31when he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die, and your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant our father with sorrow to Sheol.
The Greek, Latin and Hebrew that is translated in English as “painful” or “sorrow” is translated in Huba as “cut the insides.” David Frank explains: “Huba has just one expression that covers both ‘angry’ and ‘sad.’ They don’t make a distinction in their language. I suppose you could say that the term they use means more generically, ‘strong emotional reaction’ (source: David Frank in this blog post ). Similarly, in Bariai it is “the interior is severed/cut” (source: Bariai Back Translation).
In Noongar it is translated as koort-warra or “heart bad.” (Source: Bardip Ruth-Ang 2020)
In Enlhet it is translated as “going aside of the innermost.” “Innermost” or valhoc is a term that is frequently used in Enlhet to describe a large variety of emotions or states of mind (for other examples see here). (Source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 24ff. )
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Genesis 44:31:
Kankanaey: “Then he continued to say, ‘So then sir, if I leave-behind my younger-sibling here and I do not arrive-with-(him) to my father, he will die from his sorrow, because he is already old and this our (excl.) younger-sibling is the place-of-concentration of his love.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Newari: “If [he] does not see him he will die. In this way we will be judged guilty for his death.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “very surely our (excl.) elderly father will-die in sorrow.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “If he sees that the boy is not with us when we return to him, he will die. We will cause our gray-haired father to die because of his sorrow.” (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 important aspect of addressing someone else in one’s or someone else’s family is by selecting the correct word when referring to them. One way to do this is through the usage of an appropriate title within a conversation as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017.
When the speaker humbly refers to his or her father in the presence of respected interlocutor(s), chichi (父) is often used as in the case of Jacob’s sons referring to their father before Joseph (in Genesis 43:28). This form is very appropriately chosen as they refer to their father as “your servant” and bowed down before Joseph the prime minister.
In some conversations, archaic honorific forms for “father” are chosen that also contain chichi (父) and typically indicate a greater level of respect. These are o-chichi-ue (お父上) (only in Genesis 48:1), and chichi-gimi (父君) in few occasions (2 Samuel 10:3, 2 Samuel 13:5, and 1 Chronicles 19:3).
Yet another, ore often-used term is chichi-ue (父上) (see addressing one’s or someone else’s father respectfully in Japanese (父上)). An interesting contrast can be found in the message sent from Asa the king of Judah to Ben-hadad the king of Aram (1 Kings 15:19). In this utterance, commonly translated as “my father and your father” in English, Asa humbly refers to his father as chichi (父) but respectfully refers to Ben-hadad’s father as chichi-ue (父上). Similar contrasts can be found in 1 Kings 20:34 and 2 Chronicles 16:3 as well.
While chichi can carry this humbling effect in reference to the speaker’s father, in some types of dialogues/utterances such as in poetry, including prayers (e.g. Jesus teaching how to pray in Matthew 6:9) and proverbial teachings (e.g. “honor your father and mother” in Exodus 20:12, Deuteronomy 5:16 et al.), chichi is used without the humbling effect. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
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 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, the more venerable anata-sama (あなた様) is used, which combines anata with the with a formal title -sama.
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 humbling plural suffix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, the Hebrew and Aramaic that is translated as “servants” in English is translated as shimobe-domo (しもべども) or shimobe-ra (しもべら), combining “servant” (shimobe with the humbling plural suffix -domo or ra.
Translators may find it helpful to rearrange the order of parts in verses 30 and 31 and combine them, as in Good News Translation.
Now therefore, when I come to your servant my father: Now therefore draws a conclusion based on what has been stated and will be repeated in verse 33. When I come may be better translated as a conditional: “if I return to my father.” For your servant my father see suggestions on 43.28.
And the lad is not with us: that is, “without the boy” or “without the boy with us.”
As his life is bound up in the lad’s life is literally “and his [Benjamin’s] soul bound to his [Jacob’s] soul.” The basic meaning of the idiom is that there is a special “bond of love” between the two people; for another use of the same idiom, see 1 Sam 18.1, where the two people are David and Jonathan. The thought expressed in this context is that Jacob’s life or desire to go on living depends on Benjamin’s life, and therefore on his safety and safe return home. We may translate, for example, “Our father’s life depends on the safe return of the boy.”
When he sees that the lad is not with us: he refers to Jacob. The consequence is he [Jacob] will die.
And your servants: that is, “we” or “we who honor you.”
Bring down the gray hairs … Sheol: see 42.38.
Good News Translation offers a good model for translating verses 30-31. Another model that does not combine these two verses is Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, which shifts the dependence of Jacob’s life on that of Benjamin to the front as the ground for what follows: “because the life of my father is so tied up with the life of the boy that, if the boy does not go with us when I go back, our father will die when he does not see him. In this way we will be guilty of causing our old father to die of sorrow.”
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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