yoke

The Greek and Hebrew term that is translated into English as “yoke,” the Afar translation uses koyta (poles of camel pack) which refers to two poles in front of the hump and two behind; elsewhere in agricultural Ethiopia the yoke is only in front of the hump.

In Chol it is translated with tajbal, a term for “headband” (for carrying) (source: Ronald D. Olson in Notes on Translation January, 1968, p. 15ff.). Likewise, in Kele, it is translated with njɛmbɛ, “a carrying strap worn around the head and across the chest or shoulders to support a burden of firewood, garden produce or even a child carried by this on the back or hip” (source: William Ford in The Bible Translator 1957, p. 203ff. ).

In Matumbi it is translated as “rope” and “yoke is easy” is translated as “rope is slack/soft.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)

In Kwasio it is translated with a term that refers to a “bulky piece of wood attached to the neck of a goat, preventing it from roaming freely in the brushy undergrowth.”

Joshua Ham explains: “When checking this verse in Kwasio, I was surprised to find that the Kwasio had a word for yoke. You see, none of the language groups we have worked with have a tradition of using animals to pull carts or plows. Since yokes don’t exist in the culture, there’s no need for a word for that concept in these languages.

“When I asked the Kwasio team about their word for yoke, they said that they don’t use yokes to help animals pull plows; rather, their word for yoke refers to a bulky piece of wood attached to the neck of a goat, preventing it from roaming freely in the brushy undergrowth. So while the exact use of a Kwasio yoke is not the same as a biblical yoke, there are a lot of similarities: in both cases, it’s a piece of wood around an animal’s neck that serves to keep the animal under control. While the overlap isn’t perfect, it’s pretty good — and almost certainly better than trying to squeeze in a distracting explanation of how yokes function in the biblical cultures.”

Adam Boyd (in The PNG Experience ) tells this story about finding the right term in Enga: “Jesus’s words in Matthew 11:29-30 are some of the most difficult to translate into the Enga language. From the time that I became a Christian, I was taught that a yoke is a wooden crosspiece that is fastened over the neck of two animals and attached to a plough or cart that they are to pull. This is an easy enough concept to understand for people who come from societies that make use of beasts of burden, but in Papua New Guinea, there are no beasts of burden. Consequently the concept of a yoke placed on animals is completely foreign. Thus, we have struggled greatly in our attempt to translate Matthew 11:29-30.

“Recently, however, I came to learn that a yoke can also refer to a wooden frame that a person places on his neck or shoulders to make it easier to carry a heavy load. Indeed, the Bible often makes figurative use of the word ‘yoke’ as it refers to people and not to beasts of burden (see 1 Kings 12:4-14). As I was pondering that idea, I began to notice that when Engan men carry heavy logs on one shoulder, they often balance the load by supporting it with a small stick placed across the other shoulder. A few weeks ago, it clicked in my mind that the small stick they use to make it easier to carry a heavy log is like a yoke.

“Excited by this realization, I quickly asked my friend Benjamin if the stick that men use to make it easier to carry a heavy log has a name in Enga. Sure enough it does. It is called a pyakende. With great anticipation, I asked the translation team if we could use the word pyakende to translate the word ‘yoke’. After wrestling with the phrasing for a little while, we came up with the following translation: ‘In order to remove the heaviness from your shoulders, take my pyakende. When you have taken it, you will receive rest. As my pyakende helps you, what I give you to carry is not heavy and you will carry it without struggling.’”

“Yoke” is illustrated for use in Bible translations in East Africa by Pioneer Bible Translators like this:

Image owned by PBT and Jonathan McDaniel and licensed with the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Click or tap here to see a short video clip showing how yokes were used in biblical times (source: Bible Lands 2012)

complete verse (Jeremiah 2:20)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 2:20:

  • Kupsabiny: “You Israel have been refusing my authority from long ago.
    You refused to obey me and worship me.
    You have been worshipping idols on
    every high hill
    and you Israel have been laid
    under every green tree like a prostitute.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘In the time-past, when you (plur.) were enslaved, you (plur.) are like a cow that have yoke or a prisoner that have chain, but when I already set- you (plur.) -free, you (plur.) will- not -serve me. Instead, you (plur.) worshipped the false-gods on every high mountain and under every leafy tree. You (plur.) are like a woman who sells her body.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 2:20

For long ago comes first in the Hebrew sentence, and suggests the long-standing nature of Israel’s sin and the LORD’s patience in enduring it. For shows that this verse continues the thinking from verse 19 by giving the reason for Israel’s punishment. The connector For is not natural in many languages and is therefore often dropped. On the other hand, since there is a paragraph break and a section heading in Good News Translation, some indication of the continuity of the word from the LORD is necessary, so it repeats “The Sovereign LORD says.”

Broke your yoke is parallel with burst your bonds. Both figures indicate rebellion, rather than seeking independence or freedom. Thus Good News Translation removes the figures and translates “you rejected my authority; you refused to obey me.”

The yoke was a crooked piece of wood placed on the neck of an animal used for plowing and other purposes. It was the means by which the animal was kept under control and subject to its master. Translators who wish to retain the image might say something like “broke the yoke by which I directed you.” If yoke is not known, then translators should follow the model of Good News Translation above rather than introduce an unknown object and thereby render the verse unnecessarily awkward.

Bonds is here apparently used of the ropes or straps by which the owner of the animal controlled it during work. As with yoke, translators could say “broke the ropes [or, straps] by which I controlled you [or, which kept you under my control].” The first two lines could be “Like an ox [or, work animal] breaking its yoke and bursting its control straps, you broke away from my authority [or, control].” If this makes the sentence too complex, we may simply do something similar to Good News Translation. For the combination of yoke and bonds used in this same sense, see 5.5; 30.8. In 27.2 a different Hebrew term is used for yoke, though the figure is the same.

Serve is frequently used in the Old Testament with the meaning “obey” or “worship.” Some languages require an object, as in “serve you.” Good News Translation translates will not serve as “refused to … worship me.”

The text continues with Yea, a word that emphasizes the point being made. New International Version renders it as “Indeed,” but translators should do whatever is most natural in their language.

Upon every high hill and under every green tree has reference to the places where the Canaanites conducted their fertility rites. The two expressions do not refer to different locations but to the same places; that is, the fertility rites were carried out under green trees that grew on the tops of high hills. Translators may want to put this information in the footnotes, although some have included it in the text, as in “Under the green trees on every high hill, those places where people worship idols….” Some languages make a distinction between a green tree that is continually green and one that turns green year after year. Either of these fits the context and is acceptable in translation.

You bowed down as a harlot: Good News Translation expresses this as “you worshiped fertility gods.” Although some translations take this as a figure of speech which means Israel’s worshiping other gods was like someone who was unfaithful in marriage and went with prostitutes (see New American Bible note, for example), it should in fact be taken literally of young Israelite women who dedicated themselves to the fertility god. They became “sacred prostitutes” that men had sexual intercourse with. In theory the ultimate intention of this action was to inspire the god to make the earth fertile. But in actual fact it became nothing more than a debasing act of immorality. Moreover, a secondary danger was the assimilation of these rites as a part of the worship of the LORD. Evidently the Israelites had adopted this aspect of Canaanite worship and were no longer able to distinguish between it and the true worship of the LORD. Hos 2.2-13 portrays in more detail what is here condemned by Jeremiah. Translators may say simply “you practiced prostitution.” New Revised Standard Version has “you sprawled and played the whore,” which is similar to Revised English Bible “sprawled in promiscuous vice.” But following the text, bowed down has the element of “worship,” thereby making possible a rendering such as “you practiced prostitution in your worship of other gods.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2003. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .