Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 14:19:
Kupsabiny: “Then I cried out to God, ‘Have you really refused Judah completely? Do you truly hate Zion? Why have you hit us so badly like this, so that we cannot be healthy/alive anymore? We have searched for peace, and nothing good happened. We thought that we would be well/alive, but calamity came to us.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “O LORD, have- you (sing.) completely -rejected Juda? Do- you (sing.) really -hate Jerusalem? Why have- you (sing.) -wounded us (excl.) so seriously, in the sense that we (excl.) no longer be-healed? We (excl.) have-hoped that you (sing.) will-give us (excl.) peace, but (it) did- not -come. We (excl.) have-hoped that you (sing.) will-heal us (excl.), but terror came to us (excl.).” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “Then I prayed this: ‘Yahweh, have you completely rejected the people of Judah? Do you really despise the people of Jerusalem ? Why have you wounded us very badly, with the result that we will never be healed? We hoped that we would have peace, but there was no peace. We hoped that there would be a time when we would be healed, but all that we received were things that terrified us.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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 Translator2002, 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.
Both Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch indicate that the words of this passage are addressed to the LORD. Since it is the people who are speaking, not Jeremiah, some translators begin by saying, “The people asked the LORD, ‘Have you really rejected Judah?’ ”
Utterly is translated “completely” by most translators, but in this context it can also be rendered as “really,” since the people cannot believe that the LORD would in fact reject Judah.
Soul is once again used as the equivalent of the personal pronoun, as the parallel between thou and thy soul of Revised Standard Version clearly indicates. Good News Translation more naturally renders “you … you.”
The verb loathe (Good News Translation “hate”) is found only here in the book of Jeremiah. Elsewhere in the Old Testament it is used in Lev 26.11, 15, 30, 43, 44; Ezek 16.45 (twice).
Judah represents the people of that territory, as Zion (Good News Translation “the people of Zion”) represents the people of the city of Jerusalem. However, “Zion” is used so frequently in the Bible that to put “Jerusalem” here would seem to be giving up a common figure. Rather, if necessary, translators can explain in a footnote or, better, the glossary, that “Zion” stands for “Jerusalem.”
Smitten derives from the same Hebrew root as the noun “blow” in verse 17. Smitten us is rendered “hurt us so badly” by Good News Translation and “struck us down” by New Jerusalem Bible. Revised English Bible has “wounded us.”
We looked for peace … but terror came instead: See the comment at 8.15.
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 .
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