Chaldean

The name that is transliterated as “Chaldean” in English is translated in Libras (Brazilian Sign Language) with the sign that combines “Mesopotamia” (see here) and “spreading out,” since the Chaldeans originated in southern Mesopotamia and spread out from there. (Source: Missão Kophós )


“Chaldean” in Libras (source )

More information about Chaldea .

complete verse (Jeremiah 32:43)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 32:43:

  • Kupsabiny: “Fields will again be planted in this land about which you say ‘It became a desert without people or animals because it was given to Babylon.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Farms will- again -be-bought-and-sold in this land which is now desolate and no one living (in them), either man or animal, for this was handed-over to those from-Babilonia.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “By buying land you, Jeremiah, have predicted that some day people will buy and sell fields in this land about which you people of Jerusalem now say, ‘The Babylonian soldiers have destroyed it. It is now desolate. It is a land where there are no longer any people or animals.’” (Source: Translation for Translators)

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

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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 formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 32:43

Fields shall be bought may require restructuring as an active expression: “in this land people shall again buy fields” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).

You is plural, as in verse 36. Refer to the comments there.

Desolation: See 4.27.

For man or beast, see 7.20.

Chaldeans: See 21.4.

The Good News Translation restructuring is a useful model. Another possible way to render the verse is:

• Even though you say this land is like a desert where neither people nor animals live, and that I am going to give it over to the Babylonians, yet once again people will be buying fields here.

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 .