LORD God / Lord God

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated in English as “Lord God” or “Lord God” encountered an issue in Tok Pisin. Norm Mundhenk explains why (in The Bible Translator 1985, p. 442ff. ):

“I am not aware of any serious objections to either the word God [for “God”] or Bikpela [for YHWH] alone. However, when trying to translate the expression ‘the Lord God,’ the translators first tried to use Bikpela God. But Bikpela is also an adjective meaning ‘big’ and in the expression Bikpela God, it would usually be understood as “Big God,’ as though there were other smaller gods around also.

“In the Old Testament, as the recent articles have clearly pointed out, the English word ‘Lord‘ often stands for the Hebrew name of God, YHWH, which is usually spelled these days as Yahweh. With this in mind, the name Yawe was tried in Tok Pisin, but it was felt that most readers did not connect this strange name with God. Eventually, we decided to keep Bikpela, but to translate ‘Lord God’ as God, Bikpela, literally ‘God, the Lord.’

“The reason for this decision was really only that the words could be used naturally in this order, without the problem of giving a wrong meaning which we had when putting Bikpela first. It was not until some people asked if it was right to ‘turn around’ the name and the title in this way that we realized that there was really a deeper reason for doing what we did. In fact, for most speakers of Tok Pisin, God is the only God they know, and it seems likely that God is understood as the personal name of God, rather than as a class name. Bikpela, on the other hand, is a class name — there can be more than one Bikpela, though it is recognized that God is the greatest of them and there is no confusion when he is referred to simply as Bikpela. Thus, in Hebrew an expression like ‘YHWH, the God of Israel,’ has the personal name first, followed by the class name explaining who he is. And we have exactly the same situation in Tok Pisin when we say God, Bikpela bilong Isrel. I suspect that in many other languages which have borrowed the word ‘God,’ we might find that it has been borrowed basically as a personal name, rather than as a class name.”

complete verse (Ezekiel 1:17)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 11:7:

  • Kupsabiny: “So, I the God of power is saying: Even though this city is well guarded, I shall chase you from this city.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Therefore I, the Lord GOD, says this to you: (It is) true that this city is like a cooking-pot, but the corpses that you scattered in the city were the meat. And you on-the-other-hand I will-drive-out-from this city.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Therefore this is what Yahweh the Lord says: The corpses of the people whom you have killed here are like the meat , and this city is like the pot , but I will expel you from this city.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

1st person pronoun referring to God (Japanese)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

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.

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

See also pronoun for “God”.

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

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 Ezekiel 11:7

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: The traditional prophetic formula is repeated here for emphasis (see Ezek 11.5). It may be rendered “Therefore here is what I, the Lord Yahweh, say [to you].” Lord renders the Hebrew word ʾadonai, and GOD renders “Yahweh” (YHWH in Hebrew), the name of God.

Your slain whom you have laid in the midst of it, they are the flesh, and this city is the caldron: God now corrects the false ideas that the leaders of Jerusalem had about the city keeping them safe (see Ezek 11.3). Your slain whom you have laid in the midst of it were the many people whom the leaders had murdered in Jerusalem. They are the flesh, and this city is caldron means the murdered people were the meat that was safe in the iron pot. The leaders were right about the city of Jerusalem being like an iron pot, but they were wrong about who was going to be safe in it.

But you shall be brought forth out of the midst of it: As for the leaders who thought they would be safe, God will force them out of Jerusalem. Most translations change slightly the Hebrew text here to make God the subject, so that it reads “and I will make you go out of the city” (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version). This is the best reading to follow.

This verse may be translated as follows:

• Therefore here is what I, the Lord Yahweh, say. Yes, this city is the iron storage pot, but the people you have killed are the meat that was protected in it. So I am going to force you to leave the city.

Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .