37therefore, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated; I will gather them against you from all around and will uncover your nakedness to them so that they may see all your nakedness.
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 16:37:
Kupsabiny: “I shall gather to you your lovers and those you refused, to come and encircle you. I will remove your clothes from you remaining naked in front of all those people.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “Because of what you have-done, I will-gather all your lovers whom you have-found-pleasure — the one- you -have-loved and including also the one- you -have-hated. I will-gather them from anywhere to go-against you, and I will-take-off[-your-clothes] in-front of them so-that they can see your nakedness.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “So what I am going to do is as though I will gather those who you think have loved you and those whom you hated. I will gather them around you to attack you, and what I will do is as though I will strip your clothes off you, and they will see you when you are completely naked.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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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 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.
Therefore, behold …: The conjunction Therefore introduces God’s punishment of the girl as the result of her sins. Behold renders the emphatic Hebrew word hinneh (see Ezek 16.8); here it highlights what follows and may be rendered “Look out!” The punishment is appropriate to the girl’s sins—as she gathered many men from everywhere and stripped naked to have sex with them, so God will bring together many people to watch as he strips her naked and puts her to shame. This is the type of thing that happened in the ancient Near East when a man divorced his wife, and Ezekiel’s audience would have understood its meaning.
I will gather all your lovers means God will cause all the girl’s lovers to come together. Good News Translation says “I will bring all your former lovers together.”
With whom you took pleasure: This is the only place in the Old Testament where the Hebrew verb rendered took pleasure occurs in a sexual context. Translations differ on whether this clause means the girl received pleasure from her lovers (so Revised Standard Version/New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, New Century Version, King James Version / New King James Version, New American Standard Bible, Jerusalem Bible), or whether it means she gave pleasure to them (so Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). It is best to take it in the second sense, which New Jerusalem Bible expresses with “to whom you have given pleasure.” Some translations understand the verb here in a different way altogether, taking it to refer to illicit sex (so New Living Translation, Moffatt, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). Others simply omit this clause (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version). There is a subtle play on words here. The Hebrew verb for took pleasure sounds almost the same as the word for “tokens” that lovers might exchange, or pledges that are exchanged in political treaties. In this way the terminology of the parable hints at the historical background of the story.
All those you loved and all those you loathed: It is not clear exactly whom these words refer to. On one level they may refer to the normal experience of a prostitute—she likes some of her clients and does not like others. But for those who try to interpret the historical background behind the parable, we can only guess which nations are the ones Judah liked and which she did not like—and it is possible that her preferences changed from time to time.
I will gather them against you from every side: God repeats his judgment for emphasis. From every side means from the surrounding countries (see verse 33); it does not mean “in a circle” (Good News Translation), although it would not be wrong to imply that in translation. This clause may be rendered “I will bring your lovers together from everywhere to be against you.”
And will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness: The Hebrew word for nakedness is literally “genitals,” as in verse 8 (see the comments there). Just as the girl exposed her genitals (see verse 36), so God will strip her naked and uncover her genitals in judgment, so that the surrounding nations may see her genitals. For them to see her totally naked would bring great shame on her. New Jerusalem Bible renders these two clauses as “and strip you naked in front of them, and let them see you naked from head to foot.”
A model for this verse is:
• So then, look out! I am going to bring together all your lovers to whom you gave pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated. I will bring them in from all around to be against you, and I will strip you naked so that they all can see your genitals [or, see you completely bare].
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 .
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