The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is translated into English as “chariot” is translated into Anuak as “canoe pulled by horse.” “Canoe” is the general term for “vehicle” (source: Loren Bliese). Similarly it is translated in Lokạạ as ukwaa wạ nyanyang ntuuli or “canoe that is driven by horses.” (Source: J.A. Naudé, C.L. Miller Naudé, J.O. Obono in Acta Theologica 43/2, 2023, p. 129ff. )
Other translations include:
Chichicapan Zapotec: “ox cart” (in Acts 8) (ox carts are common vehicles for travel) (source: Loren Bliese)
Chichimeca-Jonaz, it is translated as “little house with two feet pulled by two horses” (source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
HausaCommon Language Bible as keken-doki or “cart of donkey” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
The two Hebrew terms that are translated in English as “dust” are referring to “dry earth” (aphar) and “fine dust” (abaq). In Lamba, like in Hebrew, two different terms are used: ikuŋgu: “dust in the air” and ifukutu: “settled dust.”
In Genesis 2:7, for instance, ifukutu in Lamba and aphar in Hebrew is used and in Ezekiel 26:10ikuŋgu and abaq are being used.
In the only occurrence where both Hebrew terms are used side by side (in Deuteronomy 28:24), English versions use “powder and dust” or simply drop one of the terms. Lamba, however, is able to closely and naturally follow the Hebrew by using both of the available terms (likuŋgu lifukutu). (Source C. M. Doke in The Bible Translator 1958, p. 57ff. )
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 26:10:
Kupsabiny: “When their horses go through the gate of the city where it is broken, the dust of/from those horses shall engulf you and their noise and that of the chariots shall shake the wall of the city..” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “You will-be-covered by dusts which fly-in-the-air from the feet of his horses which are very many. Your stone-walls will-shake because of his rushing horses and chariots that come-inside the gates of your ruined city.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “The king will have a huge number of horses, andthe stamping of their hooves will result in the city being covered with dust. It will be as though the walls will tremble because of the noise made by the horses, the supply wagons, and the chariots when they enter the city where the walls have been broken down.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between. One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used anata (あなた) is typically used when the speaker is humbly addressing another person.
In these verses, however, omae (おまえ) is used, a cruder second person pronoun, that Jesus for instance chooses when chiding his disciples. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
His horses will be so many that their dust will cover you: There will be so many galloping horses in Nebuchadnezzar’s army and they will raise so much dust that a cloud of dust will hang over the city of Tyre, or there will be a layer of dust over the whole city. Translators may say “He will have so many horses that you will be covered in dust when they run.” For horses see 17.15.
Your walls will shake at the noise of the horsemen and wagons and chariots: The Babylonian army will be so big and the noise it makes will be so loud that the walls of Tyre will shake, as if there was an earthquake. For horsemen and chariots, see Ezek 26.7; for wagons (literally “wheels”), see 23.24.
The dust cloud will rise and the walls will shake when he enters your gates as one enters a city which has been breached, that is, when Nebuchadnezzar defeats Tyre, breaks a hole through the city walls, and enters the city as the victor. The Hebrew verb rendered breached means “break through” or “rip apart” (compare New International Version and New International Reader’s Version, which say “[a city whose walls] have been broken through”). The last sentence of this verse may be reordered in many languages to make it more natural as follows: “When he [or, his army] breaks a hole in your walls and he enters the city in victory, the noise of the soldiers on horses and the noise of the battle vehicles and carts will cause your walls to shake.”
Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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