complete verse (Numbers 9:21)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Numbers 9:21:

  • Kupsabiny: “There was even a time when the cloud might stay one night, and when it dawned, it would get up. Or it might stay one day and night,” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Sometimes the cloud would only stay [lit.: be] from the time of sundown until morning. In the morning as soon as the cloud moved away, they would move on. No matter when it would go, in the morning [or] in the evening, as soon as the cloud moved away, they would move on.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Sometimes also it stayed just for a night and in the morning it goes-up/lifted/ascend, and then the Israelinhon also moved/walked/travelled. Even night or day, as-long-as the cloud goes-up/lifted/ascend the Israelinhon also moved/walked.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Sometimes the cloud stayed in one place for only one day. When that happened, when the cloud rose up into the sky the next morning, then we/they traveled. Whenever the cloud moved, during the day or during the night, we/they traveled.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Numbers 9:21

And sometimes the cloud remained from evening until morning is literally “And there was when the cloud was from evening until morning,” which means the cloud stayed in some places “only from evening until morning” (Good News Translation), that is, for the shortest possible time.

And when the cloud was taken up in the morning, they set out: See verse 17, especially for the passive construction here.

Or if it continued for a day and a night, when the cloud was taken up they set out is literally “or at day and at night, and the cloud was taken up, and they set out.” A much clearer model is “Day or night, whenever the cloud was lifted, they would break camp and move on” (similarly New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh).

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 .