23He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, human beings and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left and those with him in the ark.
The Greek and Hebrew phrases that are often translated as “birds of the air” in English “refer to the undomesticated song birds or wild birds, to be distinguished in a number of languages from domesticated fowl. In Tzeltal these former are ‘field birds’.” (source: Bratcher / Nida)
Q’anjob’al also uses an established term for non-domesticated birds. Newberry and Kittie Cox (in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 91ff. ) explain: “Qʼanjobʼal has two distinct terms, one to identify domesticated birds and the other non-domesticated birds. The additional descriptive phrase ‘of the air’ seemed entirely misleading, for Qʼanjobʼal speakers had never heard of such creatures. Actually, of course, all that was necessary was the term for non-domesticated birds, for that is precisely the meaning of the Biblical expression.”
In Elhomwe they are just translated as “birds” or “birds of the bush” (i.e., wild birds) to “not give the impression that these are special type of birds.” (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is translated in English as “reptiles” or “creeping things” or similar is translated as “those which crawl along upon their stomach” in San Mateo del Mar Huave, “those that crawl the way they travel” in Chichimeca-Jonaz, and “animals that crawl on the ground” in Lalana Chinantec. (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
In Nyamwezi it is translated as as vitundwa vya ku’yu’mba or “creatures that move.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
The Hebrew words zachal and remes literally mean “creeping [things]” or “crawling [things]”, which is the Hebrew way of referring to small unclean creatures, reptiles in particular. The Greek word herpeton is also a general word for reptile; it includes snakes and lizards. All of the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin words usually exclude fish.
The Hebrew words carry the connotation of uncleanness.
In languages which have a word meaning “reptile”, this will fit most contexts. In languages which do not, phrases such as “snakes and lizards”, “wriggling things”, and so forth could be used.
The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is transliterated as “Noah” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with a sign that combines the letter N + “boat.” (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
The following is a stained glass window depicting Noah by Endre Odon Hevezi and Gyula Bajo from 1965 for the Debre Libanos Monastery, Oromia, Ethiopia:
Photo by Timothy A. Gonsalves, hosted by Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license
Stained glass is not just highly decorative, it’s a medium which has been used to express important religious messages for centuries. Literacy was not widespread in the medieval and Renaissance periods and the Church used stained glass and other artworks to teach the central beliefs of Christianity. In Gothic churches, the windows were filled with extensive narrative scenes in stained glass — like huge and colorful picture storybooks — in which worshipers could ‘read’ the stories of Christ and the saints and learn what was required for their religious salvation. (Source: Victoria and Albert Museum )
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Genesis 7:23:
Kankanaey: “because God punished them. The only-ones who were excluded, plural Noe and those that were-added-to/joined them in the ark.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Newari: “The LORD annihilated all the people, the domesticated animals, the animals that creep on the ground and the birds on the earth.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “All the people and all the animals on the earth were-destroyed. Only Noe and his companions inside the ship did- not -die.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “God destroyed every living creature: People and animals and creatures that scurry across the ground and birds. Only Noah and those who were in the boat with him remained alive.” (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 usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme rare (られ) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, sa-rare-ru (去られる) or “leave/disappear” is used.
He blotted out every living thing: He refers to God, who was last mentioned in 7.16. In translation it may be necessary, as in Good News Translation, to replace He with “The LORD.” Living thing translates the same Hebrew word used in Gen 7.4. See there for discussion. For blotted out see 6.7 and 7.4.
Face of the ground is as in 2.6 and Gen 7.4. The sense is “from the earth,” “off the face of the earth,” or as New English Bible says, “everything that existed on earth.” The order of living creatures given here follows that in 6.7 and is identical in wording. Translators should follow their translation of 6.7.
They were blotted out from the earth repeats and emphasizes that the LORD’s purpose has been accomplished. Some versions do not repeat this. Translators should follow the devices for emphasis that are natural in their own language. One approach that has been followed here is to give more detail in the second sentence, instead of repeating the same general statement twice; for example, “… all people with every living thing, he destroyed them. He drowned them all, until they were all dead.”
Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark: left here means remained alive, survived, lived, did not die. Only translates a Hebrew adverb that focuses and restricts attention to a particular subject. The sense is equivalent to “No one else except Noah” or “No one but Noah.” The Hebrew begins with the verb, which is singular, but it does not separate Noah from and those that were with him. Most modern English translations, like Good News Translation, keep “Noah and those who were with him” together as the subject.
Those that were with him probably refers to Noah’s family but may also be understood to include the animals that were in the boat. The first interpretation is seen in Good News Translation “Noah and those who were with him.” New English Bible and Moffatt seem to favor the second, “Noah and his company.” This may be made clearer with “Noah, his family, and all the animals in the boat.” The two possibilities may be seen expressed in two recent translations: (1) “Only Noah, with everyone who was with him in the big boat, only those ones stayed alive.” (2) “One group only was not hurt in the flood; that was Noah with his family and all the birds and animals inside the boat.”
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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