army

The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Latin that is translated as “army” in English is translated in Chichewa as “group of warriors.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

complete verse (Ezekiel 29:18)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 29:18:

  • Kupsabiny: “‘Ezekiel, king Nebuchadnezzar has attacked Tyre. His soldiers have carried heavy things until their heads became bald and their shoulders are bruised/scraped. But that king and his soldiers exercised their strength in vain and did not get anything when they fought against Tyre.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘Man, the soldiers of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babilonia fought so hard against the soldiers of Tyre until they became-bald and their shoulders were-blistered. But Nebuchadnezzar and his soldiers never plundered/had-taken-by-force/captured from the ones-from-Tyre.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “‘You human, the army of king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon fought very hard against Tyre, with the result that their heads were rubbed bare and their shoulders became raw/full of blisters. But Nebuchadnezzar and his army did not get any valuable things from Tyre to reward them for their hard work to destroy Tyre.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

king

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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:

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  • Piro: “a great one”
  • Highland Totonac: “the big boss”
  • Huichol: “the one who commanded” (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Ekari: “the one who holds the country” (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • Una: weik sienyi: “big headman” (source: Kroneman 2004, p. 407)
  • Pass Valley Yali: “Big Man” (source: Daud Soesilo)
  • 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.”

(Source: Faye Edgerton in The Bible Translator 1962, p. 25ff. )

See also king (Japanese honorifics).

Translation commentary on Ezekiel 29:18

For Son of man, see Ezek 29.2.

Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre: For Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, see 26.7. He made his army labor against Tyre means he “made his army fight hard against” (New Century Version). As noted in the introductory comments on this subsection, the siege of Tyre lasted thirteen years. For the city of Tyre, see the introductory comments on 26.1–28.19.

Every head was made bald and every shoulder was rubbed bare: The thirteen years of fighting took a heavy toll on Nebuchadnezzar’s soldiers. God pictures them with bald patches on their heads and the skin on their shoulders chafed and sore. Contemporary English Version says “their heads were rubbed bald, and their shoulders were red and sore,” New Century Version has “Every soldier’s head was rubbed bare, and every shoulder was rubbed raw,” and New Living Translation translates “the warriors’ heads were rubbed bare, and their shoulders were raw and blistered.” What happened to the Babylonian soldiers may have been due to the many heavy loads they had to carry (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version), or it may have been caused by the armor they had to wear for such a long time (compare New International Reader’s Version, which says “Their helmets rubbed their heads bare. The heavy loads they carried made their shoulders raw”).

Yet neither he nor his army got anything from Tyre to pay for the labor that he had performed against it: Soldiers normally took things from a city they captured and these would be like their wages. But in the case of Tyre, Nebuchadnezzar and his soldiers got nothing, because they did not succeed in capturing Tyre. It was as if they received no wages for all the work they had done.

A model for this verse is:

• “Mortal man, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylonia, attacked the city of Tyre. He and his soldiers fought against it for a long time. During the fighting, the soldiers carried many heavy loads. These loads rubbed away the hair on the backs of their heads and rubbed holes in their shirts, so that the skin of their shoulders was smooth from the rubbing. But they did not capture the city of Tyre, so they were unable to take away any precious things from the city. They worked very hard for a long time, but they did not receive any pay.

A model that does not make all the information explicit is:

• “Mortal man, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylonia, attacked the city of Tyre. He and his soldiers fought against it for a long time, and the heads of the soldiers became bald and their shoulders were rubbed raw. But they did not capture the city, and so they could not get its wealth to pay themselves for their hard work.

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 .