gentiles / nations

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The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin that is often translated as “gentiles” (or “nations”) in English is often translated as a “local equivalent of ‘foreigners,'” such as “the people of other lands” (Guerrero Amuzgo), “people of other towns” (Tzeltal), “people of other languages” (San Miguel El Grande Mixtec), “strange peoples” (Navajo (Dinė)) (this and above, see Bratcher / Nida), “outsiders” (Ekari), “people of foreign lands” (Kannada), “non-Jews” (North Alaskan Inupiatun), “people being-in-darkness” (a figurative expression for people lacking cultural or religious insight) (Toraja-Sa’dan) (source for this and three above Reiling / Swellengrebel), “from different places all people” (Martu Wangka) (source: Carl Gross).

Tzeltal translates it as “people in all different towns,” Chicahuaxtla Triqui as “the people who live all over the world,” Highland Totonac as “all the outsider people,” Sayula Popoluca as “(people) in every land” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Chichimeca-Jonaz as “foreign people who are not Jews,” Sierra de Juárez Zapotec as “people of other nations” (source of this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), Highland Totonac as “outsider people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Uma as “people who are not the descendants of Israel” (source: Uma Back Translation), “other ethnic groups” (source: Newari Back Translation), and Yakan as “the other tribes” (source: Yakan Back Translation).

In Chichewa, it is translated with mitundu or “races.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

See also nations.

complete verse (Deuteronomy 12:2)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Deuteronomy 12:2:

  • Kupsabiny: “Destroy completely where those people were worshipping their gods/idols on those tall hills, slopes and under every green tree.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “When you conquer that land, you are to devastatingly destroy the places the people there do puja to their gods on the hills and mountains, and under large trees.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “When you (plur.) are- now -to-drive-out the people-groups who live there, you (plur.) are-to-destroy completely all the places which they worship their gods on the high-places and (on the) lower mountains and under the shady/spreading trees.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “You must destroy all the places where the people-groups that you will expel worship their gods, on the tops of mountains and hills and under big green trees.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

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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 formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).

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

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 12:2

Verses 2-3 are a command for the Israelites to destroy all places of worship and all idols and images of the Canaanites.

You shall surely destroy: this compound form (literally, “destroying you shall destroy”) uses the same verb used in 11.4. Destroy in this context means to completely get rid of something, either by tearing it down, smashing it into pieces, or burning it (see verse 3).

The nations whom you shall dispossess: see 9.1; 11.23.

Served their gods: see 4.28 and 6.13. On the translation of gods see 3.24.

High mountains … hills: where there are not two different words for “mountain” and “hill,” the expression “big hills and small hills” can be used.

Green tree: this is rather “leafy tree” (New Revised Standard Version), “spreading tree” (Revised English Bible, New International Version), or “luxuriant tree” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), that is, a large tree with many leaves, providing shade. So Contemporary English Version has “in the shade of large trees,” and Good News Translation “under green trees.”

The structure of verse 2 is somewhat complex, and a translation should make the sentence flow naturally. One way to restructure the verse is the following:

• But the peoples [or, nations] that live there worship other gods. So after you capture the land, you must completely destroy the likenesses [or, images] of these gods, whether they are on mountains, hills, or in the shade of large leafy trees.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .