20When Absalom’s servants came to the woman at the house, they said, “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?” The woman said to them, “They have crossed over the brook of water.” And when they had searched and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem.
The name that is transliterated as “Jerusalem” in English is signed in French Sign Language with a sign that depicts worshiping at the Western Wall in Jerusalem:
While a similar sign is also used in British Sign Language, another, more neutral sign that combines the sign “J” and the signs for “place” is used as well. (Source: Anna Smith)
“Jerusalem” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 2 Samuel 17:20:
Kupsabiny: “Shortly/Soon after, the people of/from Absalom arrived at that home and asked that, ‘Where is Ahimaaz and Jonathan?’ That woman told (them) that, ‘They have both crossed some small valleys.’ Those people tried to look for those boys, but they did not find (them). Then, they returned to Jerusalem.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “Then Absalom’s men came and asked that woman, "Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?" That woman answered them, "They passed over the river." Though they searched for the two of them, they were not able to find [them] and they went back to Jerusalem.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “When the men of Absalom came to the house of a man, they asked his wife, ‘Have- you (plur.) -seen Ahimaaz and Jonatan?’ The wife answered, ‘They crossed-over the river.’ They looked for them but they could- not -find them, so they just returned to Jerusalem.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “Some of Absalom’s soldiers found out where the two men had gone. So they went to the house, and asked the woman, ‘Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?’ She replied, ‘They crossed the river.’ So the soldiers crossed the river and searched for them. But they could not find them, so they returned to Jerusalem.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Absalom’s servants: that is, his “officials,” and not household domestic servants.
They have gone over the brook of water: the meaning of the word translated brook is uncertain, since it is found only here in all the Old Testament. The water would make Absalom’s men think of the Jordan River, where they almost certainly proceeded in search of Jonathan and Ahimaaz. There is some textual evidence that leads some scholars to propose that the Masoretic Text should be corrected to read “they have gone further on, towards the water” (New Jerusalem Bible, and similarly New American Bible). But Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament gives a {B} rating to the Masoretic Text and recommends that this text be translated as in Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, and most other versions.
The Hebrew text does not have direct object pronouns after the verbs they had sought and could not find, but in many languages it may be necessary to supply them, as in Good News Translation and Revised Standard Version.
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between. One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a third person singular and plural pronoun (“he,” “she,” “it” and their various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. While it’s not uncommon to avoid pronouns altogether in Japanese, there are is a range of third person pronouns that can be used.
In these verses a number of them are used that pay particularly much respect to the referred person (or, in fact, God, as in Exodus 15:2), including kono kata (この方), sono kata (その方), and ano kata (あの方), meaning “this person,” “that person,” and “that person over there.” (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
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