3Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply.
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 23:3:
Kupsabiny: “I shall gather my people who have remained coming from all the countries where I scattered them, and then I shall return them to come to their own land. But/And then, they shall reproduce and become many.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “I myself will-gather the remnant of my people from the different places where I had- them -scattered, and I will-bring- them -back to their land, and there they will- greatly -increase.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “But later I will gather those who are still alive, from the countries where I have forced them to go. I will bring them back to their own country, where they will have many children, and their number/population will increase.” (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 first occurrence of the pronoun I is emphatic in Hebrew. Both Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch and Bible en français courant have the equivalent of “I myself.” Another good way of expressing the emphasis is “I for my part.”
The remnant of my flock: See “the remnant of Israel” in 6.9. Good News Translation does away with the imagery and translates “the rest of my people.”
The text says I have driven them, which Good News Translation renders as “I have scattered them.” If a language does not have a word like “driving” for forcing animals or people to go where someone wants them, then translators can say “I have forced them to go.” See 8.3.
If the imagery of sheep is maintained, then fold may be rendered “pasture” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch); otherwise, we may follow “homeland” of Good News Translation.
Be fruitful and multiply is a frequently used biblical idiom (see Gen 1.22); Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “thrive and increase again” and Good News Translation “have many children and increase in number.”
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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