quail

The Hebrew, Greek and Latin that is translated as “quail” in English is translated in Elhomwe as ayuurwe. Ayuurwe are “small (like doves), wild birds which people catch to eat. These type of birds rot very quickly” (source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext). In Bariai they are translated as “bush hen” (source: Bariai Back Translation).

 

There is total agreement among versions and commentators that this is the Common Quail Coturnix coturnix. This bird existed in Egypt in enormous flocks numbering many millions for centuries, right up to the early part of the twentieth century. It was netted in enormous quantities, dried in the sun, and exported. The Egyptian bird has a rather limited migration route, going across the eastern side of Egypt to the Sinai, then southward into the Sudan. Other quails that migrate from southern Europe to Africa also cross the Sinai. It was during these migrations, when the birds fly only a few feet from the ground, that they were netted.

The common quail is a small brown bird streaked with white, the smallest of the game birds. It looks like a miniature partridge, with a small white patch beneath its beak, a white stripe above its eye, and another around its neck. The males have a black chest stripe above a chestnut-colored breast patch.

The quail is associated with God’s merciful provision during the Exodus from Egypt.

The common quail is found all over Africa, in southern and southeastern Europe, and in the Middle East. It is then found in a discontinuous band across mainland Asia to Japan. Other very similar species, the Harlequin Quail Coturnix delegorguei and the Chinese Quail Coturnix chinensis, are equally common in Africa and Asia respectively. The latter is also found in Australia, where it is called the king quail. In North America the California quail is well known. In other areas where the true quail is not known, a phrase such as small partridge can be used. The reference in Numbers 11:31, literally “two cubits high above the face of the earth”, should be interpreted as “they were flying about a meter 3 feet above the ground.” In the following verse, the text should be interpreted as “they spread them out on the ground,” that is, to dry in the sun.

Quail, Wikimedia Commons

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

See also quails, manna, and dew (image).

sea / lake

The various Greek, Aramaic, Ge’ez, and Latin and Hebrew terms that are translated as “sea,” “ocean,” or “lake” in English are all translated in Chichewa with one term: nyanja. Malawi, where Chichewa is spoken, has a lot of lakes but does not share a border with the ocean. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Wisdom 19:11 - 19:12

Afterward they saw also a new kind of birds: Good News Translation joins verses 11 and 12, moving this line to the end. However, it misunderstands this line. The point is not that the Israelites had never seen quail before, but rather that this was something new, a new kind of creation. As the Revised Standard Version footnote points out, kind could be translated “production” or even “creation.” For a new kind of birds, Winston has “a new mode of bird production,” a phrase that sounds comical, but it is the right interpretation. The idea is that just as the earth was producing gnats and the river was producing frogs, the sea was producing birds. The writer is taking Num 11.31 literally.

When desire led them to ask for luxurious food: Compare Num 11.4-6. The two lines of verse 11 can be reversed as follows: “Later, when they demanded better food than they had been eating, they saw birds being created [or, produced] in a new way…” or “… they saw you produce [or, create] birds in a new way.”

For, to give them relief, quails came up from the sea: Good News Translation is misleading with “to satisfy their hunger.” The Israelites in the desert were not hungry; they were just tired of eating manna all the time, and wanted something better. New Jerusalem Bible translates “to satisfy them,” which is good. We could join this verse with the preceding one, and say “… when, to satisfy their desires, quail came up out of the sea.”

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.