burnt-offering

The Hebrew olah (עֹלָה) originally means “that which goes up (in smoke).” English Bibles often translates it as “burnt-offering” or “whole burnt-offering,” focusing on the aspect of the complete burning of the offering.

The Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate Bibles translate it as holokautōma / holocautōsis (ὁλοκαύτωμα / ὁλοκαύτωσις) and holocaustum, respectively, meaning “wholly burnt.” While a form of this term is widely used in many Romance languages (Spanish: holocaustos, French: holocaustes, Italian: olocausti, Portuguese: holocaustos) and originally also in the Catholic tradition of English Bible translations, it is largely not used in English anymore today (the preface of the revised edition of the Catholic New American Bible of 2011: “There have been changes in vocabulary; for example, the term ‘holocaust’ is now normally reserved for the sacrilegious attempt to destroy the Jewish people by the Third Reich.”)

Since translation into Georgian was traditionally done on the basis of the Greek Septuagint, a transliteration of holokautōma was used as well, which was changed to a translation with the meaning of “burnt offering” when the Old Testament was retranslated in the 1980’s on the basis of the Hebrew text.

In the Koongo (Ki-manianga) translation by the Alliance Biblique de la R.D. Congo (publ. in 2015) olah is translated as “kill and offer sacrifice” (source: Anicet Bassilua) and in Elhomwe as “fire offering.” (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

The English translation of Everett Fox uses offering-up (similarly, the German translation by Buber-Rosenzweig has Darhöhung and the French translation by Chouraqui montée).

See also offering (qorban).

cubit

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).

distance (long / wide / high)

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)

complete verse (Ezekiel 40:42)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 40:42:

  • Kupsabiny: “There were also four other tables that were made from stone. Those tables were used for the sacrifices that were burned whole. The tables had a height of twenty inches and the width of the top side were equal/same size each side being/having thirty inches. Those tables were for the utensils for sacrifice like knives and others.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “There were also four tables there which were made from the hewn/carved stone, where the utensils/articles/lit. things-to-be-used being-placed for slaughtering of burnt offerings and still other offerings. These tables were 30 inches square and 20 inches high.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “There were also four tables of cut stone for the offerings to be completely burned, 31-1/2 in./80 cm. on each side and 21 in./53 cm. high. On those stone tables would be placed the tools for slaughtering all the animals for the sacrifices.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Ezekiel 40:42 - 40:43

And there were also four tables of hewn stone …: Next Ezekiel describes four tables of hewn stone, which means people had cut stone to make these tables. These tables were a cubit and a half long, and a cubit and a half broad, that is, about 0.75 meter (30 inches) square, and one cubit high, that is, about 0.5 meter (18 inches) high. These tables were the places where the priests kept the instruments … with which the burnt offerings and the sacrifices were slaughtered. These instruments were mostly “butchering knives” (New Living Translation), as well as tongs, forks and other tools that the priests used when they killed the animals. The instruments were laid on the stone tables, probably in neat rows so that they were readily available to the priests when they needed them. The last half of verse 42 may be rendered “The priests laid out the instruments on these tables that they used to kill the animals for the burnt offerings and other sacrifices.”

The stone tables were where the priests prepared the burnt offerings (see verse 38), that is, those sacrifices in which the whole body of the animal was burned on the altar, and the other sacrifices, that is, those sacrifices and offerings in which some parts of the animals were burned, but most of the meat was either given to the priests or eaten by the worshipers. The burnt offerings and the sacrifices may be rendered “the animals that they would burn completely as an offering to God and the other animals that they would sacrifice to worship God.”

And hooks, a handbreadth long, were fastened round about within: The next thing Ezekiel saw was hooks (so also New International Reader’s Version, New Living Translation, King James Version / New King James Version, English Standard Version, Complete Jewish Bible) or “pegs” (New Revised Standard Version). New International Version reflects the dual form of the Hebrew word for hooks by saying “double-pronged hooks,” and so does New American Standard Bible with “double hooks” and Hebrew Old Testament Text Project with “pairs of hooks.” These hooks were a handbreadth long, that is, about 75 millimeters (3 inches) long. They were fastened round about within, that is, they were attached to the walls “all around the inside of the room” (Complete Jewish Bible). Ezekiel does not say what these hooks were used for. Presumably they were to hang the knives and other butchering equipment on, when they were not being used. Or the priests may have hung the carcasses of the animals on them. However, this is less likely, because the end of verse 43 says that the meat of the sacrifices was laid on the tables.

Some translations change the Hebrew word for hooks slightly to read “ledges” (Good News Translation, New English Bible, New American Bible, Moffatt), “shelf/shelves” (Contemporary English Version, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), or “rims” (Revised English Bible, Jerusalem Bible, Christian Community Bible). If this reading is followed, the first clause of verse 43 could refer to small “shelves” on the walls inside the room (so Contemporary English Version with “All around the walls of this room was a three inch shelf”), but it may also refer to “ledges” or “rims” on the stone tables themselves (so Good News Translation with “Ledges three inches wide ran around the edge of the tables”). A rim or ledge around the edge of the stone tables would stop the blood from the slaughtered animals flowing all over the place on to the ground.

Some scholars have suggested that the last half of verse 42 is misplaced and should come after the first sentence of verse 43 (so New American Bible with “The ledges, a handbreadth wide, were set on the inside all around, and on them were laid the instruments with which the holocausts were slaughtered”). This reading makes very good sense, because it implies that the instruments were kept on a shelf rather than on the tables, but there is no textual basis for it, so it is better not to change the order of the words in this way. In addition, if the ledges were in fact rims around the top of the tables to contain the blood of the slaughtered animals, the issue of where the most appropriate place to store the instruments does not even arise.

And on the tables the flesh of the offering was to be laid: The priests laid the meat of the sacrifices on the tables until they were ready to take it to the altar to burn it. The tables refers to the stone tables and other tables.

Where were the four stone tables? Ezekiel does not say exactly where they were, but they were probably close to some of the tables mentioned in verses 39-41. It is most likely that the animals were killed in the courtyard, then they were washed in the room next to the porch entrance, after which the meat was processed on the other tables outside and inside the porch until it was ready to be taken to the altar for the actual sacrifice. Therefore it is probable that the four stone tables were close to the four tables in the outer courtyard outside the porch. They were probably the tables on which the priests killed the animals, because their rims contained the blood and, being stone, they were easier to clean. That was also why the knives and other equipment were on them.

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 .