tooq).” (Source: Lily Kahn & Riitta-Liisa Valijärvi in The Bible Translator 2019, p. 125ff.)
These Hebrew and Greek words (with the exception of pōlos and hupozugion — see discussion below) all definitely refer to the Domestic Donkey equus asinus. However the different words do have slight semantic differences among them.
Chamor and onos are the generic words for donkey while ’athon (feminine gender) refers specifically to a saddle donkey or a donkey used for riding. A saddle donkey is usually a large strong female donkey the males are too difficult to control when they are near a female in heat. The Hebrew word is derived from a root that means “strong”.
‘Ayir refers to the young male or jack donkey (probably with an emphasis on its liveliness and the difficulty in controlling it since the Hebrew root means something like “frisky”).
Onarion means a young donkey of either sex. Some languages will have a special word for a young donkey. This will be appropriate for translating onarion.
The word hupozugion often translated “donkey,” actually indicates any beast of burden. Walter Bauer, the famous German New Testament scholar, has argued very convincingly that the animal referred to in Matthew 21:5 in the expression epi pōlon huion hupozugiou is the foal of a horse not a donkey (1953:220-229). In some languages it will be possible to express this in a way that does not designate a specific species of animal`, as in “beast of burden.”
Pōlos usually refers to a foal, that is a young horse, unless a word for donkey follows.
Donkeys are domestic animals belonging to the same family as the horse, but they are smaller and have longer ears. The donkey bred and used in the Middle East is the domesticated Nubian or Somali Wild Ass Equus Asinus africanus. In its original wild state this was a gray ass with pale, whitish belly and dark rings on the lower part of the legs. It was domesticated in Egypt as early as 2500 B.C. In its domesticated version, as a result of interbreeding with donkeys from Europe and Persia, the donkey came to be a variety of colors from dark brown, through light brown to the original gray and occasionally white. The Hebrew chamor comes from a root meaning “reddish brown.”
Donkeys are good pack animals being able to carry as much as the larger mule without the latter’s unpredictable moods. They also have great stamina and are easy to feed since they eat almost any available vegetation. Larger individual animals (usually females) are also often used for riding.
Donkeys were highly prized in biblical times especially females since they were suitable for packing and riding and had the potential for producing offspring. Donkeys were seen as man’s best friend in the animal kingdom. They were the common man’s means of transport and many ordinary families owned a donkey. They were used for plowing and for turning large millstones as well as a means of transport.
Today domestic donkeys are found all over savannah Africa the Middle East South and Central Asia Europe Latin America and Australia. They do not seem to be reared in rain forest or monsoon areas but they are nevertheless often known in these areas.
A donkey was considered to be a basic domestic requirement and thus the number of donkeys available was a means of measuring the relative prosperity of a society at any given time. While only powerful political or military people rode horses (which were usually owned by the state) the common people rode donkeys. This is the significance of the passage in Zechariah 9:9: the victorious king would return to the city riding a donkey thus identifying himself as a common Israelite rather than a victorious warlord.
In the majority of languages there is a local or a borrowed word for donkey. This is the obvious choice. In areas of Southeast Asia, Papua New Guinea, West Africa, and other places, where donkeys are rare or unknown, the word from the dominant major language or trade language (for example, English, Spanish, French, Chinese, or Arabic) is often transliterated.
In most contexts ’athon should be translated by the equivalent of “female” donkey, but in some contexts riding donkey is better.
‘Ayir should be translated according to the specific context. In Genesis 32:15 the translation should definitely be the equivalent of “male donkey”, and probably also in Judges 10:4 and Judges 12:14. The significance of these latter passages is that female donkeys were the more normal choice of mount.
In Job 11:12 the emphasis is probably on the friskiness of the donkey, and the translation should be the equivalent of “He ties his young donkey to a grapevine, his frisky young ass to the best of the vines” (indicating a certain amount of irresponsibility, and perhaps extravagance).
In Job 11:12 and Zechariah 9:9 the obvious emphasis is on the youth of the donkey, so the equivalent of “colt”, “foal”, “young donkey”, and so on should be used.
If you see the ass uses ki, the stronger word for If, indicating that this law is not dependent on the preceding law. (See the discussion on case law at 21.2.) Ass means “donkey” as in verse 4. One who hates you is literally “your hater.” This is a different word from “enemy” in verse 4 (see the comment there), but both New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh and Good News Translation understand it to mean “your enemy,” and Good News Translation simply uses the pronoun “his,” referring back to verse 4. Lying under its burden means that the “donkey” has evidently “fallen under its load” (Good News Translation) and is “lying helpless” (Revised English Bible) on the ground. The word for lying suggests that the animal is flat on the ground, but not necessarily lying on its side. Contemporary English Version has “If a donkey is overloaded and falls down.” However, one may also express this as “If your enemy has put too heavy a load on his donkey, and it falls down [or, collapses].”
You shall refrain from leaving him with it is not clear in the Hebrew, as the footnote in Revised Standard Version indicates. The Hebrew has the conjunction “and” (“and you refrain from leaving”), but Revised Standard Version interprets this “and” as an implied “then,” which introduces the main clause (meaning “then you shall refrain…”). New Revised Standard Version, however, translates the conjunction as “and,” understanding this clause to be an extension of the dependent clause (“When you see … and you would hold back…”). Either interpretation is possible.
A further problem is that the expression refrain from leaving may be understood either as leaving the donkey or as leaving the owner of the donkey. Revised Standard Version understand the expression to mean leaving the owner with the donkey, but New Revised Standard Version understands it to mean “leaving” the donkey, in the sense of “setting it free.” But the word for leaving may also mean lifting, or releasing, or setting free. So New Revised Standard Version has “and you would hold back from setting it free.” This meaning of “setting free,” or “lifting,” is what both Revised Standard Version and New Revised Standard Version give to the same Hebrew word in the last clause. Note that Good News Translation places this clause at the end of the verse in order to bring out the meaning more clearly: “don’t just walk off.”
You shall help him to lift it up is literally “releasing you shall release with him,” using the same emphatic form found in 21.12. Good News Translation translates the obvious meaning, “help him get the donkey to its feet again,” but New Revised Standard Version brings out the emphatic form with the word “must,” “you must help him set it free.” Contemporary English Version simply has “you must do what you can to help.”
Considering all these problems, it seems best to translate as follows:
• If ever you see a donkey that has fallen under its load, and it belongs to someone who hates you, you must help him get the animal back on its feet. You should not just walk away.
Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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