grain

The Greek and Hebrew that is translated in English as “grain” (or: “corn”) is translated in Kui as “(unthreshed) rice.” Helen Evans (in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 40ff. ) explains: “Padddy [unthreshed rice] is the main crop of the country and rice the staple diet of the people, besides which [grain] is unknown and there is no word for it, and it seemed to us that paddy and rice in the mind of the Kui people stood for all that corn meant to the Jews.” “Paddy” is also the translation in Pa’o Karen (source: Gordon Luce in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 153f. ).

Other translations include: “wheat” (Teutila Cuicatec), “corn” (Lalana Chinantec), “things to eat” (Morelos Nahuatl), “grass corn” (wheat) (Chichimeca-Jonaz) (source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), “millet” (Lambya) (source: project-specific notes in Paratext), “food” (Nyamwezi) (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)or ntimumma lujia / “seeds for food” (Lokạạ — “since Lokạạ does not have specific terms for maize and rice that can be described as grains”) (source: J.A. Naudé, C.L. Miller Naudé, J.O. Obono in Acta Theologica 43/2, 2023, p. 129ff. )

threshing floor

The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin that is translated as “threshing floor” in English is translated in Kim with twal or “termite mound” which are used to build threshing floors. (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)

See also thresh.

complete verse (Job 5:26)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 5:26:

  • Kupsabiny: “You shall live in the land until you grow old
    like one waits for the food/crop in the field until it is dry before it is harvested.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “EAH] Just as the harvest comes in the threshing floor, when the time comes,
    just like that, having lived an entire life span, you will be caused to lie down in the tomb.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “You (sing.) will-live long, and you (sing.) will- not -die when the right time is not yet.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Job 5:26

In this verse line a is a statement and line b a simile which illustrates it. The parallelism is in the time of the two events as well as in the events themselves. Come to your grave in line a means to approach death, be near death, ready to die. Ripe old age translates a word whose meaning is uncertain. It occurs also in 30.2, where it is translated by Revised Standard Version as “vigor.” The idea is that Job will die when he is ready, just as a sheaf of grain can only be threshed when it has been made ready (ripe, mature) by the growing cycle. In line b a shock of grain refers to a stack of sheaves, probably wheat.

Comes up to the threshing floor: the word translated comes up suggests a picture of harvest time, when heaps or stacks of sheaves appear to rise up over the fields. Some translators take this to refer to the elevated threshing floor, where the wind would blow the chaff away (Revised Standard Version, New English Bible). Good News Translation compares the ripe grain to life rather than to death: “You will live to a ripe old age.” New Jerusalem Bible implies death by saying “as shocks of grain are taken away in their season…,” and Moffatt “like a sheaf borne home in harvest.” Good News Translation has placed the simile in line a, and in some languages the same will be necessary. In languages where threshing is unknown, it may be necessary to say, for instance, “in the place where the grain is cleaned” or “the place for separating the grain.” If such an expression does not result in a clear picture, it may be better to follow Good News Translation and others which speak of wheat, or “grain that ripens until harvest,” or “until ready to be gathered up.” If grains are largely unknown, a local plant which is gathered when it ripens may be able to be used.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .