sacred pole

The Hebrew that is typically translated as “sacred pole” in English is translated in Elhomwe with mafanwiiwa a Asherimu or “idol of Asherah” (source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext) and in the English translation by Goldingay (2018) as totem pole.

See also Asherah.

altar

Click here to view graphically

The Greek, Latin and Hebrew that is translated as “altar” in English is translated in a number of ways:

  • Obolo: ntook or “raised structure for keeping utensils (esp. sacrifice)” (source: Enene Enene)
  • Muna: medha kaefoampe’a or “offering table” (source: René van den Berg)
  • Luchazi: muytula or “the place where one sets the burden down”/”the place where the life is laid down” (source: E. Pearson in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 160ff. )
  • Tzotzil: “where they place God’s gifts” (source: John Beekman in Notes on Translation, March 1965, p. 2ff.)
  • Tsafiki: “table for giving to God” (source: Bruce Moore in Notes on Translation 1/1992, p. 1ff.)
  • Noongar: karla-kooranyi or “sacred fire” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “offering-burning table” (source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “place for sacrificing” (source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “burning-place” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tibetan: mchod khri (མཆོད་​ཁྲི།) or “offering throne” (source: gSungrab website )
  • Bura-Pabir: “sacrifice mound” (source: Andy Warrren-Rothlin)
  • Kalanga: “fireplace of sacrifice” (source: project-specific notes in Paratext)
  • Cherokee: “fire nurturing place” (source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 26) (note that the Jewish priest is “fire feeder” in Cherokee)
The Ignaciano translators decided to translate the difficult term in that language according to the focus of each New Testament passage in which the word appears (click or tap here to see the rest of this insight

Willis Ott (in Notes on Translation 88/1982, p. 18ff.) explains:

  • Matt. 5:23,24: “When you take your offering to God, and arriving, you remember…, do not offer your gift yet. First go to your brother…Then it is fitting to return and offer your offering to God.” (The focus is on improving relationships with people before attempting to improve a relationship with God, so the means of offering, the altar, is not focal.)
  • Matt. 23:18 (19,20): “You also teach erroneously: ‘If someone makes a promise, swearing by the offering-place/table, he is not guilty if he should break the promise. But if he swears by the gift that he put on the offering-place/table, he will be guilty if he breaks the promise.'”
  • Luke 1:11: “…to the right side of the table where they burn incense.”
  • Luke 11.51. “…the one they killed in front of the temple (or the temple enclosure).” (The focus is on location, with overtones on: “their crime was all the more heinous for killing him there”.)
  • Rom. 11:3: “Lord, they have killed all my fellow prophets that spoke for you. They do not want anyone to give offerings to you in worship.” (The focus is on the people’s rejection of religion, with God as the object of worship.)
  • 1Cor. 9:13 (10:18): “Remember that those that attend the temple have rights to eat the foods that people bring as offerings to God. They have rights to the meat that the people offer.” (The focus is on the right of priests to the offered food.)
  • Heb. 7:13: “This one of whom we are talking is from another clan. No one from that clan was ever a priest.” (The focus in on the legitimacy of this priest’s vocation.)
  • Jas. 2:21: “Remember our ancestor Abraham, when God tested him by asking him to give him his son by death. Abraham was to the point of stabbing/killing his son, thus proving his obedience.” (The focus is on the sacrifice as a demonstration of faith/obedience.)
  • Rev. 6:9 (8:3,5; 9:13; 14:18; 16:7): “I saw the souls of them that…They were under the table that holds God’s fire/coals.” (This keeps the concepts of: furniture, receptacle for keeping fire, and location near God.)
  • Rev. 11:1: “Go to the temple, Measure the building and the inside enclosure (the outside is contrasted in v. 2). Measure the burning place for offered animals. Then count the people who are worshiping there.” (This altar is probably the brazen altar in a temple on earth, since people are worshiping there and since outside this area conquerors are allowed to subjugate for a certain time.)

See also altar (Acts 17:23).


In the Hebraic English translation of Everett Fox it is translated as slaughter-site and likewise in the German translation by Buber / Rosenzweig as Schlachtstatt.

complete verse (Isaiah 17:8)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Isaiah 17:8:

  • Kupsabiny: “Never again shall they trust in those idols that they are bowing to. Never again shall they worship/bow to Ashera and they shall not honor its place of sacrifices.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “They will not put their trust in the altars they have made with their hands
    And [they] will not trust in idol of the Asherah god that they have made
    or in the altar for offering incense.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “They will- no-longer -take-refuge on the altars which they themselves had-made. They will- no-longer -pay-any-attention on the post/[lit. thing-like-pillar] that symbolizes the goddess Ashera, and on the altars where they burn their incense, which they just made.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Isaiah 17:8

This verse contrasts with the previous one. When the people turn to God, they will no longer depend on their homemade religious objects. Since the key verbs regard and look are repeated from verse 7, translators should try to use the same verbs in both verses, which Good News Translation fails to do. This repetition provides emphasis in the source text.

They will not have regard for the altars, the work of their hands: The people will reject the altars they used for worshiping idols. The phrase the work of their hands qualifies the word altars. It may be rendered “that they made.” For altar see 6.6.

And they will not look to what their own fingers have made, either the Asherim or the altars of incense: This clause is parallel to the previous one. The people will not put their trust in religious objects they have made. Some translators may find it more natural to combine the phrases the work of their hands and what their own fingers have made.

Two religious objects are mentioned here: Asherim and altars of incense. In Hebrew Asherim is the masculine plural form of “Asherah.” In Canaanite religion Asherah was the name of both a goddess and the wooden pillar that was used to represent her (see 1 Kgs 15.13; 2 Kgs 21.7). Asherim may be rendered “sacred poles for worshiping the goddess Asherah” (similarly Contemporary English Version). A footnote or a glossary entry would also be helpful. The altars of incense here were altars on which incense was burned to worship Asherah. For incense see the comments on 1.13.

Contemporary English Version provides a useful model for this verse. It divides the long sentence here into two and rearranges it as follows: “They have built altars and places for burning incense to their goddess Asherah, and they have set up sacred poles for her. But they will stop worshiping at these places.” Other translation models are:

• They will not put their trust in the altars they have made, nor will they turn to the goddess Asherah or burn incense to her on the altars that they built.

• They will not worship at the altars they built, neither will they turn to the other objects they made, the images of the goddess Asherah and the altars where they burn incense to her.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .