complete verse (Genesis 31:40)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Genesis 31:40:

  • Newari: “From the sunlight of the day and from the cold of the night, how exhausted my body was. As for sleep, it did not come to my eyes.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “This was my situation: if (it was) day I suffered from the heat, and if (it was) night I suffered from the cold. And I always was deficient of sleep.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “I suffered from the heat during the day and from the cold at night. I was often not even able to sleep!” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Genesis 31:40

Thus I was; by day the heat consumed me: Revised Standard Version‘s sentence structure is awkward. See Good News Translation. Consumed translates the Hebrew, which means “ate” or “devoured.” Jacob means that he suffered from the daytime heat. Biblia Dios Habla Hoy also uses a figurative expression: “By day I was dying from the heat and by night I was dying from the cold.”

And the cold by night: this phrase is elliptic; that is, the verb consumed serves for both day and night. Cold is literally “frost” and refers to the formation of dew, which freezes at 0 degrees Celsius, 32 degrees Fahrenheit. It is usually not advisable to use a long descriptive phrase to speak of the cold. Since heat and cold are relative terms, a pair of opposites is normally adequate.

And my sleep fled from my eyes: this expression is figurative. Note how Good News Translation translates it nonfiguratively.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .