In Falam Chin “your mother’s sons” of Genesis 27:29 sounds odd to a patrilineal society. As Rebekah had only one son, it is possible to say here “your brother’s descendants,” avoiding the word for “older brother” since Isaac thinks he is speaking to Esau.
bless(ed)
The Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and Aramaic that is translated into English as “(to) bless” or “blessed” is translated into a wide variety of possibilities.
The Hebrew term barak (and the Aramaic term berak) also (and originally) means “kneel” (a meaning which the word has retained — see Gen. 24:11) and can be used for God blessing people (or things), people blessing each other, or people blessing God. While English Bible translators have not seen a stumbling block in always using the same term (“bless” in its various forms), other languages need to make distinctions (see below).
In Bari, spoken in South Sudan, the connection between blessing and knees/legs is still apparent. For Genesis 30:30 (in English: “the Lord has blessed you wherever I turned”), Bari uses a common expression that says (much like the Hebrew), ‘… blessed you to my feet.'” (Source: P. Guillebaud in The Bible Translator 1965, p. 189ff. .)
Other examples for the translation of “bless” when God is the one who blesses include (click or tap here to see the rest of this insight):
- “think well of” (San Blas Kuna)
- “speak good to” (Amganad Ifugao)
- “make happy” (Pohnpeian)
- “cause-to-live-as-a-chief” (Zulu)
- “sprinkle with a propitious (lit. cool) face” (a poetic expression occurring in the priests’ language) (Toraja Sa’dan) (source for this and above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
- “give good things” (Mairasi) (source: Enggavoter 2004)
- “ask good” (Yakan) (source: Yakan Back Translation)
- “praise, say good things” (Central Yupik) (source: Robert Bascom)
- “greatly love” (Candoshi-Shapra) (source: John C. Tuggy)
- “showing a good heart” (Kutu) (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
- “good luck — have — good fortune — have” (verbatim) ꓶꓼ ꓙꓳ ꓫꓱꓹ ꓙꓳ — ɯa dzho shes zho (Lisu). This construction follows a traditional four-couplet construct in oral Lisu poetry that is usually in the form ABAC or ABCB. (Source: Arrington 2020, p. 58)
- wodala — denoting a person who is considered fortunate because he/she has something good that the majority of people do not have. It also acknowledges someone as a causative agent behind “being blessed.” (Chichewa) (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
In Tagbanwa a phrase is used for both the blessing done by people and God that back-translates to “caused to be pierced by words causing grace/favor” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation) and in Benabena a term denoted “good spell” or “good magic” (source: Renck 1990, p. 112).
Ixcatlán Mazatec had to select a separate term when relating “to people ‘blessing’ God” (or things of God): “praise(d)” or “give thanks for” (in 1 Cor. 10:16) (“as it is humans doing the ‘blessing’ and people do not bless the things of God or God himself the way God blesses people” — source: Robert Bascom). Eastern Bru and Kui also use “praise” for this a God-directed blessing (source: Bru back translation and Helen Evans in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 40ff. ) and Uma uses “appropriate/worthy to be worshipped” (source: Uma back translation).
When related to someone who is blessing someone else, it is translated into Tsou as “speak good hopes for.” In Waiwai it is translated as “may God be good and kind to you now.” (Sources: Peng Kuo-Wei for Tsou and Robert Hawkins in The Bible Translator 1962, pp. 164ff. for Waiwai.)
Some languages associate an expression that originally means “spitting” or “saliva” with blessing. The Bantu language Koonzime, for instance, uses that expression for “blessing” in their translation coming from either God or man. Traditionally, the term was used in an application of blessing by an aged superior upon a younger inferior, often in relation to a desire for fertility, or in a ritualistic, but not actually performed spitting past the back of the hand. The spitting of saliva has the effect of giving that person “tenderness of face,” which can be translated as “blessedness.” (Source: Keith Beavon)
Martin Ehrensvärd, one of the translators for the Danish Bibelen 2020, comments on the translation of this term: “As for ‘blessing’, in the end we in most instances actually kept the word, after initially preferring the expression ‘giving life strength’. The backlash against dropping the word blessing was too hard. But we would often add a few words to help the reader understand what the word means in a given context — people often understand it to refer more to a spiritual connection with God, but in the Hebrew texts, it usually has to do with material things or good health or many children. So when e.g. in Isaiah 19:25 the Hebrew text says ‘God bless them’, we say ‘God bless them’ and we add: ‘and give them strength’. ‘And give them strength’ is not found in the overt Hebrew text, but we are again making explicit what we believe is the meaning so as to avoid misunderstanding.” (Source: Ehrensvärd in HIPHIL Novum 8/2023, p. 81ff. )
See also bless (food and drink), blessed (Christ in Mark 11:9), and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.
See also “Blessed by ‘The Blessing’ in the World’s Indigenous Languages” and Multilingual version of “The Blessing” based on Numbers 6:24-26 .
complete verse (Genesis 27:29)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Genesis 27:29:
- Kankanaey: “May it also be that you (sing.) will rule those who inhabit other nations so-that they will serve you (sing.). Even your (sing.) siblings who are children of your (sing.) mother, they will kneel-down to you (sing.), because you (sing.) will be the one who will also rule-over them. May it also be that the one who curses you (sing.) will be cursed while by-contrast the one who blesses you (sing.) will be blessed.’ That’s what Isaac said in blessing Jacob his child.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Newari: “May various nations serve you, may people bow down to you, may you become the master of your elder and younger brothers, may your younger brothers bow down to you, may all who curse you fall under a curse, may all those who bless you be blessed.'” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
- Hiligaynon: “May-it-be that many people will-cause-(themselves)-to-be-subject under you (sing.) and they will-serve you (sing.). May-it-be that you (sing.) rule-over your relatives and they will-cause-(themselves)-to-be-subject under you (sing.). May-it-be that the one-who curses you (sing.) be cursed also, and the one-who-blesses you (sing.) be blessed also.'” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
- English: “I ask that people of many nations will serve you and bow down to you. I ask that you will rule over your brothers, and that your mother’s descendants will also bow down to you. I ask that God will curse/punish those who curse you/ask God to do bad things to you, and bless those who bless you.'” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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.
Translation commentary on Genesis 27:29
In this verse the blessing is to give Jacob dominance over others.
Let peoples serve you: again Isaac asks God to cause peoples to serve Jacob. This is a “let” command in English and expresses a wish or desire stated in terms of the following verb, that is, “I desire that people serve you,” or “People should serve you.” Peoples translates a word that may refer to nations, ethnic groups, or tribes, and has almost the same meaning as the word rendered nations in the next line. The reference may be to the Canaanites and other tribes that lived around Israel in later times. You has here a double sense, in that it applies to the one receiving the blessing, but at the same time it refers to the time when Israel is itself a nation. It may be necessary to make this twofold meaning clear by saying, for example, “I ask God to make other nations [tribes, peoples] be servants to you and your descendants.”
And nations bow down to you: nations (see the above paragraph) may be translated by a different term for peoples, tribes, ethnic groups, if one is available. Bow down translates the same verb used of Abraham bowing before the Hittites in chapter 23. The word is also used, for example, in Exo 11.8 and 20.5. The sense as it is used here is to bow down before someone in submission, to give of yourself to obey and serve. The two lines of verse 29 are closely parallel in meaning, and the second line makes more vivid what it means in the first line to serve.
In the second pair of parallel lines in verse 29, the thought moves from the large, general group called nations and peoples to the more personal brothers.
Be lord over your brothers: lord translates the Hebrew gebir used here for the first time in Genesis. The word is closely related to gibbor, the word for “strong,” “mighty,” “valiant,” “one who does acts of bravery.” Good News Translation shifts to the verb “rule.” We may also say, for example, “May you be the chief over…,” “… master over…,” “… the leader of….” Brothers is used here more generally in the sense of “relatives” (Good News Translation).
Because the blessing refers not only to the present but to a future time when Jacob and Esau have descendants, it may be clearer to translate, for example, “May you and your descendants be rulers over your brothers and their descendants.”
May your mother’s sons bow down to you: mother’s sons should probably be understood in the wider sense as descendants, as this expression means the same as your brothers. Bow down is the same as in the first part of this verse. The poetic effect of the close repetition is to emphasize the power and dominion given to the person who receives the blessing. Translators should determine what the effect of the repetition is, and use the poetic devices in their own languages that create emphasis.
The blessing comes to a close with a warning that anyone who curses Jacob (and his descendants) will receive a curse, and anyone who blesses him (them) will be blessed in turn. This recalls the blessing on Abraham in 12.3.
Cursed be everyone who curses you: for a discussion of curse see 3.14. Here again Isaac is calling upon God to punish by means of a curse, and we may translate “I ask God to curse everyone who curses you.” In some cases it may be more suitable to say “I ask God to punish [with a curse] everyone who puts a curse on you.” If a special term for curse is not available, we may also translate, for example, “I pray God to cause evil to happen to everyone who wishes you to have evil.”
In the final line, blessing is to be repaid by blessing, the opposite of the curse: and blessed be everyone who blesses you. To mark the contrast between blessing and curse, it may be best to begin with a contrastive connector such as “but” or “on the other hand.” In languages in which the passive cannot be used, it may be necessary to say “I ask God to bless everyone who blesses you,” “I pray God to do good to everybody who does good to you,” or “I ask God to prosper all who speak kind words of you.”
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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