LORD God / Lord God

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated in English as “Lord God” or “Lord God” encountered an issue in Tok Pisin. Norm Mundhenk explains why (in The Bible Translator 1985, p. 442ff. ):

“I am not aware of any serious objections to either the word God [for “God”] or Bikpela [for YHWH] alone. However, when trying to translate the expression ‘the Lord God,’ the translators first tried to use Bikpela God. But Bikpela is also an adjective meaning ‘big’ and in the expression Bikpela God, it would usually be understood as “Big God,’ as though there were other smaller gods around also.

“In the Old Testament, as the recent articles have clearly pointed out, the English word ‘Lord‘ often stands for the Hebrew name of God, YHWH, which is usually spelled these days as Yahweh. With this in mind, the name Yawe was tried in Tok Pisin, but it was felt that most readers did not connect this strange name with God. Eventually, we decided to keep Bikpela, but to translate ‘Lord God’ as God, Bikpela, literally ‘God, the Lord.’

“The reason for this decision was really only that the words could be used naturally in this order, without the problem of giving a wrong meaning which we had when putting Bikpela first. It was not until some people asked if it was right to ‘turn around’ the name and the title in this way that we realized that there was really a deeper reason for doing what we did. In fact, for most speakers of Tok Pisin, God is the only God they know, and it seems likely that God is understood as the personal name of God, rather than as a class name. Bikpela, on the other hand, is a class name — there can be more than one Bikpela, though it is recognized that God is the greatest of them and there is no confusion when he is referred to simply as Bikpela. Thus, in Hebrew an expression like ‘YHWH, the God of Israel,’ has the personal name first, followed by the class name explaining who he is. And we have exactly the same situation in Tok Pisin when we say God, Bikpela bilong Isrel. I suspect that in many other languages which have borrowed the word ‘God,’ we might find that it has been borrowed basically as a personal name, rather than as a class name.”

complete verse (Ezekiel 3:23)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 32:3:

  • Kupsabiny: “The God of power is saying: I will use the power of many people to throw nets in the water to catch you and you will be pulled out.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Now, this is what the Lord GOD says to you: I will-cast-a-net on you and cause-to-be-dragged up[-the-ground] by many people.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “But this is what Yahweh the Lord says:
    ‘I will send many people to throw my net over you,
    and they will haul/drag you up onto the land in my net.” (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”.

Translation commentary on Ezekiel 32:3

Thus says the Lord GOD: Lord renders the Hebrew word ʾadonai, and GOD renders “Yahweh” (YHWH in Hebrew). New Century Version renders this clause as “This is what the Lord GOD says.”

I will throw my net over you: In this picture of the Egyptian king as a sea monster, God says he will use a net to capture him. The Hebrew word for net refers to a net that hunters use to catch animals or birds (see 12.13). One model for this clause is “I will throw my net over you to capture you.”

With a host of many peoples means that God will not do this alone but will “use a large group of people” (New Century Version).

And I will haul you up in my dragnet: Haul … up means to “pull up” (New Century Version) out of the water. The Hebrew word for dragnet refers specifically to a fishing net (see 26.5, where it is rendered “nets”), in contrast to the earlier net, which is a general hunting net. This word is appropriate when talking about capturing a sea creature. As the Revised Standard Version footnote indicates, the Hebrew text has the pronoun “they” as the as the subject of this clause, not the pronoun I (so Septuagint). It is better to retain the Hebrew here, in which the pronoun “they” refers to the host of many peoples. Some translations tie this phrase closely to the previous clause (so Revised Standard Version). Others tie it to this clause; for example, Contemporary English Version renders both clauses as “I … will catch you in my net and let a crowd of foreigners drag you to shore.” In fact, the phrase applies to both clauses, which New International Reader’s Version expresses as “I will use a large crowd of people to throw my net over you. They will pull you up in it.” New Living Translation is similar with “I will send many people to catch you in my net and haul you out of the water.” Another possible model is “I will use a large crowd of people to throw my net over you and capture you. They will pull you out of the water in it.”

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 .