The Hebrew that is translated as “turquoise” in English is translated in Nyamwezi as zumalidi or “emerald.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Language-specific Insights
distance of a bowshot
The Hebrew in Genesis 21:16 that is translated as “distance of a bowshot” in English is translated in Nyamwezi as ntambo igana li’mo or “about 100 paces,” since the distance of a bowshot did not communicate distance very well. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
not the daughter of my mother
The Hebrew in Genesis 20:12 that is translated as “the daughter of my mother” in English is translated in Nyamwezi as “not of one stomach,” i.e. not sharing the same mother. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
innocent
The Hebrew in Genesis 20:4 that is translated as “innocent” in English is translated in Nyamwezi as “no debt” since there is no existing term for the concept. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
In Bura-Pabir it is translated as na ɓɗaku or “which is righteous.” (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
flee for your life
The Hebrew in Genesis 19:17 that is translated as “flee for your life” in English is translated in Nyamwezi as muyi’pi’zye myoyo yinywe or “save your hearts,” an idiom that means to save yourselves. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
establish (covenant)
destroy them along with the earth
The Hebrew in Genesis 6:13 that is most often translated as “destroy them along with the earth” in English is translated in Nyamwezi as “destroy them from the earth” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
The Translator’s Handbook on Genesis (Reyburn / Fry 1997) supports this choice. See also “from the earth” in Genesis 6:7.
swear / vow
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “swear (an oath)” or “vow” in English is otherwise translated as:
- “God sees me, I tell the truth to you” (Tzeltal)
- “loading yourself down” (Huichol)
- “speak-stay” (implying permanence of the utterance) (Sayula Popoluca)
- “say what could not be taken away” (San Blas Kuna)
- “because of the tight (i.e. ‘binding’) word said to a face” (Guerrero Amuzgo)
- “strong promise” (North Alaskan Inupiatun) (source for all above: Bratcher / Nida)
- “eat an oath” (Nyamwezi) (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
- “drink an oath” (Jju) (source: McKinney 2018, p. 31).
- “cut taboos” (Mairasi (source: Enggavoter 2004)
In Bauzi “swear” can be translated in various ways. In Hebrews 6:13, for instance, it is translated with “bones break apart and decisively speak.” (“No bones are literally broken but by saying ‘break bones’ it is like people swear by someone else in this case it is in relation to a rotting corpse’ bones falling apart. If you ‘break bones’ so to speak when you make an utterance, it is a true utterance.”) In other passages, such as in Matthew 26:72, it’s translated with an expression that implies taking ashes (“if a person wants everyone to know that he is telling the truth about a matter, he reaches down into the fireplace, scoops up some ashes and throws them while saying ‘I was not the one who did that.'”). So in Matthew 26:72 the Bauzi text is: “. . . Peter took ashes and defended himself saying, ‘I don’t know that Nazareth person.'” (Source: David Briley)
See also swear (promise) and Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’, or ‘No, No’.
