fat, oil

The different Hebrew and Greek terms that are translated as “(olive) oil” and “(animal) fat” in English are translated in Kwere with only one term: mavuta. (Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

complete verse (Numbers 11:8)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Numbers 11:8:

  • Kupsabiny: “The manna fell down inside the camp during the night together with the dew. When it dawned, people went around gathering it, and when they had ground or crushed it they prepared/formed it and when they baked it become like a chapati. That thing was sweet like a chapati which had been baked with oil/fat.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “The people would go out and gather the manna and grind it on a millstone or pound it on a mortar. Then they cook it in a pot like porridge and make flat bread by kneading it. Its taste would be like bread baked in olive oil.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “The Israelinhon picked- them -up from the ground every morning, and they grind or pound in the something-used-for-pounding. Afterwards they cook in a clay-pot and make into a thin bread. The flavor of-this is like a bread that had-been-cooked in a cooking-oil which comes from olive.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Each morning the people would go out and gather some from the surface of the ground. Then they made flour by grinding it or pounding it with stones. Then they added water and boiled it in a pot, or they made flat cakes with it and baked them. The cakes tasted like bread that was baked with olive oil.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Numbers 11:8 - 11:9

Good News Translation reverses these two verses, so that they are in chronological order, which other languages may find helpful.

The people went about and gathered it: Each morning after the manna fell on the ground during the night, the Israelites picked it up to prepare it for eating.

And ground it in mills or beat it in mortars: A mill was two flat stones between which grain was ground into flour by scraping the top stone against the bottom one. A mortar was a bowl-shaped receptacle made of wood in which grain was beat into flour by using a pestle. In this case they ground and beat the manna. Some languages will have rather close local equivalents for mills and mortars, but other languages may need to use descriptive phrases, for example, “stones for grinding grain” and “bowls for beating grain.”

And boiled it in pots, and made cakes of it: After the manna was made into flour, they boiled it or baked it into a type of bread. Cooking pots were deep containers made of metal or fired earthenware. The Hebrew word for cakes refers to flat, round loaves baked on a hot stone or on hot coals. Perhaps they were like scones, but certainly they were not “thin wafers” (Contemporary English Version). Translators should avoid the impression of light, sweet dessert-type cakes since these loaves contained no sugar. TNIV says “loaves.”

And the taste of it was like the taste of cakes baked with oil: The Hebrew construction here is rather awkward, which is reproduced in Revised Standard Version. In any case, the bread made out of manna tasted like normal bread baked with olive oil. Exo 16.31 says it tasted like bread made with honey. The Hebrew word for cakes differs from the one used in the previous sentence, but it has the same meaning. Oil refers to “olive oil” (Good News Translation).

When the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell with it: The translation here should not imply that the manna was all wet with dew when it came down or when it was gathered. The text is simply describing the time (early morning) and the manner (spread out over the ground) in which the manna would appear every day.

Quoted with permission from de Regt, Lénart J. and Wendland, Ernst R. A Handbook on Numbers. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .