wild ass

In the context of being in the wilderness, the Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “wild ass” in English is translated in Chitonga as cibize or “zebra,” because “from the Tonga perspective, no ‘donkey of the bush’ [the literal correspondent of ‘wild ass’] could be expected to live very long, due to predators like lions, etc.” (Source: Wendland 1987, p. 130)

 

Two species of wild ass were known by the Israelites, the Nubian Wild Ass Equus asinus africanus, which lived on the African side of the Red Sea, and the Persian Wild Ass or Onager Equus hemionus, which was common in the land of Israel, Syria, and Mesopotamia. It seems likely that the Hebrew ‘arod and the Aramaic ‘arad refer to the Nubian wild ass, and the Hebrew pere’ to the onager.

Both species of wild ass were hunted for their meat.

The Nubian wild ass is probably the ancestor of virtually all domestic donkeys. It is a smallish, light brown donkey with a characteristic dark stripe down its spine and across its shoulders. It originally had stripes on the lower part of its forelegs. It has long ears and a tufted tail. It is still found in Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia.

The onager, or Persian wild ass, is a larger animal, classified scientifically as a species of horse. It looks something like a mule. The scientific name hemionus means “half-ass”. It has smaller ears than a typical donkey. It is a fawn color but has a whitish chest and belly. It was evidently never fully domesticated, although one ancient Sumerian illustration shows onagers harnessed to a chariot. Onagers are still found in very small numbers in parts of Syria and Iraq and have been reintroduced into Israel.

The onager was a symbol of untameable wildness, and thus the metaphor “wild ass” was used to describe anyone with wild uncontrolled behavior.

In Africa the closest equivalent to the wild ass is the zebra, which is about the same size and belongs to the same animal family. Like the onager, the zebra has never been widely domesticated. Where the phrase “wild donkeys” would refer to domestic donkeys that have returned to living in a wild state (“feral donkeys”), a phrase meaning “wild horse” is a better choice, since feral donkeys are easily captured and domesticated, whereas feral horses are harder to domesticate. Languages that use the same word for horse and zebra may still have a problem.

The same word or expression can be used for both Hebrew words and for the Aramaic ‘arad, since no distinction between the wild ass species is intended in the biblical text, except in Job 39:5. In this verse, the Hebrew pere’ and ‘arod are both used:

The parallelism can be preserved either by using a pronoun in the second line (Who untied its ropes?) or by using “zebra” or “wild horse” for pere’ and “wild ass” for ‘arod.

Nubian Wild Ass, Wikimedia Commons

Persian Wild Ass / Onager, Wikimedia Commons

Source: All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

See also wild ass of a man / wild donkey and donkey.

complete verse (Psalm 104:11)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 104:11:

  • Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
    “They give water to all the beasts of the bush;
    the donkeys of the bush kill their thirst.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
  • Newari:
    “The wild donkey and all the animals
    will satisfy their thirst with this water.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon:
    “Therefore all the wild-country animals, including the wild-country donkeys, can-drink.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Laarim:
    “They give the waters to the wild animals there,
    the donkeys of the bush drink water from there.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
  • Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
    “Wanyama wote wanakunywa maji hayo,
    punda wa porini wanapoza kiu yao.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
  • English:
    “Those streams provide water for all the ani-mals to drink;
    the wild donkeys drink the water and are no longer thirsty.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

drink

In Telugu different verbs for humans drinking (tāgu / తాగు) and animals drinking (cēḍu / చేడు) are required.

Honorary "are" construct denoting God ("make them drink")

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

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, nomas-are-ru (飲まされる) or “make them drink” is used.

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

Translation commentary on Psalm 104:10 - 104:12

Good News Translation (also Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Bible en français courant, New English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, Bible de Jérusalem) ends this strophe with verse 12; Revised Standard Version, McCullough, and Toombs end it with verse 13.

Yahweh provides water for the animals. In verse 10a the word translated the valleys is understood by New Jerusalem Bible to mean “in torrents” (Weiser “in streams”). New English Bible has “gullies” and New Jerusalem Bible “ravines.” It may mean either the course taken by the water as it rushes down, or else the water itself (Dahood has “springs and torrents”). Good News Translation in verse 10 supplies “rivers” as the subject, for a more natural sequence; this may not be necessary in some languages. Or else, “their water” (referring back to “springs” of the preceding verse) may be more satisfactory.

In verse 11a every beast of the field means all the wild animals. In languages in which the donkey is not known, the translator has the following choices: (a) borrow the term from a major language; (b) use a generic term with some kind of qualifier; (c) substitute a local animal. If the animal is unfamiliar, it is usually recommended that an illustration be provided somewhere in the publication, particularly near the first occurrence of the word. The importance of providing such an illustration is due to the repeated references to this animal.

The pastoral picture of peace and plenty includes the birds (literally “the birds of the heavens”) building their nests and singing in the nearby trees. Notice that Revised Standard Version By them in verse 12a could be taken to mean “By the wild asses”; it should be clear to the reader that it means “By the streams.” It is important in the process of editing a translation to read the text aloud. Readers sometimes fail to observe punctuation, and they run lines together, so that Good News Translation‘s “… donkeys quench their thirst” may be read together with the following line, “In the trees near by.” If this is a common problem, this kind of misreading can be avoided in the present case by switching verse 12a and 12b.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .