The Hebrew in Genesis 26:8 that is translated as “fondling” or “caressing” or similar in English is translated in Makonde as “embracing” and in Elhomwe as “embracing in love” to avoid connotations of sexual intercourse. (Source for both: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Note that in Hebrew this word is a pun on the name of Isaac.
The Hebrew that is translated in English typically as “mandrake” is translated in various French translations (Traduction Œcuménique de la Bible, Nouvelle Français courant, Parole de Vie) as pommes d’amour or “love apples” which indicates the function as an aphrodisiac (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin). Likewise, in a number of German translations (Luther, Gute Nachricht Bibel), Liebesäpfel with the same meaning is used. Incidentally, in both German and French the respective terms also refer to candy apples .
In Elhomwe it is translated as woohura, a traditional medicine that “turns infertility to fertility” (source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext) and in Nyamwezi as ntalantu’, a plant that “is known to have many medicinal purposes for womanhood, one of those is fertility” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext).
Commentators do not agree on the identity of the Hebrew word duda’im. While many assert that the word must refer to Mandragora or Mandrake Mandragora autumnalis, Zohary (Plants of the Bible. Cambridge University Press, 1982) says it cannot be so since mandragora has never grown in Mesopotamia, where the story of Genesis 30:14ff. takes place. In Song of Songs 7:13 duda’im refers to some sort of “choice fruit” associated with apples, and cultivated on river banks (not dug up in the fields, as was the case with duda’im in Genesis). Whatever the original plant was (in Mesopotamia), when the story was told in Israel they used a word that was known to the hearers, namely duda’im. In Genesis the context implies, though not directly, that duda’im has something to do with fertility. And the most popular conception-inducing plant in Bible times, according to scholars, was the mandragora (mandrake). The translators of the Septuagint and the Targum, with their own ideas about love and fertility, took duda’im in its Holy Land setting rather than trying to establish the identity of the plant in the Mesopotamian context. The English versions have copied the Septuagint, using “mandrake.”
The mandrake is a stemless herb related to the potato and tomato but grows lower to the ground. Its leaves are dark green, reaching 30 centimeters (1 foot) long and 10 centimeters (4 inches) wide, spreading out rose-like from the center. Purple or blue flowers appear on stalks out of the center and develop into yellow fruits that, when ripe, look like eggs in a bird’s nest. They have a distinct smell that some find sweet and others unpleasant. The mandrake’s large root is often forked, giving the appearance of a human body, which is perhaps the basis for its widespread reputation as a love potion throughout the Middle East and Europe, and for its name, the “love apple.”
The supposed magical properties of mandrakes are many and bizarre. It is said to scream when pulled out of the earth. The leaves are said to shine in the dark. In the Middle Ages Germans dressed them up and made sacrifices to them, lest the spirits be offended. French people believed little elves lived inside them and required daily offerings. As recently as 1630, three women in Hamburg were executed for witchcraft on the grounds that they had mandrake roots in their homes. Arabs call mandrakes the Devil’s candles.
The options to translate “mandrake” are:
1. Translate using a similar plant, such as the wild garden egg (so Berom of Nigeria) plus a footnote. In Hausa of Nigeria gautan daji (or yalo) would be a possible model in some places.
2. Translate using a functional equivalent, that is, some local plant known as an aid to conception, as Tiv of Nigeria has done (mkehem).
3. Create a descriptive expression such as “love flower” (Contemporary English Version) or “love fruit.”
4. Transliterate from Hebrew duda’im or a major language and write a footnote saying that this plant may have been considered an aid to conception. When transliterating, it may be useful to add “root of” as a tag, showing that it was the root of the plant that was effective.
Source: Each According to its Kind: Plants and Trees in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)
The Hebrew in Genesis 6:2 that is translated as “sons of God” in English is translated in Elhomwe as “divine people.” (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
The Hebrew in Genesis 14:20 that is translated as “of everything” in English is translated in Elhomwe as aakhilleeye or “of the plunder.” (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
For the Hebrew in Genesis 18:6 that is translated as “make ready quickly three measures of choice flour” or similar in English, the container for the flour is specified in Elhomwe: an etthello or “a shallow bamboo-woven basket used by women in the kitchen for storing grains and flour.” (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
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.
Source: All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)
See also quails, manna, and dew (image).
The Hebrew in Exodus 25:18 that is translated as “make them of hammered work” in English is translated in Elhomwe in such a way “to make clear that cherubim formed one part with the gold of the cover and that the gold of the cover was hammered in such a way that figures (like cherubim) could be formed. (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
The Hebrew that is translated as “appendage of the liver” in English is translated in Elhomwe with “fat of the liver.” (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
