cattle, livestock

The Hebrew that is translated in English as “livestock” (or “cattle”) is translated in Newari as “living beings brought up in a house” or “living beings cared for in a house” (source: Newari Back Translation). Specifically “cattle” is “cows and oxen.”

In Kwere it is “animals that are being kept.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

complete verse (Joshua 11:14)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Joshua 11:14:

  • Kupsabiny: “The people of Israel brought/took all the things they had plundered from those cities including animals, but they killed all the people.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “The Israelites took for themselves all the cattle of these cities and as much property as there was. The people, however, they killed with the sword. They destroyed them without keeping even one of them alive.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “The Israelinhon took all the possessions/properties and the animals/livestock in these towns/cities. But they killed all its residents, and no-one at-all was-left alive.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “The Israelis took for themselves the animals that they found in those cities and everything else that was valuable. But they killed all the people.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Joshua 11:14

The Israelites kept all the valuables and livestock, but they killed all the people. They put every person to death; no one was left alive is similar in Hebrew to what occurs in 10.40 and 11.11.

The word translated valuables (Revised Standard Version “spoil”) refers to any kind of loot taken from a captured city; it is the same word translated goods at 8.27. Livestock is also the same word translated livestock in 8.27.

But they put every person to death; no one was left alive translates “but every man they smote with the edge of the sword, until they had destroyed them, and they did not leave any that breathed” (Revised Standard Version). One may further shorten the statement: “But they put every person in the city to death.”

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 .