complete verse (Numbers 21:3)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Numbers 21:3:

  • Kupsabiny: “God heard those people and made them defeat those Canaanites. They annihilated those people and demolished their cities completely which made that place to be called Hormah.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “The LORD heard the request of the Israelites and gave the Canaanites into their hands. The Israelites completely destroyed them and their cities. Since it was like that that place was named Hormah.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “The LORD listened to the plea/request of the Israelinhon and he handed-over to them the Canaanhon. They were completely destroyed by the Israelinhon as-well-as their towns, so that place was-called Hormah.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Yahweh heard what they requested, and he enabled them to defeat the army of the Canaan people-group. The Israeli soldiers killed all the people and destroyed their towns. Ever since that time, that place has been called Hormah which means ‘destruction’.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Honorary "are" construct denoting God ("hand over")

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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme are (され) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, watas-are-ru (渡される) or “hand over” is used.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Numbers 21:3

And the LORD hearkened to the voice of Israel may be rendered “The LORD heard the prayer of the people of Israel.”

And gave over the Canaanites: The Septuagint adds the implied phrase “in his [Israel’s] hand” to the end of this clause (see verse 2). Alter does the same by saying “and He gave the Canaanite in his hand,” which means God helped the Israelites to conquer the Canaanites.

And they utterly destroyed them and their cities: For the Hebrew verb rendered utterly destroyed, see the previous verse. The pronoun they refers to the Israelites, and the pronouns them and their refer to the Canaanites. New Century Version makes this clear by saying “The Israelites completely destroyed the Canaanites and their cities.”

So the name of the place was called Hormah: The name Hormah comes from the same Hebrew root as the verb for utterly destroyed (charam). The footnotes in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation indicate this. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch includes the meaning of Hormah in the translation itself since it is a significant wordplay: “Hormah (ban).” La Nouvelle Bible Segond also does this with “Hormah (‘Anathema’),” and so does Bible en français courant with “Hormah, which means ‘the ruin.’ ” However, a more precise and meaningful model is “Hormah, which means ‘complete destruction.’ ” This clause is an active construction in Hebrew, which is literally “and he [Israel] called the name of the place Hormah.” Some languages may prefer such a construction here, as in Good News Translation with “and named the place Hormah.” According to 14.45 (see the comments there), the Amalekites and the Canaanites pursued the Israelites as far as Hormah when they defeated them. But this time Hormah marks the Israelites’ victory, the first of many over the peoples of that region. In this context Hormah refers to more than just the town, but also the whole region around it.

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 .