In many, if not most of the languages in the Philippines, proper nouns, such as personal names, are tagged with a marker that signals their grammatical role within a sentence. For Tagalog and the Visayan languages , this typically includes si to mark the proper noun as the actor or subject (nominative case), ni to mark the proper noun as an owner (genitive case), and kay to mark the proper noun as as an indirect object, i.e. the one to or toward whom an action is directed (dative case). All of these also have plural forms — sina, nina and kina respectively — and unlike in the biblical languages or in English, the plural form has to be used when only a single proper name is mentioned but implicitly that proper name includes more than just one.
In this verse, where English translates “Joshua (defeated),” the Tagalog translation translates “nina Josue” because the context of the text makes clear that Joshua and his men defeated Amalek and his people. (Source: Kermit Titrud and Steve Quakenbush)
The Hebrew, Latin, and Greek that is transliterated as “Joshua” is translated in Swiss-German Sign Language with a sign that depicts a trumpet of rams’ horn, referring to Joshua 6:4 and following.
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 17:13:
Kupsabiny: “Joshua greatly defeated the Amalekites in that manner/way.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “This is how Joshus overcame the Amelekites with the sword.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “So Josue and-company defeated the Amaleknon.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Bariai: “Therefore Iosua together with the Israel people surpassed the Amalek people in fighting, and so they destroyed them with fighting knives.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
Opo: “Therefore, Joshua and his army chased away people of Amalek out, finished them.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
English: “So Joshua and the men with him completely defeated the Amalek people-group, using their swords to fight against them.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
And Joshua mowed down Amalek translates a word that means to cause to become weak or even prostrate, that is, lying flat on the ground. New American Bible also has “mowed down,” and Jerusalem Bible has “cut down,” since the sword is also mentioned. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh uses “overwhelmed,” but others simply use “defeated” (New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, Revised English Bible). Good News Translation strengthens it a bit with “totally defeated.” This should not be understood as complete annihilation, for some of them evidently survived.
Amalek and his people again simply means “the Amalekites,” or “people of Amalek,” since Amalek was the ancestor of this tribe. With the edge of the sword, literally “to the mouth of the sword,” is intended to be descriptive and emphatic. The people normally fought with swords, so it is not necessary to retain the expression. Translator’s Old Testament has “killing them mercilessly,” but this may be assuming too much. The idea is that it was a total victory for the Israelites: “In this way Joshua totally defeated the Amalekites” (Good News Translation).
Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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