fortress

The Hebrew that is translated in English as “fortress” (or: “stronghold”) is translated in Khoekhoe with ǁkhui-omga or “strong house.” (Source: project-specific notes in Paratext)

See also stronghold.

complete verse (Amos 1:14)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Amos 1:14:

  • Kupsabiny: “So, I will send fire to the walls of Rabbah
    to destroy that protected city.
    On that day the noise of war will come
    and that war will become fierce like a whirlwind.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “I will put fire on the walls of Rabbah,
    it will destroy their fortresses completely.
    On that day of battle, there will be big shouting
    like war in a very great and terrible storm with wind and rain.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Therefore I will-burn the stone-walls of Rabba and the strong/firm portions of this city while their enemies who are-attacking them are-screaming, who are-howling like a storm.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “I will cause a fire to completely burn the walls around Rabbah city
    and completely burn its fortresses.
    During that battle, their enemies will shout loudly
    and the fighting will be like a fierce/raging wind/storm.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

1st person pronoun referring to God (Japanese)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

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 first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also pronoun for “God”.

Translation commentary on Amos 1:14

(4) So I will send fire … fortresses. See Amos 1.4. This time the Hebrew shows another slight variation: “I will set fire to” instead of the usual “I will send fire on.” This variation makes almost no charge in meaning, so the translator may use the phrase which he has used elsewhere if it seems best.

With shouting in the day of battle, with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind/Then there will be shouts on the day of battle, and the fighting will rage like a storm. In this case the battle of which the fire is a part is mentioned. The Hebrew parallelism makes clear that “whirlwind” is a picture of the heavy fighting. Since a translation such as tempest in the day of the whirlwind makes little sense in most languages, the Good News Translation type solution is helpful. The translator should also make sure that the relation between shouts and battle is clear. The shouts are part of the noise of the confused fighting and the failing defenses.

Quoted with permission from de Waard, Jan & Smalley, William A. A Handbook on Amos. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1979. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .