Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Joshua 19:11:
Kupsabiny: “and leaned west until Maralah passing close to Dabbesheth and along a wadi/valley which was east of Jokneam.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “From there the boundary went west to Maralah, and on to Dabbesheth and the gorge of Jokneam.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “From there, this goes-towards the west: to Marala, to Dabeshet, and continues to the place-where- water -flows to the east of Jokneam.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “It extended west to Maralah city and on to Dabbesheth city, and on to the brook just north of Jokneam city.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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.”
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)
In the translation of verses 11-14, Good News Translation has fairly well marked out the directions of movement; however, attention should be given to the need for marking each of the place-names as a city.
In addition, the three participial phrases (touching, verse 11; turning, verse 13; ending, verse 14) as well as then to Daberath and up to Japhia (verse 12) may need drastic restructuring. That is, the participial phrases presuppose a subject (“the border”), while the “then” clause of verse 12 presupposes both subject (“the border”) and verb (“went”).
Finally, some languages may find it appropriate to divide the text into sentences at places other than where this is done in Good News Translation.
In verse 13 Gath Hepher (5 kilometers northeast of Nazareth) is identified as the birthplace of the prophet Jonah (2 Kgs 14.25).
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 .
It went up westward to Maralah: The clause went up westward to Maralah indicates that the boundary line continued westward from Sarid town. The southern boundary line of Zebulun’s land followed the course of the Kishon River. The Kishon River flows from east to northwest through the Valley of Jezreel and enters the Mediterranean Sea at the port of Haifa.
Maralah: It is not certain where this town was located.
There is an interpretation issue with the term Maralah. Bible scholars divide the Hebrew words in two different ways.
(1) The name of the town is Maralah.
(Berean Standard Bible, New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, New American Standard Bible, Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures, NET Bible, New Living Translation (2004), God’s Word, Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, Contemporary English Version, King James Version)
(2) The name of the town is Mareal. The Hebrew word “Maralah” should be separated into “Mareal” and “-ah.” The last syllable -ah is a Hebrew directional.
(Revised Standard Version, English Standard Version, New American Bible, Revised Edition, Good News Translation)
It is recommended that you follow option (1). Most English versions and most Bible atlases refer to the name of this town as Maralah.
Here are some other ways to translate this part of the verse:
The border went west to the town of Maralah -or-
From there the boundary ran on to the town of Maralah
19:11b
reached Dabbesheth: The clause reached Dabbesheth indicates that the southern border continued to the town of Dabbesheth.
Here are some other ways to translate this part of the verse:
then it went on to the town of Dabbesheth -or-
and continued to the town of Dabbesheth
19:11c
met the brook east of Jokneam: The phrase the brook east of Jokneam refers to a streambed that flowed with water in certain seasons. It was near the town of Jokneam.
east: The Hebrew word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as east is more literally “on the face of.” There are two ways to interpret this word.
(1) It means “near” or “opposite.” For example:
the ravine near Jokneam (New International Version)
(New International Version, NET Bible, New American Standard Bible, God’s Word, Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures, New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, Revised Edition, Contemporary English Version, King James Version)
(2) It means “east.” For example:
the stream east of Jokneam (Good News Translation)
(Berean Standard Bible, Good News Translation, Revised Standard Version, English Standard Version, Revised English Bible, New Living Translation (2004))
It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1). We do not know for certain where the brook was in relation to Jokneam town. It is best to translate it using a word that means “near” or “close to.”
Here are some other ways to translate this part of the verse:
The border then went on to the streambed near the town of Jokne-am -or-
It reached the wadi near the town of Jokne-am
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