cardinal directions

The cardinal directions “east” and “west” are easy to translate into Maan here since the language uses “where the sun comes up” and “where the sun goes down.” For “north” the translator had “facing toward the sun rising to the left,” and for “south” she had “facing toward the sun rising to the right.” So the listener had to think hard before knowing what direction was in view when translating “to the north and south, to the east and west.” So, in case all four directions are mentioned, it was shortened by saying simply “all directions.” (Source: Don Slager) Likewise, Yakan has “from the four corners of the earth” (source: Yakan back-translation) or Western Bukidnon Manobo “from the four directions here on the earth” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo back-translation).

Kankanaey is “from the coming-out and the going-away of the sun and the north and the south” (source: Kankanaey back-translation), Northern Emberá “from where the sun comes up, from where it falls, from the looking [left] hand, from the real [right] hand” (source: Charles Mortensen), Amele “from the direction of the sun going up, from the direction of the sun going down, from the north and from the south” (source: John Roberts), Ejamat “look up to see the side where the sun comes from, and the side where it sets, and look on your right side, and on your left” (source: David Frank in this blog post).

In Lamba, only umutulesuŵa, “where the sun rises” and imbonsi, “where the sun sets” were available as cardinal directions that were not tied to the local area of language speakers (“north” is kumausi — “to the Aushi country” — and “south” kumalenje — “to the Lenje country”). So “north” and “south” were introduced as loanwords, nofu and saufu respectively. The whole phrase is kunofu nakusaufu nakumutulesuŵa nakumbonsi. (Source C. M. Doke in The Bible Translator 1958, p. 57ff.)

“West” is translated in Tzeltal as “where the sun pours-out” and in Kele as “down-river” (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel).

In Morelos Nahuatl, “north” is translated as “from above” and “south” as “from below.” (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)

The Hebrew text that gives instructions where to place items in the tabernacle with the help of cardinal directions (north and south) had to be approached in the Bambam translation specific to spacial concepts of that culture.

Phil Campbell explains: “There are no words in Bambam for north and south. In Exodus 26:35, God instructs that the table is to be placed on the north side and the lamp on the south side inside the tabernacle. The team wants to use right and left to tell where the lamp and table are located. In many languages we would say that the table is on the right and the lampstand is on the left based on the view of someone entering the tabernacle. However, that is not how Bambam people view it. They view the placement of things and rooms in a building according to the orientation of someone standing inside the building facing the front of the building. So that means the table is on the left side and the lampstand is on the right side.”

See also cardinal directions / left and right.

three facing north; three facing west; three facing south and three facing east

The Hebrew that is translated as “three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east” or similar in English is translated in Kutu with a construct that uses “their backs looked at each other” rather than the facing outward. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

Translation commentary on 2 Chronicles 4:4

A literal translation of the Hebrew, as in Revised Standard Version, may give the false impression that two different things are being described in the two halves of this verse. But in fact, this is parallelism; the two parts give the same information in different ways. Good News Translation restructures the verse and provides this information in one brief description.

It stood upon twelve oxen is literally “standing upon twelve oxen.” It may be wise to make the subject explicit; for example, Good News Translation and Bible en français courant refer to “The tank,” and New International Version has “The Sea.” And the verb itself may be more naturally translated “seated” rather than “standing.” Revised English Bible says the tank “was mounted,” and several other versions use the verb “rested” (Good News Translation, Moffatt). In some languages it may be necessary to indicate precisely on which part of the anatomy of the oxen or “bulls” (Good News Translation) the basin rested. While the Hebrew does not say so specifically, Good News Translation specifies that it was “on the backs…” (similarly Moffatt).

For oxen see the comments on 1 Chr 12.40. The twelve oxen were not live animals. As verse 15 shows, these oxen were also made of bronze. This information may be made explicit here in verse 4 (so Good News Translation, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente). Perhaps there were twelve oxen to symbolize the twelve tribes of Israel, which camped around the Tabernacle with three tribes on each side during the time of Moses (see Num 2).

Three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east: In Hebrew west is literally “the Sea,” referring to the Mediterranean Sea. South is literally “the Negev,” that is, the region south of the hill country of western Palestine. For further discussion on the four directions, see the comments on 1 Chr 9.24. In languages where the translation of the four directions presents great difficulties, the model of Good News Translation may be helpful since it says simply “three facing in each direction” (similarly Contemporary English Version, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).

And all their hinder parts were inward: The rear parts of the animals (“their haunches” in New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh and Moffatt) were facing toward the center of the tank. In some languages it will be much more natural to speak of the animals “facing outward” (Contemporary English Version; similarly Good News Translation) or “looking outward,” rather than their rear ends “facing inward.”

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 .