In many, if not most of the languages in the Philippines, proper nouns, such as personal names, are tagged with a marker that signals their grammatical role within a sentence. For Tagalog and the Visayan languages , this typically includes si to mark the proper noun as the actor or subject (nominative case), ni to mark the proper noun as an owner (genitive case), and kay to mark the proper noun as as an indirect object, i.e. the one to or toward whom an action is directed (dative case). All of these also have plural forms — sina, nina and kina respectively — and unlike in the biblical languages or in English, the plural form has to be used when only a single proper name is mentioned but implicitly that proper name includes more than just one.
In this verse, where English translates “Joshua (turned back),” the Tagalog translation translates “sina Josue” because the context of the text makes clear that Joshua was not turning back alone. (Source: Kermit Titrud and Steve Quakenbush)
The Hebrew, Latin, and Greek that is transliterated as “Joshua” is translated in Swiss-German Sign Language with a sign that depicts a trumpet of rams’ horn, referring to Joshua 6:4 and following.
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Joshua 11:10:
Kupsabiny: “After that, Joshua and company headed for Hazor. They took that city and killed its king. Hazor was bigger than all the other cities.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “At that time Joshua came back and succeeded in defeating Hazor and killed the king there with the sword. Previously Hazor had been the capital [lit.: chief town] of the whole land.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “Afterwards, Josue and-company turned-back and they seized Hazor/took- Hazor -by-force and killed its king. (At that time, Hazor was-the-one-who (was) the most powerful in those kingdoms.)” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “The king of Hazor had ruled the people of all the kingdoms whose armies had fought against the Israelis. So Joshua’s army went back to Hazor and captured that city and killed their king.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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.”
After routing and killing the enemy forces, Joshua turned back to Hazor, captured the city, and killed its king. The note that follows about Hazor’s importance is written from the point of view of the writer’s time: At that time refers to the time of Joshua; it does not mean, as Revised Standard Version might be understood, that before Joshua’s time Hazor had been (but no longer was) the most powerful of all those kingdoms.
The translation of this verse presents several difficulties. First, the verb turned back may suggest that Joshua had previously been to the city of Hazor. Second, the presence of the parenthetical statement makes the comprehension difficult. Third, in verse 10 it is Joshua who turns back, captures Hazor, and kills its king. In verse 11 the subject shifts to They, for which the only immediate antecedent is Joshua of this verse. These difficulties may be overcome by translating as follows:
• At that time the city of Hazor and its king ruled over all other kingdoms in the territory. So after the battle, Joshua and his men went and attacked the city of Hazor. They captured the city, killed its king, and 11 put everyone there to death …
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Newman, Barclay M. A Handbook on Joshua. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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