king

Click here to view graphically

Some languages do not have a concept of kingship and therefore no immediate equivalent for the Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin that is translated as “king” in English. Here are some (back-) translations:

(Click or tap here to see details)

  • Piro: “a great one”
  • Highland Totonac: “the big boss”
  • Huichol: “the one who commanded” (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Ekari: “the one who holds the country” (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • Una: weik sienyi: “big headman” (source: Kroneman 2004, p. 407)
  • Pass Valley Yali: “Big Man” (source: Daud Soesilo)
  • Ninia Yali: “big brother with the uplifted name” (source: Daud Soesilio in Noss 2007, p. 175)
  • Nyamwezi: mutemi: generic word for ruler, by specifying the city or nation it becomes clear what kind of ruler (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
  • Ghomála’: Fo (“The word Fo refers to the paramount ruler in the kingdoms of West Cameroon. He holds administrative, political, and religious power over his own people, who are divided into two categories: princes (descendants of royalty) and servants (everyone else).” (Source: Michel Kenmogne in Theologizing in Context: An Example from the Study of a Ghomala’ Christian Hymn))

Faye Edgerton retells how the term in Navajo was determined:

“[This term was] easily expressed in the language of Biblical culture, which had kings and noblemen with their brilliant trappings and their position of honor and praise. But leadership among the Navajos is not accompanied by any such titles or distinctions of dress. Those most respected, especially in earlier days, were their headmen, who were the leaders in raids, and the shaman, who was able to serve the people by appealing for them to the gods, or by exorcising evil spirits. Neither of these made any outward show. Neither held his position by political intrigue or heredity. If the headman failed consistently in raids, he was superceded by a better warrior. If the shaman failed many times in his healing ceremonies, it was considered that he was making mistakes in the chants, or had lost favor with the gods, and another was sought. The term Navajos use for headman is derived from a verb meaning ‘to move the head from side to side as in making an oration.’ The headman must be a good orator, able to move the people to go to war, or to follow him in any important decision. This word is naat’áanii which now means ‘one who rules or bosses.’ It is employed now for a foreman or boss of any kind of labor, as well as for the chairman of the tribal council. So in order to show that the king is not just a common boss but the highest ruler, the word ‘aláahgo, which expresses the superlative degree, was put before naat’áanii, and so ‘aláahgo naat’áanii ‘anyone-more-than-being around-he-moves-his-head-the-one-who’ means ‘the highest ruler.’ Naat’áanii was used for governor as the context usually shows that the person was a ruler of a country or associated with kings.”

(Source: Faye Edgerton in The Bible Translator 1962, p. 25ff. )

Translation commentary on Joshua 12:2 - 12:3

One was Sihon … at Heshbon may be somewhat clearer if translated, “One of the kings whom Moses defeated was King Sihon. He was an Amorite king who ruled at the city of Heshbon.”

The geographical data in verses 2-3 relating to the kingdom of Sihon are not very clear in Hebrew. For the defeat of Sihon, see Numbers 21.21-30; Deuteronomy 2.26-37.

Heshbon, the capital of Sihon, was about 25 kilometers northeast of the northern end of the Dead Sea. The southern limit of Sihon’s kingdom was Aroer (that is, the Arnon Valley); the northern limit was the Jabbok River, which flows into the Jordan. The river formed the boundary with Ammon, which lay to the east (a look at a map in k The New Oxford Annotated Bible,k* Revised Standard Version, will show how the river runs north and then turns west to the Jordan). Sihon’s kingdom occupied (the southern) half of Gilead.

Good News Translation and from the city in the middle of that valley attempts to make sense of the Hebrew, which has “from Aroer, on the edge of the Arnon Valley, and the middle of the valley and half of Gilead and to the Jabbok River, the border of the Ammonites.” Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, New American Bible, Bible de Jérusalem, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, in different ways, translate “and the valley (or, riverbed) itself”; Revised Standard Version “from the middle of the valley” involves a slight alteration of the Masoretic text. Good News Translation has taken its clue from 13.9, 16, “the city that is in the middle of the valley” (see also Deut 2.36), on the assumption that the city in has dropped out from the text here.

In verse 3, Revised Standard Version “the Arabah” and “the Sea of Chinneroth” are the Jordan Valley and Lake Galilee. Beth Jeshimoth lies slightly northeast of the Dead Sea, about 20 kilometers west of Heshbon, the capital of Sihon’s kingdom. Mount Pisgah is between Heshbon and Beth Jeshimoth. Revised Standard Version translates the Hebrew “the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea,” which is a way of speaking of the Dead Sea.The Hebrew miteman in verse 3 is translated by most “from the south” or “southward”; New English Bible, however, takes it to be a place name, “from Teman,” a city in Edom, about halfway between the Gulf of Aqaba and the Dead Sea.

A clear and simple presentation of the geographical data contained in this and the following verse will be extremely difficult. At the least it will require constant reference to a map and careful consideration of the most natural order in which to present the material in the receptor language. Following the interpretation of Good News Translation, one method of presentation would be:

• 2 King Sihon ruled the southern half of the land of Gilead, which was the territory between the Jabbok River valley in the north and the Arnon River valley in the south. His kingdom extended southeast as far as the city of Aroer on the edge of the Arnon Valley. In the southwest it extended as far as the town in the Arnon Valley halfway between Aroer and the Dead Sea. 3 The western boundary of his kingdom was the Jordan River valley from Lake Galilee in the north to the Dead Sea in the south. Included in his territory was the area east of the Dead Sea as far as the town of Beth Jeshimoth and Mount Pisgah.

Since Mount Pisgah is less well known than Mount Nebo, the neighboring mountain, it would also be proper to use the better known term for the geographical description.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Newman, Barclay M. A Handbook on Joshua. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .