14and they shall put on it all the utensils of the altar, which are used for the service there, the firepans, the forks, the shovels, and the basins, all the utensils of the altar, and they shall spread on it a covering of fine leather and put its poles in place.
The Hebrew that is translated as “fine leather” or “badger/porpoise skin” in English is translated in Kutu as ng’hwembe ya mhala or “skins of bushbuck” (for bushbuck, see here ). (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
In Yao, it is translated as “soft leather of a big sea animal” (source: UBS, project-specific translation notes in Paratext), in Newari as “dolphin skin” (source: Newari Back Translation), in Kupsabiny as “hides of a hippo” (source: Kupsabiny Back Translation), and in Opo as “soft skins” (source: Opo Back Translation).
The English Jewish Orthodox ArtScroll Tanach translation (publ. 2011) transliterates it as tachash-hide. (Source: Zetzsche)
This animal is only mentioned in Scripture with regard to the leather made from its skin. It is clear that its hide made very good leather. The King James Version’s “badger” and Revised Standard Version’s “goat” are almost certainly mistranslations. New English Bible’s “porpoise” has more support since an Arabic word very similar to the Hebrew refers to the porpoise or dolphin. However catching sufficient porpoises to make a covering for the tabernacle would have been problematic for the Israelites since these animals live entirely in the sea while the Israelites were not a seagoing nation.
However, some local Bedouin tribes that live near the sea have for centuries made sandals and other articles from the skins of an animal called dugong and many modern scholars interpret tachash as referring to this animal. New International Version and New English Bible (margin) have “sea cow”. The dugong, which swims slowly and feeds on underwater weeds near the shore, is fairly easy to catch in nets.
The Dugong (Dugong dugong) is a large animal about 3 meters (10 feet) long, which lives in the sea, usually in small herds of twelve to fifteen animals. They swim slowly and feed in fairly shallow water on underwater weeds near mouths of rivers. They sometimes even move a short distance up the river. They need to come to the surface every few minutes to breathe, and they sometimes come out of the water to lie on rocks or sandbanks.
Although they have flippers rather than legs and a tail that looks like that of a large fish dugongs are mammals. They have soft fur. They do not lay eggs but give birth to babies and feed them on milk from their breasts. They are found in fairly large numbers even today in the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea and are also found along the tropical coasts of East Africa, South Asia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Australia and the Solomon Islands. They have also been reported in Taiwan.
Dugongs are distantly related to seals. They are pale gray in color and the male has small tusks in its upper jaw. They are harmless and unsuspicious animals and are easy to catch. Dugong skins are fairly thick soft and long-wearing and make high quality leather. The fur is usually left on the leather.
Three very similar animals are the Senegal Manatee Trichechus senegalensis, which is found in West Africa, the Caribbean Manatee Trichechus manatus, which is found on the coasts and in the lagoons of the Caribbean islands and Florida, and the South American Manatee Trichechus inunguis, which is found in the Amazon and Orinoco rivers.
Where dugongs and manatees are known, the best choice will be the word for one of the three mentioned in the previous paragraph. In areas where they are not known, the word for the seal can be used. Where seals are also not known, a more general expression such as “good soft leather” or “furs” is better than trying to name the animal. It is the skin rather than the animal that is in focus in all cases.
Bura-Pabir: “sacrifice mound” (source: Andy Warrren-Rothlin)
Kalanga: “fireplace of sacrifice” (source: project-specific notes in Paratext)
Cherokee: “fire nurturing place” (source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 26) (note that the Jewish priest is “fire feeder” in Cherokee)
The Ignaciano translators decided to translate the difficult term in that language according to the focus of each New Testament passage in which the word appears (click or tap here to see the rest of this insight
Willis Ott (in Notes on Translation 88/1982, p. 18ff.) explains:
Matt. 5:23,24: “When you take your offering to God, and arriving, you remember…, do not offer your gift yet. First go to your brother…Then it is fitting to return and offer your offering to God.” (The focus is on improving relationships with people before attempting to improve a relationship with God, so the means of offering, the altar, is not focal.)
Matt. 23:18 (19,20): “You also teach erroneously: ‘If someone makes a promise, swearing by the offering-place/table, he is not guilty if he should break the promise. But if he swears by the gift that he put on the offering-place/table, he will be guilty if he breaks the promise.'”
Luke 1:11: “…to the right side of the table where they burn incense.”
Luke 11.51. “…the one they killed in front of the temple (or the temple enclosure).” (The focus is on location, with overtones on: “their crime was all the more heinous for killing him there”.)
Rom. 11:3: “Lord, they have killed all my fellow prophets that spoke for you. They do not want anyone to give offerings to you in worship.” (The focus is on the people’s rejection of religion, with God as the object of worship.)
1Cor. 9:13 (10:18): “Remember that those that attend the temple have rights to eat the foods that people bring as offerings to God. They have rights to the meat that the people offer.” (The focus is on the right of priests to the offered food.)
Heb. 7:13: “This one of whom we are talking is from another clan. No one from that clan was ever a priest.” (The focus in on the legitimacy of this priest’s vocation.)
Jas. 2:21: “Remember our ancestor Abraham, when God tested him by asking him to give him his son by death. Abraham was to the point of stabbing/killing his son, thus proving his obedience.” (The focus is on the sacrifice as a demonstration of faith/obedience.)
Rev. 6:9 (8:3,5; 9:13; 14:18; 16:7): “I saw the souls of them that…They were under the table that holds God’s fire/coals.” (This keeps the concepts of: furniture, receptacle for keeping fire, and location near God.)
Rev. 11:1: “Go to the temple, Measure the building and the inside enclosure (the outside is contrasted in v. 2). Measure the burning place for offered animals. Then count the people who are worshiping there.” (This altar is probably the brazen altar in a temple on earth, since people are worshiping there and since outside this area conquerors are allowed to subjugate for a certain time.)
In the Hebraic English translation of Everett Fox it is translated as slaughter-site and likewise in the German translation by Buber / Rosenzweig as Schlachtstatt.
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Numbers 4:14:
Kupsabiny: “On top of that they shall place the things that are used there at the altar, the pans for embers, forks, big spoons and basins and cover (them) with hippo skin. Then they are to put into the rings of that altar poles for carrying it.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “Then, having put all the implements used in doing the service of the altar on top of it — the fire pot, the long meat forks, the shovel for scooping out ashes, the bowl for sprinkling blood — it all must be covered with dolphin skin leather and then the carrying poles must be put in place.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “And then they are to be placed on the altar all the things/(used-for-serving) of-this: things-to-put the live-coal, the big forks for meat, the shovels, and the bowls. They will-cover this with good kind of leather and then they will-insert the poles which are-used-for-carrying this.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “Then they must spread on top of the cloth all the items used at the altar—the pans for carrying the hot coals, the meat forks, the shovels, the bowls for containing the blood to sprinkle on the people, and all the other containers. Then they must spread over all those things a nice covering made from the skins of goats. Then they must insert into the rings at the sides of the altar the poles for carrying it.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
And they shall put on it all the utensils of the altar, which are used for the service there: A natural target language style for instructions should determine whether the conjunction and is needed or not (so Good News Translation). In any case, it may be necessary to specify that the pronoun it refers to the “purple cloth,” mentioned in the previous verse. All the utensils of the altar is repeated in this verse. Some languages may prefer to render this phrase only once (so Good News Translation). Which are used for the service there is literally “with which they [Aaron and his sons] serve at it [the altar].”
The utensils used at the altar were the firepans, the forks, the shovels, and the basins. Firepans renders the same Hebrew word as “trays” in verse 9 (see the comments there). Here this word refers to an instrument for turning the hot coals of the altar and carrying them. The Hebrew word for forks (“hooks” in Good News Translation) may be translated more specifically as “flesh hooks” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) or “meat forks” (Contemporary English Version). These forks were used to turn sacrificial victims on the altar or to remove them. The Hebrew word for shovels refers to instruments that were used to remove the refuse from the altar after a victim had been burned. The Hebrew word for basins refers to bowls that were used to hold the blood of the animals that had been killed for sacrifices. Since the blood in these bowls was sprinkled on the altar, Contemporary English Version calls them “sprinkling bowls.” A Handbook on Numbers discusses these terms at Exo 27.3, where they occur as well, though in a different order.
And they shall spread upon it a covering of goatskin: See verse 6.
And shall put in its poles: Like the sacred chest, the table for the sacred bread and the incense altar, the altar of sacrifice had rings on its sides through which poles were placed to carry it (see Exo 27.4-7; 38.5-7). Good News Translation renders poles as “carrying poles” to express more clearly that they were used to carry the altar.
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 .
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.