complete verse (Revelation 18:11)

Following are a number of back-translations of Revelation 18:11:

  • Uma: “As for the merchants of the world, they were sad/distressed and they wept over the destruction of Babel, because there was no longer anyone to buy their merchandise.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “The people trading in the world wail also and mourn because nobody will buy their goods anymore.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And the seekers of wealth on the earth, they will weep and wail also because of that city, for there is no longer anyone to buy their goods.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Likewise also the businessmen on the earth will weep-for and mourn-for her, because there are no longer any who buy what they are-selling.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Well because of what happened to that city, all the merchants here in the world will also cry and grieve because there’s no longer anyone who will buy the merchandise they are selling.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “All the merchants all over the world will mourn and cry over what the city will pass through. For now there will be no one to buy the loads they sell.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Revelation 18:11 – 18:13

These three verses are one sentence in Greek, as both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation show. It is not a complicated sentence, since the goods and wares and products named in verses 12-13 are simply a list of what the businessmen have for sale.

The merchants of the earth: as in Rev. 6.118.3.

Cargo: the Greek word is properly a ship’s cargo (see its use in Acts 21.3); here it refers to all the products, or wares, or goods that the businessmen sell. This first sentence may be also expressed as “The people on earth who buy and sell things will weep very much for Babylon, because no one buys their goods anymore.”

The list that follows resembles that of Ezek 27.5-14. It may be broken up into smaller groups, as Good News Translation has done, by use of descriptive phrases and of semicolons, instead of commas only, as Revised Standard Version does. Six groups may be found:

(1) gold, silver, jewels and pearls: the gold and silver may be bullion, but are probably objects or ornaments made of gold and silver (see 17.4, which also lists jewels and pearls).

(2) fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet: these are cloths and clothes and may be grouped as follows: “clothes (or, cloths) made of fine linen…” (for linen see 15.5-6); purple … and scarlet are cloths dyed these two colors. Cloths with these two colors were particularly valuable (see 17.4). An alternative translation model for this group is “clothes made from beautiful white cloth named ‘linen,’ expensive purple cloth, soft expensive cloth named ‘silk,’ and scarlet colored cloth.”

(3) scented wood: this is aromatic wood, “wood with a pleasant smell” (or else, like Good News Translation, “rare woods”). This wood (from the citron tree) was used to make expensive furniture.

All articles of ivory … costly wood, bronze, iron and marble: these various artifacts may all be listed together. Ivory comes from the long, enlarged teeth (tusks) of elephants, which protrude out from each side of their mouths. These are used by elephants for digging, fighting, and so on. The tusks are valuable for making beautiful objects such as furniture. For bronze see 9.20. Marble is a form of limestone that can be highly polished and is often used by artists for carving sculptures. In cultures where marble is unknown, one may say “beautiful rock.”

(4) Perfumes, ointments, and incenses: Cinnamon: a plant that produced a sweet-smelling oil, used also for burning. Spice was used as a perfume or ointment. Incense: see 5.8. Myrrh: an expensive ointment (see Matt 26.7, 9); this may also be termed “a sweet smelling thing (or, ointment) named ‘myrrh.’ ” Frankincense: also used for burning (see Matt 2.11). Where frankincense is unknown it may be called “a sweet smelling expensive powder named ‘frankincense.’ ” In certain languages translators will prefer to combine all of these and say, for example, “all kinds of expensive perfumes and oils” or “all kinds of expensive sweet-smelling oils and powders.”

(5) Food and drink: wine, oil (that is, olive oil, as New Revised Standard Version has it), fine flour and wheat. Fine flour refers in this context to finely ground wheat flour, and wheat means the wheat kernels that have not yet been ground into flour. In cultures where wheat is unknown but other grains are cultivated, translators may use a generic term and say “finely ground flour and grain kernels.”

(6) Animals and slaves: cattle and sheep, horses and chariots: these are not war chariots but four-wheeled carriages used for riding. Chariots may also be translated as “horse-pulled carts.” The last item in this list of wares is slaves, that is, human souls. This is a possible translation of the Greek text (New American Bible, Revised “and slaves, that is, human beings”; Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “and even slaves, who are human lives”). Most translations, however, like Good News Translation, have “human lives” as an additional item (An American Translation, Revised English Bible, New Revised Standard Version, Bible en français courant). The trouble with this, however, is that it implies that slaves are not human beings. New International Version translates “and bodies and souls of men”; New Jerusalem Bible “their slaves, and their human cargo.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch takes the two to mean the one thing: “and even the lives of men.” The first word in Greek is “bodies,” which is commonly assumed to mean slaves; the second expression is “souls (or, lives) of people.” This phrase is found in the Greek Septuagint version of Num 31.35, meaning (female) prisoners of war, and in 1 Chr 5.21 of male prisoners of war. In Ezek 27.13 it means slaves. This usage makes it quite likely that the two here mean, as Traduction œcuménique de la Bible translates it, “slaves and captives,” that is, slaves and prisoners of war. This is the translation recommended. One may also translate these terms as “people owned by others and people captured in war.”

The following information given by Beasley-Murray (page 267) should be of interest and value to the translator:

• Rome’s trade was worldwide, and even this modest enumeration of its imports entails many lands. The gold, ivory, and costly wood, for example, came from North Africa, the jewels andpearls from India, spices from Arabia, cinnamon from South China, myrrh from Media, wheat from Egypt, horses from Armenia, chariots from Gaul, and slaves from all areas of the world. John’s double mention of the last item is revealing, since the term for slaves is “bodies,” and the phrase human souls in ordinary speech was synonymous, but it virtually carried the meaning of human livestock.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Revelation to John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .