The Greek and Hebrew that is translated as “shepherd” in English is translated in Kouya as Bhlabhlɛɛ ‘yliyɔzʋnyɔ — ” tender of sheep.”
Philip Saunders (p. 231) explains:
“Then one day they tackled the thorny problem of ‘shepherd’. It was problematic because Kouyas don’t have herdsmen who stay with the sheep all the time. Sheep wander freely round the village and its outskirts, and often a young lad will be detailed to drive sheep to another feeding spot. So the usual Kouya expression meant a ‘driver of sheep’, which would miss the idea of a ‘nurturing’ shepherd. ‘A sheep nurturer’ was possible to say, but it was unnatural in most contexts. The group came up with Bhlabhlɛɛ ‘yliyɔzʋnyɔ which meant ‘a tender of sheep’, that is one who keeps an eye on the sheep to make sure they are all right. All, including the translators, agreed that this was a most satisfactory solution.”
Other translations include:
Chuj: “carer” (there was no single word for “shepherd”) (source: Ronald Ross)
Muna: “sheep guard” (dhagano dhumba) (there was no immediate lexical equivalent) (source: René van den Berg),
Mairasi: “people who took care of domesticated animals” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 34:23:
Kupsabiny: “I shall give those sheep a shepherd who is like my servant David who shall take care of (them).” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “I will-give them one watcher who is a descendant of my servant David. He will-take-care and will-watch-over them.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “And I will appoint one leader for them, someone who will be like King David, who served me very well. That leader will take care of them and be like their shepherd.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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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.
In verses 23-24 God promises to restore the Davidic kingship.
And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David: For his people God will appoint one shepherd, that is, “a single shepherd” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), in contrast to the many bad shepherds that had led Israel in the past. The Septuagint says “another shepherd,” but we prefer the reading in the Hebrew text. For the confusion between the Hebrew words for one and “another,” see the comments on 11.19. The shepherd will be God’s servant David. It is unlikely that God is thinking of a miraculous resurrection of King David, who had been dead for almost four hundred years. Rather, he is referring to David as the ideal king who will obey him and rule the people properly. That is why Good News Translation renders my servant David as “like my servant David,” and Contemporary English Version has “from the family of my servant King David” (similarly New International Reader’s Version). Another possible model is “from the family of David who did what I required.” For my servant, see 28.25.
And he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd: In Hebrew the clause he shall feed them occurs twice, probably for emphasis, but some translations follow the Septuagint by omitting one occurrence of this clause, presumably for stylistic reasons (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation). Translators should be guided by the requirements of their own language in deciding whether or not to do the same thing. As noted in the comments on Ezek 34.2, the Hebrew words for feed and shepherd come the from same root. Feed may be rendered “take [good] care of” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version) or “look after” (New International Reader’s Version).
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 .
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