concubine

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “concubine” in English is translated in Kutu as “slave made to be his woman” or “female slave he married.”

Similarly, in Kwere it is translated as “slaves who were like wives.” The translation team explained: “We discussed how concubines are different from prostitutes (there is a word for that) in that they have a similar status to wives (they live with the man often and are provided for physically) and so we decided not to use the word for prostitute which is a loose woman or someone engaging in sexual immorality. But since concubines were an accepted part of the society and culture, this would give wrong meaning.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

Translation commentary on 1 Chronicles 2:46

Ephah also, Caleb’s concubine, bore Haran, Moza, and Gazez: The adverb also renders the common Hebrew conjunction, but it seems to make the introduction to this verse too emphatic, since this conjunction may be equally well translated “And” or left untranslated (so Revised English Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). So we advise translators not to make this introduction emphatic. For concubine see the comments on 1 Chr 1.32. Here and in the verses that follow, the Hebrew verb translated bore may be rendered “was the mother of” (New Century Version) or “gave birth to” (New Jerusalem Bible).

And Haran was the father of Gazez: Good News Translation and Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente add the adverb “also” in order to avoid any confusion by the second mention of the name Gazez here. Some scholars think the Masoretic Text contains an error in this clause, so they correct it to read “and Haran was the father of Jahdai” (so Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Einheitsübersetzung). This makes a much better lead-in to the following verse, where Jahdai is mentioned (see the comments there). This change of the Masoretic Text may well be correct, but since there is no manuscript support for it, such a correction is not recommended.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Chronicles, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2014. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .