14Let me alone that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven, and I will make of you a nation mightier and more numerous than they.’
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)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Deuteronomy 9:14:
Kupsabiny: “Let me finish the off completely and I shall bless your grandchildren to become a big community in place of them.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “You are not to prevent me from destroying them. I will finish off their name from the earth, causing it not to exist. Then from you I will create a nation greater and stronger than them."” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “Just leave me alone that I will-destroy them so-that they will- now -be-forgotten. Then I will-make you (sing.) and your (sing.) descendants into a nation mightier and more numerous than them.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “So do not try to stop me. I am going to destroy all of them, with the result that no one anywhere will remember their names /that they ever existed. Then I will enable you to become the ancestor of a nation that will be more numerous and more powerful than they are.’” (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.
Let me alone: God is telling Moses to stand back or step aside, not to get in his way; “Don’t try to stop me…” (Good News Translation). Apparently Yahweh regards Moses as a person with considerable authority.
That I may destroy them: the whole statement could be rephrased: “Step aside and let me wipe them out” or “Don’t interfere while I get rid of them.”
Blot out their name from under heaven: see similar language in 7.24.
I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they: God proposes to exterminate the Israelites and make Moses the ancestor of a people that eventually will outnumber the Israelites and be more powerful than they are. This should be spelled out clearly in translation. The contrast between them in the first sentence and you (Moses) in this sentence should be emphasized if possible; a possible model is “I will make a larger and more powerful nation out of you instead [of them].” Good News Translation “the father of a nation” may not be the best way of saying of you a nation in some languages. Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje has “Of you and your descendants I will make….”
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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