The Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek that is translated as “cubit” or into a metric or imperial measurement in English is translated in Kutu, Kwere, and Nyamwezi as makono or “armlength.” Since a cubit is the measurement from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, one armlength (measured from the center of the chest to the fingertips) equals two cubits or roughly 1 meter. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Similarly, in Akoose, the translation is “arm distance.” (Source: Joseph Nkwelle Ngome and Marlie van Rooyen & Jacobus A. Naudé in Communicatio 2009, p. 251ff.)
In Klao it is converted into “hand spans” (app. 6 inches or 12 cm) and “finger spans” (app. 1 inch or 2 cm) (source: Don Slager) and in Bariai into leoa or “fathom,” which comprises the distance from a person’s fingertip to fingertip with arms outstretched, app. 6 feet (source: Bariai Back Translation).
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 38:9:
Kupsabiny: “(He) constructed a fence around the Tent of God. (He) constructed that fence with curtains woven together. The curtains for the southern side of the Tent had a length of forty five meters.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “They made a courtyard for the tabernacle. Its southward’s length was a hundred cubits long. Then they made a fine linen curtain for it.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “They put a yard/courtyard to-the Tent Meeting-Place, and they put- fine linen curtain -around it. The length of the curtain on the south side around 150 feet.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Bariai: “And when it was done then he took good cloths and then erected the fence so that it surrounded God’s shelter. And the long side of that fence toward the saut, its length amounted to twenty-five fathoms.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
Opo: “And they stick in fence at place of Dwelling-Tent-of-God. They hang clothes which they make with thread be good on the right, so that its width be joint of hand which be 100.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
English: “Around the Sacred Tent Bezalel and his helpers made a courtyard. To form the courtyard, they made curtains of fine white linen. On the south side, the curtain was 150 feet/46 meters long.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
According to Anne Garber Kompaoré (in Le Sycomore 3/2009, p. 34ff. ), there are 4 ways to identify cardinal directions:
1. celestial bodies, especially the sun and certain stars
2. geographical landmarks, for example a mountain, sea, or river (depending on its position or the direction in which the water flows) etc.
3. climatic phenomena, such as the wind and the direction from which rain comes
4. bodily reference points, especially front, back, left, and right, in relation to celestial bodies or geographical landmarks
Following are examples of how these are practically implemented by various languages: (click or tap here to see the rest of this insight)
Celestial Bodies
East and west are often translated by the rising and the setting of the sun (note that the origin of English and other Indo-European languages is “dawn” for “east” and “evening” [i.e. sun-down] for “west”):
Maan: “where the sun comes up” and “where the sun goes down” (source: Don Slager)
Kankanaey: “from the coming-out of the sun “and “going-away of the sun” (source: Kankanaey back-translation)
Northern Emberá: “from where the sun comes up” and “from where the sun falls” (source: Charles Mortensen)
Ejamat “the side where the sun comes from” and “the side where it sets” (source: David Frank in this blog post )
Tzeltal: “where the sun pours-out” (west) (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
Northern Ngbandi: “the sun behind the chief’s house” (east — the chief lives traditionally at the eastern side of the village, therefore he does not get the sunlight into his eyes) and “under the sun” (west)
Northwestern Dinka: “earth behind” (east — the place behind the earth, i.e. the area where the sun rises)
Jula: “salt village” (north — because salt comes from the north, from the Sahara Desert) and “kola village” (south — since kola comes from the coastal region to the south) (source: Garber Kompaoré)
Matumbi: “toward the beach” (East) (the coast is in the eastern direction in Matumbi-speaking areas), “north” and “south” can be defined as above or below another place (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
Acoli: “right” (of the local White Nile) (north) and “left” (of the White Nile) (south)
Zande: “interior (dry) land” (east); “place-inside-country” (north / south) — Zande, like a number of other languages, including Matengo and Hehe, traditionally only has three cardinal directions.
Belanda Bor: “lower place” (north) and “higher place” (south)
Turkana: “(up)stream” (north) and (down)stream (south)
Mono (DRC): “water place” (south) (source for this and five above: Mietzner / Pasch)
Climatic Phenomena
Shilluk: “opening westwind” (north) and “opening eastwind” (south)
Swahili used to have six directions. In reducing them to four, kusini and kaskazini which used to refer to south-west and north east respectively (the directions from where the two monsoons blow) have become the terms for “south” and north.” (source for this and one above: Mietzner / Pasch)
Bodily Reference Points
Nuer / Burun: “face” and “sun face” respectively (both: east)
Kalenjin: “eye sun” (east) (this and the one above indicate that the sun is “facing” the spectator from its position in the east:
Shilluk: doesn’t use a fixed position of the speaker, instead it has “eye sun morning” for east and “eye sun evening” for west
Mono (DRC): “foot-sun” (east — the start of the sun’s journey)
Burun: “sun leg” (west — the end of the sun’s journey)
Bari: “back” (north — when people are facing south, north is at their back) (source for this and above: Mietzner / Pasch)
Northern Emberá “the looking [left] hand” (north) and “the real [right] hand” (south) (source: Charles Mortensen)
Morelos Nahuatl: “from above” (north) and “from below” (south) (source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
When all four directions are mentioned, translators tend to avoid listing the four, sometimes verbose terms, and chose solutions like “all directions” (such as in Maan or Manya (source: Don Slager). Yakan has “from the four corners of the earth” (source: Yakan back-translation) and Western Bukidnon Manobo “from the four directions here on the earth” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo back-translation).
The Hebrew text that gives instructions where to place items in the tabernacle with the help of cardinal directions (north and south) had to be approached in the Bambam translation specific to spacial concepts of that culture. Phil Campbell explains: “There are no words in Bambam for north and south. In Exodus 26:35, God instructs that the table is to be placed on the north side and the lamp on the south side inside the tabernacle. The team wants to use right and left to tell where the lamp and table are located. In many languages we would say that the table is on the right and the lampstand is on the left based on the view of someone entering the tabernacle. However, that is not how Bambam people view it. They view the placement of things and rooms in a building according to the orientation of someone standing inside the building facing the front of the building. So that means the table is on the left side and the lampstand is on the right side.”
The concepts of distance that are translated in English with “long,” “wide,” and “high/tall” are translated in Kwere with one word: utali. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
These verses should be translated following the pattern of 27.9-11. (See the comments there.) The following differences should be noted: And he made the court changes the verb to show completed action, and the court should be understood to refer to “the court of the tabernacle.” The word for court, however, as in 27.9, actually refers to the open space around the tabernacle, which Bezalel of course could not make. But it is used here for the hangings of the court, which were the curtains that would mark off the “enclosure” (Good News Translation).
In verse 10 the Hebrew here actually has their pillars instead of “its pillars,” so the textual problem in 27.10 does not occur here. This is also true for their bases. The problem of the dangling phrase of bronze, however, is identical with that in 27.10. Note that New Revised Standard Version revises the structure of Revised Standard Version to make it clear that the pillars were also made of bronze: “its twenty pillars and their twenty bases were of bronze.” Others interpret the phrase to refer only to the bases (New International Version, Revised English Bible). Good News Translation again has “twenty bronze posts in twenty bronze bases,” and Contemporary English Version has “He used twenty bronze posts on bronze stands.” Translators are urged to follow this interpretation. (But see also 26.32, where it is clearly stated that the pillars for holding up the veil of the Most Holy Place were actually of acacia wood and overlaid with gold.)
Verse 11 repeats for the north side what has already been said about the south side, almost word for word. Good News Translation, as in 27.11, has therefore condensed this verse out of consideration for the intended audience. Nothing has been lost except the repetition, which may be important in some languages.
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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