neighbor

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The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “neighbor” in English is rendered into Babatana as “different man,” i.e. someone who is not one of your relatives. (Source: David Clark)

In North Alaskan Inupiatun, it is rendered as “a person outside of your building,” in Tzeltal as “your back and side” (implying position of the dwellings), in Indonesian and in Tae’ as “your fellow-man,” in Toraja-Sa’dan it is “your fellow earth-dweller,” in Shona (translation of 1966) as “another person like you,” in Kekchí “younger-brother-older-brother” (a compound which means all one’s neighbors in a community) (sources: Bratcher / Nida and Reiling / Swellengrebel), in Mairasi “your people” (source: Enggavoter 2004), in Mezquital Otomi as “fellow being,” in Tzeltal as “companion,” in Isthmus Zapotec as “another,” in Teutila Cuicatec as “all people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), and in most modern German translations as Mitmensch or “fellow human being” (lit. “with + human being”).

In Matt 19:19, Matt 22:39, Mark 12:31, Mark 12:33, Luke 10:27, Luke 10:29 it is translated into Ixcatlán Mazatec with a term that refers to a person who is socially/physically near. Ixcatlán Mazatec also has a another term for “neighbor” that means “fellow humans-outsiders” which was not chosen for these passages. (Source: Robert Bascom)

In Noongar it is translated as moorta-boordak or “people nearby” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).

complete verse (Deuteronomy 19:11)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Deuteronomy 19:11:

  • Kupsabiny: “But a person might lie in wait for his neighbor by the road and then kill (him) and flee to a city among those cities that one flees to.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Nevertheless, when some man having enmity waits on the road for another man, meets and strikes and kills him, and when that murderer escapes to one of those cities,” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘But if a man is planting-a-grudge to his fellowman and he waited-for him and killed (him), and then he fled to one of the towns of refuge,” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “‘But suppose someone hates his enemy and hides and waits for that person to come along the road. Then when he passes by, suddenly he attacks him and murders him. If the attacker flees to one of those cities to be protected there,” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 19:11

Verses 11-13 take up the case of murder.

Hates his neighbor: again neighbor stands here for “someone,” “another person,” or “a fellow-Israelite.” In certain languages hates his neighbor will be expressed as “considers someone his enemy” (see also Good News Translation).

Lies in wait … attacks … wounds him mortally so that he dies: this is a graphic description of a deliberate, premeditated, wilful act of murder.

Flees into one of these cities: see verse 5.

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 .