bribe

The Hebrew that is translated into “(taking) bribes” in English is rendered as “receive punch underneath” in Upper Guinea Crioulo.

righteous, righteousness

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The Greek, Hebrew, and Latin terms that are translated in English mostly as “righteous” as an adjective or personified noun or “righteousness” (also as “upright(ness)” and “just(ice)”) are most commonly expressed with concept of “straightness,” though this may be expressed in a number of ways. (Click or tap here to see the details)

Following is a list of (back-) translations of various languages:

  • Bambara, Southern Bobo Madaré, Chokwe (ululi), Amganad Ifugao, Chol, Eastern Maninkakan, Toraja-Sa’dan, Pamona, Batak Toba, Bilua, Tiv: “be straight”
  • Laka: “follow the straight way” or “to straight-straight” (a reduplicated form for emphasis)
  • Sayula Popoluca: “walk straight”
  • Highland Puebla Nahuatl, Kekchí, Muna: “have a straight heart”
  • Kipsigis: “do the truth”
  • Mezquital Otomi: “do according to the truth”
  • Huautla Mazatec: “have truth”
  • Yine: “fulfill what one should do”
  • Indonesian: “be true”
  • Navajo (Dinė): “do just so”
  • Anuak: “do as it should be”
  • Mossi: “have a white stomach” (see also happiness / joy)
  • Paasaal: “white heart” (source: Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
  • (San Mateo del Mar Huave: “completely good” (the translation does not imply sinless perfection)
  • Nuer: “way of right” (“there is a complex concept of “right” vs. ‘left’ in Nuer where ‘right’ indicates that which is masculine, strong, good, and moral, and ‘left’ denotes what is feminine, weak, and sinful (a strictly masculine viewpoint!) The ‘way of right’ is therefore righteousness, but of course women may also attain this way, for the opposition is more classificatory than descriptive.”) (This and all above from Bratcher / Nida except for Bilua: Carl Gross; Tiv: Rob Koops; Muna: René van den Berg)
  • Central Subanen: “wise-good” (source: Robert Brichoux in OPTAT 1988/2, p. 80ff. )
  • Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac: “live well”
  • Mezquital Otomi: “goodness before the face of God” (source for this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
  • Eastern Huasteca Nahuatl: “the result of heart-straightening” (source: Nida 1947, p. 224)
  • Eastern Highland Otomi: “entirely good” (when referred to God), “do good” or “not be a debtor as God sees one” (when referred to people)
  • Carib: “level”
  • Tzotzil: “straight-hearted”
  • Ojitlán Chinantec: “right and straight”
  • Yatzachi Zapotec: “walk straight” (source for this and four previous: John Beekman in Notes on Translation November 1964, p. 1-22)
  • Makonde: “doing what God wants” (in a context of us doing) and “be good in God’s eyes” (in the context of being made righteous by God) (note that justify / justification is translated as “to be made good in the eyes of God.” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
  • Aari: The Pauline word for “righteous” is generally rendered by “makes one without sin” in the Aari, sometimes “before God” is added for clarity. (Source: Loren Bliese)
  • North Alaskan Inupiatun: “having sin taken away” (Source: Nida 1952, p. 144)
  • Nyamwezi: wa lole: “just” or “someone who follows the law of God” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
  • Venda: “nothing wrong, OK” (Source: J.A. van Roy in The Bible Translator 1972, p. 418ff. )
  • Ekari: maakodo bokouto or “enormous truth” (the same word that is also used for “truth“; bokouto — “enormous” — is being used as an attribute for abstract nouns to denote that they are of God [see also here]; source: Marion Doble in The Bible Translator 1963, p. 37ff. ).
  • Guhu-Samane: pobi or “right” (also: “right (side),” “(legal) right,” “straightness,” “correction,” “south,” “possession,” “pertinence,” “kingdom,” “fame,” “information,” or “speech” — “According to [Guhu-Samane] thinking there is a common core of meaning among all these glosses. Even from an English point of view the first five can be seen to be closely related, simply because of their similarity in English. However, from that point the nuances of meaning are not so apparent. They relate in some such a fashion as this: As one faces the morning sun, south lies to the right hand (as north lies to the left); then at one’s right hand are his possessions and whatever pertains to him; thus, a rich man’s many possessions and scope of power and influence is his kingdom; so, the rich and other important people encounter fame; and all of this spreads as information and forms most of the framework of the people’s speech.”) (Source: Ernest Richert in Notes on Translation 1964, p. 11ff.)
  • German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999): Gerechtheit, a neologism to differentiate it from the commonly-used Gerechtigkeit which can mean “righteousness” but is more often used in modern German as “fairness” (Berger / Nord especially use Gerechtheit in Letter to the Romans) or Gerechtestun, also a neologism, meaning “righteous deeds” (especially in Letter to the Ephesians)
  • “did what he should” (Eastern Highland Otomi)
  • “a clear man, good [man]” (Mairasi) (source: Enggavoter 2004)

See also respectable, righteous, righteous (person), devout, and She is more in the right(eous) than I.

complete verse (Exodus 23:8)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 23:8:

  • Kupsabiny: “A person should not accept a bribe because that makes people blind so they do not do truth/right and it brings suffering to the innocent.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Do not take bribes for the bribe makes you blind and twists the words of the righteous.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘You (plur.) should- not -accept a bribe, for a bribe makes- people -blind to the truth, and it will-hurt/harm justice for the innocent ones.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “‘If a man coaxes you (pl.) with money and so says for you to make false talk to help him, you can’t/mustn’t listen/consent to him. For this practice messes up good people’s talk and so it causes the people who straighten disputes to destroy upright people.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “A man, he must not you [mouth] buy, because bribe, they who see, it will injure them eye, and word of they who be good, it will turn it into evil.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “Do not accept money that is a bribe, because officials who accept bribes are not able to decide what is right to do, and they do not allow innocent people to be treated fairly.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Exod 23:8

And you shall take no bribe is addressed to you singular. Take should here be understood as “accept” (Good News Translation). The word for bribe sometimes means gift, but the context here refers to a gift in money or in kind, intended to influence a person in deciding a legal case. For a bribe blinds the officials is literally “for the bribe puts out [the eyes] of the clear-sighted [ones].” Revised Standard Version and New Revised Standard Version have officials because the context seems to point to those who make legal decisions. Most translations, however, follow the more general idea of people who are “clear-sighted” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible), and Revised English Bible has “the discerning person.” Good News Translation may be too general by simply translating “people.” In some languages a bribe will be expressed idiomatically; for example, “to close the eyes of a person with money,” “to bite with money,” or “to oil the machine.” So this first sentence may be rendered, for example, as “Do not let a person close your eyes with money, for judges [or, chiefs] are blinded so that they cannot decide what is right.” Another possibility is “… for you will be blinded so that you cannot decide what is right [or, cannot judge fairly].”

And subverts the cause of those who are in the right is only three words in Hebrew, “and-twists words-of righteous [people].” The word for “words” is davar, which may also mean “pleas” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), or a “case” (Translator’s Old Testament, Durham). The word for subverts, or “twists” (New International Version), is sometimes used in the sense of “overthrow,” so New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh says that bribes “upset the pleas of those who are in the right,” and Durham says the bribe “turns the case … upside down.” It is perhaps clear enough to say, as in Good News Translation, that a bribe “ruins the cause of those who are innocent,” or in Contemporary English Version, “justice is twisted by bribes.”

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 .