21So King Zedekiah gave orders, and they committed Jeremiah to the court of the guard, and a loaf of bread was given him daily from the bakers’ street, until all the bread of the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.
Some languages do not have a concept of kingship and therefore no immediate equivalent for the Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin that is translated as “king” in English. Here are some (back-) translations:
Ninia Yali: “big brother with the uplifted name” (source: Daud Soesilio in Noss 2007, p. 175)
Nyamwezi: mutemi: generic word for ruler, by specifying the city or nation it becomes clear what kind of ruler (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Ghomála’: Fo (“The word Fo refers to the paramount ruler in the kingdoms of West Cameroon. He holds administrative, political, and religious power over his own people, who are divided into two categories: princes (descendants of royalty) and servants (everyone else).” (Source: Michel Kenmogne in Theologizing in Context: An Example from the Study of a Ghomala’ Christian Hymn))
Faye Edgerton retells how the term in Navajo (Dinė) was determined:
“[This term was] easily expressed in the language of Biblical culture, which had kings and noblemen with their brilliant trappings and their position of honor and praise. But leadership among the Navajos is not accompanied by any such titles or distinctions of dress. Those most respected, especially in earlier days, were their headmen, who were the leaders in raids, and the shaman, who was able to serve the people by appealing for them to the gods, or by exorcising evil spirits. Neither of these made any outward show. Neither held his position by political intrigue or heredity. If the headman failed consistently in raids, he was superceded by a better warrior. If the shaman failed many times in his healing ceremonies, it was considered that he was making mistakes in the chants, or had lost favor with the gods, and another was sought. The term Navajos use for headman is derived from a verb meaning ‘to move the head from side to side as in making an oration.’ The headman must be a good orator, able to move the people to go to war, or to follow him in any important decision. This word is naat’áanii which now means ‘one who rules or bosses.’ It is employed now for a foreman or boss of any kind of labor, as well as for the chairman of the tribal council. So in order to show that the king is not just a common boss but the highest ruler, the word ‘aláahgo, which expresses the superlative degree, was put before naat’áanii, and so ‘aláahgo naat’áanii ‘anyone-more-than-being around-he-moves-his-head-the-one-who’ means ‘the highest ruler.’ Naat’áanii was used for governor as the context usually shows that the person was a ruler of a country or associated with kings.”
So King Zedekiah gave orders: In some languages it may be necessary to indicate who Zedekiah gave orders to; for example, “So Zedekiah ordered his men to lock Jeremiah up.”
The court of the guard would have been the palace courtyard (see 32.2). Prisoners would have been placed here who did not require strict supervision.
A loaf of bread was given him daily: Considering the siege situation of Jerusalem, Jeremiah was not given less to eat than most other inhabitants of Jerusalem would have had. The loaf itself was in the shape of a flat round cake, about an inch thick and nine inches across. This passive construction may need to be restructured with some agent, as in “They gave him a loaf of bread each day” or “His men gave him….”
From the bakers’ street: Translators need to take care that they do not give the impression that the bread may have been picked up off the street, as though it had been discarded or thrown away. In all probability persons of the same trade had their shops on the same street, so that a street might be known by the name of that trade or the product. The Good News Translation rendering “from the bakeries” is a good model for some languages.
Until all the bread of the city was gone is at the time of the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians (see 38.28).
So Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard: This statement is the narrative conclusion for the episode. Good News Translation has restructured, combining this with clauses earlier in the verse to give a longer narrative conclusion: “I stayed there, and each day….” It is also possible to conclude with something such as Bible en français courant “And so it was that Jeremiah stayed in the palace courtyard.”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2003. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.