2The prince shall enter by the vestibule of the gate from outside and shall take his stand by the post of the gate. The priests shall offer his burnt offering and his offerings of well-being, and he shall bow down at the entryway of the gate. Then he shall go out, but the gate shall not be closed until evening.
The Hebrew olah (עֹלָה) originally means “that which goes up (in smoke).” English Bibles often translates it as “burnt-offering” or “whole burnt-offering,” focusing on the aspect of the complete burning of the offering.
The GreekSeptuagint and the LatinVulgate Bibles translate it as holokautōma / holocautōsis (ὁλοκαύτωμα / ὁλοκαύτωσις) and holocaustum, respectively, meaning “wholly burnt.” While a form of this term is widely used in many Romance languages (Spanish: holocaustos, French: holocaustes, Italian: olocausti, Portuguese: holocaustos) and originally also in the Catholic tradition of English Bible translations, it is largely not used in English anymore today (the preface of the revised edition of the Catholic New American Bible of 2011: “There have been changes in vocabulary; for example, the term ‘holocaust’ is now normally reserved for the sacrilegious attempt to destroy the Jewish people by the Third Reich.”)
Since translation into Georgian was traditionally done on the basis of the Greek Septuagint, a transliteration of holokautōma was used as well, which was changed to a translation with the meaning of “burnt offering” when the Old Testament was retranslated in the 1980’s on the basis of the Hebrew text.
In the Koongo (Ki-manianga) translation by the Alliance Biblique de la R.D. Congo (publ. in 2015) olah is translated as “kill and offer sacrifice” (source: Anicet Bassilua) and in Elhomwe as “fire offering.” (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
The English translation of Everett Fox uses offering-up (similarly, the German translation by Buber-Rosenzweig has Darhöhung and the French translation by Chouraqui montée).
The Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek terms that are often translated as “worship” (also, “kneel down” or “bow down”) are likewise translated in other languages in certain categories, including those based on physical activity, those which incorporate some element of “speaking” or “declaring,” and those which specify some type of mental activity.
Following is a list of (back-) translations (click or tap for details):
Obolo: itọtọbọ ebum: “express reverence and devotion” (source: Enene Enene)
Ngäbere: “cut oneself down before” (“This figure of speech comes from the picture of towering mahoganies in the forest which, under the woodman’s ax, quiver, waver, and then in solemn, thunderous crashing bury their lofty heads in the upstretched arms of the surrounding forest. This is the experience of every true worshiper who sees ‘the Lord, high and lifted up.’ Our own unworthiness brings us low. As the Valientes say, ‘we cut ourselves down before’ His presence. Our heads, which have been carried high in self-confidence, sink lower and lower in worship.)
Tzeltal: “end oneself before God.” (“Only by coming to the end of oneself can one truly worship. The animist worships his deities in the hope of receiving corresponding benefits, and some pagans in Christendom think that church attendance is a guarantee of success in this life and good luck in the future. But God has never set a price on worship except the price that we must pay, namely, ‘coming to the end of ourselves.'”) (Source of this and the one above: Nida 1952, p. 163)
Folopa: “die under God” (“an idiom that roughly back-translates “dying under God” which means lifting up his name and praising him and to acknowledge by everything one does and thanks that God is superior.”) (Source: Anderson / Moore, p. 202)
Chokwe: kuivayila — “rub something on” (“When anyone goes into the presence of a king or other superior, according to native law and custom the inferior gets down on the ground, takes a little earth in the fingers of his right hand, rubs it on his own body, and then claps his hands in homage and the greeting of friendship. It is a token of veneration, of homage, of extreme gratitude for some favor received. It is also a recognition of kingship, lordship, and a prostrating of oneself in its presence. Yet it simply is the applicative form of ‘to rub something on oneself’, this form of the verb giving the value of ‘because of.’ Thus in God’s presence as king and Lord we metaphorically rub dirt on ourselves, thus acknowledging Him for what He really is and what He has done for us.”) (Source: D. B. Long in The Bible Translator 1952, p. 87ff. )
In Luang it is translated with different shades of meaning:
For Mark 15:19 and Matt. 2:8 and 2:11: “uh’idma-rrama llia’ara” — “to kiss the fingernail and lick the heel”
For Acts 16:14: ra’uli-rawedi — “to praise-talk about”
The Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that are typically translated as “priest” in English (itself deriving from Latin “presbyter” — “elder”) is often translated with a consideration of existing religious traditions. (Click or tap for details)
Bratcher / Nida (1961) say this:
“However, rather than borrow local names for priests, some of which have unwanted connotations, a number of translations have employed descriptive phrases based on certain functions: (1) those describing a ceremonial activity: Pamona uses tadu, the priestess who recites the litanies in which she describes her journey to the upper or under-world to fetch life-spirit for sick people, animals or plants; Batak Toba uses the Arabic malim, ‘Muslim religious teacher;’ ‘one who presents man’s sacrifice to God’ (Bambara, Eastern Maninkakan), ‘one who presents sacrifices’ (Baoulé, Navajo (Dinė)), ‘one who takes the name of the sacrifice’ (Kpelle, and ‘to make a sacrifice go out’ (Hausa); (2) those describing an intermediary function: ‘one who speaks to God’ (Shipibo-Conibo) and ‘spokesman of the people before God’ (Tabasco Chontal).”
In Obolo it is translated as ogwu ngwugwa or “the one who offers sacrifice” (source: Enene Enene), in Mairasi as agam aevar nevwerai: “religious leader” (source: Enggavoter 2004), in Ignaciano as “blesser, one who does ritual as a practice” (using a generic term rather than the otherwise common Spanish loan word sacerdote) (source: Willis Ott in Notes on Translation 88/1982, p. 18ff.), and in Noongar as yakin-kooranyi or “holy worker” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).
For Guhu-Samane, Ernest Richert (in The Bible Translator, 1965, p. 81ff. ) reports this: “The [local] cult of Poro used to be an all-encompassing religious system that essentially governed all areas of life. (…) For ‘priest’ the term ‘poro father’ would at first seem to be a natural choice. However, several priests of the old cult are still living. Although they no longer function primarily as priests of the old system they still have a substantial influence on the community, and there would be more than a chance that the unqualified term would (in some contexts particularly) be equated with the priest of the poro cult. We learned, then, that the poro fathers would sometimes be called ‘knife men’ in relation to their sacrificial work. The panel was pleased to apply this term to the Jewish priest, and the Christian community has adopted it fully. [Mark 1:44, for instance, now] reads: ‘You must definitely not tell any man of this. But you go show your body to the knife man and do what Moses said about a sacrifice concerning your being healed, and the cause (base of this) will be apparent.'”
For a revision of the 1968 version of the Bible in Khmer Joseph Hong (in: The Bible Translator 1996, 233ff. ) talks about a change in wording for this term:
Bau cha r (បូជាចារ្យ) — The use of this new construction meaning “priest” is maintained to translate the Greek word hiereus. The term “mean sang (មាន សង្ឃ)” used in the old version actually means a “Buddhist monk,” and is felt to be theologically misleading. The Khmer considers the Buddhist monk as a “paddy field of merits,” a reserve of merits to be shared with other people. So a Khmer reader would find unthinkable that the mean sang in the Bible killed animals, the gravest sin for a Buddhist; and what a scandal it would be to say that a mean sang was married, had children, and drank wine.
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 46:2:
Kupsabiny: “The king shall enter at the veranda by that inner gate. He shall stand there at the doorframes of the gate while the priests are burning for him sacrifices that are burned completely and those of fellowship. The king shall bow down to worship me and then return to where he came from. The door shall not be closed until the evening.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “The leader will-pass-by the way facing east and he will-stand beside the gate while the priests are-offering his burnt offering and his offering for a good relationship. The leader will-worship there at the gate and afterwards he will-go-out, but the gate will- not -be-closed until evening.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “The king must enter the courtyard through the entry room of the entryway, and stand alongside the entry post. Then the priests must sacrifice the animal that the king brought to be completely burnedon the altar, and also his offering to maintain fellowship with me. The king must worship me at the entrance of the entryway, and then he must go out. After he leaves, the entryway will not be shut until that evening.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
The prince shall enter by the vestibule of the gate from without: See 44.3. On the days that the east gateway of the inner courtyard is open, the king will be allowed to enter it from the outer courtyard through the porch of the gateway. This clause may be rendered “When the gateway is open, the king will go from the outer courtyard into the entrance room of the gateway” (similarly Good News Translation).
And shall take his stand by the post of the gate: Take his stand suggests that the king had to “remain standing” (New American Bible, Moffatt), without sitting down. By the post of the gate probably refers to the doorframe at the inner end of the gateway, the doorframe that led into the inner courtyard. If this interpretation is correct, it means that the king never actually goes into the inner courtyard, but stays in the building of the gatehouse. It is not surprising that he will not go into the inner courtyard because only the priests and Levites were allowed to go there. Instead of the singular Hebrew word rendered post, some translations read it as a plural (see the comments on 41.21), saying “posts” (Good News Translation) or “doorposts” (Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible, Christian Community Bible), but here it is better to retain the singular, for example, “door-post” (New English Bible, Moffatt) or “doorway” (Contemporary English Version). Translators may render this clause as “and he will stand in the doorway” or .”.. by the doorframe of the gatehouse.”
The priests shall offer his burnt offering and his peace offerings: The priests will offer sacrifices on behalf of the king. He will not take an active part in this religious activity. For burnt offering, see 40.38; for peace offerings, see 43.27.
And he shall worship at the threshold of the gate: The king will worship God at the doorframe of the gateway while the priests make sacrifices on his behalf. The Hebrew word for worship means more than participating passively in the religious ceremonies. It carries the sense of “bow down [in worship]” (New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible; similarly New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) or “prostrate” (Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible, Christian Community Bible, Complete Jewish Bible). It may have involved lying flat on the ground, bowing low, or kneeling to show respect. In some languages the verb worship will require an object. If so, he shall worship may be rendered “he will worship me [God]” or “he will bow down to worship me.” Contemporary English Version says “The ruler will bow down with his face to the ground to show that he has worshiped me.” The threshold of the gate refers to the same doorway as the post of the gate. The Hebrew word for threshold differs from the one used in 40.6 (see the comments there). It is closely related to the word for an opening or “entrance” (New International Reader’s Version, New Century Version) that is used elsewhere in Ezekiel (see, for example, 40.11; 41.2; 46.3), so it may have that meaning here. However, the word may refer here to the slab of stone that is the bottom of a doorway (see the comments on 9.3, where the same Hebrew word is used). Either meaning is acceptable in this context.
Then he shall go out, but the gate shall not be shut until evening: At the end of the religious ceremony, the king will go out, that is, he will leave by the same way he came (see 44.3). He will not be allowed to stay there just to watch what is happening. However, even after he has left, the gate shall not be shut until evening, that is, the priests will not shut the door of the gateway until the sun sets. Contemporary English Version says “the gate will remain open until evening.”
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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