complete verse (Deuteronomy 22:7)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Deuteronomy 22:7:

  • Kupsabiny: “Leave the mother of those young ones of the bird as you go away, but you may go with her children/young. If you do like that you shall prosper/progress and live for many years.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “You can take the young and leave the mother. Then it will be good for you and you will live for a long time.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “You (plur.) can take the chicks or the eggs, but you (plur.) must let-go the mother, so-that will-become well your (plur.) situation and you (plur.) will-live long.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “You are permitted to take the baby birds, but you must allow the mother bird to fly away. Do this in order that things will go well for you and that you will live for a long time.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 22:6 - 22:7

The underlying purpose in these instructions is not just humanitarian concern for other forms of life, but the preservation of a food source. A mother bird will lay more eggs and produce more young.

That it may go well with you, and that you may live long: this probably means more than a long life as such. It means the people will live for many generations in the Promised Land (see discussion at 6.2). Good News Translation gives a helpful model for this verse; so also does Contemporary English Version: “… Let her go free, and the LORD will bless you with a long and successful life.”

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 .