complete verse (1 Kings 5:14)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 1 Kings 5:14:

  • Kupsabiny: “He would send those people to go to Lebanon but would do so in shifts. Ten thousand men would go to Lebanon. They would stay in Lebanon for one month. Then they returned home and waited/stayed put for two months. Adoniram was in charge of the people who were doing that work.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “He would send them by turns, 10,000 men each month. They would stay one month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was the leader of those who did forced labor.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “He sent 10,000 of them to Lebanon every month. So each group is one month in Lebanon and two months in their place. Adoniram was the leader/[lit. head] of these workers.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Adoniram was their boss. Solomon divided the men into three groups. Each month 10,000 of them went to Lebanon and worked for a month there, and then they came back home for two months.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on 1 Kings 5:14

In relays: The Hebrew word used here has to do with “change” or “alternation.” The workers involved in this system would take turns spending time at work and time at home. New Living Translation says the workers were “in shifts” and Anchor Bible has “in rotation.”

At home is literally “at his home.” This should probably be understood to mean “each man in his own home” and not “at the king’s home [or, the palace].” If the reference is to the king’s home, then the sense is that these men worked one month in Lebanon and then two months back in Jerusalem on the king’s palace.

Adoniram was in charge of the levy: Adoniram is the same person mentioned in 1 Kgs 4.6. New Jerusalem Bible calls him “Adoram” here and in 4.6 in agreement with the spelling of his name in other parts of the Old Testament. The reader has previously been introduced to Adoniram, but the following rendering in International Children’s Bible seems to suggest incorrectly that he is being introduced for the first time: “He put a man named Adoniram over them.”

Rather than translate literally the form of the Hebrew, Good News Translation (and similarly Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje) has restructured to make clear that these 30,000 men were divided into three groups of 10,000 and that each group in turn spent one month in Lebanon and two months in Israel.

Some modern versions reverse the two parts of this verse (Good News Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), and such a restructuring may be a useful model in other languages as well. Bible en français courant restructures in a still different way as follows:

• Each month, ten thousand of them were sent to Mount Lebanon, where they were under Adoniram, the one in charge of forced labor; they worked there a month, and then came back to spend two months at home.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .