family / clan / house

The Hebrew terms that are translated as “family” or “clan” or “house” or similar in English are all translated in Kwere as ng’holo or “clan.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

In the English translation by Goldingay (2018) it is translated as “kin-group.”

See also tribe.

gentiles / nations

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The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin that is often translated as “gentiles” (or “nations”) in English is often translated as a “local equivalent of ‘foreigners,'” such as “the people of other lands” (Guerrero Amuzgo), “people of other towns” (Tzeltal), “people of other languages” (San Miguel El Grande Mixtec), “strange peoples” (Navajo (Dinė)) (this and above, see Bratcher / Nida), “outsiders” (Ekari), “people of foreign lands” (Kannada), “non-Jews” (North Alaskan Inupiatun), “people being-in-darkness” (a figurative expression for people lacking cultural or religious insight) (Toraja-Sa’dan) (source for this and three above Reiling / Swellengrebel), “from different places all people” (Martu Wangka) (source: Carl Gross).

Tzeltal translates it as “people in all different towns,” Chicahuaxtla Triqui as “the people who live all over the world,” Highland Totonac as “all the outsider people,” Sayula Popoluca as “(people) in every land” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Chichimeca-Jonaz as “foreign people who are not Jews,” Sierra de Juárez Zapotec as “people of other nations” (source of this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), Highland Totonac as “outsider people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Uma as “people who are not the descendants of Israel” (source: Uma Back Translation), “other ethnic groups” (source: Newari Back Translation), and Yakan as “the other tribes” (source: Yakan Back Translation).

In Chichewa, it is translated with mitundu or “races.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

See also nations.

inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (Ezek 20:32)

Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)

The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).

For this verse, the Jarai translation uses the exclusive pronoun.

complete verse (Ezekiel 20:32)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 20:32:

  • Kupsabiny: “You very much want to be like other communities or countries, worshipping trees and stones. I am telling you, never shall I allow you something like that.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘It will- never -happen what is in your mind that you will-become like the other nations whom their people worship little-god which are made from stone and wood.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “You say, ‘We want to be like the other nations, like the other people-groups in the world. We want to worshipidols made of wood and stonelike they do.’ But what you want will never happen.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

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 20:32

What is in your mind shall never happen—the thought …: The Israelites in exile decided they no longer wanted to worship Yahweh. They wanted to be like the nations around them and worship the local gods. What is in your mind refers to this idea the people had. Shall never happen renders an emphatic Hebrew expression, one in which the verb for happen is repeated. Although it is possible for God to know the thoughts of the people, the thought is literally “that which you are saying.” It is best to assume that the people had been expressing this desire, not just thinking it.

Let us be like the nations, like the tribes of the countries, and worship wood and stone: The people wanted to be like the other nations by worshiping idols made of wood and stone. The Hebrew word for tribes refers to social, kinship and ethnic groupings. If a language has a word for this, translators can certainly use it. However, if not, they may render the tribes of the countries as “the people of other countries” or “the groups in other countries.” Worship wood and stone means “worship idols of wood and stone” (New Century Version; similarly Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation). Good News Translation says “worship trees and rocks.” It is unlikely that the people actually said that they wanted to worship wood and stone, but God puts it in this way to show how stupid they were. Some translations make this clause a relative one that describes the other nations; for example, New Living Translation renders the whole sentence as “We want to be like the nations all around us, who serve idols of wood and stone” (similarly New International Version). However, it is better to render it as an independent clause; for example, New Century Version has “We want to be like the other nations, like the people in other lands. We want to worship idols made of wood and stone.”

In many languages it will be more logical to place shall never happen at the end of this verse after expressing the desire of the people (so Good News Translation). A model that does this is:

• You are saying that you want to worship idols of wood and stone and be like the other nations, like tribes [or, groups] in other countries. That is never going to happen.

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 .