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. )

vineyard

The Hebrew, Latin, and Greek that is translated as “vineyard” in English is translated in Noongar as boodjer-djildjiyang, lit. “land for fruit.” (Source: Portions of the Holy Bible in the Nyunga language of Australia, 2018).

inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (Neh 5:3)

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 Nehemiah.

Translation commentary on Nehemiah 5:3

We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain: The second group was composed of the peasants who owned land. They were having to borrow money to get grain and were mortgaging their property as collateral for loans. The fields were tilled to grow grain. The vineyards of Judea made it an important center for wine production.

Mortgaging is pledging property as a guarantee that one will repay a loan. Land was the only source of income for farmers in the subsistence economy of Judea. Documents from the Jewish community in Egypt at that time indicate that interest rates were from 60 percent to 75 percent. The payment made for using someone else’s money is called interest. If interest was not paid, the property could be taken away from the owners. Here they were in danger of losing their entire livelihood, their food, their wealth and their homes. Where the economic practice of mortgaging is unknown, something may be said like “We have to place our fields, our vineyards and our houses in the hands of others in return for food.”

Vineyards were fields where grapevines were planted. For a discussion of “wine” and the grapes from which it is made, see Ezra 6.9.

Famine is a period of time when there is a severe lack of food. This is often due to drought or another natural disaster that causes crops not to grow or not to produce adequate harvests. Famine may also be caused by war or other problems that make it impossible to plant crops or that destroys crops and therefore there is not enough food.

Quoted with permission from Noss, Philip A. and Thomas, Kenneth J. A Handbook on Nehemiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2005. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .