cattle, livestock

The Hebrew that is translated in English as “livestock” (or “cattle”) is translated in Newari as “living beings brought up in a house” or “living beings cared for in a house” (source: Newari Back Translation). Specifically “cattle” is “cows and oxen.”

In Kwere it is “animals that are being kept.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

complete verse (Numbers 35:3)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Numbers 35:3:

  • Kupsabiny: “These cities shall belong to the Levites and they shall live there. The land that can be used as grazing area shall be theirs so that they can graze their cows, their sheep/goats and all other animals.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “In this way there will be places for them to live. Then there will be fields for their cows and oxen, sheep and goats, and other animals to graze [in].” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “In this way they have towns to-dwell-upon and have a-place-of-grazing for their animals.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Those will be for the descendants of Levi to live in, and around the cities will be land for their cattle and flocks of sheep and goats and other animals.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Numbers 35:3

The cities shall be theirs to dwell in: According to Ashley (page 645), “the Levites were not to own the towns, but only to live in them” (so also Cole, page 544; Noordtzij, page 295). If this interpretation is accepted, then Good News Translation should not be followed as a model here (“These cities will belong to the Levites”). A model that follows this interpretation is “Then the Levites will have cities where they may live” (New Century Version). The Hebrew word for cities (ʿarim) can refer to walled and unwalled towns (see 13.19).

And their pasture lands shall be for their cattle and for their livestock and for all their beasts: The Hebrew term for cattle (behemah) can refer to animals in the most general sense, but here it refers to domestic animals of all types (see the comments on 31.9). The Hebrew word for livestock (rekhush) normally refers to “goods” (King James Version, La Bible de Jérusalem Nouvelle, La Nouvelle Bible Segond) or “possessions” (NET Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Herziene Statenvertaling, Bijbel: Vertaling in opdracht van het Nederlandsch Bijbelgenootschap, Buber), as in 16.32. However, many translations take it to refer to domestic animals in this context of pasture lands and other animals. Beasts renders another general Hebrew term (chayah) for all kinds of animals. New International Version provides a good model for these three Hebrew words by rendering this clause as “and pasturelands for their cattle, flocks and all their other livestock.”

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 .