31And I will punish him and his offspring and his servants for their iniquity; I will bring on them and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem and on the people of Judah all the disasters with which I have threatened them, but they would not listen.
The name that is transliterated as “Judah” or “Judea” in English (referring to the son of Jacob, the tribe, and the territory) is translated in Spanish Sign Language as “lion” (referring to Genesis 49:9 and Revelation 5:5). This sign for lion is reserved for regions and kingdoms. (Source: John Elwode in The Bible Translator 2008, p. 78ff. and Steve Parkhurst)
The name that is transliterated as “Jerusalem” in English is signed in French Sign Language with a sign that depicts worshiping at the Western Wall in Jerusalem:
While a similar sign is also used in British Sign Language, another, more neutral sign that combines the sign “J” and the signs for “place” is used as well. (Source: Anna Smith)
“Jerusalem” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 36:31:
Kupsabiny: “And again, I shall punish you, your descendants and your leaders for your sins. I will also send to the people of Jerusalem and all the people of Judah all the suffering that I said I would send because they did not listen to me.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “I will-punish you and your children, as-well-as your officials because of your wickedness. I will-have- you (plur.) -experience and to the people of Jerusalem and Juda all the destructions that I have said against you (plur.) because you did not listen to me.’ ’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “I will punish you and your family and your officials for their sins. And I will cause the people of Jerusalem and the people of the other towns in Judah to experience all the disasters that I promised, because you all would not pay attention to what I said!’ ’ ‘ ’” (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.
Servants is not household servants, as the term may suggest, but “officials” (Good News Translation), since they had played a big part in Jehoiakim’s fatal decision. See verse 24.
For iniquity see “guilt” in 2.22.
Bring upon … all the evil: See 4.6.
Men of Judah is a general reference meaning “people of Judah.”
But they would not hear: In Revised Standard Version this clause seems to hang without much connection to what is before it. It expresses the reason for the LORD’s destruction on the people of Judah. New American Bible renders “[all the threats of evil] which went unheeded” and Revised English Bible “[all the disasters with which I threatened them,] for they turned a deaf ear to me.” Good News Translation reverses the order, placing the causative expression first: “Neither you nor the people of Jerusalem and of Judah have paid any attention to my warnings, and so I will bring on all of you the disaster that I have threatened.”
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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