The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “soldier” in English didn’t have a direct equivalent in Enlhet so it was translated with “those that bind us” (source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 24ff. ) and in Noongar it is mammarapa-bakadjiny or “men of fighting” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).
army
The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Latin that is translated as “army” in English is translated in Chichewa as “group of warriors.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
complete verse (2 Kings 25:19)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 2 Kings 25:19:
- Kupsabiny: “The people who were captured inside the city were the commander of the soldiers of the country of Judah, the secretary, five elders who belonged to the council of the king and sixty other important/well-known people.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
- Newari: “From among those who were remaining in the city he took the captain of the soldiers and five of those who advised the king. He also took the most important official who enlisted people of the land as soldiers as well as sixty soldiers found in the city.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
- Hiligaynon: “And still these are what he found[lit. saw] and took-captives in the city: the officer of the soldiers of Juda, the five rulers of the king, the commander who takes/(recruits) people to become soldiers, and also the 60 residents there.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
- English: “And they found people who were still hiding in Jerusalem. From those people he took one officer from the Judean army, five of the king’s advisors, the chief secretary of the army commander who was in charge of recruiting men to join the army, and 60 other important Judean men.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
king
Some languages do not have a concept of kingship and therefore no immediate equivalent for the Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin that is translated as “king” in English. Here are some (back-) translations:
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- Piro: “a great one”
- Highland Totonac: “the big boss”
- Huichol: “the one who commanded” (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida)
- Ekari: “the one who holds the country” (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
- Una: weik sienyi: “big headman” (source: Kroneman 2004, p. 407)
- Pass Valley Yali: “Big Man” (source: Daud Soesilo)
- Ninia Yali: “big brother with the uplifted name” (source: Daud Soesilio in Noss 2007, p. 175)
- Nyamwezi: mutemi: generic word for ruler, by specifying the city or nation it becomes clear what kind of ruler (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
- Ghomála’: Fo (“The word Fo refers to the paramount ruler in the kingdoms of West Cameroon. He holds administrative, political, and religious power over his own people, who are divided into two categories: princes (descendants of royalty) and servants (everyone else).” (Source: Michel Kenmogne in Theologizing in Context: An Example from the Study of a Ghomala’ Christian Hymn))
Faye Edgerton retells how the term in Navajo (Dinė) was determined:
“[This term was] easily expressed in the language of Biblical culture, which had kings and noblemen with their brilliant trappings and their position of honor and praise. But leadership among the Navajos is not accompanied by any such titles or distinctions of dress. Those most respected, especially in earlier days, were their headmen, who were the leaders in raids, and the shaman, who was able to serve the people by appealing for them to the gods, or by exorcising evil spirits. Neither of these made any outward show. Neither held his position by political intrigue or heredity. If the headman failed consistently in raids, he was superceded by a better warrior. If the shaman failed many times in his healing ceremonies, it was considered that he was making mistakes in the chants, or had lost favor with the gods, and another was sought. The term Navajos use for headman is derived from a verb meaning ‘to move the head from side to side as in making an oration.’ The headman must be a good orator, able to move the people to go to war, or to follow him in any important decision. This word is naat’áanii which now means ‘one who rules or bosses.’ It is employed now for a foreman or boss of any kind of labor, as well as for the chairman of the tribal council. So in order to show that the king is not just a common boss but the highest ruler, the word ‘aláahgo, which expresses the superlative degree, was put before naat’áanii, and so ‘aláahgo naat’áanii ‘anyone-more-than-being around-he-moves-his-head-the-one-who’ means ‘the highest ruler.’ Naat’áanii was used for governor as the context usually shows that the person was a ruler of a country or associated with kings.”
(Source: Faye Edgerton in The Bible Translator 1962, p. 25ff. )
See also king (Japanese honorifics).
Translation commentary on 2 Kings 25:19
From the city … in the city … in the city: Since this is the first mention of the city of Jerusalem in this section that began at verse 18, it may be helpful to make the name of the city explicit as in Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente: “From Jerusalem … in the city … in Jerusalem.” Bible en français courant provides a different model by omitting the words from the city and in the city in the first half of the verse and then ending the verse with the words “in Jerusalem.”
An officer who had been in command of the men of war: The Hebrew word translated officer is literally “eunuch” (Revised English Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Nouvelle version Segond révisée, Osty-Trinquet, La Bible Pléiade, em>Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente), but it may be distracting from the main sense to try to translate the literal meaning of this term in other languages. See the comments at 1 Kgs 22.9 and 2 Kgs 8.6. An officer is literally “one officer.” In the books of 1-2 Samuel and 1–2 Kings, however, use of the word “one” with a noun often signifies indefiniteness, and should be translated in English with the indefinite article as in Revised Standard Version rather than with the definite article “the” as in Good News Translation.
The expression men of war may be legitimately translated “soldiers” (New Revised Standard Version) or “fighting men” (New International Version).
Five men of the king’s council is literally “five men seeing the king’s face.” The expression designates people who were especially close to the king as his most intimate advisers. Some other ways of stating this are “five of the kings’s personal friends” (New Jerusalem Bible), “five of those with right of access to the king” (Revised English Bible), and “five people who advised the king” (New Century Version). Other languages may have quite different ways of referring to a chief’s closest personal counselors. In some cases they speak of “those who have the ear of the chief” or “those who can eat with the chief.” According to Jer 52.25, there were seven men from the king’s council who were found in Jerusalem. In any case, the Hebrew here in 2 Kings is most naturally understood as meaning “five from [or, of] the king’s council” and not that there were only five men who served in this function.
The words who were found in the city, which occur twice in this verse, are passive in form in Revised Standard Version, which reflects the Hebrew. This expression may be made active by saying “whom the Babylonians found in the city” or simply “who were in the city.”
The secretary of the commander of the army who mustered the people of the land: Interpreters disagree on whether this expression in Hebrew refers to two different people or to only one person. Both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation treat the Hebrew as referring to two different people. New Jerusalem Bible is similar with “the secretary to the army commander, responsible for military conscription.” According to this understanding of the Hebrew, it was the duty of the commander to see to it that the men were ready for battle, and his secretary was responsible for writing down their names. The Septuagint text for this verse, as well as the Masoretic Text for Jer 52.25, clearly indicate that the secretary and the commander were two different people. More likely, however, here in this verse the phrase the commander of the army is in apposition to the phrase the secretary since the Hebrew has no conjunction between these two expressions. Following this interpretation, Contemporary English Version says “the officer in charge of gathering the troops for battle” and makes no mention of a secretary. New Revised Standard Version also follows this second interpretation with “the secretary who was the commander of the army who mustered the people of the land.” Compare also “an official army secretary who drafted citizens for military service” (NET Bible) and “the head scribe of the army who was responsible for enrolling the people of the country” (Nouvelle Bible Segond).
Sixty men of the people of the land: Here and in the previous phrase, the expression the people of the land almost certainly refers to the elite leadership of Judah (see the comments at 2 Kgs 11.14). But whether they were exclusively military leaders or also civilians is unclear. These were probably provincial nobles or leaders of clans.
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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