village

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “village” or “town” in English is translated in Noongar as karlamaya or “fire (used for “home“) + houses” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).

In Elhomwe it is typically translated as “place.” “Here in Malawi, villages very small, so changed to ‘places,’ since not sure whether biblical reference just to small villages or also to bigger towns. (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

cattle, livestock

The Hebrew that is translated in English as “livestock” (or “cattle”) is translated in Newari as “living beings brought up in a house” or “living beings cared for in a house” (source: Newari Back Translation). Specifically “cattle” is “cows and oxen.”

In Kwere it is “animals that are being kept.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

Jerusalem

The name that is transliterated as “Jerusalem” in English is signed in French Sign Language with a sign that depicts worshiping at the Western Wall in Jerusalem:


“Jerusalem” in French Sign Language (source: La Bible en langue des signes française )

While a similar sign is also used in British Sign Language, another, more neutral sign that combines the sign “J” and the signs for “place” is used as well. (Source: Anna Smith)


“Jerusalem” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Jerusalem .

gentiles / nations

Click here to view graphically

The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin that is often translated as “gentiles” (or “nations”) in English is often translated as a “local equivalent of ‘foreigners,'” such as “the people of other lands” (Guerrero Amuzgo), “people of other towns” (Tzeltal), “people of other languages” (San Miguel El Grande Mixtec), “strange peoples” (Navajo (Dinė)) (this and above, see Bratcher / Nida), “outsiders” (Ekari), “people of foreign lands” (Kannada), “non-Jews” (North Alaskan Inupiatun), “people being-in-darkness” (a figurative expression for people lacking cultural or religious insight) (Toraja-Sa’dan) (source for this and three above Reiling / Swellengrebel), “from different places all people” (Martu Wangka) (source: Carl Gross).

Tzeltal translates it as “people in all different towns,” Chicahuaxtla Triqui as “the people who live all over the world,” Highland Totonac as “all the outsider people,” Sayula Popoluca as “(people) in every land” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Chichimeca-Jonaz as “foreign people who are not Jews,” Sierra de Juárez Zapotec as “people of other nations” (source of this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), Highland Totonac as “outsider people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Uma as “people who are not the descendants of Israel” (source: Uma Back Translation), “other ethnic groups” (source: Newari Back Translation), and Yakan as “the other tribes” (source: Yakan Back Translation).

In Chichewa, it is translated with mitundu or “races.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

See also nations.

complete verse (Zechariah 2:4)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Zechariah 2:4:

  • Kupsabiny: “Then the angel who was coming spoke to the other one who was speaking to me, ‘Run and tell that young man that the people and cows will become very many in Jerusalem until they spill over.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “He said, "run and tell that young man, ‘because of the great number of people and domesticated animals Jerusalem will be a city without walls.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “and said to him, ‘Hurry, tell that young-man with a rope/string for-measuring that Jerusalem will- become a city without walls because (there will be) so/too many of its people and livestock.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “That other angel said to him, ‘Run and tell that young man that some day there will be very many people and livestock in Jerusalem, with the result that there will be too many to live inside the city walls; many will live outside the walls.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Zechariah 2:4

And said to him: In the Hebrew it is not clear which angel addressed the other. Revised Standard Version takes the second angel to be the speaker, as do Moffatt, New American Bible, Revised English Bible, New International Version, New Revised Standard Version, Contemporary English Version, and Biblen: Det Gamle og Det Nye Testamente. Good News Translation takes the first one to be the speaker, as do New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, New Jerusalem Bible, Bible en français courant, and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch. A majority of commentators (Driver, Mitchell, Cashdan, Delcor, Thomas, Amsler, Meyers & Meyers) take the latter view and translators are recommended to follow it. As Driver observes, the interpreting angel is not likely to have been sent away to deliver a message. However, if he had been sent away, the verb translated “came again” in 4.1 would have more significance. See the comments on 4.1. One way to say this is “The first angel said to the second.”

Run, say to that young man: A different Hebrew word is used here from the one translated man in verse 1. See the comments on verse 1. Good News Translation makes it clear that this is the same person by repeating some information from verse 1, and saying, “tell that young man with the measuring line.” Another way to express this is “tell that young man who is holding the measuring line in his hand.” Some scholars such as Merrill take that young man to refer to Zechariah himself, but this view is not convincing, and cannot be recommended.

Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of men and cattle in it: These words begin a quotation within a quotation in Revised Standard Version. Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version avoid this by putting the second half of the verse into indirect speech. In many languages translators will find this a helpful example to follow. The relationship between the two halves of this sentence is not altogether clear in a literal translation like Revised Standard Version. Good News Translation restructures to make it clearer, and says, “there are going to be so many people and so much livestock [or more neatly “so many people and cattle” in the earlier British editions] in Jerusalem that it will be too big to have walls.” This will be a satisfactory translation model in many languages, but some translators may need to simplify and say, “there will be so many people and cattle in Jerusalem that….” Cattle, as in Hag 1.11, refers to domesticated animals of all kinds, so translators may say “so many people and animals.” The words villages without walls translate a single Hebrew word. This word does not actually mention walls. However, the same Hebrew word is used in Ezek 38.11 in a context where the absence of walls is in focus, so it is reasonable to assume that their absence is implied here. The words without walls suggest a condition of peace and security such that no walls were needed for protection. This could be brought out clearly by saying, “Jerusalem will need no wall to protect it because of the large number of men and cattle in it.” This is further explained in the next verse. In certain languages villages without walls can be expressed as “small groups of houses without fences around them.” In such cases it will be better to delete the reference to villages, as Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version have done. Good News Translation has “that it will be too big to have walls.” Contemporary English Version has “Jerusalem won’t have any boundaries. It will be too full of people and animals even to have a wall.” In some languages walls will need to be singular because the plural would refer to walls around gardens or houses rather than around a city. A possible translation model is:

• The first angel said to the second one, “Run [or, Hurry] and tell that young man to stop. Jerusalem will grow and have very many people and cattle, and will not need any wall to protect it.”

Quoted with permission from Clark, David J. & Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Zechariah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2002. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .