1Early in the morning Joshua rose and set out from Shittim with all the Israelites, and they came to the Jordan. They camped there before crossing over.
The Hebrew in Hosea 5:2 that is translated in various ways in English translations (see here ), including “sin,” “slaughter,” “deceitfulness,” “rebel,” and “Shittim” as a place name (see Numbers 25:1, 33:49, Joshua 2:21, 3:1, Joel 3:18, and Micah 6:5 for other references to the place name), is translated by the Good News Translation and the New Living Translation as “Acacia City (or: Valley).” “Shittim” is a word for the Acacia tree and the translators chose “Acacia” since “Shittim,” especially as part of “pit dug deep in Shittim” or similar resembles a rude expression in English, especially when read aloud. (Source: de Blois / Dorn / van Steenbergen / Thompson, 2020)
In Gbaya, the notion of early morning is emphasized with the ideophone sút as in the referenced verses.
Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)
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 3:1:
Kupsabiny: “The next morning at sunrise Joshua and all the people of Israel left from Shittim and went to the river Jordan. They stayed there before crossing.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “Early in the morning Joshua, and, with the Israelites, left Shittim and came to the bank of the Jordan. Before crossing over the Jordan, they camped there.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “Now, very early in the morning, Josue and all the Israelinhon rose-up. They left Shitim and went to the River of Jordan. They camped there a-while before they crossed-over.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “Joshua and all the other Israelis got up early the next morning. They left their camp at Acacia and went down to the Jordan River. They camped there for two nights.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
The next morning, after the two spies return to camp, the Israelites leave the camp at Acacia (see 2.1).
In Hebrew the verb “got up” is singular, with Joshua as the subject, while the other verbs (left … went … camped) are plural, including all the people of Israel. However, the use of a singular verb, later followed by a larger group of subjects, is a typical Hebraism and is not to be imitated in translation. For example, in the New Testament one frequently encounters a structure such as “Jesus left, and his disciples,” the meaning of which is “Jesus and his disciples left” or “Jesus left with his disciples.” It is obvious that all the Israelites did get up (unless everyone else except Joshua had stayed up all night!), and in many languages this information must be included.
The verb rendered left the camp technically means “broke camp,” and the clause may then be rendered “moved their camp from Acacia.” Translators should be careful not to imply that the people of Israel were merely going outside their camp. This information does, of course, become clear later in the verse, but the possibility of any misunderstanding should be avoided.
While waiting to cross it translates the Hebrew “before they crossed over.” It is also possible to leave this information implicit and render the last clause of this verse as a separate sentence: “There they set up camp.” The entire verse may easily be broken into several units. For example, “The next day Joshua and all the people of Israel got up early. They left the camp at Acacia and traveled west to the Jordan River. There they set up camp and waited until it was time to cross the river.”
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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