Language-specific Insights

lusty stallions

The phrase that is rendered into English translations as “they were well-fed lusty stallions” is translated into Afar as Yessemeeqe rakuubuy alal radam faxaah muxahiyya yekken.: “they became well-fed male camels making rumbling sounds (in their throats) in their desire to mount a female camel.” (On “stallion,” see also the story here.)

In the Hausa Common Language Ajami Bible the “stallion” is a bunsuru or “he-goat,” since horses are not well-known. (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)

orphaned

In Afar the phrase that is translated into English as “I will not leave you orphaned” is translated as abba akak rabe diidaale matakkaanay: “you will not become like bees whose father/leader has died.”

land flowing with milk and honey

The phrase that is rendered in English versions as “land flowing with milk and honey” is translated into Afar as niqmatak tan baaxoy buqre kee lacah meqehiyya: “a blessed land good for fields and cattle.” (Source: Loren Bliese)

In the interconfessional Chichewa translation (publ. 1999) it is translated with the existing proverb dziko lamwanaalirenji or “a land of what (type of food) can the child cry for?” (i.e. there is more than enough to eat). (Source: Ernst Wendland in The Bible Translator 1981, p. 107)

In Kwere it is “good/fertile land.” (Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

heifer, stallion

In Afar “you frisk about like a heifer on the grass, and neigh like stallions” is translated as Qaysok cayya iyyeh xobbaaqa gaalih innah xobbaqten. Canak cayye mooyuh innah kaqitten.: “You frisk like camels satisfied with grass, and jump like goat kids satisfied with milk.” (Horses don’t survive in the Afar desert, but camels thrive.)

city has been struck

The phrase that in English versions is rendered as “Jerusalem has been struck” is translated into Afar as “Yarusalaam makko tekkeh.”: “The will of God has happened (on) Jerusalem.”

Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh

The phrase that is translated in English translations as “a trained heifer that loved to thresh” is translated into Afar as “Santiitat gexa rakub num elle kataya’nnal”: “As a camel that goes by its nose follows a person” (No threshing in Afar, but a camel with a rope around its mouth obediently follows the person leading it.)

sheave

The phrase that is rendered in English translations as “as a cart presses down when it is full of sheaves” is translated into Afar as “qari elle qilsa faras-gaari innah”: “as heavy as a horse cart with a house on it.” (Pastoral economy has no sheaves, houses are normally torn down and loaded on camels for migration.)

servant honors master

In Afar the phrase that is rendered in English translations as “a servant honours his master” is translated as saq-duwayti akah taamita num yassakaxxeh.: “the one who herds animals honors the man he works for.” (The closest thing to a servant is someone contracted to herd animals.)