The Hebrew, Latin, and Greek that is transliterated as “Jacob” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with a sign that signifies “lentil,” referring to the soup he gave his brother in exchange for his birthright (see Genesis 25:34). Note that another Spanish Sign Language sign for Jacob also users the sign for Jewish. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
In Finnish Sign Language it is translated with the signs signifying “smooth arm” (referring to the story starting at Genesis 27:11). (Source: Tarja Sandholm)
The name that is transliterated as “Jacob” in English is translated in Finnish Sign Language and American Sign Language with the signs signifying “hairy forearm” (referring to the story starting at Genesis 27:11). (Source: Tarja Sandholm, Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)
“Esau” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Genesis 25:29:
Kankanaey: “On one-occasion, Esau came-home from the forest and he-came-upon Jacob cooking-a-vegetable-viand of red large-seeds (e.g. beans or similar). He was- extremely -hungry,” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Newari: “One day while Jacob was cooking lentil broth, Esau, being hungry, came back from outside.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “One day, while Jacob was-cooking soup, Esau arrived from hunting being/[linker] very[intensifier] exceedingly hungry.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “One day while Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came home from the field, very hungry.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Once when Jacob was boiling pottage: Once translates the regular Hebrew connective, which serves here as a transition marker opening this episode. Good News Translation “One day” provides a useful model for many languages. Boiling translates the precise meaning of the Hebrew word, but “cooking” represents the general act more suitably in English. Pottage translates a word referring to something boiled, namely, a broth or soup. In verse 30 it will be called “red pottage,” and in verse 34 “pottage of lentils.” In this verse a term may be used that refers to a soup, broth, or stew that contains vegetables and perhaps bits of meat. If such a soup or stew is unknown in the local diet, it is possible to use a general expression for cooked food. Biblia Dios Habla Hoy offers another possibility. It omits any reference to the kind of food and says “One day Jacob was cooking….”
Esau came in from the field: field translates the same word as in verse 27. The reference is not to a cultivated field where crops are grown but to the open countryside where probably Esau has been hunting.
And he was famished: famished means to be weak and faint from having gone without food for a long while. This idea is sometimes expressed idiomatically; for example, “hunger held him by the throat” or “hunger burned his stomach.”
Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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