Translation commentary on Susanna 1:63

If integrated into the book of Daniel: 13.63.

Hilkiah and his wife praised God for their daughter Susanna …: New Jerusalem Bible translates this well with “Hilkiah and his wife gave thanks to God for their daughter Susanna.” Thanksgiving to God would certainly be part of the praise rendered. For the whole verse it would be better to say “Hilkiah and his wife … gave thanks to God, because their daughter Susanna had been proved innocent of the vicious accusation against her.” This is a good rendering so far, but the next problem is to get Joakim her husband and all her kindred into the picture; this is difficult because Susanna has also been identified as the daughter of Hilkiah and his wife. Good News Translation does this by eliminating the names of Hilkiah and Joakim. Joakim, who is strangely silent during this whole story, probably deserves to be left nameless, but the writer does name him. One way out of the problem is to translate as follows:

• Susanna’s father Hilkiah, along with her mother, her husband Joakim and all her relatives, gave thanks to God because she had been proved innocent of the vicious accusation against her.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Shorter Books of the Deuterocanon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2006. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.

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