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The Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin that is translated as a form of “save” in English is translated in Shipibo-Conibo with a phrase that means literally “make to live,” which combines the meaning of “to rescue” and “to deliver from danger,” but also the concept of “to heal” or “restore to health.”

Other translations include:

  • San Blas Kuna: “help the heart”
  • Laka: “take by the hand” in the meaning of “rescue” or “deliver”
  • Huautla Mazatec: “lift out on behalf of”
  • Anuak: “have life because of”
  • Central Mazahua: “be healed in the heart”
  • Baoulé: “save one’s head”
  • Guerrero Amuzgo: “come out well”
  • Northwestern Dinka: “be helped as to his breath” (or “life”) (source for all above: Bratcher / Nida),
  • Matumbi: “rescue (from danger)” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
  • Noongar: barrang-ngandabat or “hold life” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • South Bolivian Quechua: “make to escape”
  • Highland Puebla Nahuatl: “cause people to come out with the aid of the hand” (source for this and one above: Nida 1947, p. 222)
  • Bariai: “retrieve one back” (source: Bariai Back Translation)

See also salvation and save (Japanese honorifics).

complete verse (Joshua 9:26)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Joshua 9:26:

  • Kupsabiny: “Then Joshua guarded those people and did not allow the people of Israel to kill them.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Speaking like this Joshua spared them from the Israelites and they did not kill them.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Josue did- not -allow them to-be-killed by the Israelinhon.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “So Joshua saved the lives of the people of Gibeon by not allowing the Israelis to kill them.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Joshua 9:26 - 9:27

In verse 26 the use of a colon makes Good News Translation unnecessarily cumbersome. For economy of words it may be translated, “So Joshua protected the Gibeonites and did not allow the people of Israel to kill them.”

Once again the Gibeonites’ punishment is described: to cut wood and carry water for the people of Israel and for the LORD’s altar. In place of this infinitive clause, a new sentence may be more natural: “But at the same time he made them slaves. They had to cut wood….”

To this day refers to the time when the account was written, and the standard phrase the place where the LORD has chosen to be worshiped (see Deut 12.11, 14, 26; 15.20; 17.8; 31.11) is a way of speaking of Jerusalem, the city which the Lord chose as the place where his Temple would be built. In the place may be better expressed as “for the place.” The Gibeonites would have cut the wood before bringing it to the place where the Lord was worshiped, and they would have carried the water to the place.

Where the LORD has chosen to be worshiped may be otherwise formulated: “where the LORD has chosen for his people to worship him.” Or, if the author of the book does have in mind the Temple: “the place which the LORD has chosen for his sanctuary (or, Temple).”

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 .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Joshua 9:26

Paragraph 9:26–27

9:26a

So Joshua did this and delivered them: The two clauses Joshua did this and delivered them indicate that Joshua decided to save the lives of the Gibeonites. These clauses can be combined as one clause, for example,

So Joshua saved them from the Israelites. (New International Version)
-or-
So Joshua rescued them (God’s Word)

from the hands of the Israelites: The phrase from the hands of the Israelites indicates that Joshua did not allow the Israelites to kill the Gibeonites.

9:26b

and they did not kill the Gibeonites: The clause they did not kill the Gibeonites states the same meaning as 26a in different words. Joshua kept the Israelites from killing the Gibeonites, and the Israelites did not kill them.

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