shepherd

The Greek, Latin, Ge’ez, and Hebrew that is translated as “shepherd” in English is translated in Kouya as Bhlabhlɛɛ ‘yliyɔzʋnyɔ — ” tender of sheep.”

Philip Saunders (p. 231) explains:

“Then one day they tackled the thorny problem of ‘shepherd’. It was problematic because Kouyas don’t have herdsmen who stay with the sheep all the time. Sheep wander freely round the village and its outskirts, and often a young lad will be detailed to drive sheep to another feeding spot. So the usual Kouya expression meant a ‘driver of sheep’, which would miss the idea of a ‘nurturing’ shepherd. ‘A sheep nurturer’ was possible to say, but it was unnatural in most contexts. The group came up with Bhlabhlɛɛ ‘yliyɔzʋnyɔ which meant ‘a tender of sheep’, that is one who keeps an eye on the sheep to make sure they are all right. All, including the translators, agreed that this was a most satisfactory solution.”

Other translations include:

  • Chuj: “carer” (there was no single word for “shepherd”) (source: Ronald Ross)
  • Muna: “sheep guard” (dhagano dhumba) (there was no immediate lexical equivalent) (source: René van den Berg),
  • Mairasi: “people who took care of domesticated animals” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Noongar: “sheep worker” (kookendjeriyang-yakina) (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Kwakum: “those-who-monitor-the-livestock” (source: Stacey Hare in this post )

See also I am the good shepherd, complete verse (Psalm 23:1), and sheep / lamb.

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Shepherds in the Bible .

Translation commentary on Wisdom 17:17

For whether he was a farmer or a shepherd or a workman who toiled in the wilderness: The Good News Translation device of naming the occupations in a series (“Farmers, shepherds, and laborers”) is an effective beginning. The connector For is not necessary. The Greek does not exactly say “countryside” (Good News Translation), but “desert.” That is a strange place for anyone to be toiling, but the force of the noun could be that the person is working alone. For these lines we would prefer to say “Farmers, shepherds [or, people who looked after sheep], and people doing hard work in isolated areas.”

He was seized, and endured the same inescapable fate may be rendered “none could escape.”

For with one chain of darkness they all were bound: Good News Translation interprets chain of darkness as “invisible chain.” We are not so sure, and would prefer to say “The darkness bound them all, as if they were in chains [or, in prison].”

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Wisdom of Solomon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2004. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.