13But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness; they did not observe my statutes but rejected my ordinances, by whose observance everyone shall live, and my Sabbaths they greatly profaned.
Then I thought I would pour out my wrath upon them in the wilderness, to make an end of them.
Low German translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006: “steppe”
Yakan: “the lonely place” (source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “a land where no people lived” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “the place with no inhabitants” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Matumbi uses various term: lubele (desert, sandy place without water) — used in John 11:54, lupu’ngu’ti (a place where no people live, can be a scrub land, a forest, or a savanna) — used in Mark 1:3 et al.), and mwitu (a forest, a place where wild animals live) — used in Mark 1:13 et al.) (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
Chichewa Contemporary translation (2002/2016): chipululu: a place uninhabited by people with thick forest and bush (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Note that in Luke 15:4, usually a term is used that denotes pastoral land, such as “eating/grazing-place” in Tagbanwa (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation).
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “Sabbath” in English is rendered as “day we rest” in Tzotzil, in Mairasi as “Jew’s Rest Day,” in Quiotepec Chinantec as “day when people of Israel rested,” in Shilluk as “day of God,” in Obolo as Usen Mbuban or “Holy Day,” and in Mandarin Chinese as ānxírì (安息日) or “rest day” (literally: “peace – rest – day”). (Sources: Tzotzil: Marion Cowan in Notes on Translation with Drill, p. 169ff; Mairasi: Enggavoter 2004; Quiotepec Chinantec: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.; Shilluk: Nida 1964, p. 237; Obolo: Enene Enene; Chinese: Jost Zetzsche)
In Matumbi it is translated as Sabato ya Ayahudi or “Sabbath of the Jews,” to distinguish it from the Islamic Sabbath (which is Friday) or the Christian Sabbath (which is Sunday). (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
In the old Khmer version as well as in the first new translation this term was rendered as “day of rest” (Thngai Chhup Somrak / ថ្ងៃឈប់សំរាក). Considered inadequate to convey its religious meaning (not only about cessation of work, but also in honor of Yahweh as the Creator), the committee for the Today’s Khmer Version (publ. 2005) decided to keep the Hebrew word and use its transliterated form Thgnai Sabath (ថ្ងៃសប្ប័ទ). “The Buddhist word Thngai Seil ‘day of merits’ used by some Catholics was once under consideration but was rejected because it did not receive unanimous support.” (Source: Joseph Hong in The Bible Translator 1996, p. 233ff. )
In Spanish, the translation is either día de reposo (“day of rest”) or sábado (usually: “Saturday,” derived from the Greek and Hebrew original). Nida (1947, p. 239f.) explains that problem for Spanish and other languages in its sphere of influence: “In translation ‘Sabbath’ into various aboriginal languages of Latin America, a considerable number of translators have used the Spanish sábado, ‘Saturday,’ because it is derived from the Hebrew sabbath and seems to correspond to English usage as well. The difficulty is that sábado means only ‘Saturday’ for most people. There is no religious significance about this word as the is with ‘Sabbath’ in English. Accordingly the [readers] cannot understand the significance of the persecution of Jesus because he worked on ‘Saturday.’ It has been found quite advantageous to use the translation ‘day of rest,’ for this accurately translated the Hebrew meaning of the term and resolves the problem in connection with the prohibitions placed upon some types of activities.”
In French Sign Language it is translated with a sign that depicts closing of the blinds of a store:
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 20:13:
Kupsabiny: “But the Israelites went astray from me in the wilderness. They refused to follow my laws and did not honor my will that if a person follows (them), (it) brings him life. Those people also scorned the Sabbath. I had prepared to vomit/pour out my anger on these Israelites in the desert for them to be scattered.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “‘But they still rebelled against me there in the desert. They did not obey my commands and statutes, that if they would obey they would-live. And they never cause-to-become-holy the Day For-Resting which I caused- them -to-obey. Therefore I said that I would-have- them -experience my anger so-that they will-be-destroyed entirely there in the desolate-place.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “But the Israeli people rebelled against me in the desert. They did not obey my commands ; they rejected them, even though they tell people who obey them that they will live for a long time, and they profaned the Sabbath days. So I said that I would get rid of them in the desert, and that would show that I was very angry with them.” (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.
The form of verses 13-14 is almost exactly the same as verses 8-9.
But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: For the house of Israel, see Ezek 20.5; for rebelled against me, see Ezek 20.8; and for the wilderness, see verse 10.
They did not walk in my statutes but rejected my ordinances: See 5.6. The verb walk is used in a figurative sense here, meaning “live according to” or “obey.” Rejected my ordinances means the Israelites deliberately ignored, disobeyed and showed contempt for God’s laws.
By whose observance man shall live: See verse 11.
And my sabbaths they greatly profaned: For my sabbaths, see verse 12; for profaned see Ezek 20.9. This clause may be rendered “They also completely dishonored the day of rest that was meant to honor me.”
Then I thought I would pour out my wrath upon them in the wilderness: See Ezek 20.8.
To make a full end of them means God wanted to destroy the Israelites completely. There is a play on words in the Hebrew here, because God uses the same word here as in verse 8, where it is translated “spend” my anger (literally “completely end” my anger). Where possible and appropriate, it is good to reflect such a wordplay in translation, for example, translators may render the last clause of verse 8 as “until my anger completely finished,” and this clause as “until they were completely finished.”
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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