adultery

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The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “adultery” in English (here etymologically meaning “to alter”) is typically understood as “marital infidelity.” It is (back-) translated in the following ways:

  • Highland Totonac: “to do something together”
  • Yucateco: “pair-sin”
  • Ngäbere: “robbing another’s half self-possession” (compare “fornication” which is “robbing self-possession,” that is, to rob what belongs to a person)
  • Kaqchikel, Chol: “to act like a dog” (see also licentiousness)
  • Toraja-Sa’dan: “to measure the depth of the river of (another’s) marriage”
  • North Alaskan Inupiatun: “married people using what is not theirs” (compare “fornication” which is “unmarried people using what is not theirs”) (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Purari: “play hands with” or “play eyes with”
  • Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “talk secretly with spouses of our fellows”
  • Isthmus Zapotec: “go in with other people’s spouses”
  • Tzeltal: “practice illicit relationship with women”
  • Huehuetla Tepehua: “live with some one who isn’t your wife”
  • Central Tarahumara: “sleep with a strange partner”
  • Hopi: “tamper with marriage” (source for this and seven above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
  • German: Ehebrecher or “marriage breaker” / Ehe brechen or “breaking of marriage” (source: Zetzsche)
  • In Falam Chin the term for “adultery” is the phrase for “to share breast” which relates to adultery by either sex. (Source: David Clark)
  • In Ixcatlán Mazatec a specification needs to be made to include both genders. (Source: Robert Bascom)
  • Likewise in Hiligaynon: “commit-adultery-with-a-man or commit-adultery-with-a-woman” (source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

See also adultery, adulterer, adulteress, and you shall not commit adultery.

complete verse (Jeremiah 3:9)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 3:9:

  • Kupsabiny: “(She) had no shame of that sin. (She) destroyed/defiled the land because of promiscuity and (she) went around worshipping rocks and blocks of wood.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “by worshipping little-gods/false-gods which are stone and wood, so she defiled the land. She followed it for (it is) nothing with her the worshipping of little-gods/false-gods.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “They thought that worshiping idols did not matter to me, so they have made the entire land unacceptable to me by worshiping idols of wood and stone.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 3:9

So light translates an adverbial expression meaning “from lightheartedness.” Because harlotry was so light to her is translated a variety of ways: “So shameless was her whoring” (Jerusalem Bible); “Because Israel’s immorality mattered so little to her” (New International Version, but Judah should be in view here); and “Through her shameless prostitution” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). Another possibility is “Because being a prostitute didn’t bother her.”

She polluted the land (so most translations) represents one possible way of reading the consonants of the Hebrew text. However, Hebrew Old Testament Text Project prefers the Masoretic form of the text, that is, the text with vowels that has come down to us. This text may be rendered “she defiled herself together with the land.” The Septuagint omits this statement. Those translators who choose to follow the Revised Standard Version text, polluted the land, should refer to the discussion at verse 1. If they follow the Masoretic Text, then they may say something like “she made both herself and the land unfit for God [or, for worshiping God].”

Committing adultery with stone and tree means “she committed adultery by worshiping stones and trees” (see 2.27).

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 .