advance

In Gbaya, the notion of the advancing or charging horses in Jeremiah 46:9 is emphasized with the ideophone pamyala, which expresses dispersion one by one, like a group that scatters.

Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)

chariot

The Hebrew, Latin, Ge’ez, and Greek that is translated into English as “chariot” is translated into Anuak as “canoe pulled by horse.” “Canoe” is the general term for “vehicle” (source: Loren Bliese). Similarly it is translated in Lokạạ as ukwaa wạ nyanyang ntuuli or “canoe that is driven by horses.” (Source: J.A. Naudé, C.L. Miller Naudé, J.O. Obono in Acta Theologica 43/2, 2023, p. 129ff. )
Other translations include:

  • Eastern Highland Otomi: “cart pulled by horses” (source: Larson 1998, p. 98)
  • Chichicapan Zapotec: “ox cart” (in Acts 8) (ox carts are common vehicles for travel) (source: Loren Bliese)
  • Chichimeca-Jonaz, it is translated as “little house with two feet pulled by two horses” (source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
  • Hausa Common Language Bible as keken-doki or “cart of donkey” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
  • Mairasi: “going-thing [vehicle]” (source: Enggavoter 2004)

It is illustrated for use in Bible translations in East Africa by Pioneer Bible Translators like this:

Image owned by PBT and Jonathan McDaniel and licensed with the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

See also cart.

complete verse (Jeremiah 46:9)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 46:9:

  • Kupsabiny: “Be fierce you horses!
    Get up/start you chariots!
    March proudly you soldiers who go by foot.
    Go you from Cush and Put with shields
    and you from Lydia who are experts in shooting bows shall follow.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘Okay, those from-Egipto, let your horses and chariots run now! You (plur.) attack now as-well-as all your allies from Etiopia, Put, and Lydia, who are-skilled in using shield and bows.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “You riders of horses, charge/rush into the battle!
    You drivers of chariots, drive furiously!
    All you warriors from Ethiopia and Libya
    who carry your shields,
    you warriors from Lydia
    who shoot arrows,
    you come!” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 46:9

Advance, O horses, and rage, O chariots: Whatever the picture is in verse 4, the picture here is that of horses and chariots (see 4.13). The command to start the battle is addressed directly to them. For some translators it is more natural to command the soldiers riding horses and the soldiers driving chariots to go forward. Translators can either say something similar to Good News Translation, or possibly “Order the horse riders and chariot drivers to advance for battle.”

Let the warriors go forth: This can be expressed as “Send forward the soldiers.” They are identified by where they come from: Ethiopia, Put, Lud. Many languages use a colon or a dash for the start of a list, and this serves to show the relation between warriors and men of Ethiopia …. But it will be better for some translators to say instead something such as “Send out the soldiers. Send them out, these men of Ethiopia and Libya carrying their shields, and these archers of Lydia.”

Ethiopia: See 38.7.

Put (Good News Translation “Libya”) was a territory in north Africa, west of Egypt.

Lud (Good News Translation “Lydia”) was probably in the same geographical region.

For skilled in handling the bow, refer to “archer” in 4.29.

It seems most probable that the soldiers referred to were mercenaries (“hired soldiers,” verse 21) in the service of the king of Egypt.

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 .