The Hebrew or Greek which are translated into English as “sackcloth” are rendered into Chamula Tzotzil as “sad-heart clothes.” (Source: Robert Bascom)
Pohnpeian and Chuukese translate it as “clothing-of sadness,” Eastern Highland Otomi uses “clothing that hurts,” Central Mazahua “that which is scratchy,” Tae’ and Zarma “rags” (Source: Reiling / Swellengrebel), and Tangale as “torn clothes that show contrition on the body” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin). In the English translation by Goldingay (2018), “put on sackcloth” is translated as wrap on sack.
“In Turkana, a woman removes her normal everyday skin clothes and ornaments and wears rather poor skins during the time of mourning. The whole custom is known as ngiboro. It is very difficult to translate putting on sackcloth because even material like sacking is unfamiliar. The Haya, on the other hand, have a mourning cloth made out of the bark of a tree; and the use of this cloth is similar to the Jewish use of sackcloth. It was found that in both the Turkana and Ruhaya common language translations, their traditional mourning ceremonies were used.” (Source: Rachel Konyoro in The Bible Translator1985, p. 221ff. )
Click or tap here to see a short video clip showing what a sackcloth looked like in biblical times (source: Bible Lands 2012)
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated with “clothes” or similar in English is translated in Enlhet as “crawling-in-stuff” (source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1971, p. 169ff. ) and in Noongar as bwoka or “Kangaroo skin” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).
The Hebrew, Latin, and Greek that is translated as “mourn” or similar in English is translated in Newari as “have one’s heart broken” or “have a bursting heart” (source: Newari Back Translation).
The Hebrew, Latin, and Greek that is transliterated as “Jacob” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with a sign that signifies “lentil,” referring to the soup he gave his brother in exchange for his birthright (see Genesis 25:34). Note that another Spanish Sign Language sign for Jacob also users the sign for Jewish. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
In Finnish Sign Language it is translated with the signs signifying “smooth arm” (referring to the story starting at Genesis 27:11). (Source: Tarja Sandholm)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Genesis 37:34:
Kankanaey: “He suddenly-tore his own clothes and put-on-clothes made from sacks in order to show his sorrow (lit. pain of his thoughts). He mourned-for Jose a-long-time.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Newari: “He tore his upper garment. He covered his body with sackcloth. And remained in mourning for his son in this way for many days.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “Then Jacob tore his garments and clothed (himself) in sackcloth to show his sadness. A number of days was his continual-mourning for his child.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “Jacob was so grieved that he tore his clothes. He put on sackcloth/clothes that people wear when they are mourning for someone who has died. He mourned/cried for his son for many days.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Put sackcloth upon his loins: sackcloth is a dark-colored coarse cloth made of goat or camel hair. It is worn next to the skin as a sign of mourning or distress. We may need to translate sackcloth in more general terms; for example, “he put on the clothes that people wear when they mourn for the dead.” If a footnote is required, we may say “At that time [or, in that part of the world] mourning clothes were pieces of coarse cloth made from goats’ hair and worn by people when they mourned for the dead.”
Mourned … many days: that is, “for a long time.” For comments on mourned see 23.2.
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 .
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