Description and usage
The raft was a floating surface made by binding logs or planks together. A raft could also be made of inflated animal skins, as in the illustration below. It could be used for transporting people or goods.
Translation
While many languages have a special word for logs tied together to make a raft, it is possible to avoid using a precise term. In the middle of 1KI 5:9, CEV has “They will tie the logs together and float them along the coast.” Here and in 1ES 5:53, the rafts are not for transport but only a means of moving the logs from one place to another.
In WIS 14:5; WIS 14:6 there is a double usage of the Greek word schedia. Verse 5 speaks of the way people can travel on the big ocean on nothing more than a small amount of floating wood. Verse 6 is a recollection of the ark in which Noah and his family (and through them all of humanity) were saved. RSV, NAB, and NJB use “raft” in both verses, so the reference to the ark is somewhat obscured. NJB adds a footnote to verse 6 indicating that the reference is to Noah’s ark. GNT is better with the word “boat” in both verses. GNT ’s section heading for WIS 14:1–WIS 14:11 is “Wooden Idols Compared with Noah’s Wooden Boat.” This explains that the whole passage is about Noah’s ark.