The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “ivory” in English was translated in the 1900 Kalaallisut (Greenlandic) translation (a newer version was published in 2000) as tûgânigdlo or “(narwhal) tusks.” “The word tûgâĸ (modern tuugaaq) ‘tusk’ does not refer specifically to the tusk of an elephant; rather, it is most closely associated with the noun tûgâlik (modern tuugaalik) ‘narwhal,’ which literally means ‘tusked one.’ The narwhal (Monodon monoceros) is a medium-sized whale with a single long tusk, and is native to the Arctic region, including Greenland. The use of the word tûgâĸ (modern tuugaaq) as an equivalent of ‘ivory’ has the unmistakable effect of situating the Greenlandic version in an Arctic context.” (Source: Lily Kahn & Riitta-Liisa Valijärvi in The Bible Translator 2019, p. 125ff.)
In Newari it is translated as “elephant tusks” (source: Newari Back Translation).
The Hebrew and Greek that is transliterated as “Cyprus” in English is translated more specifically as “the island of Cyprus” in some languages. Eastern Highland Otomi for instance has “the land of Cyprus, the little land it sits in the water,” Morelos Nahuatl has “the land-rise of Cyprus,” or Lalana Chinantec has “land in the middle of the water which is called Cyprus.” (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
In Libras (Brazilian Sign Language) it is translated with a sign that depicts the shape of the island and “blossoming flower” (a possible meaning of the name). (Source: Missão Kophós )
Three species of oak are found in Israel, the main ones being the Tabor oak and the Kermes (or common) oak. Both go by the name ’elon or ’allon in Hebrew. The similarity to the Hebrew word ’el (“god”) is significant, since these trees have long been associated with worship and with burial. Since the Tabor oak is the biggest, it is likely that ’elon and ’allon most often refer to that one. English versions have sometimes mistakenly translated the Hebrew word ’elah (“terebinth”) as “oak.”
According to Hepper (Baker Encyclopedia of Bible Plants, Baker Book House, 1992), forests of Kermes oak (Quercus calliprinos or Quercus coccifera) covered the hill country of Israel from Carmel to Samaria in biblical times. The Kermes oak forest is the most familiar and important type of vegetation in Israel.
The Tabor Oak Quercus macrolepsis (= Quercus aegilops = Quercus ithaburensis = Valonea oak in Israel) apparently replaced the original common oak during the Arab period (800–1400 A.D.), but has itself been nearly destroyed in more recent times by the efforts of charcoal makers, limestone burners, and the Turkish rail-way. Tabor oaks are deciduous and are found mostly in Carmel.
The large Tabor oak reaches a height of 25 meters (82 feet), branching at around 5.5 meters (18 feet). The Kermes oak is more like a large shrub, normally branching at ground level. The Tabor oak loses its leaves every winter; the Kermes oak is evergreen and prickly.
Oaks were used to mark grave sites (see Genesis 35:8), and it is possible that the references to “oak of Moreh” or “oaks of Mamre” may hint at burial sites of famous people. They were probably also important in divination, if the reference in Judges 9:37 (see Translation commentary on Judges 9:37) to a “Diviners’ Oak” can be taken as typical. References to people named Allon (1 Chronicles 4:37) or Elon (Genesis 46:14 et al.) may suggest that the oak was a symbol of strength or beauty, or both.
Oaks grow mainly in temperate areas (Europe, North America, North Asia, and Japan) and the Mediterranean area, including North Africa. Translators in tropical areas will not have a local variety as an option. In historical contexts, therefore, it will be necessary to transliterate from a major language. In poetic contexts such as the prophets, the oak typically represents a large and very strong tree, and a local species with those characteristics can be considered.
Although the first definite reference to elephants in the Bible is in the Greek deuterocanonical book of 1 Maccabees, ivory (literally “tooth”) is mentioned first in the time of Solomon. By this date there were already ivory trade routes from the Sudan down the Nile and by sea from where Djibouti is now on the African Red Sea coast to where Eilat is now on the Gulf of Aqaba. Some of the ivory may have been made from the teeth of the hippopotamus but two references, 1 Kings 10:22 and 2 Chronicles 9:21, specifically refer to elephant ivory (literally “elephant’s tooth”). Ivory was probably known even much earlier than this since ornaments dating from around 2300 B.C. have been found in Palestine.
The Indian Elephant Elephas maximus was domesticated and trained for use in war very early well before the second millennium B.C. When Alexander the Great extended his empire into India in the fourth century B.C. he obtained war elephants to incorporate into his army. The idea of using elephants in war then spread to the Middle East. There was a smaller variety of this elephant found in Syria and Mesopotamia. By the third century B.C. domestic Indian elephants had been introduced into Egypt. Ptolemy II is reported to have had ninety-six elephants, four to a chariot, and later that same century when Ptolemy IV defeated the Seleucid king of Syria, Antiochus III, he is reported to have captured Syrians’ elephants. However, the Seleucid kings continued to use war elephants, and the next king, Epiphanes, attacked Egypt with elephants. He and his son then used them in their campaign against the Jews. According to 1Maccabees each elephant with thirty-two soldiers mounted on it, besides the Indian handler went into battle ahead of one thousand Syrian soldiers and five hundred horsemen. One of Maccabeus’ brothers was able to kill the largest elephant by getting under it and stabbing it, but he was himself killed when the elephant fell on him. At a later time probably because the Indian elephants were difficult to obtain the African Elephant Loxodonta africana was tamed for use in war. Coins show that the elephants used by the Roman Emperor Hadrian to cross the Alps were African probably brought from North Africa.
Elephas is the word most commonly used in the deuterocanonical books although elephantarchēs which means commander of an elephant squadron is used in 2 Maccabees 14:12 and 3 Maccabees 5:4 and 3 Maccabees 5:45 and thērion which means “monster” is used in 2 Maccabees 15:20f.
Elephants are the largest land animals on earth, the males of the Indian species being about 3 meters (10 feet) in height and weighing almost 4,000 kilograms (8,800 pounds). The African species is about half a meter (20 inches) higher and weighs up to 6,000 kilograms (13,200 pounds). The elephant’s trunk is basically an elongated nose, but it has muscles that make it a very useful feature. With it the elephant can not only smell but can pull down branches to eat, pick berries off bushes, draw up water to squirt into its mouth or over its body, and can use it as a weapon. On either side of the trunk the males grow long tusks that are often over 2 meters (6 feet) in length. These are used for digging up roots, gouging bark off trees, and lifting logs. These tusks are made of ivory. Elephants have large ears, which they use to fan themselves.
They are a dark gray color and have no fur. Their body looks almost hairless but in fact they are covered with bristly hairs. They feed on vegetation such as leaves roots shoots bark and fruit.
There are local words for elephant in most African, Middle Eastern, and Asian languages, and many international languages use a word derived from the Greek name elephas. In some areas even though there are no elephants, the fossilized bones of mammoths, the ancient relative of the elephant, are known, and this local name is used for modern elephants too. In most other areas the word for elephant is a word that is borrowed from the dominant language of the area.
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 27:6:
Kupsabiny: “The oars for beating the water of the ocean where prepared from the oaks of Bashan. The bottom/floor were built for you with cypress from the shore of Cyprus and the tooth of an elephant.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “Your paddle was-made from the oak trees which is from Bashan. And your floor was-made from the cypress trees from the island of Kitim, and it was overlaid with decorations from the tusk of an elephant.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “They carved your oars from oak trees from the Bashan region. They made the deck from cypress/pine wood from Cyprus island, and they covered the decks with ivory.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between. One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used anata (あなた) is typically used when the speaker is humbly addressing another person.
In these verses, however, omae (おまえ) is used, a cruder second person pronoun, that Jesus for instance chooses when chiding his disciples. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
The Hebrew word berosh probably covered cypress, fir, and juniper; we are including here only those instances of berosh that possibly refer specifically to the cypress. The Cypress Cupressus sempervirens, native to Israel, was once common in the mountains of Judea. It also grew abundantly in Lebanon along with cedars, firs, and Grecian junipers. Cypresses also grew in Judea, Gilead and Edom, and do so up to the present day.
A comparison of English versions reflects the disagreement among scholars on the identification of the coniferous trees. For example, the Hebrew word berosh in 1 Kings 5:8 is translated as “cypress,” “pine,” “juniper,” or “fir.”
The disagreement here arises from the fact that berosh is probably a generic term, and it should probably be translated generically, if possible, or differently according to the context. We take the word berosh in 1-2 Kings and 2 Chronicles, where it is usually paired with ’erez (“cedar”) and/or Lebanon, to refer to the Cilician fir or to the Grecian juniper rather than to the cypress (see fir and Grecian juniper). In the few other places where it occurs, it may refer to any one of the three conifers. The logic here is that since cypresses grew in Judea, King Solomon would not need to import them from Lebanon. However, it could also be argued that Lebanon may have produced better specimens than King Solomon could find in Israel and he might have imported some of them. In either case, this does not argue against berosh as a generic term.
Closely related to the pines, firs and cedars, the cypress may reach 9-15 meters (30-50 feet) high. It has small scale-like leaves and round cones. The tall, narrow specimens that are common today in Israel and other countries are a modern variety (pyramidalis) that has been specially developed.
Cypress, photo by Ray PritzCypress branch with seed cones, photo by Nigel Hepper
Of oaks of Bashan they made your oars: Another way of getting a ship to move is with oars, which are long poles with a flat blade on one end. Rowers put the flat end of the oars into the water and pull them through the water to make the ship move. Oak is a hardwood that is able to withstand the strain that is put on oars. Translators may render oaks as “wood called oak.” Bashan was a region east of the Sea of Galilee, which was famous for its oak trees. For readers who are not familiar with rowing, translators may render these two lines as “They took oak trees from Bashan to make the flat poles [people pull] to move the boat.”
They made your deck of pines from the coasts of Cyprus: The deck is a platform on a ship where cabins can be built to provide shelter for cargo, passengers, and the crew. Big ships may have more than one deck, stacked one on top of another. In the translations the wood used to make the decks is called “pine” (Revised Standard Version/New Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation), “cypress” (New International Version, New International Reader’s Version, New Century Version, Revised English Bible, New American Bible), “boxwood” (New American Standard Bible, New English Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), “larch” (Moffatt), or “cedar” (Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible). It is probably best to render pine as “wood called cypress [or, pine].” The pine wood for the decks came from the coasts of Cyprus, an island in the Mediterranean Sea about 200 kilometers (125 miles) off the coast of Syria. Apparently the pine trees that grew near the coast of Cyprus were especially good for shipbuilding. Some translations retain the Hebrew word for Cyprus, which is “Kittim” (Revised English Bible, Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), which refers to a Phoenician colony in the south of Cyprus, called Kition. These two lines may be rendered “They took wood from the pine trees on the coasts of the island of Cyprus to make the platforms for you [or, your boat].”
The decks were inlaid with ivory. This line refers to carvings made from elephants’ tusks and attached to the wood of the decks for decoration. Many languages refer to ivory as “elephant’s teeth.” Rather than describing how wood can be inlaid with ivory, translators may use a more general expression, such as “They decorated the decks [or, platforms] with ivory.” Some translations omit the reference to ivory because the Hebrew text is difficult at this point (so Revised English Bible, New American Bible, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Allen). They assume that the two letters that make up the Hebrew word for ivory were mistakenly repeated from the previous word. Although the change makes very good sense and fits the poetry better, it is best to retain the reference to ivory.
New King James Version renders the last three lines of this verse as “The company of Ashurites have inlaid your planks With ivory from the coasts of Cyprus” (similarly King James Version). According to King James Version / New King James Version, the text does not mention what type of wood was used for the decks. The Hebrew for “The company of Ashurites” is literally “the daughter of Assyrians,” but by taking the Hebrew consonants here as one word instead of two, we get the reading of pines. This reading makes perfect sense, and because the King James Version / New King James Version rendering completely breaks the pattern of verses 5-7, it is best to follow Revised Standard Version and the other translations that divide the consonants of the Hebrew text differently.
Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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