complete verse (Ezekiel 21:30)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 21:30:

  • Kupsabiny: “Return the sword to the sheath. I shall come to judge your house/family, the land of your forefathers.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Shall I return the sword to the sheath? No! I will-sentence you in your very-own nation, in the place where you (plur.) were-born.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “You must put your swords back in their sheaths
    because the days for you to slaughter your enemies are ended.
    I will judge those people in the country where they were born.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

1st person pronoun referring to God (Japanese)

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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.

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

See also pronoun for “God”.

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 21:30

Verses 30-32 speak of God’s judgment on the sword, which is a symbol for Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians. The second person pronouns you and your refer to them. These verses refer to the time when God will punish them for what they did to Jerusalem. It is best not to make the reference to the Babylonians explicit in translation, although this may be done in a footnote. If necessary, a heading such as “The Babylonians will be destroyed” may be placed before verse 30.

Return it to its sheath: This is a command to the owner of the sword to put it back into its holder. The owner is not identified, and translations should reflect the general nature of this command. New Century Version says “Put the sword back in its holder.” For sheath see Ezek 21.3. There is no justification for King James Version to make this clause a question.

In the place where you were created, in the land of your origin, I will judge you: God will punish Nebuchadnezzar and his people in their homeland. The place where you were created may mean “the place where you were born” (Revised English Bible), but more likely it refers to the way God chose Nebuchadnezzar to be the agent of his judgment on Jerusalem, so it may be rendered “the place where I chose you.” The judgment will take place in the land of your origin, that is, Nebuchadnezzar will die in his home country, Babylonia. I will judge you may be rendered “I will punish you.” In some languages it may be necessary to move this clause to the beginning of the sentence, as in “I will punish you in the place where I created you, in the land where you are from.”

See the discussion on verse 32 for a model of this whole verse.

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 .