distance (long / wide / high)

The concepts of distance that are translated in English with “long,” “wide,” and “high/tall” are translated in Kwere with one word: utali. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

complete verse (Ezekiel 40:18)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 40:18:

  • Kupsabiny: “Then the man took me to the outer courtyard. There were thirty rooms there that were built around that courtyard touching the wall at the North, East and South. The path ran along two times. The lower level ran along the outer wall and bent inwards with a width that was the same as the length of the houses that were at the gate. And the upper level covered the rest of the courtyard.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “This stone way underneath was-reaching up-to the side of the ways/path going-inside the courtyard. The width of the stone way/path/pavement was-equal to the length of those ways.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “The stone path was all around the courtyard, and it extended out from the walls into the courtyard for the same distance as the entry room of the entryway. That was the lower path.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Ezekiel 40:18

And the pavement ran along the side of the gates, that is, there was a walkway on each side of the outer courtyard’s gatehouses, corresponding to the length of the gates, that is, the width of the walkway (including the rooms that were up against the wall of the outer courtyard) was the same as the length of the gatehouses. As a result, the inside edge of the walkway was the same distance from the wall as the inner end of the gatehouses. The gatehouses extended 22 meters (74 feet) into the outer courtyard beyond the wall, so that was the width of the walkway (including the rooms). If the rooms were 12.5 meters (42 feet) deep, then the walkway was actually 9.5 meters (32 feet) wide.

This was the lower pavement: There was no other walkway, either in the outer courtyard or in the inner courtyard, but the inner courtyard appears to have been somewhat higher than the outer courtyard (see verse 31, which mentions eight steps leading up to the south gate of the inner courtyard). So translators who need to identify what this walkway was lower than may say “This walkway was lower than the inner courtyard.”

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 .