13So they stationed the forces, the main encampment that was north of the city and its rear guard west of the city, and Joshua went that night into the valley.
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 (went into the camp),” the Tagalog translation translates “sina Josue” because the context of the text makes clear that Joshua was not going 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.
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.”
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Joshua 8:13:
Kupsabiny: “Most of the people stayed on the north side with the others on guard at the west side. Joshua went in the night to the valley.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “They put the main army towards the north and, as for the ones in hiding, they put them towards the west. That night, however, Joshua stayed in the valley.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “So this was the position/arranging of the soldiers: some of the soldiers (were) on the north (side) of the city, and the others (were) on its west (side). That night Josue and-company/[lit. they of Josue] went into the valley.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “So those men did that. The main group of soldiers was north of the city, and the others were hiding west of the city. That night Joshua went down into the valley.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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)
Verse 13 repeats the information in verses 11-12; the main body of troops is north of Ai, and the smaller body (literally “the heel”) is west of the city. New English Bible, following the Septuagint, omits verse 13. At the end of the verse the Masoretic text has “and Joshua went that night into the valley”; some Hebrew manuscripts, however, have the verb “to spend the night,” which is preferable by most translations. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, however, prefers to follow the Masoretic text, in which case one may translate “Joshua himself returned during the night to the Jordan Valley.”
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 .
So: The Hebrew word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as So introduces the next event in the storyline. Often this word is translated as “and.”
the forces were stationed: The clause the forces were stationed indicates that Joshua and the leaders of Israel arranged the army in their places to attack the soldiers of Ai.
8:13b
with the main camp to the north of the city: It may be clearer to begin a new sentence here. The main group of soldiers was in their camp north of Ai.
and the rear guard to the west of the city: The rear guard refers to the soldiers who hid west of Ai so that they could attack by surprise.
8:13c
And that night Joshua went into the valley: The phrase into the valley refers to the valley mentioned in 8:11c that was between the Israelite camp and the town of Ai. Joshua may have gone down into the valley so that he would know the best way to conduct the battle the next morning.
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