complete verse (Ezekiel 21:16)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 21:16:

  • Kupsabiny: “Listen, you sharp sword! Cut towards the right and towards the left or towards anywhere where you have turned.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “O sword, you strike/cut to the left and to the right. You strike/cut everywhere you turn.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Their swords will slash to the right
    and then to the left,
    whichever way they turn the blades.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

2nd person pronoun with low register (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 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 Ezekiel 21:16

Cut sharply to right and left where your edge is directed: God addresses the sword here, which Good News Translation makes clear by adding “you sharp sword.” This verse begins with a Hebrew word whose meaning is unclear. Cut sharply (similarly Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible) is a guess that involves changing the Hebrew text, but it fits with the idea of the sharp sword earlier in the chapter (see verses 9-10). Masoretic Text has a Hebrew word that seems to be related to the word for “one” with the sense of gathering together to act as one (compare New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, which says “Be united”). This sense is probably behind Hebrew Old Testament Text Project‘s suggested rendering “join [in an attack].” However, a better suggestion is that the Hebrew letters for “d” and “r” have been confused again by some scribes (compare 6.14), so the text should begin with a word that means “go behind oneself” (compare Moffatt “Whirl to the rear” and Jerusalem Bible “Behind!”). Some Hebrew manuscripts actually have this word and it fits well in the verse, giving the sense of the sword striking to the back, the front, the right and the left, that is, all around. To right and left renders two Hebrew verbs that mean “turn to the right” and “turn to the left.” Between these two words is another Hebrew verb that means “put” (Hebrew Old Testament Text Project) or “set” (New American Standard Bible), which strengthens the following verb that means “turn to the left.” New King James Version renders this verb as “Set your blade!” Most translations do not translate it explicitly. Where your edge is directed is literally “where your face is set” (similarly King James Version). Most translations take “your face” as the “blade” (Contemporary English Version, New International Version, New Century Version, New Jerusalem Bible), “edge” (Revised Standard Version/New Revised Standard Version, New King James Version , New American Standard Bible, New American Bible, Moffatt) or “point” (Revised English Bible, Bible en français courant) of the sword, but it is better to understand it as a direction, so this clause may be rendered “where your face is pointing” (compare Jerusalem Bible, which has “In front!”).

A model for this verse is:

• You sword, strike behind you, then to the right, then to the left, then to the front—in the direction you are facing!

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 .