touch

The Hebrew that is translated as “touch” or “strike” in English is translated in Kutu as imizeni or “sprinkle.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

hyssop

The Hebrew and Greek that is transliterated in English as “hyssop” is translated in Lokạạ as yisoki. Yisoki “is the name of a local bitter herb that is used for ritual cleansing in the traditional religion. It was, therefore, perceived by the translators as functionally adequate for ‘hyssop.’ The translation is thus symbolic in that it uses an indigenous Lokạạ botanical term and simultaneously indexical in that the translators believed that the translation points to the functional significance of the incipient term.” (Source: J.A. Naudé, C.L. Miller Naudé, J.O. Obono in Acta Theologica 43/2, 2023, p. 129ff. )

Likewise in Kwere mfumbasi is used, a local plant that both looked similar to hyssop and is traditionally used for sprinkling in rituals. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

For more information see Hyssopus officinalis .

complete verse (Exodus 12:22)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 12:22:

  • Kupsabiny: “Take leaves of hyssop and dip (them) in the blood which has been drawn and then, smear it on the top of doors and on the door-frames. Let none of you come out until morning.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Take a cluster of hyssop grasses and dip them into the lamb’s blood and smear the blood of the lamb on both sides and on the top of the doorframes. No one of you are to go out (the door of your houses) until morning.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “You (plur.) are-to-cause- the blood of it -drip/flow into a bowl. Then you (plur.) are-to-take a branch of hyssop/[isopo] and dip this into the blood and wipe (it) on the top and on the side of the doorpost of your doors. And no one is-to-go-out of your house until morning-comes.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “Pour a small amount of their blood into small dishes, and when it’s done then take an isop tree branch and then poke it into that blood, and then rub [it] on the two support posts of your doors and on its cross piece above also. But you can’t/mustn’t leave your houses and go outside until morning.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “you shall grasp broom, dip it with blood which be present in jar, wipe it on door your, on wood of door and its top. you and people of place your all, you not out exit [this direction] from house until eye will shine.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “Let the lamb’s blood drain into a basin. Get a bunch/sprig of hyssop/a very leafy plant and dip it in the blood. Then smear some of the blood on the doorposts and the lintels/beams above the doorways of your houses. The people in each house must all stay inside the house until the next morning.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (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 formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).

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

Translation commentary on Exod 12:22

Take a bunch of hyssop refers to a small plant sometimes called “marjoram” (Revised English Bible, Translator’s Old Testament, Moffatt). It has small white flowers in bunches at the end of the stem, so a “sprig” (Good News Translation) of it could be used as a brush for daubing. The botanical accuracy, however, is not important, especially if the plant is not known in the receptor culture. One may say “Take a small, bushy plant,” or “Take some hyssop grass.” And dip it in the blood refers to the blood of the slain animal. The basin has not yet been mentioned, but it obviously refers to “the bowl containing the animal’s blood” (Good News Translation). Translators should use a term for basin or “bowl” that describes some common container in the receptor culture that would naturally be used to hold water or even blood. (Good News Translation‘s footnote shows another possible meaning of the Hebrew word for basin, but most scholars understand it as “bowl.”)

The lintel and the two doorposts are explained in the comment on verse 7. Touch should probably be changed to “smear” (Revised English Bible), “apply” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), or “wipe” in this context, since the blood was to be clearly seen by the LORD (verse 23).

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 .