army

The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Latin that is translated as “army” in English is translated in Chichewa as “group of warriors.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

complete verse (Psalm 68:12)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 68:12:

  • Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
    “‘Kings and warriors fled with speed;
    in the camps people shared the spoils of war” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
  • Newari:
    “‘The king and the soldiers escaped.
    the women who stayed home
    distributed what was left behind.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon:
    “‘The kings and their soldiers fled,
    and their properties were-divided by the women of Israel.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Laarim:
    “‘The kings and their soldiers ran away!
    Women at home shared properties that are caught from the war,” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
  • Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
    “‘Wafalme na askari wao wanakimbia ovyo!
    Wanawake wanagawana ambavyo vimetekwa katika vita.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
  • English:
    “They proclaimed, ‘Many kings and their armies are running away from our army!’
    When our army brought back to their homes the things that they captured,
    the women who were at home divided up those things among themselves and among their families.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

king

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Some languages do not have a concept of kingship and therefore no immediate equivalent for the Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin that is translated as “king” in English. Here are some (back-) translations:

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  • Piro: “a great one”
  • Highland Totonac: “the big boss”
  • Huichol: “the one who commanded” (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Ekari: “the one who holds the country” (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • Una: weik sienyi: “big headman” (source: Kroneman 2004, p. 407)
  • Pass Valley Yali: “Big Man” (source: Daud Soesilo)
  • Ninia Yali: “big brother with the uplifted name” (source: Daud Soesilio in Noss 2007, p. 175)
  • Nyamwezi: mutemi: generic word for ruler, by specifying the city or nation it becomes clear what kind of ruler (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
  • Ghomála’: Fo (“The word Fo refers to the paramount ruler in the kingdoms of West Cameroon. He holds administrative, political, and religious power over his own people, who are divided into two categories: princes (descendants of royalty) and servants (everyone else).” (Source: Michel Kenmogne in Theologizing in Context: An Example from the Study of a Ghomala’ Christian Hymn))

Faye Edgerton retells how the term in Navajo (Dinė) was determined:

“[This term was] easily expressed in the language of Biblical culture, which had kings and noblemen with their brilliant trappings and their position of honor and praise. But leadership among the Navajos is not accompanied by any such titles or distinctions of dress. Those most respected, especially in earlier days, were their headmen, who were the leaders in raids, and the shaman, who was able to serve the people by appealing for them to the gods, or by exorcising evil spirits. Neither of these made any outward show. Neither held his position by political intrigue or heredity. If the headman failed consistently in raids, he was superceded by a better warrior. If the shaman failed many times in his healing ceremonies, it was considered that he was making mistakes in the chants, or had lost favor with the gods, and another was sought. The term Navajos use for headman is derived from a verb meaning ‘to move the head from side to side as in making an oration.’ The headman must be a good orator, able to move the people to go to war, or to follow him in any important decision. This word is naat’áanii which now means ‘one who rules or bosses.’ It is employed now for a foreman or boss of any kind of labor, as well as for the chairman of the tribal council. So in order to show that the king is not just a common boss but the highest ruler, the word ‘aláahgo, which expresses the superlative degree, was put before naat’áanii, and so ‘aláahgo naat’áanii ‘anyone-more-than-being around-he-moves-his-head-the-one-who’ means ‘the highest ruler.’ Naat’áanii was used for governor as the context usually shows that the person was a ruler of a country or associated with kings.”

(Source: Faye Edgerton in The Bible Translator 1962, p. 25ff. )

See also king (Japanese honorifics).

Translation commentary on Psalm 68:11 - 68:13

There is no way of finding out what particular event or events verses 11-13 refer to.

In verse 11, at the Lord’s command (or else, as Biblia Dios Habla Hoy has it, “sent a message”), “many women carried the news” (see also Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy). This translates the Masoretic text, which is a feminine plural participle of the verb “to carry news” (basar); see the feminine singular in Isaiah 40.9, applied to Zion. In other places women are cited as those who carried the news of victory or defeat; see Exodus 15.20-21; 1 Samuel 18.6-7.

Good News Translation, Revised Standard Version, New English Bible, and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy take verse 12a as the message carried by the women; New Jerusalem Bible, New International Version, and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch take verses 12-13 to be the message, and New American Bible and Bible en français courant take verses 12-14 as the message. There is no way of determining which is correct. In some languages it will be necessary to use a term pointing to the next line as containing the content of the news mentioned in line b. Punctuation such as a colon will not suffice in some languages for this purpose.

In verse 12a the Hebrew text is literally The kings of the armies, they flee, they flee! But it should be observed that it is not only the kings who flee, but their armies also, as Good News Translation and others make clear.

The women at home translates an obscure phrase which appears to mean “she who remains at home” (see the lexicon of Brown, Driver, and Briggs).

In Hebrew the enigmatic “If you (masculine plural) lie down between the sheep pens” appears as the first line of verse 13. New Jerusalem Bible translates “even for those of you who lie among the sheepfolds.” Some take the words to have been inserted here from Judges 5.16. It seems to be here a denunciation of those Israelites who did not go to battle but stayed behind in the safety of their homes or their camps. Traduction œcuménique de la Bible has “Would you remain at ease at the bivouac?”; Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “but you stayed back in hiding”; New Jerusalem Bible “While you are at ease in the sheepfolds”; and New English Bible “will you linger among the sheepfolds…?” Sheepfolds in some languages may be rendered as “the place where the sheep are kept.”

Good News Translation has put this within parentheses, as a prose line, and placed it after the other two lines of verse 13, in order to show its discontinuity from the immediately preceding and following lines. Bible en français courant similarly, translating “Will you remain resting in the camp?”

There are many interpretations of what is meant in verse 13b-c, by the wings of a dove covered with silver, its pinions with green gold. The most commonly accepted interpretation is that followed by Good News Translation as a description of the spoil that the women were dividing among themselves. Some take the dove to be a figure for Israel (see 74.19); so New Jerusalem Bible “the wings of the Dove are being covered with silver…,” with a footnote explaining that the Dove is a symbol for Israel (similarly Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). In verse 13c green gold probably means “yellow gold,” that is, “fine gold” (so Good News Translation, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy). The New Jerusalem Bible translation of verses 12-13 (as the message carried by the women) is worth quoting: “The kings and their armies are in headlong flight; housewives are sharing in the spoils; even for those of you who lie among the sheepfolds there are wings of a dove sheathed in silver, its pinions in fine gold.”

In some languages it will be necessary to replace the Good News Translation colon at the end of verse 12b with a connective showing that the content of the things captured follows in the next line; for example, “… divided what was captured and these were figures of doves….”

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 .