hungry

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated in English as “hungry” (or: “famished”) is translated in a number of ways:

  • Noongar: “without stomach” (koborl-wirt) (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Kölsch translation (publ. 2017): nix zo Käue han or “have nothing to chew on” and singe Mage hät geknottert wie ne Hungk or “his stomach growled like a dog” (source: Jost Zetzsche)
  • German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999): Hunger überfiel ihn or “Hunger overtook (lit.: “attacked”) him” (in Matthew 4:2)
  • Kupsabiny: “hunger ate him” (source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Mairasi: “feeling tuber pains” (tubers are the main staple) (source Enggavoter 2004)

drink

In Telugu different verbs for humans drinking (tāgu / తాగు) and animals drinking (cēḍu / చేడు) are required.

gentiles / nations

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The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin that is often translated as “gentiles” (or “nations”) in English is often translated as a “local equivalent of ‘foreigners,'” such as “the people of other lands” (Guerrero Amuzgo), “people of other towns” (Tzeltal), “people of other languages” (San Miguel El Grande Mixtec), “strange peoples” (Navajo (Dinė)) (this and above, see Bratcher / Nida), “outsiders” (Ekari), “people of foreign lands” (Kannada), “non-Jews” (North Alaskan Inupiatun), “people being-in-darkness” (a figurative expression for people lacking cultural or religious insight) (Toraja-Sa’dan) (source for this and three above Reiling / Swellengrebel), “from different places all people” (Martu Wangka) (source: Carl Gross).

Tzeltal translates it as “people in all different towns,” Chicahuaxtla Triqui as “the people who live all over the world,” Highland Totonac as “all the outsider people,” Sayula Popoluca as “(people) in every land” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Chichimeca-Jonaz as “foreign people who are not Jews,” Sierra de Juárez Zapotec as “people of other nations” (source of this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), Highland Totonac as “outsider people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Uma as “people who are not the descendants of Israel” (source: Uma Back Translation), “other ethnic groups” (source: Newari Back Translation), and Yakan as “the other tribes” (source: Yakan Back Translation).

In Chichewa, it is translated with mitundu or “races.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

See also nations.

complete verse (Isaiah 29:8)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Isaiah 29:8:

  • Kupsabiny: “Like when a person who is hungry dreams about food,
    and when he wakes up he is still hungry,
    and when the one who is thirsty dreams about water,
    and he gets up with thirst,
    shall be dreaming like that
    all the countries who fight against the mountain of Zion.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Just as [when] a hungry person gets to eat in a dream,
    but after he wakes up, he is [still] hungry,
    or just as a person who feels thirsty gets to drink water in a dream,
    but after he wakes up from sleep his throat is dry and the feeling of thirst has not disappeared.
    The condition of the forces of all the nations that fight against
    Mount Zion will be just like this.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “The many nations who attack Jerusalem and destroy its stone-walls will-disappear like a dream. They are like a man who is-dreaming that (he) is-eating, but when he woke-up he is hungry, or like a man who is-dreaming that (he) is-drinking, but when he woke-up he is thirsty.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “People who are asleep dream about eating food,
    but when they wake up, they are still hungry.
    People who are thirsty dream about drinking something,
    but when they wake up they are still thirsty.
    It will be like that when your enemies come to attack Zion Hill;
    they will dream about conquering you, but when they wake up,
    they will realize that they have not succeeded.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Isaiah 29:8

This verse continues to compare the nations attacking Jerusalem to a dream. It uses two parallel similes to say these nations are like an unfulfilled dream. Just as a hungry person dreams he eats and wakes up hungry and just as a thirsty person dreams he drinks and wakes up thirsty, so these nations may think they will conquer Jerusalem, but they will be unsuccessful.

As when a hungry man dreams he is eating and awakes with his hunger not satisfied, or as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking and awakes faint, with his thirst not quenched: In both these examples the noun man clearly refers to both men and women, so it is better to say “person” or “people.”

So shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion: The many nations attacking Jerusalem will not be able to defeat it. This line is very similar to the first line of verse 7, and forms an inclusio with it. However, here Mount Zion is used instead of “Ariel” for Jerusalem (see the comments on 1.8).

Translation examples for this verse are:

• Dreams are unreal: when hungry people dream of eating, they are still hungry when they awake;
when thirsty people dream of drinking, they are still faint and thirsty when they awake.
So it will be with the hordes of nations that fight against Mount Zion.

• Just like hungry ones who dream they are eating but wake up still hungry,
or thirsty ones who dream they are drinking but wake up still faint and thirsty,
the same will happen to those many nations that fight against Mount Zion.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .