naked

The Greek, Latin and Hebrew that is translated as “naked” in English is translated in Enlhet with a figure of speech: “(one’s) smoothness.” (Source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 24ff. )

In Elhomwe the word for “naked” is “shameful to use, and would never be used by a preacher in church.” Therefore “without clothes” is used. (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

desert / wilderness

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The Greek, Hebrew and Latin that is translated as “desert” or “wilderness” in English is translated in a number of ways:

  • Mairasi: “a place where noisiness is cut off (or: stops)” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Muna: pandaso bhalano pr “big barren-field” (source: René van den Berg)
  • Balinese: “barren field” (source: J.L. Swellengrebel in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 75ff. )
  • Wantoat: “uninhabited place” (source: Holzhausen 1991, p. 38)
  • Umiray Dumaget Agta: “where no people dwell” (source: Larson 1998, p. 98)
  • Shipibo-Conibo: “where no house is” (source: James Lauriault in The Bible Translator 1951, p. 32ff. )
  • Amri Karbi: “waterless region/place” (source: Philippova 2021, p. 368)
  • Ocotlán Zapotec: “large empty place” (source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
  • Pa’o Karen: “jungle” (denoting a place without any towns, villages and tilled fields) (source: Gordon Luce in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 153f. )
  • Low German translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006: “steppe”
  • Yakan: “the lonely place” (source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “a land where no people lived” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “the place with no inhabitants” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Matumbi uses various term: lubele (desert, sandy place without water) — used in John 11:54, lupu’ngu’ti (a place where no people live, can be a scrub land, a forest, or a savanna) — used in Mark 1:3 et al.), and mwitu (a forest, a place where wild animals live) — used in Mark 1:13 et al.) (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
  • Chichewa Contemporary translation (2002/2016): chipululu: a place uninhabited by people with thick forest and bush (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

Note that in Luke 15:4, usually a term is used that denotes pastoral land, such as “eating/grazing-place” in Tagbanwa (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation).

See also wilderness and desolate wilderness.

complete verse (Hosea 2:3)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Hosea 2:3:

  • Kupsabiny: “If she does not do like that,
    you shall remove her clothes to stand naked
    like when she was born.
    She shall become like a wilderness or be like a dry land.
    where thirst will spear her.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Otherwise I will make her as naked as on the day when she was born.
    I will make her withered up and desolate like a wilderness,
    and I will make her die of thirst.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “If she would- not indeed -stop I will-strip- her -naked and she will-become naked just-as when she (was) born. I will-make her like a desolate-place or desert, and she will-die in thirst.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

1st person pronoun referring to God (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 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.

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

See also pronoun for “God”.

Translation commentary on Hosea 2:3

God warns of the punishment for Israel, symbolized by the punishment for an unfaithful wife. Normally adultery was punished by fire or by stoning (see, for example, Lev 21.9; Deut 22.23-24), but in this allegory the land is punished by a killing drought.

Lest I strip her naked: Part of the punishment of an adulterous woman was the removal of her clothes, described in Ezek 16.39. Moreover, Exo 21.10 lists providing clothing for his wife as one of the duties of the husband. Stripping her naked showed that the husband no longer provided for her. Stripping naked was considered a curse and shame in the culture of the Ancient Near East. Depending on the receptor culture, this point may have to be clarified, either in translation or in a footnote. Lest is a somewhat archaic conjunction, meaning “so that not.” This conjunction applies to all five lines in this verse. Possible models for this clause are “so that I will not strip her naked” and “Or else I will strip her naked.”

And make her as in the day she was born is parallel in meaning to the previous line. Good News Translation combines these two lines since it changes the text from poetry to prose: “If she does not, I will strip her as naked as she was on the day she was born.” Translators should choose a stylistically and poetically appropriate way for rendering these parallel lines. A repetition of identical grammatical structures in consecutive lines may generate a poetic effect. In the prose translation of Good News Translation this effect is no longer present.

And make her like a wilderness and set her like a parched land: In this allegory the features of the woman are sometimes emphasized in one statement, with the next statement emphasizing features of the land. These two parallel lines speak more directly of God’s punishment of the land. Wilderness and parched land are two ways of saying the same thing. A wilderness is an uninhabited place with little vegetation because there is little rainfall. In both expressions there is the notion of infertility, possibly an allusion to Baal who is supposed to bring fertility. Good News Translation combines them in a single statement, saying “dry and barren land.” Translators should again consider the option of a more poetic rendering.

Set her like a parched land is a literal rendering of the Hebrew. New Revised Standard Version provides a more natural translation in English with “turn her into a parched land.”

And slay her with thirst: Here the allegory returns to the figure of the woman. In this threat Israel is compared both with a dry land and with a woman who dies of thirst in that dry land. If it is difficult to change the figures that quickly, it may be better to retain one of them, as in Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch (1982), which renders the last three lines of this verse as “I will let it happen to her as in the desert, where there is no water; I will let her die of thirst.” Bible en français courant has “I will change her land into a desert, into an arid land; I will make her die of thirst.”

A translation model for this verse is:

• If not, I will strip her naked in humiliation,
expose her as on the day of her birth.
I will make her like a wilderness,
turn her into barren land.
I will kill her with thirst.

Quoted with permission from Dorn, Louis & van Steenbergen, Gerrit. A Handbook on Hosea. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2020. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Hosea 2:3

2:3a

Otherwise: This word introduces a list of ways (2:3a–e) that the wife will be punished if she does not stop her immoral behavior.

Here are some other ways to express this relationship in 2:3a:

lest I strip her naked (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
or else I shall strip her bare (Revised English Bible)
-or-
If she refuses, I will strip her. (God’s Word)

Use a natural way in your language to express this relationship.

2:3b

expose her like the day of her birth: When a child is born, it is bare/naked. Instead of making explicit the idea of exposing the woman in public, some versions make explicit the idea of being naked to make the meaning clearer in English. For example:

make her as bare as on the day… (New International Version)
-or-
strip her as naked as she was on the day… (Good News Translation)

General Comment on 2:3a–b

In some languages, it may be clearer to combine the parallel ideas into one line. For example:

I will strip her as naked as she was on the day she was born. (Good News Translation)

2:3c–d

Notice the parallel parts that are similar in meaning:

3c I will make her like a desert

3d and turn her into a parched land,

In these lines, the husband threatens to deprive his wife of food and water as if she were in a dry desert/wilderness area. A “parched land” is a land that has no water. These statements are figures of speech. They illustrate what the LORD will do to the nation of Israel.

General Comment on 2:3c–d

In some languages, it may be more natural to combine and/or reorder these parallel statements. For example:

I will make her like a dry and barren land. (Good News Translation)

2:3e

and I will let her die of thirst: In Hebrew, this phrase is literally “I should make her die with thirst.” Some versions do not state explicitly that the LORD will cause her death. For example:

she will die of thirst (Good News Translation)

This may be a good option in some languages, if the context clearly implies that the LORD will cause this to happen.

General Comment on 2:3c–e

In some languages, it may be more natural to combine and/or reorder these lines. For example:

I will leave her to die of thirst, as in a dry and barren wilderness. (New Living Translation (2004))

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