Canaan

The term that is transliterated as “Canaan” in English is translated in American Sign Language with the sign loosely referencing the act of hiding/covering one’s face in shame. The association of “shame” with the name “Canaan” comes from Genesis 9, specifically verse 9:25. This sign was adapted from a similar sign in Kenyan Sign Language (see here). (Source: Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)


“Canaan” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor

Click or tap here to see a short video clip about Canaan in biblical times (source: Bible Lands 2012)

complete verse (Joshua 5:12)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Joshua 5:12:

  • Kupsabiny: “The manna no longer fell from heaven as always. So, from then and going forward the people of Israel ate the food that grows in Canaan.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “On the next day when they ate grain grown in that land manna stopped coming down. The Israelites never had manna again. So from that year they ate the crops of the land of Canaan.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Since that-time the falling of manna stopped, and the Israelinhon now had-no-more manna. Their food from that year was now produce of the land of Canaan.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “The next day, God stopped sending manna for the Israeli people to eat. After that, they ate food that was grown in Canaan.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Joshua 5:12

Then is literally “on the morrow” (Revised Standard Version); it is not the day after the “on the morrow after the passover” of verse 11, but is the same day, that is, the day after the Passover Day in verse 10. So Good News Translation has then; it could better be expressed by “that same day.”

For a description of manna see Exodus 16.14, 31; the Israelites had eaten it for forty years (Exo 16.35). The manna stopped falling then may need to be restructured so as not to suggest that manna had been constantly falling from the skies. One may translate “From that day on no more manna fell….” If this shift is made, then for stylistic reasons From that time on of the last sentence may be changed to “After that….”

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 .