Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 38:24:
Kupsabiny: “Do you know when lightning strikes where it will strike or also where the wind of the East blows from?” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “By which path does the lightning spread out hither and thither, or the east wind blow away all over the earth?” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “Do- you (sing.) -know where is the way/path going to the place where lightning comes-from or to the place where the wind that comes from the east comes-from?” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
The cardinal directions “east” and “west” are easy to translate into Maan here since the language uses “where the sun comes up” and “where the sun goes down.” For “north” the translator had “facing toward the sun rising to the left,” and for “south” she had “facing toward the sun rising to the right.” So the listener had to think hard before knowing what direction was in view when translating “to the north and south, to the east and west.” So, in case all four directions are mentioned, it was shortened by saying simply “all directions.” Manya uses a similar nomenclature for the cardinal directions. (Source: Don Slager)
Likewise, Yakan has “from the four corners of the earth” (source: Yakan back-translation) or Western Bukidnon Manobo “from the four directions here on the earth” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo back-translation).
Kankanaey is “from the coming-out and the going-away of the sun and the north and the south” (source: Kankanaey back-translation), Northern Emberá “from where the sun comes up, from where it falls, from the looking [left] hand, from the real [right] hand” (source: Charles Mortensen), Amele “from the direction of the sun going up, from the direction of the sun going down, from the north and from the south” (source: John Roberts), Ejamat “look up to see the side where the sun comes from, and the side where it sets, and look on your right side, and on your left” (source: David Frank in this blog post ).
In Lamba, only umutulesuŵa, “where the sun rises” and imbonsi, “where the sun sets” were available as cardinal directions that were not tied to the local area of language speakers (“north” is kumausi — “to the Aushi country” — and “south” kumalenje — “to the Lenje country”). So “north” and “south” were introduced as loanwords, nofu and saufu respectively. The whole phrase is kunofu nakusaufu nakumutulesuŵa nakumbonsi. (Source C. M. Doke in The Bible Translator 1958, p. 57ff. )
“West” is translated in Tzeltal as “where the sun pours-out” and in Kele as “down-river” (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel).
In Morelos Nahuatl, “north” is translated as “from above” and “south” as “from below.” (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
In Matumbi cardinal directions are defined as in relation to another place. “East” for instance typically is “toward the beach” since the coast is in the eastern direction in Matumbi-speaking areas. “North” and “south” can be defined as above or below another place. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
The Hebrew text that gives instructions where to place items in the tabernacle with the help of cardinal directions (north and south) had to be approached in the Bambam translation specific to spacial concepts of that culture.
Phil Campbell explains: “There are no words in Bambam for north and south. In Exodus 26:35, God instructs that the table is to be placed on the north side and the lamp on the south side inside the tabernacle. The team wants to use right and left to tell where the lamp and table are located. In many languages we would say that the table is on the right and the lampstand is on the left based on the view of someone entering the tabernacle. However, that is not how Bambam people view it. They view the placement of things and rooms in a building according to the orientation of someone standing inside the building facing the front of the building. So that means the table is on the left side and the lampstand is on the right side.”
What is the way to the place where the light is distributed…?: this line has the same wording in Hebrew as in verse 19a, except for the verb is distributed. The sense of the line is unclear in Revised Standard Version. What is the way inquires how to find, and it is better rendered in English as “Where is?” “How does one get to?” “How does one find?” The Hebrew word translated as light has been changed in many different ways to produce a line that is more clearly parallel with the next line. Dhorme and others change light to get “mist.” Good News Translation understands light to refer to the sun, and then translates is distributed as “comes up.” This may be the intention of the poet, but the Hebrew does not suggest it. New International Version may be closer by taking light to refer to “lightning,” as was the case in 36.30 and 32, “What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed,” that is, “sent out.” The line may also be rendered as “Do you know how to find the place where I send out the lightning?” or “Do you know how to go to where I cause the lightning to flash?”
Or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth has given rise to numerous proposals for change to make this line more parallel with line a, but no such changes are necessary. East wind translates the same word as in 15.2 and 27.21. The reference is to the scorching winds that blow across the desert from the east. Scattered translates the Hebrew, but in English the action of the wind normally scatters objects in its path, and the action itself is expressed as “to blow.” Therefore Good News Translation has “or the place from which the east wind blows?” East wind should be translated to show the direction from which the wind blows; that is, “Or where the wind blows from the east,” or “blows out of the east,” or “blows from east to west.”
Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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