reed

There are two general types of reed in Israel, the Common Reed Phragmites australis and the Giant Reed Arundo donax, and it is impossible to say which one is intended in a given biblical context.

The English word “cane” comes from the Hebrew word qaneh. Qaneh is the most general Hebrew word of the many referring to reeds and rushes. Like the English word “reed,” it may refer to a specific type of reed or be a general name for several kinds of water plant. This word is also used to refer to the stalk of grain in Pharaoh’s dream (Genesis 41:5, Genesis 41:22), to the shaft and branches of the golden lampstand in the Tabernacle (Exodus 25:31 et al.), to the beam of a scale (Isaiah 46:6), to the upper arm of a person (Job 31:22), to a measuring stick (Ezekiel 40:3 et al.), and to aromatic cane (Song of Songs 4:14 et al.).

The Greek word kalamos is also used to refer to a measuring stick (Revelation 11:1 et al.) and to a pen (3 John 1:13 and 3 Maccabees 4:20).

The common reed is a tall grass with stiff, sharply-pointed leaves and a plume-like flower head that reaches to more than 2 meters (7 feet). It grows in lakes and streams, the roots creeping across the bottom of the lake to produce new leaves and stalks.

The giant reed is similar to the common reed but tends to grow not in the water but on the river banks. Its majestic plumes can reach up to 5 meters (17 feet) in height on hollow stalks that look like bamboo.

Reeds of both kinds were used for baskets, mats, flutes, pens, arrows, and roof-coverings. Isaiah 42:3 says that the Messiah will be gentle with weak people (“a bruised reed he will not break”), in contrast to the typical iron-fisted tyrants of the day. The Pharaoh is likened to an undependable reed staff in 2 Kings 18:21 et al. In 1 Kings 14:15 Israel is compared to a reed shaking in the water.

The common reed of the Mediterranean area has relatives in Europe, India, Japan, and North America. It is thought to be the only species of the genus Phragmites (although some botanists divide it into three species). It is very important for conservationists, because it provides habitat for many kinds of animals and birds. In North America the weaker native type is being overtaken by more robust types from Europe, which are now threatening other kinds of marsh plants. In Japan people eat the young shoots of reeds. Native Americans used to eat the seeds.

Translators living near lakes and rivers will be able to find an equivalent, if not a relative, of the reed. Others can be generic and use “grass” or a phrase such as “tall grass growing in the water.”

Common reed, photo by Rob Koops

Source: Each According to its Kind: Plants and Trees in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

In Newari it is translated as “bamboo.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)

cardinal directions

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)
  • Mono (DRC): “of-hole-sun” (west)
  • Belanda Bor: “place morning” and “place evening”
  • Shambala: “side sink sun” (south)
  • 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)
  • Bari: “Morning Star” / “Venus” (east)
  • Chopi: “sky” (north) (source for this and six above: Angelika Mietzner and Helma Pasch in Skase Journal of Theoretical Linguistics 4, 3/2007 )

Geographical Landmarks

  • Kele: “down-river” (west) (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • 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)
  • Lamba: “to the Aushi country” (north) / kumausi and “to the Lenje country” (south) / kumalenje (source C. M. Doke in The Bible Translator 1958, p. 57ff. )
  • 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.”

See also people of the East and three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east.

complete verse (Ezekiel 40:6)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 40:6:

  • Kupsabiny: “After that, he went towards the gate at the East end. He stood where it was raised where he went inside and measured that place at the gate with that thing. He saw that it was ten and a half feet going inside.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Then the man went to the way of the temple facing east. He climbed the steps and he measured the place-of-arrival of the way, and it was ten feet long.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Then he went to the entryway on the east side of the temple. He climbed the steps and measured the outer threshold/opening for the entryway: It was 10-1/2 feet/3.3 meters deep.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Ezekiel 40:6

Then he went into the gateway facing east: Next Ezekiel’s guide entered the east gatehouse that provided access to the Temple area. This was presumably the same gateway where Ezekiel first saw the man standing (see Ezek 40.3), and he now identifies it as the one facing east, that is, the direction where the sun rises.

Going up its steps: The east gatehouse was obviously higher than the surrounding land and there were steps (“stairs” in King James Version) leading up to it. There is no mention here of how many steps there were, but from the information given later about the north and south gates, it is likely that there were seven steps (see verses 22 and 26). It is best not to include the number of steps unless the language demands it.

And measured the threshold of the gate, one reed deep: The Hebrew word for threshold usually refers to a plank or stone that lies under a door; it is sometimes called a “sill.” Here it refers to the doorway of the gatehouse, the gap in the wall where the gateway starts. New Century Version renders the threshold of the gate as “the opening of the gateway,” and Good News Translation has simply “the entrance.” Another possible model is “the entryway [or, doorway] to the entry house.” Such a doorway is usually the same width as the wall, and so, like the wall in verse 5, the doorway was one reed deep, that is, 6 cubits, which is equivalent to about 3 meters or 10 feet. Because this doorway was so big, some languages may need to call it a room; for example, Moffatt renders the threshold of the gate as “the outer lobby.”

Where was Ezekiel while the man was measuring east gatehouse (verses 6-16)? We are not told, and in a vision such details may not be important. He may have been watching from the outside, still standing where God had put him down, or he may have moved closer to the gateway where the man had been standing (see Ezek 40.3). A third possibility is that Ezekiel went with the man up the steps and into the gatehouse. Later in this chapter, it is made clear that the man brought Ezekiel with him as he measured the other buildings of the Temple compound, but not here. If it was also the case here, many languages will need to use the first person dual (we-two) to show that Ezekiel was going with the man.

As the footnotes in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation show, the Hebrew has some extra words at the end of this verse, which read literally “and one threshold, one reed deep.” Most translations, including the Septuagint, omit these words, or they put them in a footnote. But Hebrew Old Testament Text Project recommends that they be included by rendering them “and the first threshold one reed width/breadth.” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh keeps these words by translating the last half of this verse as “He measured the threshold of the gate; it was one rod deep—the one threshold was one rod deep.” Because the doorway was so big, the repetition presumably served to confirm its size. Other translations try to make sense of the words by assuming that there were two thresholds (so King James Version, New American Standard Bible), or by interpreting the Hebrew word for threshold to refer to two “doorposts” (so Complete Jewish Bible). These two interpretations also involve a slight change in the Hebrew text (based on the confusion of the Hebrew letters for “d” and “r”; compare 6.14). We do not recommend making this change. Translators may choose to omit these words, as in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, or they may include them with the meaning suggested by New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh and Hebrew Old Testament Text Project.

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 .