15When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Get up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or else you will be consumed in the punishment of the city.”
The Hebrew and Greek that is transliterated as “Lot” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with a sign that signifies “cousin,” referring to the fact that Lot is Abraham’s cousin (see Genesis 11:27). (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
Apali: “God’s one with talk from the head” (“basically God’s messenger since head refers to any leader’s talk”) (source: Martha Wade)
Michoacán Nahuatl: “clean helper of God” (source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
Noongar: Hdjin-djin-kwabba or “spirit good” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Wè Northern (Wɛɛ): Kea ‘a “sooa or “the Lord’s soldier” (also: “God’s soldier” or “his soldier”) (source: Drew Maust)
Iwaidja: “a man sent with a message” (Sam Freney explains the genesis of this term [in this article ): “For example, in Darwin last year, as we were working on a new translation of Luke 2:6–12 in Iwaidja, a Northern Territory language, the translators had written ‘angel’ as ‘a man with eagle wings’. Even before getting to the question of whether this was an accurate term (or one that imported some other information in), the word for ‘eagle’ started getting discussed. One of the translators had her teenage granddaughter with her, and this word didn’t mean anything to her at all. She’d never heard of it, as it was an archaic term that younger people didn’t use anymore. They ended up changing the translation of ‘angel’ to something like ‘a man sent with a message’, which is both more accurate and clear.”)
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 to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. When the referent is God, the “divine” honorific prefix mi- (御 or み) is used as in mi-tsukai (御使い) or “messenger (of God).” (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Genesis 19:15:
Kankanaey: “When it-was-becoming-light then, the angels hurried Lot saying, ‘Come-on hurry-up! Call your (sing.) wife and your (pl.) two young-ladies so-that you will leave immediately so-that you will not be included in the punishment of this town.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Newari: “At dawn the next day the two angels came to Lot and caused him to feel the urgency [of the situation] like this — ‘Go quickly, taking your wife and two daughters. Otherwise, when the LORD destroys this city, you [pl] will also die.'” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “When it is was- already/now -dawn, the angels urged- Lot -to-hurry to-leave-from the town. They said, ‘Hurry! Take your wife and two daughters who are here and [you (pl.)] leave right-away, for it-might-be you (pl.) will-be-included if this town will- now -be-destroyed.'” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “As it was about to dawn the next morning, the two angels urged Lot, saying, ‘Get up quickly! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here with you and leave! If you don’t, you will die when we destroy/Yahweh destroys the city!'” (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 usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme are (され) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, horoboshitsukus-are-ru (滅ぼし尽くされる) or “destroy thoroughly” is used.
When morning dawned: we may assume that Lot has returned home from his unsuccessful visit to his future sons-in-law and is perhaps again in bed at his own house. All the earlier events have taken place in the night and early hours of the morning. The Hebrew expression is “And as the dawn arose,” which in many languages is expressed as “Before the sun came up.” The reference is to the period between first light and sunrise. In languages that divide these early hours and have a number of different expressions for periods of time before the sun rises, it is best to refer to the time when there is just sufficient light to see well.
The angels urged Lot: urged (a different word than used in verse 3) means to cause to hasten, to press into action. Some translations have “tried to make Lot hurry.”
Arise, take …: Arise is the same verb as used with the two future sons-in-law in verse 14. Two daughters who are here is probably not to be taken as in contrast to other daughters who are elsewhere, but rather in contrast to the two “sons-in-law” who live elsewhere. The Hebrew text, as in Revised Standard Version, does not yet say where Lot is to take his wife and daughters. However, in some languages it may be necessary to say, for example, “Take your … and get out of the city.”
Lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city: you is singular, since it is addressed to Lot. This construction is better expressed in today’s English as “so that you won’t be” or “so that you will not…” (Good News Translation). In some languages it may also be expressed as “If you don’t, you will be lost when….” Consumed is literally “swept away,” as in 18.23. Punishment translates a noun used in 4.13. The word here, as there, means evil or iniquity, but the focus is on the consequences of the evil of the people of Sodom, which ends in their punishment or destruction. This must often be expressed in translation as a verb, and so we may say “so that you will not be killed when we punish the city” or “so that you will not die when the city is destroyed.”
Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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