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.

desert, wilderness

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The Greek that is translated as “desert” or “wilderness” in English is translated in a number of ways:

Note that in Luke 15:4, usually a term is used that denotes pastoral land, such as “eating/grazing-place” in Tagbanwa (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation).

See also wilderness and desolate wilderness.

Translation commentary on Joshua 1:4

Your borders: Your is plural, referring to the people of Israel and not just to Joshua.

The Hebrew text seems to define the territory as follows: “from the wilderness and this Lebanon and to the great river, the Euphrates River, all the land of the Hittites and to the great sea at the going down of the sun will be your borders.” Good News Translation takes this to indicate the four limits of the territory: south, “the wilderness,” traditionally called the Negev, and referring to the dry country extending from Beersheba to the desert of Sinai and the Gulf of Aqaba; north, the Lebanon Mountains; east, the Euphrates River; and west, the Mediterranean Sea. In Hebrew “this Lebanon” is puzzling; most translations have simply “the Lebanon.” The name does not refer to the country known today as Lebanon but to the Lebanon Mountains. The Hebrew of verse 4 is literally “From the wilderness (desert) … shall be your border.” Good News Translation inverts the Hebrew order and translates Your borders will reach from…. But the result is a sentence which is both lengthy and difficult, and it will help the reader if the sentence is restructured. For example, “I will give you (plural) all the land from the desert in the south to the Lebanon Mountains in the north. Your borders (or, The borders of your land) will reach from the great Euphrates River in the east. It will include the Hittite country as far as the Mediterranean Sea in the west.” A restructuring of this type will have at least two advantages: (1) It will break verse 4 into two less difficult sentences, and (2) it will tie verse 3 (“I promised Moses that I would give”) more closely with verse 4 (“I will give”).

“All the land of the Hittites” (Revised Standard Version) is omitted in the Greek Old Testament and is thought by some scholars to be a later addition to the text (see Bible de Jerusalem [Bible de Jérusalem]); it denotes the northern part of Syria, which had been part of the Hittite empire. See the similar description of the promised land in Deuteronomy 11.24, which does not include the phrase “all the land of the Hittites.” It seems best to follow the Hebrew text here. Only during the time of David and Solomon did the Israelites actually occupy much of this land.

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 .