complete verse (Jeremiah 14:5)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 14:5:

  • Kupsabiny: “Even the antelope abandons
    its small child in the bush
    because grass is lacking.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Even the deer had abandoned her newborn fawn for there is no grass.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Even the does/female deer abandon their newborn babies/fawns
    because there is no grass in the fields for them to eat.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 14:5

As Good News Translation makes clear, a hind is a female deer.

In this verse, in the field can be “in the wild.”

Forsakes her newborn calf is literally “gives birth and forsakes.” But most languages will require the object to be given: “abandons her newborn fawn” (Good News Translation). This is something that a mother deer would do only under the most dire circumstances, which suggests the fierceness of the drought.

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 .