chariot

The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is translated into English as “chariot” is translated into Anuak as “canoe pulled by horse.” “Canoe” is the general term for “vehicle” (source: Loren Bliese). Similarly it is translated in Lokạạ as ukwaa wạ nyanyang ntuuli or “canoe that is driven by horses.” (Source: J.A. Naudé, C.L. Miller Naudé, J.O. Obono in Acta Theologica 43/2, 2023, p. 129ff. )

In Eastern Highland Otomi it’s translated as “cart pulled by horses” (source: Larson 1998, p. 98) and in Chichicapan Zapotec as “ox cart” (in Acts 8). Ox carts are common vehicles for travel. (Source: Loren Bliese)

In Chichimeca-Jonaz, it is translated as “little house with two feet pulled by two horses” (source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.) and in the Hausa Common Language Ajami Bible as keken-doki or “cart of donkey” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)

It is illustrated for use in Bible translations in East Africa by Pioneer Bible Translators like this:

Image owned by PBT and Jonathan McDaniel and licensed with the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

See also cart.

dust

The two Hebrew terms that are translated in English as “dust” are referring to “dry earth” (aphar) and “fine dust” (abaq). In Lamba, like in Hebrew, two different terms are used: ikuŋgu: “dust in the air” and ifukutu: “settled dust.”

In Genesis 2:7, for instance, ifukutu in Lamba and aphar in Hebrew is used and ind Ezekiel 26:10 ikuŋgu and abaq are being used.

In the only occurrence where both Hebrew terms are used side by side (in Deuteronomy 28:24), English versions use “powder and dust” or simply drop one of the terms. Lamba, however, is able to closely and naturally follow the Hebrew by using both of the available terms (likuŋgu lifukutu). (Source C. M. Doke in The Bible Translator 1958, p. 57ff.)

Translation commentary on Ezekiel 26:10

His horses will be so many that their dust will cover you: There will be so many galloping horses in Nebuchadnezzar’s army and they will raise so much dust that a cloud of dust will hang over the city of Tyre, or there will be a layer of dust over the whole city. Translators may say “He will have so many horses that you will be covered in dust when they run.” For horses see 17.15.

Your walls will shake at the noise of the horsemen and wagons and chariots: The Babylonian army will be so big and the noise it makes will be so loud that the walls of Tyre will shake, as if there was an earthquake. For horsemen and chariots, see Ezek 26.7; for wagons (literally “wheels”), see 23.24.

The dust cloud will rise and the walls will shake when he enters your gates as one enters a city which has been breached, that is, when Nebuchadnezzar defeats Tyre, breaks a hole through the city walls, and enters the city as the victor. The Hebrew verb rendered breached means “break through” or “rip apart” (compare New International Version and New International Reader’s Version, which say “[a city whose walls] have been broken through”). The last sentence of this verse may be reordered in many languages to make it more natural as follows: “When he [or, his army] breaks a hole in your walls and he enters the city in victory, the noise of the soldiers on horses and the noise of the battle vehicles and carts will cause your walls to shake.”

Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .