12On the north side their boundary began at the Jordan; then the boundary goes up to the slope of Jericho on the north, then up through the hill country westward; and it ends at the wilderness of Beth-aven.
Low German translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006: “steppe”
Yakan: “the lonely place” (source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “a land where no people lived” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “the place with no inhabitants” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Cherokee: inage or “far away downstream” (source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 16)
Matumbi uses various term: lubele (desert, sandy place without water) — used in John 11:54, lupu’ngu’ti (a place where no people live, can be a scrub land, a forest, or a savanna) — used in Mark 1:3 et al.), and mwitu (a forest, a place where wild animals live) — used in Mark 1:13 et al.) (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
Chichewa Contemporary translation (2002/2016): chipululu: a place uninhabited by people with thick forest and bush (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Adioukrou: loj or “savannah” — “land that is not village, nor forest, nor field (source: Hill 2006)
Isthmus Mixe: “dry country” (source for this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
Note that in Luke 15:4, usually a term is used that denotes pastoral land, such as “eating/grazing-place,” in Tagbanwa (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation).
The various Greek, Aramaic, Ge’ez, and Latin and Hebrew terms that are translated as “sea,” “ocean,” or “lake” in English are all translated in Chichewa with one term: nyanja. Malawi, where Chichewa is spoken, has a lot of lakes but does not share a border with the ocean (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation). Likewise, in Toposa all the different bodies of water are all called by one term as well: nya-name̥ (source: Schröder 2026, p. 101).
In Malagasy culture, the sea is perceived as sacred because it was a path taken by the ancestors. That is why the Malagasy word for the “sea” is ranomasina, which literally means “the sacred water.” The word masina actually has two different meanings: “salted” and “sacred/holy.” Salt is used for the conservation of some foods, such as meat or fish, that are to be set aside for later use. In this sense, the Malagasy phrase for “Holy Spirit” has the literal meaning of “Salted Spirit.” (Source: Brigitte Rabarijaona in The Bible Translator 2022, p. 103ff.)
“Sea” (or: “ocean”) is translated in Tepeuxila Cuicatec as “water land” and in Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac as “very big lake.” (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Joshua 18:12:
Kupsabiny: “On the north side, the border started at the river Jordan and went up (the) mountain on the north side of Jericho and leaned towards the west passing through the highland until the wilderness of Beth-aven.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “Towards the north their boundary began at the Jordan, then it went up the slope north of Jericho, it went west towards the hill country and reached the wilderness of Beth-Aven.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “Its boundary to the north starts at the River of Jordan, and goes-up-toward the slope north of Jerico. Then this goes-up-toward the west in the mountains up-to the desert of Bet Aven.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “The northern border started at the Jordan River and extended west along the northern side of Jericho, into the hilly area. From there the border extended west to the desert near Beth-Aven town.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
The Hebrew, Greek and Ge’ez that is translated as “Jordan” means “descending (rapidly),” “flowing down.” (Source: Cornwall / Smith 1997 )
In Hungarian Sign Language it is translated with the sign for the river bordering Jordan and Israel, along with the general sign for river. (Source: Jenjelvi Biblia and HSL Bible Translation Group)
“Jordan river” in Hungarian Sign Language (source )
According to Anne Garber Kompaoré (in Le Sycomore 3/2009, p. 34ff. ), there are 4 ways to identify cardinal directions:
1. celestial bodies, especially the sun and certain stars
2. geographical landmarks, for example a mountain, sea, or river (depending on its position or the direction in which the water flows) etc.
3. climatic phenomena, such as the wind and the direction from which rain comes
4. bodily reference points, especially front, back, left, and right, in relation to celestial bodies or geographical landmarks
Following are examples of how these are practically implemented by various languages: (click or tap here to see the rest of this insight)
Celestial Bodies
East and west are often translated by the rising and the setting of the sun (note that the origin of English and other Indo-European languages is “dawn” for “east” and “evening” [i.e. sun-down] for “west”):
Maan: “where the sun comes up” and “where the sun goes down” (source: Don Slager)
Kankanaey: “from the coming-out of the sun “and “going-away of the sun” (source: Kankanaey back-translation)
Northern Emberá: “from where the sun comes up” and “from where the sun falls” (source: Charles Mortensen)
Ejamat “the side where the sun comes from” and “the side where it sets” (source: David Frank in this blog post )
Tzeltal: “where the sun pours-out” (west) (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
Northern Ngbandi: “the sun behind the chief’s house” (east — the chief lives traditionally at the eastern side of the village, therefore he does not get the sunlight into his eyes) and “under the sun” (west)
Northwestern Dinka: “earth behind” (east — the place behind the earth, i.e. the area where the sun rises)
Jula: “salt village” (north — because salt comes from the north, from the Sahara Desert) and “kola village” (south — since kola comes from the coastal region to the south) (source: Garber Kompaoré)
Matumbi: “toward the beach” (East) (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)
Acoli: “right” (of the local White Nile) (north) and “left” (of the White Nile) (south)
Zande: “interior (dry) land” (east); “place-inside-country” (north / south) — Zande, like a number of other languages, including Matengo and Hehe, traditionally only has three cardinal directions.
Belanda Bor: “lower place” (north) and “higher place” (south)
Turkana: “(up)stream” (north) and (down)stream (south)
Mono (DRC): “water place” (south) (source for this and five above: Mietzner / Pasch)
Climatic Phenomena
Shilluk: “opening westwind” (north) and “opening eastwind” (south)
Swahili used to have six directions. In reducing them to four, kusini and kaskazini which used to refer to south-west and north east respectively (the directions from where the two monsoons blow) have become the terms for “south” and north.” (source for this and one above: Mietzner / Pasch)
Bodily Reference Points
Nuer / Burun: “face” and “sun face” respectively (both: east)
Kalenjin: “eye sun” (east) (this and the one above indicate that the sun is “facing” the spectator from its position in the east:
Shilluk: doesn’t use a fixed position of the speaker, instead it has “eye sun morning” for east and “eye sun evening” for west
Mono (DRC): “foot-sun” (east — the start of the sun’s journey)
Burun: “sun leg” (west — the end of the sun’s journey)
Bari: “back” (north — when people are facing south, north is at their back) (source for this and above: Mietzner / Pasch)
Northern Emberá “the looking [left] hand” (north) and “the real [right] hand” (south) (source: Charles Mortensen)
Morelos Nahuatl: “from above” (north) and “from below” (south) (source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
When all four directions are mentioned, translators tend to avoid listing the four, sometimes verbose terms, and chose solutions like “all directions” (such as in Maan or Manya (source: Don Slager). Yakan has “from the four corners of the earth” (source: Yakan back-translation) and Western Bukidnon Manobo “from the four directions here on the earth” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo back-translation).
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.”
Verses 12-14 trace the northern boundary (where it touched the territory of Ephraim) from the Jordan River westward and then southward to Kiriath Jearim. For the places listed in verse 12, see 16.1-2; notice that in verse 13, unlike in 16.2, Luz and Bethel are different names for the same city; and in verse 12 Bethaven (“house of wickedness”) may be a way of referring to Bethel itself (see comments and footnote on 7.2).
On the north their border began at the Jordan does indicate that the northern border of Benjamin’s territory is being described. Then later in the verse the use of westward indicates that the description is from east to the west. It is possible to be even more specific: “Their northern border began in the east at the Jordan River … and westward….”
To the reader who hears the text read, the desert of Bethaven may sound like a proper name; to avoid this ambiguity it is better to translate “the desert near the city of Bethaven.”
In verse 13 Luz, Ataroth Addar, and Lower Beth Horon may need to be identified as cities.
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 .
On the north side their border began at the Jordan: The description of Benjamin’s boundary began at the Jordan River in the east and continued to the west.
Here are some other ways to translate this part of the verse:
Their northern border began at the Jordan River -or-
Benjamin’s boundary on the north began at the Jordan River
18:12b
went up past the northern slope of Jericho: The phrase went up indicates that the boundary ascends in elevation.
the northern slope of Jericho: The northern slope of Jericho refers to a mountain ridge that is north of Jericho.
Here are some other ways to translate this part of the verse:
Then it ascended the mountain ridge north of Jericho -or-
It went up from there to the mountain slope to the north of Jericho
18:12c
headed west through the hill country: Here are some other ways to translate this part of the verse:
and continued west up through the mountain country -or-
and westward into the mountains
18:12d
and came out at the wilderness of Beth-aven:Beth-aven was a town in the mountains. It was mentioned in Joshua 7:2.
wilderness: The Hebrew word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as wilderness indicates an uninhabited place. The area around “Beth-aven” was a wilderness, but it was not a desert with large areas of sand.
Beth-aven: Here are some ways that the English versions spell the name of Beth-aven town.
Beth-aven (Berean Standard Bible, Revised Standard Version, English Standard Version, New Living Translation (2004), New American Bible, Revised Edition, New American Standard Bible, King James Version) -or-
Beth Aven (NET Bible, New International Version, God’s Word) -or-
Beth-Aven (Contemporary English Version) -or-
Bethaven (Good News Translation)
Here are some other ways to translate this part of the verse:
until it reached the wilderness near Beth-aven -or-
as far as the wasteland near Beth-aven town
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