The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin that is often translated as “gentiles” (or “nations”) in English is often translated as a “local equivalent of ‘foreigners,'” such as “the people of other lands” (Guerrero Amuzgo), “people of other towns” (Tzeltal), “people of other languages” (San Miguel El Grande Mixtec), “strange peoples” (Navajo (Dinė)) (this and above, see Bratcher / Nida), “outsiders” (Ekari), “people of foreign lands” (Kannada), “non-Jews” (North Alaskan Inupiatun), “people being-in-darkness” (a figurative expression for people lacking cultural or religious insight) (Toraja-Sa’dan) (source for this and three above Reiling / Swellengrebel), “from different places all people” (Martu Wangka) (source: Carl Gross).
Tzeltal translates it as “people in all different towns,” Chicahuaxtla Triqui as “the people who live all over the world,” Highland Totonac as “all the outsider people,” Sayula Popoluca as “(people) in every land” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Chichimeca-Jonaz as “foreign people who are not Jews,” Sierra de Juárez Zapotec as “people of other nations” (source of this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), Highland Totonac as “outsider people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Uma as “people who are not the descendants of Israel” (source: Uma Back Translation), “other ethnic groups” (source: Newari Back Translation), and Yakan as “the other tribes” (source: Yakan Back Translation).
In Chichewa, it is translated with mitundu or “races.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 7:24:
Kupsabiny: “I shall send countries that are buried in sin to you to take your homes. Then, I shall finish the pride of those with power and where they pray from shall be destroyed.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “I will-cause-to-be-taken-away their houses by wicked people from other nations. I will-bring-to-an-end the boasting of their powerful/mighty people, and defile their places-of-worship.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “So I will bring armies of the nations whose people are extremely wicked to occupy the houses of the Israeli people. I will cause Israeli peoplewho think that they are strong/mighty to no longer be proud. Your enemies will cause your places of worship to no longer be acceptable to be used.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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.
I will bring the worst of the nations to take possession of their houses: God will cause the Israelites’ enemies to seize all their possessions. The worst of the nations are the wicked foreigners mentioned in verse 21, that is, the Babylonians. They will seize the Israelites’ houses, which implies not just the buildings but everything they possess.
I will put an end to their proud might: God will also destroy the pride of Israel’s powerful people. Their proud might is literally “the pride of the powerful” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). The powerful people are those who were politically strong, the wicked rulers who acted arrogantly and oppressed the poor. They are the ones whom God intends to punish.
And their holy places shall be profaned means the places where the Israelites worshiped will be made unfit to use for worship. This clause does not say specifically that God will defile these places, but he will cause it to happen. It is probably Israel’s enemies who will defile them, when they attack and destroy them. For the Hebrew verb rendered profaned, see verse 21.
In this verse and the rest of the chapter Good News Translation changes the third person references to the Israelites to second person, which other languages may find helpful. A model for this verse is:
• I will bring in the most cruel foreign nation to take my people’s possessions. I will destroy the pride of their most powerful people, and will make their places of worship unfit to use.
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 .
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.