cardinal directions

The cardinal directions “east” and “west” are easy to translate into Maan here since the language uses “where the sun comes up” and “where the sun goes down.” For “north” the translator had “facing toward the sun rising to the left,” and for “south” she had “facing toward the sun rising to the right.” So the listener had to think hard before knowing what direction was in view when translating “to the north and south, to the east and west.” So, in case all four directions are mentioned, it was shortened by saying simply “all directions.” (Source: Don Slager) Likewise, Yakan has “from the four corners of the earth” (source: Yakan back-translation) or Western Bukidnon Manobo “from the four directions here on the earth” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo back-translation).

Kankanaey is “from the coming-out and the going-away of the sun and the north and the south” (source: Kankanaey back-translation), Northern Emberá “from where the sun comes up, from where it falls, from the looking [left] hand, from the real [right] hand” (source: Charles Mortensen), Amele “from the direction of the sun going up, from the direction of the sun going down, from the north and from the south” (source: John Roberts), Ejamat “look up to see the side where the sun comes from, and the side where it sets, and look on your right side, and on your left” (source: David Frank in this blog post).

In Lamba, only umutulesuŵa, “where the sun rises” and imbonsi, “where the sun sets” were available as cardinal directions that were not tied to the local area of language speakers (“north” is kumausi — “to the Aushi country” — and “south” kumalenje — “to the Lenje country”). So “north” and “south” were introduced as loanwords, nofu and saufu respectively. The whole phrase is kunofu nakusaufu nakumutulesuŵa nakumbonsi. (Source C. M. Doke in The Bible Translator 1958, p. 57ff.)

“West” is translated in Tzeltal as “where the sun pours-out” and in Kele as “down-river” (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel).

In Morelos Nahuatl, “north” is translated as “from above” and “south” as “from below.” (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)

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 cardinal directions / left and right.

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)

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)

Translation commentary on Ezekiel 42:4

And before the chambers was a passage inward, ten cubits wide and a hundred cubits long: In front of the building’s rooms there was a passage, also called “hallway” (New Century Version) or “walkway” (Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation, Complete Jewish Bible). Inward presumably means that the passage led “inwards” (Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible), that is, “towards the inner court” (Revised English Bible; similarly Moffatt). Another suggestion is that the passage ran along the side of the building closest to the inner courtyard (so New Revised Standard Version, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), If so, it was parallel to the inner courtyard, not leading into it. However, according to our plan, it is most likely that this walkway was on the northern side of the building, that is, the side further away from the inner courtyard. Some translations suggest that it was an internal corridor inside the building (so New International Version, New International Reader’s Version, New American Standard Bible). Others simply omit the Hebrew phrase rendered inward (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New Century Version, Complete Jewish Bible). Wherever this passage was, it was ten cubits wide and a hundred cubits long, that is, 5 meters (17 feet) wide and 50 meters (168 feet) long. However, the rendering and a hundred cubits long involves a change to the Hebrew text, which actually reads “a way of one cubit” (Revised Standard Version footnote). Most translations make this change, so translators may follow any major translation that their readers may be familiar with, because there is so much uncertainty about what the text really means here.

And their doors were on the north: The doors of the rooms opened toward the north. New Living Translation says “and all the doors faced north.”

There is another interpretation of this verse which we believe makes better sense. We suggest that the passage actually refers to the balconies above the lower rooms of the building, so that there was an area big enough to walk on (that is, a deck, walkway or platform) in front of the second and third story rooms. These decks were on the inside of the building, that is, on the side facing the inner courtyard and the Temple, the south side of the building. So the profile of the building’s rooms was stepped in a complementary way to the side rooms of the Temple itself. If this understanding of passage is followed, then the second half of this verse describes what was on the north side of the building, namely, a path one cubit (that is, 0.5 meter [1.5 feet]) wide and the doors to the rooms. This interpretation requires no change to the Hebrew text and fits in with the best plan of the Temple that we can draw. A model for this interpretation of the verse is:

• Toward the inside [of the Temple’s inner courtyard], in front of the rooms there were decks [or, walkways] 5 meters wide. On the northern side was a walkway half a meter [wide], as well as the doors to the [block of] rooms.

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 .