16but then you turned around and profaned my name when each of you took back your male and female slaves, whom you had set free according to their desire, and you brought them again into subjection to be your slaves.
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 34:16:
Kupsabiny: “But afterwards you insulted me changing/turning around to bring back all those slaves that you had released/allowed to go away, forcing (them) to become slaves again.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “But your mind had-changed and you (plur.) did- not -honor me. You enslaved again the slaves whom you (plur.) had-freed. They really want to-be-free, but you (plur.) forced them to become your slaves again.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “But now you have disregarded what you solemnly promised, and you have shown contempt for what I said by taking back the women and men whom you had freed and said they could live wherever they wanted to. Now you have forced them to be your slaves again.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.
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.
Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.
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).
Profaned my name: Since the LORD’s name represents the LORD himself, Good News Translation translates “dishonored me” and Bible en français courant “treated me with contempt.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “Thus you have shown that you do not take me very seriously.” However, there are societies, many in West Africa and the Pacific for example, where the literal expression or the similar “spoil the name” is a commonly used idiom, and can therefore be retained.
You had set free according to their desire: Desire translates a noun that is generally rendered “soul.” However, it covers a wide range of meaning. New Jerusalem Bible represents free according to their desire as “free to live their own lives”; Revised English Bible and New American Bible apparently leave the expression according to their desire to be understood from set free, as does Traduction œcuménique de la Bible. Bright translates according to their desire as “to go where they wished.” Translators can either follow this interpretation or that of Good News Translation “as they desired.”
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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