complete verse (Exodus 5:7)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 5:7:

  • Kupsabiny: “that, ‘Do not any more give these slaves straw for making clay for building. They must look for their own alone.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “‘Now do not give the straw to the people who used to be provided with straw for making brick, they must search the straw for themselves.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘[You (plur.)] no-longer give the workers straw for them to use for making bricks, but-rather they themselves now (are)-the-(ones) to-look-for this.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “‘You (pl.) can’t/mustn’t do like in the recent past and since. You can’t/mustn’t give dry weeds to the people for mixing together with earth for making those hard stones. They alone must go gather their dry weeds.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “«From now on, you not people of Israel grass give that they might make bricks with it. Let them go harvest and bring back grass by themselves.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “‘Do not continue to give the Israeli people straw for making bricks, as you have done previously. Make them go into the fields and gather straw for themselves.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

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 5:7

These are the words of the king’s command, or decree. You refers to the taskmasters and the foremen in verse 6. You shall no longer give is literally “You shall not continue to give,” meaning “Stop giving” (Good News Translation). Evidently the Egyptians had been supplying the workers with straw, or at least had supervised the delivery of the straw to the brick-makers. The word give may therefore be understood as “supply” (New English Bible) or “provide” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). The people here refers to the Israelites, particularly those who were required to make the bricks.

The word for straw refers to chopped pieces of the stalks of wheat or barley after the grain had been harvested. It served a double purpose: as a binder it caused the mud to stick together in one lump, and as a decaying vegetable substance it produced humic acid that strengthened the dried bricks. The bricks in ancient Egypt were flat rectangular blocks of sun-dried mud or clay used for constructing walls and buildings. Although somewhat larger than the bricks commonly used today, they were placed on top of each other with a layer of mud in between as mortar. In cultures where bricks are unknown, translators may borrow the English term or one from some other major language. It will then be helpful to include a Glossary comment on bricks and even have a picture in the text. In verse 12 the straw is distinguished from the “stubble.” (See the comment there.) As heretofore is an idiom emphasizing the idea that the practice of supplying straw for the laborers must stop. It may also be rendered “as you have been doing until now.”

Let them go is a command; it does not suggest that they may go if they want to. Good News Translation‘s “Make them go” is better. Let them go and gather straw suggests two actions: they were to go out into the harvested fields and gather the straw wherever they could find it. For themselves should be understood as “they themselves must go and gather the straw.” This became an added burden to that of making the bricks, since the straw was a necessary ingredient in the mixture.

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 .