grain

The Greek and Hebrew that is translated in English as “grain” (or: “corn”) is translated in Kui as “(unthreshed) rice.” Helen Evans (in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 40ff. ) explains: “Padddy [unthreshed rice] is the main crop of the country and rice the staple diet of the people, besides which [grain] is unknown and there is no word for it, and it seemed to us that paddy and rice in the mind of the Kui people stood for all that corn meant to the Jews.” “Paddy” is also the translation in Pa’o Karen (source: Gordon Luce in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 153f. ).

Other translations include: “wheat” (Teutila Cuicatec), “corn” (Lalana Chinantec), “things to eat” (Morelos Nahuatl), “grass corn” (wheat) (Chichimeca-Jonaz) (source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), or ntimumma lujia / “seeds for food” (Lokạạ — “since Lokạạ does not have specific terms for maize and rice that can be described as grains”) (source: J.A. Naudé, C.L. Miller Naudé, J.O. Obono in Acta Theologica 43/2, 2023, p. 129ff. )

Translation commentary on Leviticus 26:10

This verse, like verse 5 above, concerns abundant harvest. A literal translation of the Hebrew text as seen in Revised Standard Version is difficult to understand. Good News Translation clarifies the meaning by introducing the verse with “Your harvests will be so plentiful that….” Compare verse 5 above.

You shall eat old store long kept: the idea here may also be translated “you will be able to live a very long time on the grain stored up from one harvest.” Taken literally this could indicate the eating of stale food, which is definitely not the intended meaning.

You shall clear out the old to make way for the new: following the proposal for the previous phrase, this one can be rendered “you will even have to get rid of (or, throw out) what is left in order to be able to store the grain from the new harvest.”

Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René and Ellington, John. A Handbook on Leviticus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1990. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .