The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “widow” in English is translated in West Kewa as ona wasa or “woman shadow” (source: Karl J. Franklin in Notes on Translation 70/1978, pp. 13ff.) and in Newari as “husband already died ones” or “ones who have no husband” (source: Newari Back Translation).
The etymological meaning of the Hebrewalmanah (אַלְמָנָה) is likely “pain, ache,” the Greekchéra (χήρα) is likely “to leave behind,” “abandon,” and the Englishwidow (as well as related terms in languages such as Dutch, German, Sanskrit, Welsh, or Persian) is “to separate,” “divide” (source: Wiktionary).
The Hebrew and Greek that is typically translated as “sin” in English has a wide variety of translations.
The Greek ἁμαρτάνω (hamartanō) carries the original verbatim meaning of “miss the mark” and likewise, many translations contain the “connotation of moral responsibility.”
Loma: “leaving the road” (which “implies a definite standard, the transgression of which is sin”)
Navajo (Dinė): “that which is off to the side” (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida)
Toraja-Sa’dan: kasalan, originally meaning “transgression of a religious or moral rule” and in the context of the Bible “transgression of God’s commandments” (source: H. van der Veen in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 21ff. )
Bariai: “bad behavior” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
Sandawe: “miss the mark” (like the original meaning of the Greek term) (source for this and above: Ursula Wiesemann in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 36ff., 43)
In Shipibo-Conibo the term is hocha. Nida (1952, p. 149) tells the story of its choosing: “In some instances a native expression for sin includes many connotations, and its full meaning must be completely understood before one ever attempts to use it. This was true, for example, of the term hocha first proposed by Shipibo-Conibo natives as an equivalent for ‘sin.’ The term seemed quite all right until one day the translator heard a girl say after having broken a little pottery jar that she was guilty of ‘hocha.’ Breaking such a little jar scarcely seemed to be sin. However, the Shipibos insisted that hocha was really sin, and they explained more fully the meaning of the word. It could be used of breaking a jar, but only if the jar belonged to someone else. Hocha was nothing more nor less than destroying the possessions of another, but the meaning did not stop with purely material possessions. In their belief God owns the world and all that is in it. Anyone who destroys the work and plan of God is guilty of hocha. Hence the murderer is of all men most guilty of hocha, for he has destroyed God’s most important possession in the world, namely, man. Any destructive and malevolent spirit is hocha, for it is antagonistic and harmful to God’s creation. Rather than being a feeble word for some accidental event, this word for sin turned out to be exceedingly rich in meaning and laid a foundation for the full presentation of the redemptive act of God.”
Martin Ehrensvärd, one of the translators for the DanishBibelen 2020, comments on the translation of this term: “We would explain terms, such that e.g. sin often became ‘doing what God does not want’ or ‘breaking God’s law’, ‘letting God down’, ‘disrespecting God’, ‘doing evil’, ‘acting stupidly’, ‘becoming guilty’. Now why couldn’t we just use the word sin? Well, sin in contemporary Danish, outside of the church, is mostly used about things such as delicious but unhealthy foods. Exquisite cakes and chocolates are what a sin is today.” (Source: Ehrensvärd in HIPHIL Novum 8/2023, p. 81ff. )
Let no one rejoice over me: The idea here is that no one should gloat over Jerusalem, that is, take malicious pleasure in her misfortune. Contemporary English Version has “Please don’t be happy about my sadness,” but we may also translate “Let no one gloat over what has happened to me.”
A widow and bereaved of many: There is a mixed metaphor here. Jerusalem is being compared both to a wife who has lost her husband (a widow) and to a mother who has lost her children (bereaved of many). Both images are found in Lamentations (see Lam 1.1, 5; see also Isa 49.21; 54.1, 4). Jerusalem can be compared to a widow in that she feels the loss of God, her husband (Hos 2.16), her protector. She also is of course bereaved of her children, the exiles. New Jerusalem Bible and Moore express this in terms of her being “deserted” rather than bereaved. But there is a problem with that; we ordinarily think of someone who has been deserted as a person left alone because of the deliberate action of someone else. Jerusalem’s “children” did not desert her in this sense; they were forced away from home. In many languages the image of the widow must be rendered as a simile; for example, “I am like a widow—all my children have been forced to leave” or “… my enemies have forced all my children to leave.”
I was left desolate because of the sins of my children: Good News Translation has “their sins have made me a deserted city.” This captures well what Jerusalem utters, but also gently reminds the reader that the speaker is a city. The children of Jerusalem, of course, include people of all ages.
They turned away from the law of God: This is identical with the first line of Job 34.27 in the Greek Bible. Good News Translation moves this clause forward and makes it an independent clause. It is then clear that “their sins” in the last clause refers to this turning away.
An alternative translation model for this verse is:
• No one should gloat over what has happened to me. I am already like a widow, and now my enemies have forced my children to leave. I am a deserted city because my children sinned and stopped obeying God’s Law.
Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Shorter Books of the Deuterocanon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2006. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.
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