The Hebrew, Greek, and Latin that is translated in English as “wolf” is translated in Muna as da’u ngkahoku: “forest dog,” because there is no immediate lexical equivalent. (Source: René van den Berg)
In Asháninka, it is translated as “ferocious animal,” in Waffa and Kui as “wild dog,” and in Navajo (Dinė) as “Coyote” (source: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125), and in Odia as “tiger” (source for this and for Kui: Helen Evans in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 40ff. )
In Lingala it is translated as “leopard.” Sigurd F. Westberg (in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 117ff. ) explains: “The wolf, for example, does not exist here, but its relative the jackal does and we have a name for it. But the jackal does not prey on domestic animals as the wolf did in Palestine, nor is he as fierce. The equivalent from these points of view is the leopard. Hence in Genesis 49 Benjamin is likened to a ravenous leopard, and the basic meaning is approached more closely than if we had been governed by scientific classification.”
Mungaka also uses “leopard” (see also bear (animal)) (source: Nama 1990). Likewise in Klao and Dan (source: Don Slager).
In Elhomwe “fierce animal” is used. (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Michel Kenmogne comments on this and comparable translations (in Noss 2007, p. 378 ff.): “Some exegetical solutions adopted by missionary translations may have been acceptable during that time frame, but weighed against today’s translation theory and procedures, they appear quite outdated and even questionable. For example, Atangana Nama approvingly mentions the translation into Mungaka of terms like ‘deer’ as ‘leopard’, ‘camel’ as ‘elephant’, and ‘wheat’ as ‘maize,’ where the target language has no direct equivalent to the source text. These pre-Nida translation options, now known as adaptations, would be declared unacceptable in modern practice, since they misrepresent the historico-zoological and agricultural realities in the Bible. Nowadays it is considered better to give a generalized term, like ‘grain,’ and where necessary specify ‘a grain called wheat,’ than to give an incorrect equivalence. Unknown animals such as bears, can be called ‘fierce animals,’ especially if the reference is a non-historical context.”
Click or tap here for the rest of the entry about “wolf” in United Bible Societies’ All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible.
There is no problem in identifying the Hebrew word with the Wolf Canis lupus, which was a common wild animal all over the land of Israel in the biblical period. Today it is almost extinct in Israel, but small numbers still exist in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. The Greek and Latin words are general words for the wolf, including European species as well as the Syrian one.
The wolf is the ancestor of the German shepherd dog, and all similar breeds. The Syrian wolf, however, unlike the European and North American breeds, does not have long thick fur. It is a light brown color with a typical long face, and it is about the size of the German shepherd dog. It looks similar to the jackal, but is much bigger. This type of wolf lived singly, in pairs, or occasionally in a small family group of three or four animals; but sometimes, when prey was scarce, neighboring wolves would come together temporarily to hunt in cooperation with each other. The varieties in North America and Europe, on the other hand, come together in packs in the winter and stay together until well into the spring.
In biblical times the Syrian wolf took hares, small gazelle, and partridges as its main prey, but it was also a constant threat to sheep and goats. Only extremely rarely would it attack a human being. It was nowhere near as dangerous to humans as the lion or the bear. On the other hand, the Syrian wolf was not afraid of humans, and once it had killed a sheep, it would fiercely protect its kill. A group of men was required if it was to be chased away. It was extremely clever at avoiding traps that had been set for it. It hunted at night and located other wolves early in the evening by howling loudly.
These wolves did not stay in one area but roamed constantly. Shepherds could thus never be confident that there were no wolves nearby. They could appear unexpectedly at any time, even in the villages where they were often mistaken for dogs.
To the biblical writers the wolf was a symbol of roaming, opportunistic, dangerous, fierce, and clever banditry. To refer to a person as a wolf would in some contexts indicate that he was a roaming, clever bandit, and in other contexts that he was a clever, dangerous opportunist. This latter usage usually referred to someone using a position of leadership for his own benefit at the expense of other people.
In Africa there are no wolves, but the Spotted Hyena Crocula crocuta, the Brown Hyena Hyaena brunnea, or the African Painted Hunting Dog Lycaon pictus are the local equivalents used in many translations. A problem with using these terms for the Syrian wolf is that these African animals may have a symbolic significance for the local readers which is very different from that intended by the biblical writers. For instance, the spotted hyena is associated with witchcraft in some societies. In cases where the local significance is sufficiently different, a footnote should be used to provide a guide to the readers.
In Argentina and Brazil the beautiful Maned Wolf Chrysocyon jubatus is a good local equivalent, or the Portuguese or Spanish words for wolf can be used. The coyote is another possible equivalent.
In India and in Central and Southeast Asia, the Indian (or red) wild dog, also known as the Dhole Cuon alpinus, is likewise a good local equivalent for the wolf.
In areas where there are no animals equivalent to wolves, a phrase like “large wild dog” can be used, or a word may be borrowed from the dominant language of the area.
Vultures and eagles were much more common in the ancient world than they are today. In fact since the end of World War II in 1945 the world’s population of vultures and eagles has been reduced by over sixty percent. This is due mainly to a) calcium deficiencies as a result of eating animals in which there were high concentrations of the insecticide DDT, b) eating poisoned rats, and c) the reduction in the amount of carrion due to both the disappearance of wild animals since the invention of the modern rifle, and the modern garbage disposal systems.
Click or tap here for the rest of this entry in United Bible Societies’ All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible
Nesher: As is the case with many Hebrew bird names, the word nesher refers both to one particular bird and to a general class of birds. It seems likely that nesher refers specifically to the largest of the local birds of prey, namely the Griffon Vulture Gyps fulvus, but since this word also refers to large birds of prey, it also has a general reference to all or any of them. Thus this category of large birds probably also includes the Lappet-faced Vulture Torgos tracheliotus negevensis, (now fairly uncommon, but previously very numerous), the Golden Eagle Aquila chrysaetos, the Imperial Eagle Aquila heleiaca, the Steppe Eagle Aquila nipalensis, and possibly the Black or Verreaux’s Eagle Aquila verreauxii. The last mentioned bird has only been breeding in modern Israel in the last thirty-five years, but some ornithologists believe that it may have lived there in ancient times, since it is associated closely with the hyrax, its favorite prey.
‘Ozniyah: There is considerable doubt about the meaning of this word. Its meaning is basically derived from its position in the list of unclean birds, and this makes a type of vulture more likely than the osprey. Since the Black Vulture Aegypius monachus is slightly smaller than the lappet-faced vulture and the bearded vulture, this seems to be the most likely candidate. It probably represents eagles and buzzards of the same size as itself, that is, some of the eagles mentioned above. In modern Hebrew ‘ozniyah is the name for the lappet-faced and black vultures.
‘Ayit: There is general agreement that the word ‘ayit in the Bible is a word that includes in its meaning both eagles and vultures. However, it probably does not include smaller birds of prey, such as the hawk, sparrow hawk, or smaller falcons. In the contexts in which it occurs it is clear that carrion-eating birds of prey are meant, rather than all birds of prey. Therefore the English expression “birds of prey” is too inclusive, but the term “carrion birds” is probably more correct.
The word ‘ayit is usually taken to be derived from a Hebrew root meaning “to scream”, hence “the screamer”, and is obviously a bird in Genesis 15:11 and other passages. However, there are also scholars who relate ‘ayit to a different Hebrew root meaning “to attack greedily”.
Peres, a word derived from a Hebrew root meaning “to tear apart” or “to break”, probably refers to the Bearded Vulture or Lammergeir Gypaëtus barbatus, which looks much like an eagle. It probably represents a grouping of eagles and vultures slightly smaller than those mentioned above under nesher and would include the Black-breasted Snake Eagle (also called the Short-toed Eagle or the Black-chested Harrier Eagle) Circaetus gallicus (alternatively Circaetus pectoralus) and the Booted Eagle Hieraeetus pennatus, as well as one or two others.
Racham refers to something that is black and white. The position of the name in the list of unclean birds would indicate that it is a waterside bird. This narrows the choice to two possibilities, the Egyptian Vulture Neophron percnopterus and the Osprey Pandion haliatus. In modern Hebrew racham is the name for the Egyptian vulture.
The Egyptian vulture is smaller than the other vultures mentioned above. It has long, untidy, light orange-brown feathers on its neck and head, with a bare yellow face and yellow beak that is longer and less hooked than most vultures. The rest of the body and wings are white with black wing tips. In flight the body and the front half of the wings are white, with the wing tips and the back half of the wings black.
While this vulture does eat carrion, it is usually the scraps dropped by larger vultures, since its beak is not strong enough to tear skin and meat easily. It usually scavenges scraps on beaches or rubbish dumps and eats the eggs of ground-nesting waterside birds such as plovers, sandpipers, curlews, and others, which it breaks by knocking them with a large stone.
Aetos: This is the usual Greek word for any kind of eagle.
Aquila: This is the usual Latin word for any kind of eagle.
True eagles have feathers on the lower part of their legs, but vultures, snake-eagles, hawks, and others usually have no such feathers. Vultures have slightly longer beaks and longer necks than eagles, and their heads and necks are usually either bald or have sparse down covering them rather than proper feathers.
Griffon vulture: This is the largest of the Gyps vultures, having a wingspan of about 2.5 meters (8 feet), and weighing up to 10 kilograms (22 pounds). It has a thick hooked black beak. Its head and neck are covered in fine down, and it always looks as though it is frowning. It has a tuft of feathers on its back between its shoulders. The head, neck, and chest are gray and fawn, and its back is dark brown with darker feathers on the edges of its wings. When it is soaring, its body and the leading edges of its wings appear light brown with a broad dark band on the trailing edge of the wings. Like all true vultures, it has featherless legs.
Griffons live in fairly large groups and roost and nest together on high rock ledges, and, like most other vultures of large size, they have to wait until mid-morning when there is warm air rising up from the ground before they can fly. They then soar in spirals, going higher and higher.
They have very specialized eyes that enable them to see great distances. A proverb quoted in the Talmud says, “A vulture in Babylon sees a carcass in Israel.” They keep watch to find any dead or dying animals, and at the same time they keep track of other vultures flying nearby. They soar fairly slowly, without beating their wings. As soon as one stops spiraling and heads toward its prey, it gathers speed quickly in a shallow dive, still not beating its wings, but often reaching high speeds. The Hebrew name nesher may reflect the swishing sound made by its wings when it is flying this fast. Other vultures will notice this movement and will start to follow.
In African countries where both griffon and lappet-faced vultures live, griffons usually arrive at a carcass in fairly large numbers, with the lappet-faced vultures arriving in pairs. Often a dead cow will attract twenty griffons or more and perhaps four lappet-faced vultures. It is likely that this ratio was the case in ancient Israel too.
The griffons attack the stomach and other soft parts of the carcass and thrust their heads deep into the body to eat the liver and other soft organs before starting on the softer meat, eating “from the inside out.” They eat very quickly and can consume a kilogram (2 pounds) of meat in about two minutes. After gorging themselves it is difficult for them to fly, and they need to run and hop along the ground before getting airborne. If there is no obvious danger, they prefer to remain on the ground or to perch on logs or in nearby trees after eating.
Lappet-faced vulture: This vulture is almost as big as the griffon in terms of height and wingspan but has a lighter build. They live singly or in pairs in the Negev and roost and nest in the tops of flat-topped trees such as acacias. The lappet-faced vulture has a yellowish beak, which is thicker and stronger than that of the griffon, and this enables it to eat skin, sinews, and tough meat. The head, face, and neck are covered with bare red skin. The head and neck have thick wrinkles. The rest of the body is dark brown or black with white thighs and shoulders. When they are soaring they appear to be uniformly black except for a thin white streak on the leading edge of the wings, with the white thighs (usually referred to by bird watchers as their “white pants”) clearly visible.
At a carcass they feed “from the outside in,” tearing the skin and eating it before starting on the meat. Lappet-faced vultures are very aggressive and dominate the griffons at a carcass they are sharing. Although carrion is their main food, they also sometimes kill their own prey, mainly small mammals such as young gazelles or hares.
Black vulture: The black vulture, as its name suggests, is black all over apart from the bare head and neck, which are a bluish gray. When viewed from below it appears completely black.
Large eagles: The golden, imperial, and Verreaux’s eagles mentioned above are all very large and have a wingspan of at least 2 meters (6 feet). They are not mainly scavengers, but may occasionally join vultures at a carcass. Generally their prey is small mammals, such as baby gazelles, lambs, hyraxes, hares, and young ibexes, as well as occasional game birds such as partridges and doves.
Bearded vulture: Also known as the lammergeir, this bird is unique among vultures, as it has feathered legs like an eagle. It is smaller than the vultures mentioned above. Its head, neck, and body are an orange-brown, and it has a black stripe running from the back of its head, through its eye to the beak, where it ends in a short bristly black beard on both sides of the beak. Its back and wings are dark brown. In flight it is easily recognized by its coloring and its large diamond shaped tail. It usually feeds when other vultures have eaten, and it has the unique habit of carrying bones high into the air and then dropping them onto a large rock to break them so that it can eat the marrow and the bone fragments. It will use the same rock for this purpose for many years.
Both eagles and vultures are associated with large size and great strength. Especially important is their ability to fly great distances at high speed, without even beating their wings. Both Egyptian and Assyrian deities had the eagle or vulture as their symbol, and this, as well as their diet of meat, meant that these birds were “unclean” to the Jews. The famous mummy of Tutankhamen, the young Egyptian king, was found with a large collar made of gold and colored glass adorning his neck and shoulders, in the form of a flying vulture representing the goddess Nekhbet. The eagle in Scripture is also a symbol of protection, and in Deuteronomy the eagle is a metaphor for God.
As carrion-eating birds of prey, eagles and vultures symbolized death in battle, in which the corpses were not buried. They are listed among the unclean birds.
The vulture or eagle was a symbol of healthy, long life. In actual fact these birds can live for a great many years. One fairly reliable report from Austria refers to an eagle kept in captivity for 104 years. Some scholars relate the Hebrew association of long life and the eagle to the ancient Arabian myth about the phoenix, usually portrayed as some sort of eagle, which flew to the sun every five hundred years, was consumed by the sun’s fire, and emerged reborn from its own ashes.
By the time of the New Testament the eagle, besides the symbolism mentioned above, had also become a symbol of the power of the Roman Empire.
The context will usually indicate whether vultures or eagles are intended by the author. When there is reference to speed and swooping down on the prey, the eagle is intended, but when there is reference to eating dead bodies, the vulture is intended. When the text speaks of flying high or nesting in safety on high cliffs, either eagles or vultures fit the context.
Three linguistic situations are possible: a) Languages in which the same word is used for both vultures and eagles (for example, Lisu, Lahu, and other Tibeto-Burman languages). Here there is no need to differentiate between them, except where both Hebrew words appear together. b) Languages in which there are no generic words for vultures or eagles, but each individual subspecies has its own name (as with many southeastern Bantu languages). In these cases it is best to choose the biggest vulture or eagle for nesher and a slightly smaller one for peres. c) Languages in which there are two generic words, one for vultures and another for eagles (as is the case in English). Here the context will determine the choice.
Care should be taken in those contexts where the nest is referred to as high on a cliff face, since some species of vulture and eagle nest in trees. In these cases a cliff-nesting alternative should be chosen, even if it is a smaller bird of prey.
‘Ozniyah: Probably a word for the black vulture or a type of medium-sized eagle. An expression meaning “small vulture” is probably the best equivalent.
Another name for an eagle or vulture of similar size as the black vulture can be used in the lists of unclean birds for ‘ozniyah, or it can be included, along with peres, in a general expression covering both fairly large vultures and eagles.
‘Ayit: In languages that do not have a single word including both eagles and vultures, but where both types of bird are found, such as in Africa and the Middle East, it is better to use a simple phrase meaning “eagles and vultures.” A phrase such as “scavenging birds of prey,” or simply “vultures,” could also be used.
True vultures are not found in the Americas or Australasia, but a word for “buzzards,” or, in the case of the Americas, “condors” can substitute for “vultures.” Elsewhere a phrase such as “eagles that eat dead things” or a borrowed word can be used.
Peres: The bearded vulture is found in the mountainous regions of southern Europe, Central and South Asia, and eastern and southern Africa. The medium-sized short-toed eagle is found throughout Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The booted eagle is found all over Europe, Asia, and Africa. Elsewhere, the name for a medium-sized vulture or eagle can be used to translate peres.
In Africa there are many vultures closely related to the griffon vulture, and the lappet-faced vulture is common in most areas of the African continent. The African griffons include the White-backed Vulture Gyps africanus(alternately Gyps bengalensis), which nests in trees, the Cape Vulture Gyps coprotheres, and Ruppell’s Vulture Gyps ruppelli. The local word for any of these would be a good equivalent in contexts where the text refers to vultures.
Griffons are also found in central and eastern Europe and on the Indian sub-continent. The condors of Latin America and California would be local equivalents. The Wedge-tailed Eagle Aquila audax of Australia would be an equivalent there.
Golden and imperial eagles are found in most of western Europe as well as Israel.
African equivalents of the golden and imperial eagles would be the Black or Verreaux’s Eagle Aquila verreauxii and the Martial Eagle Polemaetus bellicosus.
The Steppe Eagle Aquila nipalensis migrates across Israel to as far south as the northern parts of South Africa. It is also found in eastern Europe, Kazakhstan, Central Asia, and South Asia.
In North America the Bald Eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus would be an equivalent in some contexts of the Hebrew nesher.
The Greek, Aramaic, Ge’ez, and Hebrew that is translated as “leopard” in English was translated in the 1900 Kalaallisut (Greenlandic) translation (a newer version was published in 2000) as milakulâĸ or “one with small spots.” “Milakulâĸ (modern milakulaaq), is derived from the base milak ‘spot, freckle’ followed by a nominalizing suffix with a diminutive sense. This choice provides readers with a vivid description of the animal in question, which would allow them to visualize its appearance even though it is not a feature of the local environment.’” (Source: Lily Kahn & Riitta-Liisa Valijärvi in The Bible Translator 2019, p. 125ff.)
In passages where speed is in the focus (such as Habakkuk 1:8, the Kalanga translation uses “cheetah.” (Source: project-specific notes in Paratext)
Both leopards Panthera pardus and Cheetahs Acinonyx jubatus were fairly common in Israel until the twentieth century. Leopards lived both in the mountains and in the thick undergrowth found in many wadis and along the Jordan Valley. A very few still live in the Negev and in the wadis along the Dead Sea. Cheetahs lived in the semi-desert plains of Egypt the land of Israel Arabia and Syria. They were trained and used in hunting in both the Middle East and Egypt hundreds of years before Christ. They have now been hunted to extinction in these areas.
In the Old Testament it is likely that the one Hebrew word namer and the Aramaic word nemar were used for both animals. The Greek word pardalis means leopard.
Leopards are the most widely distributed of all the great cats. They are found throughout tropical mainland Asia and Africa. They are about 2 meters (6 feet) in length and are a yellowish brown color with black spots arranged in rosettes all over the body and tail. These spots make it very easy for a leopard to blend in with patches of shade and sunlight in or under bushes and trees. They are extremely agile, and this agility and their natural camouflage are used to the full in their hunting methods. They stalk gazelles, antelope, or deer (occasionally goats or sheep) until they are within ten or fifteen meters (30-50 feet) or less. They then break cover and leap onto their prey. They have a slightly different strategy when hunting monkeys and baboons. They drive them to the extreme ends of branches by climbing after them, and when the monkey or baboon finally drops from the tree, the leopard leaps after it and catches it on the ground.
Once a leopard has killed an animal, it carries it into a tree or onto a high rock to eat, possibly to get away from hyenas. Once a leopard has satisfied its appetite, if there is still meat left on the carcass, it will leave the carcass in the fork of a branch and return to feed again later. The exception to this is when a female has cubs. She will then carry the kill to her cubs in a lair under rocks or a log, but she will still carry any leftover meat into a tree to store in the branches. Unlike lions and cheetahs, leopards do not chase their prey over long distances.
Leopards live and hunt alone, coming together only at mating time. Cubs stay with their mothers only until they can hunt on their own; they are usually completely on their own by the time they are one year old. A female leopard with cubs is very protective and extremely dangerous.
Occasionally a leopard will be born completely black (the so-called black panther). This is simply an ordinary leopard with a slight genetic abnormality known as melanism.
Cheetahs or hunting leopards as they are sometimes called are also spotted but are slightly smaller and have longer legs than leopards. They also have a vertical stripe across each eye. Unlike most other members of the cat family cheetahs cannot retract their claws. They are found throughout sub-Saharan Africa but their numbers are greatly reduced now. A few remain in South Asia where they were once plentiful.
Cheetahs live in small family groups and hunt together. They are extremely fast and rely on this speed in their hunting. They live in open grassland on plains and apart from the grass and low bushes there is often not much cover for them to use in stalking. They stalk their prey to within about fifty meters (55 yards) and then break cover and with a tremendous turn of speed chase the prey and attempt to catch it by the throat.
Leopards are often paired with lions in the biblical text and are thus a symbol of violent danger. In Habakkuk 1:8, however, the namer is a symbol of speed. This would fit the cheetah rather than the leopard.
Where leopards are not known, the word for jaguar, bobcat, puma, mountain lion, or tiger can be used. Elsewhere, a borrowed word or a transliteration will need to be used, taking the Hebrew or the dominant local language as the basis.
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Habakkuk 1:8:
Kupsabiny: “Their horses are strong/skilled in running more than leopards and more than wild dogs that attack at night. Their horses dash forth quickly and their people (riders) arrive from far. They move quickly like an eagle that wants to catch something.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “Their horses are running faster than leopards and are more violent than wolves coming out after sunset. Their cavalry comes flying from a very long distance, they are swooping down like vultures to pounce on their prey.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “Their horses (are) more- swifter -than the animal that (is) a leopard and fiercer than the fierce dog who is-looking for his food during the night. They run from afar places, that seems-like a flying eagle that gulps/swoops-down to devour his victim.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Their horses are faster than what they call leopard (loan). They are fiercer/more-easily-angered than hungry wild dogs that look-for what they will hunt at night. Fast is the running of the horses of their soldiers that come-from far-away. They attack (lit. act-suddenly-upon) their enemies like the way eagles snatch what they catch.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
English: “You stole things from the people of many nations. You murdered people of many people-groups, and you destroyed their land and their cities. So those who are still alive will steal valuable things from you.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Verses 8-10 describe the military power of the Babylonians in rather traditional language (compare Isa 5.26-30; Jer 4.13; Hos 13.7). There is some poetic exaggeration in the figurative description. If this will be misunderstood in a literal translation, then the translator should try to make it clear that the figurative description ought not to be taken literally. One way to do this is to say “Their horses seem to run faster than leopards…,” and similarly with the other figures.
Leopards are large, wild, catlike animals, whose fur has spots which enable them to hide very easily in the shadow of trees. Here the comparison may be with a cheetah, an animal similar to a leopard, since cheetahs are well known for their speed and are sometimes captured and trained for hunting. If a cheetah is more familiar than a leopard, the word for cheetah may be used here. If neither animal is known, translators may make the comparison by referring to any large, swift predatory animal which is well known. In areas like the Pacific islands, where no such animals exist, it may be necessary to borrow a term from some other language and explain it in a footnote.
The expression evening wolves is a literal translation of the Hebrew. The thought behind the expression is that the wolves of Palestine normally hunted by night, and so in the evening, when they began their hunt, they were more hungry than at other times. Good News Translation here translates the meaning into plain English and says “fiercer than hungry wolves.” It is also possible that the word translated evening may mean “desert.” Thus New English Bible translates “wolves of the plain,” and New Jerusalem Bible “wolves of the steppe.” The Septuagint at this point understands the text to have a slightly different Hebrew word and translates it as “wolves of Arabia,” but no modern English version does this. The word evening with the meaning “hungry” makes perfectly good sense, and translators are recommended to follow this interpretation. The same problem occurs in Zephaniah 3.3. In some cultures where wolves do not exist, other translation models are “hungry wild dogs which hunt at night,” or even “hungry wild animals that….” Fierce in this context means “cruel” or even “bloodthirsty.”
The second part of the verse has several difficulties. The Hebrew word which Revised Standard Version twice translates as horsemen may refer either to horses or to their riders. The Hebrew verb translated press proudly on in Revised Standard Version is used elsewhere of cattle leaping about (Jer 50.11, “are wanton”; Mal 4.2, “leaping”), and seems to make better sense here if the subject is taken as “horses” rather than their riders. It is translated as “leap” in Bible en français courant and “gallop” in New International Version. In the second case the verb come from afar in Revised Standard Version seems to refer to the riders more than the horses. English versions vary in the way they handle the problem. Revised Standard Version and Jerusalem Bible translate as horsemen both times (compare Hebrew Old Testament Text Project). New Jerusalem Bible does the opposite and translates as “steeds” (that is, horses) both times. Some versions avoid the difficulty by using the English word “cavalry” (Moffatt, New English Bible, New International Version), which includes both the horses and their riders. This is a good solution in languages which have such a term (compare Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). New American Bible and Good News Translation translate as “horses” in one instance and “horsemen” in the other. The “horses paw the ground” (New American Bible “prance”), while the “horsemen come riding from distant lands.” This is perhaps the best solution for languages that have no term equivalent to “cavalry” in English. The phrase “horses paw the ground” refers to the action of horses stamping their front hooves (feet) on the ground to show excitement. As noted above, this word may also be translated “gallop.” Horsemen in some languages will be rendered as “horse soldiers,” or even “soldiers who ride horses.”
Good News Translation changes the order of these two clauses and mentions the “horsemen” first. This is probably because the translators thought that the focus was more on the men than on the horses. Translators in other languages should follow the Good News Translation order only if it would have the same effect on the focus of the sentence as it does in English.
The last part of the verse contains another simile or comparison. The cavalry fly like an eagle swift to devour. The word translated eagle in Revised Standard Version may also mean a vulture, and Good News Translation translates it as “vulture” in other contexts such as Micah 1.16. However, in English the eagle is used as a symbol of power and strength, and so here Good News Translation translates as “eagles,” since it fits the context better. Translators should consider whether any of the large birds in their area are regarded as symbols of power. In this context it is more important to create the right impression on the reader than to give the correct zoological name of the bird. Compare Zephaniah 2.14.
The last sentence of the verse is expanded a little in Good News Translation to give a more vivid effect: “They come swooping down like eagles attacking their prey.” The word “swooping” is used especially of a bird diving downward in flight. “Prey” is a term applied to any creature which another creature wishes to catch as food. It is not clear in Good News Translation who “They” refers to in the final sentence, since “horses” were mentioned in the previous clause. If translators think that “they” refers to “horsemen” (compare Revised Standard Version), it will be helpful to make that meaning explicit and say “Their horsemen come swooping….” If it is impossible in certain languages to talk about “horsemen” swooping down on something, one may say “Their horsemen (or, soldiers on horses) suddenly attack their enemies like eagles (or, large birds of prey) swooping down on their victims.”
Another translation model for this verse is:
• The horses of the Babylonians run swifter than leopards (or, cheetahs) and are fiercer than hungry wolves (or, wild dogs). The Babylonian horse soldiers ride their horses (coming) from distant lands; the horses paw the ground (or, gallop). The horse soldiers suddenly attack like eagles (or, large birds of prey) swooping down on their victims.
Quoted with permission from Clark, David J. & Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on the Book of Habakkuk. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1989. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
Their horses are faster than leopards, -or-
Their horses ⌊appear to⌋ be faster than leopards. -or-
They ⌊ride⌋ horses and ⌊war carts⌋ which are faster than leopards ⌊when they run after their prey⌋ .
1:8b fiercer than wolves of the night.
(God’s Word) and quicker than wolves in the evening.
they run at more speed than wolves in the evening. -or-
⌊They appear to be⌋ quicker than wolves after sunset ⌊when they attack⌋ . -or-
⌊They are⌋ faster than wolves ⌊when they hunt⌋ during the night.
1:8c Their horsemen charge ahead,
Their war horses gallop, -or-
Their horse soldiers rush at full speed.
1:8d and their cavalry comes from afar.
and their horsemen come from far away. -or-
They will come from ⌊their lands which are⌋ far away.
1:8e They fly like a vulture, swooping down to devour.
They are like eagles/vultures, who fly and then rush down for their food. -or-
They are ⌊cruel and fast⌋ like eagles/vultures who dive from above to ⌊hunt and⌋ eat ⌊other animals⌋ .
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