covet

The Hebrew and Greek that is typically translated as “covet” in English is translated as “bulge your eyes over what is someone else’s” in Isthmus Zapotec (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), in Bura-Pabir with ngguka or “have strong desire for” which differentiates from silka or “jealous,” which refers not to one’s jealous attitude to one’s neighbor (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin), and in Newari´as “cause your eye to go to” (source: Newari Back Translation).

See also greed / covetousness.

complete verse (Joshua 7:21)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Joshua 7:21:

  • Kupsabiny: “Among the things that were plundered, I admired/coveted a beautiful outer dress which came from Babylon. Other things were: more than two kilos of silver and half a kilo of gold. I took those things and went to bury them in the ground in my tent with the silver lowest/underneath.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “When I saw one beautiful shawl of Babylon, two hundred shekel of silver, and a gold rod of fifty shekel among the goods that we succeeded in plundering, I was enticed, and I took them. I have hidden them in the ground inside my tent. Under it all is the silver."” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “From the things which we took-by-force/plundered, I saw a beautiful outer-garment from Babilonia, silver which (weighed) about two and one half kilos, and one gold bar which (weighed) about half a kilo. I greatly desired these things, so I took (them). I buried them in the ground inside my tent. The silver (is) in the very bottom.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Among the things in Jericho that I saw was a beautiful coat from Babylonia. I also saw 200 pieces of silver and some gold that weighed as much as 50 pieces of silver. I wanted those things very much for myself, so I took them. I buried them all in the ground under my tent. You will find them there. The silver is buried under the other things.’” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Joshua 7:21

In this verse Achan tells what he took: a beautiful … cloak from Babylonia (“Shinar” [Revised Standard Version] is Babylonia; see Gen 10.10); “two hundred shekels of silver”; and a bar of gold weighing “fifty shekels.” A shekel at that time was a weight, not a coin; the best estimate is that it was equal in weight to 11.424 grams (0.4 ounces avoirdupois), and so two hundred shekels would be over two kilograms in the metric system (see British Good News Translation) and five pounds in the English system. These were silver pieces, not bullion or coins. The bar of gold weighed one-fourth the amount of the silver (over 0.5 kilogram, metric; over one pound, English).

Achan ends his confession by telling where he has hidden his loot.

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 .