complete verse (Jeremiah 13:26)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 13:26:

  • Kupsabiny: “I will expose your cloth of the waist
    for your private parts to be seen.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “I will-tore-off- your (plur.) -clothes so-that (you) will-be-put-to-shame.” (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 Jeremiah 13:26 - 13:27

The prophet now returns to the imagery of Israel as an unfaithful wife. Her punishment (your skirts over your face) will conform to the nature of her sin, adulteries … lewd harlotries.

If someone exposes a woman’s sexual organs, this is a great cause of shame for her. Shame in this context refers to Israel’s nakedness being exposed as an unfaithful wife. So Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates the last part of verse 26 as “everyone will see your nakedness!” Traduction œcuménique de la Bible is even more open: “everyone will see your sexual organs.” Translators should be direct enough to make the meaning clear, yet do so without offending the readers.

Abominations (Good News Translation “the things he hates”) is first used in 4.1.

For on the hills in the field, Good News Translation has “on the hills and in the fields.” Both have essentially the same meaning, which is that these were places where the worship of pagan idols took place. On the hills in the field clearly signals that adulteries … neighings … lewd harlotries have to do with sexual immorality committed in connection with the worship of pagan gods (see “every high hill” in 2.20). Thus Good News Translation translates your lewd harlotries as “you go after pagan gods,” while spelling out clearly the meaning of adulteries (“like a man lusting after his neighbor’s wife”) and neighings (“like a stallion after a mare”). Neighings are the whinnying sounds a horse makes, as for example when a male desires a female. This accounts for the Good News Translation translation.

The first part of verse 27 may be restructured as “I have seen you do the things I hate, as on the hills in the fields you commit adultery as you pursue other gods like a man lusting after a woman who is not his wife, or a stallion chasing a mare.”

The last part of verse 27 is actually not clear in the Hebrew. Made clean may be independent of Woe, as in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. Or it may be dependent on it, as in Revised English Bible “Woe to you, Jerusalem, in your uncleanness! How long will you delay?” Following this model, the translation could be “How terrible for you in your impurity, Jerusalem! How long will this go on?” Translators may accept either interpretation. For Woe see 4.13.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2003. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .