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 51:21)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 51:21:

  • Kupsabiny: “I used you to smash horses and the people who rode them
    and I destroyed the chariots and the people who were in them.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “the horses and the horse riders, the chariots and the charioteers.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 51:21 - 51:23

The image of break in pieces can be retained, but in these verses wherever it is people being dealt with, Good News Translation shifts to “kill,” “slay,” “slaughter,” or “crush.”

The horse and his rider: This is to be understood in a collective sense (Good News Translation “horses and riders”), as are the other objects and persons mentioned in these verses. What is important in the translation of this short passage is to render it in a way that will convey a dramatic and forceful impact to the reader.

For chariot see 4.13.

As elsewhere, if shepherds and flocks are not known, translators can use general terms such as “herdsmen” and “herds of domestic animals [or, their herds].”

The team of the farmer is either the horses or oxen he uses for plowing. Oxen are more likely, but translators can also use a general term such as “animals that pull the plow.”

Since governors and commanders are titles that are difficult to define precisely, it is best to translate them by terms that are more general, representing high positions of civil authority, such as in Good News Translation “rulers and high officials.”

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 .