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 50:37)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 50:37:

  • Kupsabiny: “Horses will be stabbed and their chariots broken to pieces,
    and the soldiers who were bought to come from other countries will be killed,
    they will fear until they become just women!
    Where all its silver is will be torn down,
    (it) will be plundered and taken.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “This will- also -land to her horses and chariots, and to the foreigners who are- her -allied. And they will-weaken like a woman! This will- also -land to her wealth, and this will-be-taken-away.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “They will strike their horses and chariots
    and the foreigners who are in the army of Babylonia,
    and they will all become as weak as women.
    They will seize all the valuable things there in Babylon
    and take them away.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 50:37

A sword upon: See verse 35, especially with reference to treasures.

Chariots are “war chariots.” See 4.13.

That they may become women is interpreted by Good News Translation to mean “how weak they are,” on the assumption that the contrast intended is between the strength of the soldiers and the weakness of women. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch renders “they faint with fear as women!” Translators can also use a simile: “they will become as weak as women” (see New Living Translation).

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 .