Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 22:6:
Kupsabiny: “God continues to say, ‘The house of rulership of Judah is beautiful like Gilead and the top of the mountain of Lebanon, but I will make the land be desolate like cities where no one lives.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “This is what the LORD is-saying concerning the palace of the king of Juda: ‘You (sing.) are beautiful as Gilead or the peak of the mountain of Lebanon for me. But very surely I will-make you (sing.) into a desert, like a town that no one lives (in).” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “And this is what Yahweh says about the king’s palace: ‘I like this palace, like I like the forests in the Gilead region and the mountains in Lebanon. But I will cause this palace to become a desert, a place that no one lives in.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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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.
The house of the king of Judah does not refer to the royal family, but to “Judah’s royal palace” (Good News Translation).
You are as Gilead to me, as the summit of Lebanon: The second person pronoun You indicates that in Hebrew the LORD addresses the palace in direct speech. This may be difficult in some languages, and Good News Translation is one model of referring to the palace in the third person. In translation it may be advisable to make clear the nature of the comparison here; for example, “… as beautiful as the land of Gilead and as the Lebanon Mountains” (Good News Translation). Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “Even if I had as much joy in you as in the forest of Gilead and the peak of Lebanon….” The comparison is probably between the large cedar columns of the palace and the thick forests of Gilead and Lebanon. The note in Traduction œcuménique de la Bible states that these two places were symbolic of abundance and beauty. The forest image is often retained by translators, who see that the LORD is saying that although Judah is a forest to him, he will make it a desert: “You are to me the forests of Gilead and of the Lebanon Mountains.” For Gilead see 8.22, and for Lebanon see 18.14.
I will make you a desert, an uninhabited city: For desert refer to 2.2, where Revised Standard Version has “wilderness.” In place of city, the Hebrew has “cities” (Revised Standard Version note). The meaning of the Hebrew may well be “I will make you like a desert, the towns of which are deserted.” It is also possible to say “I will make you a desert, a region of empty cities.” If this understanding is followed, then we may translate as in Good News Translation, which has “I will make it a desolate place where no one lives”; Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch is similar. Compare 4.29 and 6.8.
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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