complete verse (Isaiah 44:27)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Isaiah 44:27:

  • Kupsabiny: “I am telling the ocean,
    ‘Dry up! Water holes shall become dry.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “who says to deep Sea, ‘Let your water dry up!
    I will cause your rivers to dry up,’” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “When I command that a river will-dry, it dries.” (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”.

2nd person pronoun with low register (Japanese)

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, 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 Isaiah 44:27

In this verse God speaks about his power over the ocean and the rivers that flow into it.

Who says to the deep, ‘Be dry, I will dry up your rivers’: The Hebrew noun rendered the deep is only found here in the Old Testament, so it is difficult to know what it refers to. It may refer to “the deep” mentioned in the creation story at Gen 1.2, but a different Hebrew word is used there. A Hebrew word that is closely related to it occurs in Exo 15.5 (rendered “the depths”). In that passage the Reed Sea (or, Red Sea) is in view. It is likely that the incident of God drying up the waters of that sea is in the background here. This would establish a literary link between the new Exodus from Babylonian exile and the Exodus from Egypt. The deep may be rendered “the ocean” (Good News Translation). Be dry is a command. God can command the ocean to become a dry place.

I will dry up your rivers means God will dry up the rivers that flow into the ocean.

There is another embedded quote within the LORD’s speech here. Good News Translation renders it as indirect speech again, which other languages may find helpful (see also the second example below).

Translation examples for this verse are:

• I say to the ocean depths, ‘Dry up!
I will cause your rivers to become dry.’

• I [can] command the ocean depths to dry up,
and I [can] make its rivers become dry.

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 .