complete verse (Joshua 17:12)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Joshua 17:12:

  • Kupsabiny: “But the clan of Manasse was not able to take these cities because the Canaanites resisted much.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Yet the descendants of Manasseh were not able to defeat the people who lived in those cities. Being unyielding the Canaanites continued living there.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “But these towns/cities were-not possessed/owned by the descendants of Manase, for they were- not -able-to-drive-out the Canaanhon there.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “The men of the tribe of Manasseh were not able to force the people who lived in those cities to leave, so the people of the Canaan people-group continued to live in those cities.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Joshua 17:12 - 17:13

Verses 12-13 indicate that the same thing happened in those cities that happened elsewhere (see verses 15.63 and 16.10): the Israelites were unable to drive out the native Canaanites from those places and reduced them to a slave class. In verse 12 it should be made clear that the people living in those cities and the Canaanites are the same people. To accomplish this it may be necessary to translate “… were not able to drive out the Canaanites who lived in those cities, so the Canaanites….”

In Hebrew the verb did not drive out (Revised Standard Version “did not utterly drive … out”) is emphatic, and so the verse may be translated, “Later the Israelites became stronger, and they forced the Canaanites to work for them. But they still did not drive all the Canaanites out of the land.”

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 .