complete verse (Jeremiah 4:18)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 4:18:

  • Kupsabiny: “‘Judah, you alone have brought this upon yourself because of how you live with your deeds/actions. Your sin brought this suffering to you. It has pierced your heart like a spear.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Your (plur.) very-own conduct and behavior were- the -ones-who-brought this to you (plur.). This is your (plur.) punishment. How painful it is! As-if your (plur.) heart was-pierced/(stabbed).’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “You will be punished very severely;
    it will be as though a sword has stabbed your inner beings.
    But you are causing those things to happen to you
    because of the evil things that you have done.’” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Japanese benefactives (-naide)

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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 benefactive construction as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. Here, -naide (ないで) or “do not (for their sake)” is used in combination with kudasaru (くださる), a respectful form of the benefactive kureru (くれる). A benefactive reflects the good will of the giver or the gratitude of a recipient of the favor. To convey this connotation, English translation needs to employ a phrase such as “for me (my sake)” or “for you (your sake).”

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

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 4:18

Your ways and your doings mean essentially the same thing, and may be expressed as verb constructions: “The way you have gone” and “the things you have done.” For some languages it will be impossible to speak of ways and doings bringing something upon someone, and for other languages it will be unnatural. Thus Good News Translation makes a shift: “you have brought this on yourself by the way you have lived and by the things you have done.”

This is your doom, and it is bitter is more literally “This [is] your evil that [it is] bitter.” The word translated doom by Revised Standard Version is the more general word for “evil,” and is rendered “wickedness” by Revised Standard Version in verse 14. Good News Translation translates this clause as “Your sin has caused this suffering,” and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “Your evil has hurled you into this bitter sorrow.”

It has reached your very heart (Good News Translation “it has stabbed you through the heart”) appears in Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch as “It is the sword that has pierced you through the heart.” Another way to understand the last two lines would be “Your evil has brought on this bitter sorrow and threatens the very core of your being [or, threatens to destroy you at your very center].”

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 .