Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Judges 12:14:
Kupsabiny: “Abdon had forty sons and thirty grandsons who rode on 70 donkeys. Abdon advised Israel for eight years.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “He had 40 sons who rode donkeys and 30 grandchildren, [and] they all rode on 70 donkeys. Abdon was the leader of Israel for eight years.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “He had 40 male children and 30 male grandchildren/(grandsons), and each of them had a donkey to-ride-upon. He led Israel for a period/[lit. head] of eight years.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “He had 40 sons and 30 grandsons. Each of them had his own donkey on which to ride. Abdon was the leader of the Israeli people for eight years.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “donkey” in English was translated in the 1900 Kalaallisut (Greenlandic) translation (a newer version was published in 2000) as siutitôĸ or “‘something with big ears.” “[This] is based on the word siut ‘ear’ combined with the same suffix –tôĸ (-tooq).” (Source: Lily Kahn & Riitta-Liisa Valijärvi in The Bible Translator 2019, p. 125ff.)
These Hebrew and Greek words (with the exception of pōlos and hupozugion — see discussion below) all definitely refer to the Domestic Donkey equus asinus. However the different words do have slight semantic differences among them.
Chamor and onos are the generic words for donkey while ’athon (feminine gender) refers specifically to a saddle donkey or a donkey used for riding. A saddle donkey is usually a large strong female donkey the males are too difficult to control when they are near a female in heat. The Hebrew word is derived from a root that means “strong”.
‘Ayir refers to the young male or jack donkey (probably with an emphasis on its liveliness and the difficulty in controlling it since the Hebrew root means something like “frisky”).
Onarion means a young donkey of either sex. Some languages will have a special word for a young donkey. This will be appropriate for translating onarion.
The word hupozugion often translated “donkey,” actually indicates any beast of burden. Walter Bauer, the famous German New Testament scholar, has argued very convincingly that the animal referred to in Matthew 21:5 in the expression epi pōlon huion hupozugiou is the foal of a horse not a donkey (1953:220-229). In some languages it will be possible to express this in a way that does not designate a specific species of animal`, as in “beast of burden.”
Pōlos usually refers to a foal, that is a young horse, unless a word for donkey follows.
Donkeys are domestic animals belonging to the same family as the horse, but they are smaller and have longer ears. The donkey bred and used in the Middle East is the domesticated Nubian or Somali Wild Ass Equus Asinus africanus. In its original wild state this was a gray ass with pale, whitish belly and dark rings on the lower part of the legs. It was domesticated in Egypt as early as 2500 B.C. In its domesticated version, as a result of interbreeding with donkeys from Europe and Persia, the donkey came to be a variety of colors from dark brown, through light brown to the original gray and occasionally white. The Hebrew chamor comes from a root meaning “reddish brown.”
Donkeys are good pack animals being able to carry as much as the larger mule without the latter’s unpredictable moods. They also have great stamina and are easy to feed since they eat almost any available vegetation. Larger individual animals (usually females) are also often used for riding.
Donkeys were highly prized in biblical times especially females since they were suitable for packing and riding and had the potential for producing offspring. Donkeys were seen as man’s best friend in the animal kingdom. They were the common man’s means of transport and many ordinary families owned a donkey. They were used for plowing and for turning large millstones as well as a means of transport.
Today domestic donkeys are found all over savannah Africa the Middle East South and Central Asia Europe Latin America and Australia. They do not seem to be reared in rain forest or monsoon areas but they are nevertheless often known in these areas.
A donkey was considered to be a basic domestic requirement and thus the number of donkeys available was a means of measuring the relative prosperity of a society at any given time. While only powerful political or military people rode horses (which were usually owned by the state) the common people rode donkeys. This is the significance of the passage in Zechariah 9:9: the victorious king would return to the city riding a donkey thus identifying himself as a common Israelite rather than a victorious warlord.
In the majority of languages there is a local or a borrowed word for donkey. This is the obvious choice. In areas of Southeast Asia, Papua New Guinea, West Africa, and other places, where donkeys are rare or unknown, the word from the dominant major language or trade language (for example, English, Spanish, French, Chinese, or Arabic) is often transliterated.
In most contexts ’athon should be translated by the equivalent of “female” donkey, but in some contexts riding donkey is better.
‘Ayir should be translated according to the specific context. In Genesis 32:15 the translation should definitely be the equivalent of “male donkey”, and probably also in Judges 10:4 and Judges 12:14. The significance of these latter passages is that female donkeys were the more normal choice of mount.
In Job 11:12 the emphasis is probably on the friskiness of the donkey, and the translation should be the equivalent of “He ties his young donkey to a grapevine, his frisky young ass to the best of the vines” (indicating a certain amount of irresponsibility, and perhaps extravagance).
In Job 11:12 and Zechariah 9:9 the obvious emphasis is on the youth of the donkey, so the equivalent of “colt”, “foal”, “young donkey”, and so on should be used.
He had forty sons and thirty grandsons … is literally “And it was to him forty sons and thirty sons of sons….” This verse begins in the same way as verse 12.9 (see comments there). Abdon had even more children than the judges before him. The Hebrew word for sons can refer to children in general, but male descendants are probably in focus here. The numerals forty, thirty and seventy have symbolic value, reflecting Abdon’s social status and power. The number seventy is, of course, the sum of forty sons and thirty grandsons. This numeral also played a key role in the stories of Gideon and his son Abimelech (see, for example, verse 8.30; verse 9.2).
Who rode on seventy asses means that each child and grandchild rode on a donkey. This was an important sign of wealth in Old Testament times (see verse 10.4). Contemporary English Version omits the word seventy, but this number is an important literary feature, so it should be kept.
And he judged Israel eight years: Elon, the minor judge between Ibzan and Abdon, was a leader in Israel for the longest of the three (ten years), while Abdon led Israel one year longer than Ibzan and two years longer than Jephthah. The Hebrew phrase rendered eight years (shemoneh shanim) adds poetic flavor to this account.
A translation model for this verse is:
• He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, and each of the seventy had his own donkey to ride. Abdon led Israel for eight years.
Quoted with permission from Zogbo, Lynell and Ogden, Graham S. A Handbook on Judges. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2019. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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