2nd person pronoun with low register (Japanese)

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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 second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used anata (あなた) is typically used when the speaker is humbly addressing another person.

In these verses, however, omae (おまえ) is used, a cruder second person pronoun, that Jesus for instance chooses when chiding his disciples. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also first person pronoun with low register and third person pronoun with low register.

Translation commentary on Exod 10:16

Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron in haste is literally “And hurried Pharaoh to call for Moses and for Aaron,” with the verb “to hurry” placed first. New Revised Standard Version has “Pharaoh hurriedly summoned.” One may also say “At once the king sent for Moses and Aaron” (Contemporary English Version).

I have sinned uses the common Hebrew word for sin, which has the root meaning of failing to achieve, or missing the mark. (See the comment on chataʾ at 20.20.) Here, as in most places throughout the Old Testament, it refers to moral wrong. The same word is used in 9.27, but in that case the king admits only that he had made a mistake. In this passage he is saying that he has “done something wrong [morally] against Yahweh.” Against the LORD your God uses the name “Yahweh,” and the your is plural. And against you is also plural, meaning Moses and Aaron, but possibly all the Israelites. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh translates “I stand guilty before the LORD your God and before you.”

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .