bronze

The Hebrew, Latin, and Greek that is translated as “bronze” in English is translated in Newari as “bell-metal,” since bells are made of bronze in Nepal (source: Newari Back Translation).

See also bronze vessel.

complete verse (Ezekiel 22:18)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 22:18:

  • Kupsabiny: “‘Ezekiel, these people of Israel are of no use to me. They are like the worthless metal that remains when bronze and all other metals are tested/refined.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘Man, the people of Israel have-become of no value to me. They were like mixed bronze, can/tin, iron, or lead which is left in the furnace after the silver is-made-pure.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “‘You human, your Israeli people have becomeuseless to me. They are like dross/slag to me. They are like theworthless copper, tin, iron, and lead that remains after silver is melted in avery hot furnace.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

1st person pronoun referring to God (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 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”.

Translation commentary on Ezekiel 22:18

For Son of man, see Ezek 22.2.

The house of Israel has become dross to me …: This verse sets the scene of the metaphor—silver ore being refined in a furnace. The process of refining the silver was as follows: Workmen fed crushed material that contained the raw silver together with a mixture of metals and impurities such as sand and rubble into a fire. Sometimes they used a special dish in which to hold the mixture. The heat caused the metal to melt and sink to the bottom. The impurities floated on the top and the workmen removed them. They then allowed the metal to cool and become solid. After that they heated it again to a higher temperature to separate the silver from the other metals; these floated to the top from where the workmen could remove them. These other metals were a useless mixture of leftovers, called dross. If readers are not familiar with the process of refining metals, then translators may render dross with an expression such as “waste metal” (Good News Translation), “leftover metal” (Contemporary English Version), or “impure metals to throw away.” The house of Israel has become dross to me means the inhabitants of Jerusalem were like the useless leftovers of the silver refining process. New Century Version says “the people of Israel have become useless like scum to me,” New Living Translation has “the people of Israel are the worthless slag that remains after silver is smelted,” and Good News Translation translates simply “The Israelites are of no use to me.”

All of them, silver and bronze and tin and iron and lead in the furnace, have become dross: Most languages will have a word for silver, even if it is a borrowed word, and most will also be familiar with tin, iron, and lead. Bronze is a mixture of copper and tin (see 9.2). Here it is better translated “copper” (Good News Translation, New International Version, New Living Translation, New Century Version, Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). For those languages that do not have words for each of these metals, Contemporary English Version provides an acceptable model by rendering bronze and tin and iron and lead as “leftover metal.” A furnace for smelting ore was made of hardened clay or bricks. Revised Standard Version has rearranged the Hebrew text of this clause, which reads literally “all of them [are] copper and tin and iron and lead in the furnace; they are the dross of silver” (similarly New American Standard Bible). Revised Standard Version‘s reordering of this clause is unnecessary, and it is better to follow other models that are closer to the Hebrew; for example, Good News Translation says “They are like waste metal—copper, tin, iron, and lead—left over after silver has been refined in a furnace,” and New Century Version has “They are like the copper, tin, iron, and lead left in the furnace when silver is purified.”

A model for translating this verse is included at the end of the discussion on verse 22.

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 .