The Hebrew and Greek that is transliterated as “Ephraim” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with the sign for “palm tree” referring to the palm of Deborah in the land of Ephraim (see Judges 4:5. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
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)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 2 Samuel 18:6:
Kupsabiny: “Then, the soldiers of David went to fight with the soldiers of Israel in the forest of Ephraim.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “Then David’s soldiers went out in battle against the Israelites, and the battle took place in the jungle of Ephraim.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “The soldiers of David set-out to fight-against the soldiers of Israel, and they fought there at the forest of Efraim.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “So the army went out to fight against the Israeli soldiers who were with Absalom. They fought the battle in the forest where people from the tribe of Ephraim lived.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
So: the common conjunction here may be taken as a logical connector and translated as in Revised Standard Version. But several versions take it as being sequential and translate “Then” (New American Bible, Moffatt, An American Translation) or leave it untranslated (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Revised English Bible, New International Version).
Army: literally “people” as in verses 1-5 above. Good News Translation makes the reference more precise by saying “David’s army.” This may be a better model for certain other languages.
The field: in the context of this passage, the word used here refers to unpopulated areas as opposed to areas where there were towns. The remainder of the verse indicates that the region contained a forest.
The battle was fought: in languages where this passive form is not used, it will be much more natural to say “the armies fought each other” or something similar.
The forest of Ephraim: some Greek manuscripts have “the forest of Mahanaim” (New American Bible translates “the forest near Mahanaim”), but it is unlikely that this was the original reading, even though it may be considered more logical. Since the battle was fought on the east side of the Jordan River, as 17.24 and 19.15 make clear, it seems strange that the forest was named after Ephraim, but some scholars feel that the area may have been settled at some time by people from the tribe of Ephraim. According to 1 Maccabees 5.46, there was a village named “Ephron” east of the Jordan River in Gilead. Since this name is spelled similar to “Ephraim,” some interpreters correct the text to read “the forest of Ephron” (Revised English Bible). Hebrew Old Testament Text Project gives no advice on this textual problem and therefore implicitly recommends the reading followed by Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation.
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.