righteous, righteousness

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The Greek, Hebrew, and Latin terms that are translated in English mostly as “righteous” as an adjective or personified noun or “righteousness” (also as “upright(ness)” and “just(ice)”) are most commonly expressed with concept of “straightness,” though this may be expressed in a number of ways. (Click or tap here to see the details)

Following is a list of (back-) translations of various languages:

  • Bambara, Southern Bobo Madaré, Chokwe (ululi), Amganad Ifugao, Chol, Eastern Maninkakan, Toraja-Sa’dan, Pamona, Batak Toba, Bilua, Tiv: “be straight”
  • Laka: “follow the straight way” or “to straight-straight” (a reduplicated form for emphasis)
  • Sayula Popoluca: “walk straight”
  • Highland Puebla Nahuatl, Kekchí, Muna: “have a straight heart”
  • Kipsigis: “do the truth”
  • Mezquital Otomi: “do according to the truth”
  • Huautla Mazatec: “have truth”
  • Yine: “fulfill what one should do”
  • Indonesian: “be true”
  • Navajo (Dinė): “do just so”
  • Anuak: “do as it should be”
  • Mossi: “have a white stomach” (see also happiness / joy)
  • Paasaal: “white heart” (source: Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
  • (San Mateo del Mar Huave: “completely good” (the translation does not imply sinless perfection)
  • Nuer: “way of right” (“there is a complex concept of “right” vs. ‘left’ in Nuer where ‘right’ indicates that which is masculine, strong, good, and moral, and ‘left’ denotes what is feminine, weak, and sinful (a strictly masculine viewpoint!) The ‘way of right’ is therefore righteousness, but of course women may also attain this way, for the opposition is more classificatory than descriptive.”) (This and all above from Bratcher / Nida except for Bilua: Carl Gross; Tiv: Rob Koops; Muna: René van den Berg)
  • Central Subanen: “wise-good” (source: Robert Brichoux in OPTAT 1988/2, p. 80ff. )
  • Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac: “live well”
  • Mezquital Otomi: “goodness before the face of God” (source for this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
  • Eastern Huasteca Nahuatl: “the result of heart-straightening” (source: Nida 1947, p. 224)
  • Eastern Highland Otomi: “entirely good” (when referred to God), “do good” or “not be a debtor as God sees one” (when referred to people)
  • Carib: “level”
  • Tzotzil: “straight-hearted”
  • Ojitlán Chinantec: “right and straight”
  • Yatzachi Zapotec: “walk straight” (source for this and four previous: John Beekman in Notes on Translation November 1964, p. 1-22)
  • Makonde: “doing what God wants” (in a context of us doing) and “be good in God’s eyes” (in the context of being made righteous by God) (note that justify / justification is translated as “to be made good in the eyes of God.” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
  • Aari: The Pauline word for “righteous” is generally rendered by “makes one without sin” in the Aari, sometimes “before God” is added for clarity. (Source: Loren Bliese)
  • North Alaskan Inupiatun: “having sin taken away” (Source: Nida 1952, p. 144)
  • Nyamwezi: wa lole: “just” or “someone who follows the law of God” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
  • Venda: “nothing wrong, OK” (Source: J.A. van Roy in The Bible Translator 1972, p. 418ff. )
  • Ekari: maakodo bokouto or “enormous truth” (the same word that is also used for “truth“; bokouto — “enormous” — is being used as an attribute for abstract nouns to denote that they are of God [see also here]; source: Marion Doble in The Bible Translator 1963, p. 37ff. ).
  • Guhu-Samane: pobi or “right” (also: “right (side),” “(legal) right,” “straightness,” “correction,” “south,” “possession,” “pertinence,” “kingdom,” “fame,” “information,” or “speech” — “According to [Guhu-Samane] thinking there is a common core of meaning among all these glosses. Even from an English point of view the first five can be seen to be closely related, simply because of their similarity in English. However, from that point the nuances of meaning are not so apparent. They relate in some such a fashion as this: As one faces the morning sun, south lies to the right hand (as north lies to the left); then at one’s right hand are his possessions and whatever pertains to him; thus, a rich man’s many possessions and scope of power and influence is his kingdom; so, the rich and other important people encounter fame; and all of this spreads as information and forms most of the framework of the people’s speech.”) (Source: Ernest Richert in Notes on Translation 1964, p. 11ff.)
  • German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999): Gerechtheit, a neologism to differentiate it from the commonly-used Gerechtigkeit which can mean “righteousness” but is more often used in modern German as “fairness” (Berger / Nord especially use Gerechtheit in Letter to the Romans) or Gerechtestun, also a neologism, meaning “righteous deeds” (especially in Letter to the Ephesians)
  • “did what he should” (Eastern Highland Otomi)
  • “a clear man, good [man]” (Mairasi) (source: Enggavoter 2004)

See also respectable, righteous, righteous (person), devout, and She is more in the right(eous) than I.

complete verse (Habakkuk 1:13)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Habakkuk 1:13:

  • Kupsabiny: “You are very righteous who sees every sin and are not happy with evil even a little. Oh yes, what is wrong with you when you see these sinners destroying good people and you keep quiet?” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Your eyes are most pure to see evil,
    And you cannot look on wrongdoing.
    But now why are you looking on treacherous people?
    Why do you remain silent though the wicked
    swallow up people more righteous than they are?” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Because you (are) righteous, you (sing.) can- not -bear to-look at evil and trouble. But why do- you (sing.) just -don’t-mind/allow-to-do-whatever the traitors who (are) from-Babylon? Why do- you(do) -let them destroy the people who (are) not more wicked when compared to them?” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “You (sing.) are holy and you (sing.) are not able-to-tolerate constantly-seeing those who-are-doing evil. But if that is so, why perhaps are you (sing.) ignoring/letting-alone these betrayers who hardship people that are more righteous than they?’” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • English: “But the Commander of the armies of angels has declared that everything that is built by people who do things like that will be destroyed by fire;
    they will have worked hard uselessly.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

addressing God

Translators of different languages have found different ways with what kind of formality God is addressed. The first example is from a language where God is always addressed distinctly formal whereas the second is one where the opposite choice was made.

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Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.

As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator 2002, p. 210ff. ), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.

In these verses, in which humans address God, the informal, familiar pronoun is used that communicates closeness.

Voinov notes that “in the Tuvan Bible, God is only addressed with the informal pronoun. No exceptions. An interesting thing about this is that I’ve heard new Tuvan believers praying with the formal form to God until they are corrected by other Christians who tell them that God is close to us so we should address him with the informal pronoun. As a result, the informal pronoun is the only one that is used in praying to God among the Tuvan church.”

In Gbaya, “a superior, whether father, uncle, or older brother, mother, aunt, or older sister, president, governor, or chief, is never addressed in the singular unless the speaker intends a deliberate insult. When addressing the superior face to face, the second person plural pronoun ɛ́nɛ́ or ‘you (pl.)’ is used, similar to the French usage of vous.

Accordingly, the translators of the current version of the Gbaya Bible chose to use the plural ɛ́nɛ́ to address God. There are a few exceptions. In Psalms 86:8, 97:9, and 138:1, God is addressed alongside other “gods,” and here the third person pronoun o is used to avoid confusion about who is being addressed. In several New Testament passages (Matthew 21:23, 26:68, 27:40, Mark 11:28, Luke 20:2, 23:37, as well as in Jesus’ interaction with Pilate and Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well) the less courteous form for Jesus is used to indicate ignorance of his position or mocking (source Philip Noss).

In Dutch and Western Frisian translations, however, God is always addressed with the formal pronoun.

See also female second person singular pronoun in Psalms.

Honorary "rare" construct denoting God (“keeping silence”)

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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 rare (られ) 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, damatteo-rare-ru (黙っておられる) or “keeping silence” is used.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Habakkuk 1:13

In Hebrew the verse as a whole is a statement followed by two questions. Revised Standard Version follows this order, but Good News Translation changes it so as to put the statement between the two questions. This avoids long relative clauses which would be awkward in many languages.

The first half of the verse makes a statement in two parallel clauses, Thou … art of purer eyes than to behold evil and canst not look on wrong. Thou … art of purer eyes is a figure of speech called a metonym, in which the eyes stand for the whole person in the act of looking. Habakkuk says that the LORD’s character is so pure that he cannot bear to behold evil. The prophet then repeats essentially the same idea in nonfigurative language in the second line, and canst not look on wrong. Good News Translation retains the parallelism but expands the second part to make the implied subject clear: “Your eyes are too holy to look at evil, and you cannot stand the sight of people doing wrong.” Although the Hebrew word for purer is not the same root as the word for “holy” in the previous verse, this is a development of the same idea and forms the background to the questions which follow. Note that these questions are not really rhetorical questions, since Habakkuk is looking for an answer to them in 2.1-4. Therefore they should be translated as questions and not turned into statements. Compare comments on verse 2. In some languages it may not be possible to talk about eyes being “pure” or “sinless.” In such cases translators may render this clause as “you are pure (or, sinless), and so you cannot look at evil….”

In why dost thou look on faithless men, the verb look, as in verse 3, implies “look on, without taking action.” Good News Translation makes this a little clearer by saying “How can you stand these treacherous, evil men?” One may expand this line by saying “How can you watch what these treacherous and evil men do without punishing them?” The word “treacherous” means “untrustworthy” or “that cannot be trusted.” In certain languages this meaning can be expressed idiomatically; for example, “men one cannot place one’s heart in.”

The last two lines make the same point in an expanded form and ask why God is silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he. Here the wicked refers of course to the Babylonians. In many languages it will be necessary to identify the wicked and say “So why are you silent while these wicked Babylonians destroy…?” The word swallows up is a metaphor which Good News Translation translates in nonfigurative language as “destroy.” In languages where the meaning of the metaphor will be clear, translators should keep it. The word righteous refers to nations other than the Babylonians, but especially to Judah. Habakkuk has already admitted that his own people have done wrong and need to be punished. When he calls them righteous here, he means “less wicked than their enemies,” not righteous in an absolute sense. In many languages the word used for “righteous” always has this absolute sense. In such cases it will be more appropriate to translate “… while the Babylonians destroy people who are less wicked than they are?” or “… destroy people who do less evil than they do?”

Quoted with permission from Clark, David J. & Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on the Book of Habakkuk. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1989. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .