21And when King Jehoiakim, with all his warriors and all the officials, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death, but when Uriah heard of it, he was afraid and fled and escaped to Egypt.
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 26:21:
Kupsabiny: “When king Jehoiakim together with his soldiers and his leaders heard what Uriah had said, they tried to kill him. When Uriah came to know about that, he fled to Egypt in fear.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “When King Jehoyakim and all his officials and leaders/[lit. heads] heard what Uria had-said, they tried to kill him. But Uria heard it, so he fled to Egipto because of fear.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “When King Jehoiakim and his army officers and officials heard what Uriah was saying, the king sent someone to kill Uriah. But Uriah heard about it, and became very afraid, and he escaped/ran away to Egypt.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Some languages do not have a concept of kingship and therefore no immediate equivalent for the Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin that is translated as “king” in English. Here are some (back-) translations:
Ninia Yali: “big brother with the uplifted name” (source: Daud Soesilio in Noss 2007, p. 175)
Nyamwezi: mutemi: generic word for ruler, by specifying the city or nation it becomes clear what kind of ruler (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Ghomála’: Fo (“The word Fo refers to the paramount ruler in the kingdoms of West Cameroon. He holds administrative, political, and religious power over his own people, who are divided into two categories: princes (descendants of royalty) and servants (everyone else).” (Source: Michel Kenmogne in Theologizing in Context: An Example from the Study of a Ghomala’ Christian Hymn))
Faye Edgerton retells how the term in Navajo (Dinė) was determined:
“[This term was] easily expressed in the language of Biblical culture, which had kings and noblemen with their brilliant trappings and their position of honor and praise. But leadership among the Navajos is not accompanied by any such titles or distinctions of dress. Those most respected, especially in earlier days, were their headmen, who were the leaders in raids, and the shaman, who was able to serve the people by appealing for them to the gods, or by exorcising evil spirits. Neither of these made any outward show. Neither held his position by political intrigue or heredity. If the headman failed consistently in raids, he was superceded by a better warrior. If the shaman failed many times in his healing ceremonies, it was considered that he was making mistakes in the chants, or had lost favor with the gods, and another was sought. The term Navajos use for headman is derived from a verb meaning ‘to move the head from side to side as in making an oration.’ The headman must be a good orator, able to move the people to go to war, or to follow him in any important decision. This word is naat’áanii which now means ‘one who rules or bosses.’ It is employed now for a foreman or boss of any kind of labor, as well as for the chairman of the tribal council. So in order to show that the king is not just a common boss but the highest ruler, the word ‘aláahgo, which expresses the superlative degree, was put before naat’áanii, and so ‘aláahgo naat’áanii ‘anyone-more-than-being around-he-moves-his-head-the-one-who’ means ‘the highest ruler.’ Naat’áanii was used for governor as the context usually shows that the person was a ruler of a country or associated with kings.”
Warriors … princes is rendered “officers … chief men” by New Jerusalem Bible. New American Bible has “officers … princes” and Revised English Bible “bodyguard … officers.” Warriors means “strong young men,” and is frequently used of men connected with the military (Good News Translation “soldiers”), as would seem to be the case in the present context. Compare with “mighty men” in 5.16, which translates the same Hebrew word. Princes is frequently used as the equivalent of “officials” (see verse 10; 1.18).
Afraid and fled are translated as a verb plus adverbial expression by Good News Translation: “fled in terror.” It is possible also to combine these two verbs with escaped, as in New English Bible: “he was afraid and fled to Egypt” (so Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).
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 .
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