Honorary "are" construct denoting God (“vow”)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

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 usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme are (され) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, chikaw-are-ru (誓われる) or “vow” is used.

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

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 26:3

The priest who is in office at that time: see the same statement of priests and judges in 17.9; 19.17.

I declare this day to the LORD your God: it is somewhat strange that the man refers to Yahweh as the God of the priest; it may seem that your (singular) is exclusive, meaning that Yahweh is not the God of the man himself; but this is not the case. Ways to avoid this problem are “the LORD my God” (Good News Translation, as in some Septuagint manuscripts) or “the LORD our God” (Contemporary English Version). Some languages, however, may wish to follow the Hebrew text quite literally and say “the LORD [or, Yahweh], the God you serve” (and see “your God” in the next verse). The verb declare introduces a formal statement, a solemn confession.

I have come into this land: the sense is that he is now living in Canaan.

The LORD swore to our fathers to give us: see 1.8.

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 .