25This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the peoples everywhere under heaven; when they hear report of you, they will tremble and be in anguish because of you.’
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Deuteronomy 2:25:
Kupsabiny: “I shall today begin to make the people all over the country to be caught by fear and cowardice because of you. I shall make them shake and be scared when they see that you have arrived.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “From today I will put the fear of you in the minds of all the nations under heaven. Hearing reports of you they will tremble, shaking with fear and their hearts will flutter, throbbing with fear."” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “Beginning today I will- cause- all the nations -to-become-afraid of you (plur.) throughout the whole world. Those who hear about you (plur.) will-tremble in fear.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “Today I will begin to cause everyone, everywhere, to be afraid of you. Everyone who hears about you will tremble and be terrified.’” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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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 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.
I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the peoples that are under the whole heaven: this can be expressed in a more natural way: “I shall fill the peoples under all heaven with fear and terror of you” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), or “I will make all the nations to be terribly afraid of you.” For comments on “fill with fear” or “melt the heart,” see 1.28, 29. The phrase “under the whole heaven” is a way of including all peoples everywhere and can be more simply stated as “all the nations in the world” (Bible en français courant, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy), or even “all people everywhere in the world.”
Who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you: this further emphasizes the fear that will possess the various peoples whose lands the Israelites will invade and conquer. It is not clear whether the report of you, that is, “the news about you,” will be of the Israelites’ successive victories as they advance, or refers to their miraculous escape from Egypt. In any case a translation should say no more than the Hebrew text. Shall hear the report of you may also be expressed as “when anyone mentions [or, talks about] you.” The two verbs shall tremble and be in anguish may be combined as Good News Translation has done: “will tremble with fear at the mention of your name”; or if there are vivid terms that are similar in meaning in a receptor language, we may translate in a way similar to Contemporary English Version: “They will tremble with fear when anyone mentions you, and they will be terrified when you appear.”
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 .
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