In many, if not most of the languages in the Philippines, proper nouns, such as personal names, are tagged with a marker that signals their grammatical role within a sentence. For Tagalog and the Visayan languages , this typically includes si to mark the proper noun as the actor or subject (nominative case), ni to mark the proper noun as an owner (genitive case), and kay to mark the proper noun as as an indirect object, i.e. the one to or toward whom an action is directed (dative case). All of these also have plural forms — sina, nina and kina respectively — and unlike in the biblical languages or in English, the plural form has to be used when only a single proper name is mentioned but implicitly that proper name includes more than just one.
In this verse, where English translates “Joshua (came upon themn),” the Tagalog translation translates “sina Josue” because the context of the text makes clear that Joshua was not doing this alone. (Source: Kermit Titrud and Steve Quakenbush)
The Hebrew, Latin, and Greek that is transliterated as “Joshua” is translated in Swiss-German Sign Language with a sign that depicts a trumpet of rams’ horn, referring to Joshua 6:4 and following.
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Joshua 10:9:
Kupsabiny: “Next morning Joshua and his soldiers went to Gibeon and went to surprise (attack) their enemies.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “Joshua and his army walked all night From Gilgal and attacked the Amorites without warning.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “The whole night Josue and-company traveled from Gilgal, and they attacked the enemies who were-not watching-out.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “Joshua’s army marched all night and arrived very early in the morning.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
A new section heading, such as “God helps the Israelites defeat their enemies,” may be introduced at this point. If this is done, then verse 9 will have to be a new paragraph.
In a forced all-night march up steep mountain trails, Joshua and his men cover the 30 kilometers from Gilgal to Gibeon. Soggin comments that this is difficult “but not impossible and can be carried out in 8-10 hours.”
The verb chosen to translate marched should be suitable for a military group, though it should not necessarily imply keeping in step. See comments at 6.4.
And they made a surprise attack on the Amorites may be rendered as a separate sentence: “So the Israelite army was able to attack the Amorites before the Amorites knew they were there.”
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Newman, Barclay M. A Handbook on Joshua. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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