complete verse (1 Chronicles 22:15)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 1 Chronicles 22:15:

  • Kupsabiny: “You have many people who have much experience of work of various kinds. There are those who dig out and cut stones, those who build from stones, and countless other craftsmen. Those people can work with” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “You have many men who will do the work. [You] have stone masons and carpenters in addition to men skilled in all types of work.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “You (sing.) have many workers: hewers of stone, masons, carpenters, and so many men who have the ability in every (kind) of work,” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “There are many men in Israel who have good ability to cut big stones for making stone walls, and carpenters, and men who are very skilled at making various kinds of things.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on 1 Chronicles 22:15

You have an abundance of workmen: stonecutters, masons, carpenters …: The Hebrew expression for workmen is a general one. Here it is broken down into more specific categories. For stonecutters see 1 Chr 22.2. If technical terms for masons and carpenters do not exist in the receptor language, expressions such as “workers in stone” and “workers in wood” may be used (so New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente).

And all kinds of craftsmen without number, skilled in working: It is not clear in the Hebrew text whether the words without number refer (1) to the craftsmen in this verse or (2) to the metals listed in the next verse. According to Revised Standard Version, it is the craftsmen who are without number (so also New Revised Standard Version, New International Version). Following this interpretation, not only were the materials to be used in building the Temple “beyond weighing,” the number of craftsmen was so large that they could not be counted. But the Masoretic Text is more naturally read with the words without number referring to the quantities of gold, silver, bronze, and iron in the next verse (so Bible en français courant, Parole de Vie, Nouvelle Bible Segond). A translation based on this interpretation for the last half of this verse and the first half of the next verse is “and all kinds of craftsmen, skilled in working. 16 They will have an inexhaustible supply of gold, silver, bronze, and iron.”

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Chronicles, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2014. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .