happiness / joy

The Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that is typically translated in English as “joy” or “happiness” is translated in the Hausa Common Language Bible idiomatically as farin ciki or “white stomach.” In some cases, such as in Genesis 29:11, it is also added for emphatic purposes.

Other languages that use the same expression include Southern Birifor (pʋpɛl), Dera (popolok awo), Reshe (ɾipo ɾipuhã). (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)

See also Seat of the Mind / Seat of Emotions, rejoiced greatly / celebrated, the Mossi translation of “righteous”, and joy.

save

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The Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin that is translated as a form of “save” in English is translated in Shipibo-Conibo with a phrase that means literally “make to live,” which combines the meaning of “to rescue” and “to deliver from danger,” but also the concept of “to heal” or “restore to health.”

Other translations include:

  • San Blas Kuna: “help the heart”
  • Laka: “take by the hand” in the meaning of “rescue” or “deliver”
  • Huautla Mazatec: “lift out on behalf of”
  • Anuak: “have life because of”
  • Central Mazahua: “be healed in the heart”
  • Baoulé: “save one’s head”
  • Guerrero Amuzgo: “come out well”
  • Northwestern Dinka: “be helped as to his breath” (or “life”) (source for all above: Bratcher / Nida),
  • Matumbi: “rescue (from danger)” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
  • Noongar: barrang-ngandabat or “hold life” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • South Bolivian Quechua: “make to escape”
  • Highland Puebla Nahuatl: “cause people to come out with the aid of the hand” (source for this and one above: Nida 1947, p. 222)
  • Bariai: “retrieve one back” (source: Bariai Back Translation)

See also salvation and save (Japanese honorifics).

gentiles / nations

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The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin that is often translated as “gentiles” (or “nations”) in English is often translated as a “local equivalent of ‘foreigners,'” such as “the people of other lands” (Guerrero Amuzgo), “people of other towns” (Tzeltal), “people of other languages” (San Miguel El Grande Mixtec), “strange peoples” (Navajo (Dinė)) (this and above, see Bratcher / Nida), “outsiders” (Ekari), “people of foreign lands” (Kannada), “non-Jews” (North Alaskan Inupiatun), “people being-in-darkness” (a figurative expression for people lacking cultural or religious insight) (Toraja-Sa’dan) (source for this and three above Reiling / Swellengrebel), “from different places all people” (Martu Wangka) (source: Carl Gross).

Tzeltal translates it as “people in all different towns,” Chicahuaxtla Triqui as “the people who live all over the world,” Highland Totonac as “all the outsider people,” Sayula Popoluca as “(people) in every land” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Chichimeca-Jonaz as “foreign people who are not Jews,” Sierra de Juárez Zapotec as “people of other nations” (source of this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), Highland Totonac as “outsider people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Uma as “people who are not the descendants of Israel” (source: Uma Back Translation), “other ethnic groups” (source: Newari Back Translation), and Yakan as “the other tribes” (source: Yakan Back Translation).

In Chichewa, it is translated with mitundu or “races.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

See also nations.

joy

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The Greek, Latin and Hebrew that is translated with “joy” or “gladness” in English is translated with various strategies:

  • Baoulé: “a song in the stomach” (see also peace (inner peace))
  • Bambara: “the spirit is made sweet”
  • Kpelle: “sweet heart”
  • Tzeltal: “the good taste of one’s heart”
  • Uduk: “good to the stomach”
  • Mískito: “the liver is wide open” (“happily letting the pleasures flooding in upon it”) (source for this and above: Nida 1952)
  • Mairasi: “good liver” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Noongar: koort-kwabba-djil or “heart very good” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “refreshed heart” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.).

See also Seat of the Mind for traditional views of “ways of knowing, thinking, and feeling,” happiness / joy, and exceeding joy.

complete verse (Jeremiah 31:7)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 31:7:

  • Kupsabiny: “God is saying.
    ‘Sing (plur.) to/for Israel with joy,
    sing on account of this famous community while praising,
    ‘Oh, God, save your people,
    rescue those who remain in Israel.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “The LORD still said, ‘You (plur.) sing and rejoice in gladness for Israel, the greatest of all the nations. [You (plur.)] praise and shout, ‘O LORD, save your people, the ones-who-were-left alive among the Israelinhon.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “And now Yahweh also says this:
    ‘Sing joyfully about what I have done for the people of Israel!
    Shout about your nation, the greatest nation!
    Shout joyfully, praising me and saying,
    ‘Yahweh, rescue your people,
    the ones who are still alive!’” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 31:7

Thus says the LORD: See 2.2.

The Hebrew verb rendered sing aloud is found in its intensive form in 31.12 and 51.48 (Revised Standard Version “sing for joy”). A noun from the same verb appears in 7.16; 11.14; 14.12 (Revised Standard Version “cry”). Most versions retain sing, although some have preferred “shout” since they see it as parallel to raise shouts in the next line. Good News Translation has simply dropped this second verb, but some translators will want to retain the two expressions, as for example in “Sing with joy for Israel [or, Jacob]. Yes, shout out praise for the greatest of the nations.”

Jacob (Good News Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Bible en français courant “Israel”) is used in a parallel structure with the chief of the nations: “Sing with joy for Israel, the greatest of the nations” (Good News Translation; similarly Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).

Proclaim, give praise, and say: If this is translated literally, the order of the verbs in Hebrew and Revised Standard Version results in an anticlimax, since say is weak following the verbs proclaim and give praise. New Jerusalem Bible has “Proclaim! praise! shout….” Translators can take say as expressing the content of give praise, and say something like “Proclaim the news! Give praise [to the LORD] and say….”

As the Good News Translation note indicates, the LORD has saved his people represents the Septuagint. The Hebrew has “Save, O LORD, your people,” which is the preference of Hebrew Old Testament Text Project. Their assumption is that the imperative was altered in order to make the text read smoothly and more consistently with the context. New International Version, Bible en français courant, and New Revised Standard Version all follow the Hebrew. In the context of this verse of praise, translators can make sense with either, and should follow the alternative that reads the most natural.

The remnant of Israel (see 6.9) is here used in the same sense as “his people.” Good News Translation renders the remnant as “all who are left.”

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 .