inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (2Kings 7:10)

Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)

The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).

For this verse, the Jarai and the Adamawa Fulfulde translation both use the exclusive pronoun, excluding the gatekeepers.

Translation commentary on 2 Kings 7:10

The common Hebrew conjunction here is translated So, showing the logical relationship between the reasoning of the four men and their subsequent action.

They came: The verb came implies “to the city of Samaria.” This will probably need to be made explicit in many languages. Good News Translation and Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje go even further by stating also that the men “left the Syrian camp.” The same verb at the beginning of the direct quotation will be more logically rendered “went” (Good News Translation, New Revised Standard Version) in most languages since the men speaking are no longer located in the Syrian camp. For the first clause in the quotation, New Jerusalem Bible translates “We have been to the Aramaean camp.”

Gatekeepers were people who stood guard at the city gate especially in times of crisis. The Hebrew says literally “one who is occupied with the gate.” Although the Masoretic Text has the singular noun “gatekeeper,” the ancient Syriac reads “gatekeepers,” and verse 11 also has the plural noun “gatekeepers.” In this particular case there was more than one person at the gate.

For behold see the comments on verse 5 and 2 Kgs 2.11. See also the discussion on Hebrew focusing particles in “Translating 1–2 Kings,” pages 13-14. Here again the element of surprise is in view.

Tied: Several English translations use the technical term “tethered” (Revised English Bible, New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, New Living Translation), meaning that an animal is tied to a post or stake. But this English rendering comes from the context and not because there is a special word in Hebrew. The Hebrew has a rather general term.

When the men report that they found the animals and tents of the Syrians as they were, this implies “as they were before the Syrians fled,” but this may be stated more naturally as in Good News Translation, which says “just as the Syrians left them.”

Translators may wish to consider changing the direct quotation to an indirect statement as has been done by Revised English Bible, which translates “called to the watch at the city gate and described how they had gone to the Aramaean camp and found not one man in it and had heard no human voice: nothing but horses and donkeys tethered, and the tents left as they were.”

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .