complete verse (Ezra 10:44)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezra 10:44:

  • Kupsabiny: “All this people had married foreign wives and those wives had born children to some of them.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “All of these had foreign women. some of them had also children by these women.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “All these had-taken-a-wife from the not Israelinhon women, and some of them had-children by these women.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Each of those men had married a woman who was not an Israeli. But immediately they divorced those women and sent them and their children away.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Ezra 10:44

The conclusion in verse 44 appears to be incomplete. The Hebrew text is literally “All these had married foreign women and there was from them [masculine] women and they [masculine] bore children” (similarly Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate). This textual base is followed by Bible en français courant, New International Version, Nouvelle Bible Segond, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible and other versions. Bible en français courant has “All these men had married foreign women and some of these women had given birth to children.” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project gives this text a C rating. Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation follow 1 Esdras 9.36 and the instructions given in Ezra 10.3 (also New Jerusalem Bible, New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible). It is possible that this is based on an earlier Hebrew text. Translators should follow the Hebrew text as Bible en français courant has done, but include the other reading in a footnote.