11And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the soil produces, on humans and animals, and on all their labors.”
The Greek and Hebrew that is translated in English as “grain” (or: “corn”) is translated in Kui as “(unthreshed) rice.” Helen Evans (in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 40ff. ) explains: “Padddy [unthreshed rice] is the main crop of the country and rice the staple diet of the people, besides which [grain] is unknown and there is no word for it, and it seemed to us that paddy and rice in the mind of the Kui people stood for all that corn meant to the Jews.” “Paddy” is also the translation in Pa’o Karen (source: Gordon Luce in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 153f. ).
Other translations include: “wheat” (Teutila Cuicatec), “corn” (Lalana Chinantec), “things to eat” (Morelos Nahuatl), “grass corn” (wheat) (Chichimeca-Jonaz) (source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), “millet” (Lambya) (source: project-specific notes in Paratext), “food” (Nyamwezi) (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)or ntimumma lujia / “seeds for food” (Lokạạ — “since Lokạạ does not have specific terms for maize and rice that can be described as grains”) (source: J.A. Naudé, C.L. Miller Naudé, J.O. Obono in Acta Theologica 43/2, 2023, p. 129ff. )
The Hebrew that is translated in English as “livestock” (or “cattle”) is translated in Newari as “living beings brought up in a house” or “living beings cared for in a house” (source: Newari Back Translation). Specifically “cattle” is “cows and oxen.”
In Kwere it is “animals that are being kept.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
The Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that are translated as “wine” in English is translated into Pass Valley Yali as “grape juice pressed long ago (= fermented)” or “strong water” (source: Daud Soesilo). In Guhu-Samane it is also translated as “strong water” (source: Ernest L. Richert in The Bible Translator 1965, p. 198ff. ), in Noongar as “liquor” (verbatim: “strong water”) (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang), in Hausa as ruwan inabi or “water of grapes” (with no indication whether it’s alcoholic or not — source: Mark A. Gaddis), in sar as kasə nduú or “grape drink” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin), or in Papantla Totonac and Coyutla Totonac as “a drink like Pulque” (for “Pulque,” see here ) (source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1971, p. 169ff. ).
In Swahili, Bible translations try to avoid local words for alcoholic drinks, because “drinking of any alcohol at all was one of the sins most denounced by early missionaries. Hence translators are uncomfortable by the occurrences of wine in the Bible. Some of the established churches which use wine prefer to see church wine as holy, and would not refer to it by the local names used for alcoholic drinks. Instead church wine is often referred to by terms borrowed from other languages, divai (from German, der Wein) or vini/mvinyo (from ltalian/Latin vino/vinum). Several translations done by Protestants have adapted the Swahili divai for ‘wine,’ while those done by Catholics use vini or mvinyo.” (Source: Rachel Konyoro in The Bible Translator 1985, p. 221ff. )
The Swahili divai was in turn borrowed by Sabaot and was turned into tifaayiik and is used as such in the Bible. Kupsabiny, on the other hand, borrowed mvinyo from Swahili and turned it into Finyonik. (Source: Iver Larsen)
In Nyamwezi, two terms are used. Malwa ga muzabibu is a kind of alcohol that people specifically use to get drunk (such as in Genesis 9:21) and ki’neneko is used for a wine made from grapes (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext).
In some Hindi translations (such as the Common Language version, publ. 2015 ), one term (dākharasa दाखरस — grape juice) is used when that particular drink is in the focus (such as in John 2) and another term (madirā मदिरा — “alcohol” or “liquor”) when drunkenness is in the focus (such as in Eph. 5:18).
In Mandarin Chinese, the generic term jiǔ (酒) or “alcohol(ic drink)” is typically used. Exceptions are Leviticus 10:9, Numbers 6:3, Deuteronomy 29:6, Judges 13:4 et al., 1 Samuel 1:15, and Luke 1:15 where a differentiation between weak and strong alcohol is needed. The Mandarin Chinese Union Version (2010) translates that as qīngjiǔ lièjiǔ (清酒烈酒) and dànjiǔ lièjiǔ (淡酒烈酒), both in the form of a Chinese proverb and meaning “light alcohol and strong drink.” (Source: Zetzsche)
Click or tap here to see a short video clip about wine in biblical times (source: Bible Lands 2012)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Haggai 1:11:
Kupsabiny: “I sent the sun to burn the land, the hills, the food in the fields, the grape trees, olive trees, and all the food/crops that are in the fields to dry up. I sent famine to destroy people and animals. All the things that people had worked hard for were destroyed.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “I have sent drought on your fields, on the hills, on the grain, on the vineyards, on the olive groves, on all crops that grow on the land, on people and your domesticated animals, and on everything to which you put your hand.’” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “I have-caused-to-become-dry the land and the mountains. Therefore the grains, wine/[lit. juice of grapes], oil, the other produces/harvests still, as-well-as the people, and their animals and (what they) planted were-affected.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “I have caused a drought/severe lack of rain on the hills and on your fields. The result has been that your grain has withered, and your grapevines and olive trees and all your other crops have dried up. Because of that, you and your cattle do not have enough food, and the hard work that you have done will be for nothing.’” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.
Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.
The Hebrew says literally I have called for a drought upon the land and the hills (Revised Standard Version, New Revised Standard Version [New Revised Standard Version]). Good News Translation expresses more clearly the fact that what the LORD called for had actually happened, by saying, “I have brought drought….” Translators may also express this as “I have caused your [plural] fields and hills to dry up,” or even combine the two terms; for example, “I have caused the land everywhere to dry up.” There is a play on words in Hebrew between the word for drought and the word translated “in ruins” in verses 4 and 9. This drought affected the whole land, including the hills, where the rainfall was normally greatest. The concept of drought may be translated “I have forbidden the sky [or, clouds] to drop rain.”
The Hebrew goes on to speak of the drought affecting the crops themselves, the grain, the new wine, the oil. Grain, wine and olive oil were (and still are) three of the main crops in Israel. Grain was used to make the staple food, bread. Wine was the principal drink in a country where water supplies were neither very plentiful nor very pure. See the comments on verse 6 for the translation of wine. Oil made by squeezing the juice from olives was used for cooking and for lamp fuel, as well as for rubbing on the body.
Since the opening part of the verse spoke of places (the land and the hills), Good News Translation translates the references to crops in terms of the places there they grow, “grainfields” (British edition “cornfields”; Australian edition “wheatfields”), “vineyards, and olive orchards.” In certain cultures it may be necessary to borrow the terms “grape” (or, “vine”) and “olive” and translate “vineyards” and “olive orchards” as “trees that produce fruit called grapes and trees that produce fruit called olives” or “vine tree farms and olive tree farms.” Translators are at liberty to speak of the crops themselves (as Revised Standard Version and most modern translations do), the places where they grow (see Good News Translation), or the trees that produce the fruit, whichever sounds more natural in their language. If they speak of the crops, and have terms for different kinds of wine, they should note that the term used here means new wine (Revised Standard Version; similarly New Jerusalem Bible, Revised English Bible, New International Version), that is, wine which had not fermented for a long period.
Haggai sums up the effect of the drought upon agriculture with a general expression, upon what the ground brings forth, or, as Good News Translation says, “on every crop the ground produces.” He then moves on to say, upon men and cattle, and upon all their labors. Cattle refers not just to cows, but to domestic animals of all kinds, especially including sheep and goats. Domestic animals such as oxen were used in agricultural work like plowing and threshing. Good News Translation expresses this more clearly by saying, “on people and animals, on everything you try to grow.” Contemporary English Version has “your animals and you yourselves. All your hard work will be for nothing.” Some languages, like Hebrew, may have a term for domestic (as opposed to wild) animals, and if so this is an appropriate place to use it.
Though the meanings of the parts of this verse are fairly simple, the whole verse can become rather complicated if translated in a single sentence as in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. Translators may prefer to break the verse up into more than one sentence.
Alternative translation models for this verse are:
• I have brought a drought on your [plural] fields and on the hills. It has affected your crops of grain, wine, olive oil and everything else that the ground produces. It has affected both people and animals, and spoiled all your [plural] attempts to grow food.
• I have caused your [plural] fields and hills to dry up. The lack of moisture in the morning [or, dew] has affected your crops of grain, wine, olive oil, and everything else that grows. It has also caused trouble for both you and your animals, and made it impossible for you to grow food.
Quoted with permission from Clark, David J. & Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Haggai. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2002. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
I have caused no rain to fall on the land. -or-
And I, ⌊Yahweh⌋ , have caused drought on the land.
1:11b and on the mountains, on the grain, new wine, and oil,
⌊This includes⌋ the hills, the seeds of cultivated cereals, the ⌊grape⌋ wine, the olive oil -or-
⌊I have caused drought⌋ on the high places, the grain fields, the vineyards and olive fields.
1:11c and on whatever the ground yields,
and on all other ⌊crops⌋ the land yields. -or-
⌊I have caused drought⌋ on all ⌊cultivation that⌋ grows in the field.
1:11d on man and beast, and on all the labor of your hands.”
⌊That drought affected⌋ human beings and animals, and all the work you put your hand to.” -or-
And ⌊I have caused drought on⌋ both people and domestic animals ⌊so that they do not have enough food⌋ . And all your hard work produced nothing.”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.