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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).

Jerusalem

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:


“Jerusalem” in French Sign Language (source: La Bible en langue des signes française )

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)

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Jerusalem .

complete verse (Jeremiah 4:14)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 4:14:

  • Kupsabiny: “Oh, Jerusalem, please wash off the sin that is inside you so you are saved. For how long will you hide that sin?” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘Those of/from-Jerusalem, cleanse your (plur.) heart from wickedness so-that you (plur.) will-be-saved. Until when you (plur.) think of wicked(-thing)?” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “You people of Jerusalem , purify your hearts/inner beings,
    in order that Yahweh will rescue you.
    How long will you continue to think about doing evil things?” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 4:14

O Jerusalem is more naturally just “Jerusalem” in some languages. In others it will be more natural to address the city like this: “You people of Jerusalem.”

Wickedness translates the same noun used in 1.16. Wash your heart from wickedness may not be natural. Good News Translation “wash the evil from your heart” is better for some, but where washing a heart would not be meaningful, translators can say “clean all the evil from your lives” or “make your hearts [or, lives] clean; remove all the evil.”

That you may be saved: If it is necessary to translate this as an active form, it may be rendered “that the LORD may save you.” Obviously this action contrasts with the death that is threatened in the previous verse, so some translations have here “that the LORD may rescue you.”

Evil thoughts lodge within you is expressed in Good News Translation as “go on thinking sinful thoughts.” The particular word translated evil is used only twice in Jeremiah, here and in verse 15. Elsewhere in the Old Testament the word is found in a wide variety of contexts, though here it probably means “sinful” (Good News Translation); both New Jerusalem Bible and New American Bible translate evil thoughts by the high-level English expression “pernicious thoughts.” Lodge within you in this verse refers not only to the intentions within a person, but possibly also to the intentions within the whole community of Jerusalem.

How long shall…? is a rhetorical question that does not expect an answer. It may be expressed as “How long will you be full of evil thoughts?” “How long will evil thinking fill you totally?” or “How long will all your thinking be evil?” The purpose of the question is rather to plead “You must not go on with thinking nothing but evil!”

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 .