birds of the air

The Greek and Hebrew phrases that are often translated as “birds of the air” in English “refer to the undomesticated song birds or wild birds, to be distinguished in a number of languages from domesticated fowl. In Tzeltal these former are ‘field birds’.” (source: Bratcher / Nida)

Q’anjob’al also uses an established term for non-domesticated birds. Newberry and Kittie Cox (in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 91ff. ) explain: “Qʼanjobʼal has two distinct terms, one to identify domesticated birds and the other non-domesticated birds. The additional descriptive phrase ‘of the air’ seemed entirely misleading, for Qʼanjobʼal speakers had never heard of such creatures. Actually, of course, all that was necessary was the term for non-domesticated birds, for that is precisely the meaning of the Biblical expression.”

In Elhomwe they are just translated as “birds” or “birds of the bush” (i.e., wild birds) to “not give the impression that these are special type of birds.” (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

See also birds of the air / fish of the sea and birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.

wild animal

The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is translated in English as “wild animal” or similar is translated in Newari as “animal that lives in the jungle.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)

complete verse (Jeremiah 16:4)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 16:4:

  • Kupsabiny: “Bad sicknesses will kill (them), and no one will mourn or bury them. Their bodies will be heaped like dung in the land. Sword and famine will destroy those people and birds of prey and wild animals will eat their corpses.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “They will-die from terrible diseases. No one will-mourn or bury them. Their corpses will-scatter on the grazing-field like dung. Some of them will-die from war and from famine, and their corpses will-be-eaten by the birds and wild animals.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Many of them will die from terrible diseases. And no one will mourn for them. No one will even bury their corpses; the corpses will lie on the ground, scattered like manure. Others will die in wars or from hunger, and then their corpses will become food for vultures and wild animals.’” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 16:4

Deadly diseases is more literally “deaths of diseases.” Elsewhere in Jeremiah the noun diseases is found only in 14.18, where it occurs in the construction “diseases of famine.”

They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried may require restructuring as an active expression: “no one will mourn for them or bury them” (Good News Translation). The restructuring of Good News Translation may suggest that people were unwilling to do these things, which is not the intention of the verse. The meaning is “There will be no one there to conduct the mourning rituals for them or to bury them” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch) or “There will be no one left alive to….”

They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground: See the comment at 8.2. They is more accurately expressed as “Their bodies” (Good News Translation) or “their corpses” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). Good News Translation is vivid: “Their bodies will lie like piles of manure on the ground.”

Sword … famine: See the comment at 5.12.

Their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth: An active construction may be preferable, as in Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch (“vultures and jackals will eat them”). If translators do not want to identify particular birds and animals by name, they can say “Birds and wild animals will eat them.” For birds of the air, see the comment at 4.25. For beasts of the earth, see 7.33.

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 .