discharge

The Hebrew that is translated as “discharge” or similar in English is translated in Kalanga with tjigwele, a term that refers to sexually transmitted diseases. (Source: project-specific notes in Paratext)

In Kwere, the term ufila is used which implies pus (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext) and in Newari it is translated as “disease of the semen.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)

leprosy, leprous

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The Greek and Hebrew terms that are often translated as “leprosy (or: defiling/skin disease)” or “leprous (person)” in English is translated in Mairasi as “the bad sickness,” since “leprosy is very common in the Mairasi area” (source: Enggavoter 2004).

Following are various other translations:

  • Shilluk: “disease of animals”
  • San Mateo Del Mar Huave: “devil sore” (this and the above are indigenous expressions)
  • Inupiaq: “decaying sores”
  • Kaqchikel: “skin-rotting disease” (source for this and three above: Eugene Nida in The Bible Translator 1960, p. 34f. )
  • Noongar: “bad skin disease” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Usila Chinantec “sickness like mal de pinta” (a skin disease involving discoloration by loss of pigment) (source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
  • Hiligaynon: “dangerous skin disease” (source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “fearful skin disease” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “terrible rotting” (source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • Newari: “infectious skin disease” (source: Newari Back Translation)

Targumim (or: Targums) are translations of the Hebrew Bible into Aramaic. They were translated and used when Jewish congregations increasingly could not understand the biblical Hebrew anymore. Targum Onqelos (also: Onkelos) is the name of the Aramaic translation of the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) probably composed in Israel/Palestine in the 1st or 2nd century CE and later edited in Babylon in the 4th or 5th century, making it reflect Jewish Babylonian Aramaic. It is the most famous Aramaic translation and was widely used throughout the Jewish communities. In Leviticus 13 and 14 it translates tzaraat as a “quarantining affliction” — focusing “on what occurs to individuals after they suffer the affliction; the person is isolated from the community.” (Source: Israel Drazin in this article ). Similarly, the English Jewish Orthodox ArtScroll Tanach translation (publ. 2011) transliterates it as tzaraat affliction.

See also stricken and leprosy healed.

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Leprosy (Word Study) and Bible Translations Are for People .

complete verse (Numbers 5:2)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Numbers 5:2:

  • Kupsabiny: “‘Tell the people of Israel to chase from inside the camp any person of a serious skin disease or a person who has pus flowing from his body and any person who has touched a corpse.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Give the command to the Israelites that all who have a contagious skin disease or a discharge or have become unclean by touching a corpse are to be expelled from the camp. ” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘Command the Israelinhon that they are-to-cause-to-come-out of the camp anyone that has a dangerous disease on the skin, or there-is something-that-comes-out from his organ/(private-part) because of a disease, or he became dirty/unclean because he have-touched a dead-one.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “‘Tell this to the Israeli people: ‘You must send away from your camp/area where you have your tents any man or woman who has leprosy and anyone who has a discharge of some fluid from his body, and anyone who has become unacceptable to God because of having touched a corpse.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Numbers 5:2

Command the people of Israel that they put out of the camp every leper …: God wants the Israelites to expel three types of ritually unclean people from their camp. He first mentions those who have infectious skin diseases. The rendering leper is unfair to persons suffering from Hansen’s disease, commonly called leprosy today. As is clear in Lev 13–14, the Hebrew word for leper does not refer to leprosy specifically, but more generally to a group of manifest skin conditions that involve an infectious rash or an oozing discharge. A more general rendering such as “dreaded skin disease” (Good News Translation) or “leprosy and other skin diseases” is better. Although the rendering “infectious skin disease” (New International Version) may seem accurate, it is problematic: “infectious” may take the reader’s attention away from the ritual impurity involved.

Second, God mentions every one having a discharge. The Hebrew word rendered having a discharge does not refer to semen but to an abnormal fluid that comes out of the male sexual organ as a result of some kind of sickness (probably a sexually transmitted disease, for example, gonorrhea). It also refers to menstruation. Renderings such as “bodily discharge” (Good News Translation), “genital discharge” (La Nouvelle Bible Segond) and “bodily emission” are general enough to cover all this. If the translation is more explicit, it should be acceptable terminology to be used when speaking publicly to men and women together. A way to indicate that these discharges are irregular is to translate “suffering from a discharge” or “suffering from genital flux” (Alter).

Third, God mentions every one that is unclean through contact with the dead. The Hebrew word for unclean refers to a state of ritual impurity, not to physical uncleanness. The dead (“a corpse” in Good News Translation) does not necessarily refer to dead people only, but to a corpse of any kind. The Hebrew word for the dead is nefesh, which can refer to animals as well (see, for example, Gen 1.20-24).

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 .