complete verse (Ezekiel 27:32)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 27:32:

  • Kupsabiny: “When they scream in dismay, they are saying:
    Tyre, you were so very great,
    you were greater than any other city.
    But now, you are dumbfounded
    as you have become silent down in the ocean!” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “In their mourning they will-lament this: O Tyre, no one has sunk-down into the deep-sea/ocean like what happened to you.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

2nd person pronoun with low register (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 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.

sea / lake

The various Greek, Aramaic, Latin and Hebrew terms that are translated as “sea,” “ocean,” or “lake” in English are all translated in Chichewa with one term: nyanja. Malawi, where Chichewa is spoken, has a lot of lakes but does not share a border with the ocean. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Ezekiel 27:32

In their wailing they raise a lamentation for you: The Hebrew word for wailing also refers to the weeping and crying for Tyre. Its meaning is no different from the previous terms used for weeping. In their wailing may be rendered “As they sob and cry” (New International Reader’s Version) or “In their grief” (Contemporary English Version). To express their sorrow, they raise a lamentation, that is, “they sing a funeral song” (Contemporary English Version, New Century Version; see the comments on 19.1).

And lament over you: This line introduces the funeral song of Tyre’s neighbors for Tyre. The Hebrew verb for lament comes from the same Hebrew root as lamentation. This repetition stresses the funeral song. Translators should reflect this repetition if their language allows it.

Who was ever destroyed like Tyre in the midst of the sea?: Revised Standard Version changes slightly the Hebrew verb here for its reading destroyed (so also New Revised Standard Version, New International Reader’s Version, New Century Version, King James Version / New King James Version, New American Bible). The meaning of the actual Hebrew verb here is very uncertain. Some have rendered it “silenced” (New International Version, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh; similarly Good News Translation, New Living Translation, New American Standard Bible), others make it a simple comparison (compare Revised English Bible “Who was like Tyre…?”; similarly New Jerusalem Bible, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), and still others make the point of comparison explicit (compare Moffatt “Who was glorious as Tyre…?” and Jerusalem Bible “Who could compare with haughty Tyre…?”). If we assume that the Hebrew letters for “d” and “r” have been confused for this verb, as so often they were (compare 6.14), this would result in the following reading: “Who was like Tyre, like a tower in the midst of the sea?” (Anchor Bible; similarly New English Bible, Allen). The city of Tyre was built very high and so it would be appropriate to describe it as a tower. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project thinks that three alternative interpretations are acceptable for these two lines. Models for these three are:

(1) Who was like Tyre which is now silent in the middle of the sea?
(2) Who was like Tyre standing there surrounded by the sea?
(3) Who was like Tyre standing there like a tower surrounded by the sea?

If it is necessary to make the point of comparison explicit, Contemporary English Version provides a good model with “Tyre, you were greater than all other cities. But now you lie in silence at the bottom of the sea.” It is acceptable to change this rhetorical question into a positive statement, as Contemporary English Version has done. This can be done for any of the three interpretations above, as in “No one was like Tyre….”

The meaning of the phrase in the midst of the sea depends on the interpretation chosen for these two lines. If these lines focus on the present state of Tyre, that is, totally destroyed (so interpretation 1), this phrase probably means “at the bottom of the sea” (Contemporary English Version). But if they focus on what Tyre was like before it was destroyed (so interpretations 2 and 3), this phrase probably refers to the fact that Tyre was on an island, therefore “surrounded by the sea.” Translators must make sure that the meaning of this phrase is consistent with the meaning they choose for the question as a whole.

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 .