shepherd

The Greek and Hebrew that is translated as “shepherd” in English is translated in Kouya as Bhlabhlɛɛ ‘yliyɔzʋnyɔ — ” tender of sheep.”

Philip Saunders (p. 231) explains:

“Then one day they tackled the thorny problem of ‘shepherd’. It was problematic because Kouyas don’t have herdsmen who stay with the sheep all the time. Sheep wander freely round the village and its outskirts, and often a young lad will be detailed to drive sheep to another feeding spot. So the usual Kouya expression meant a ‘driver of sheep’, which would miss the idea of a ‘nurturing’ shepherd. ‘A sheep nurturer’ was possible to say, but it was unnatural in most contexts. The group came up with Bhlabhlɛɛ ‘yliyɔzʋnyɔ which meant ‘a tender of sheep’, that is one who keeps an eye on the sheep to make sure they are all right. All, including the translators, agreed that this was a most satisfactory solution.”

Other translations include:

  • Chuj: “carer” (there was no single word for “shepherd”) (source: Ronald Ross)
  • Muna: “sheep guard” (dhagano dhumba) (there was no immediate lexical equivalent) (source: René van den Berg),
  • Mairasi: “people who took care of domesticated animals” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Noongar: “sheep worker” (kookendjeriyang-yakina) (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Kwakum: “those-who-monitor-the-livestock” (source: Stacey Hare in this post )

See also I am the good shepherd, complete verse (Psalm 23:1), and sheep / lamb.

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Shepherds in the Bible .

complete verse (Jeremiah 43:12)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 43:12:

  • Kupsabiny: “The houses of the idols in Egypt will be set on fire with those things burning and some/others taken to Babylon. He shall pick everything from there like a person picks lice from his clothes. After that, he shall go away having been victorious.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “He will-burn the temples of the gods of Egipto, and the gods itself will-be-burned. Then he will-take-captive the people to Babilonia. He will-clean-up the land of Egipto just as the shepherd of the sheep cleans up his clothe that has-fleas. And Nebuchadnezzar will-leave unharmed.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Nebuchadnezzar’s soldiers will burn down the temples of the gods of Egypt. But before they burn the temples, they will take away their idols as souvenirs. His troops will clean Egypt like a shepherd cleans lice from his cloak. They will tear down the sacred pillars that are in the temple of their sun god. And then Nebuchadnezzar’s troops will leave there, without having been harmed.’ ’ ’” (Source: Translation for Translators)

1st person pronoun referring to God (Japanese)

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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.

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

See also pronoun for “God”.

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 43:12

He: As the Revised Standard Version note indicates, this rendering represents Greek, Syriac, and the Vulgate; Hebrew has “I” (Good News Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), which is the preference of Hebrew Old Testament Text Project. The first person reference would of course be to God. We recommend translators follow the Hebrew here.

Kindle a fire in the temples of the gods of Egypt: The meaning is clearly “set fire to the temples of Egypt’s gods” (Good News Translation). Those translators who have had to construct an expression for temple (see 7.1-3) and who also may have had some difficulty with gods (see 1.16) may have to render the temples of the gods of Egypt as “the buildings where the Egyptians worshiped [or, prayed to] those things [or, idols] they called God.”

He shall burn them and carry them away captive: Here the pronoun he refers to the king of Babylonia, not to the LORD. Burn them and carry them away captive is difficult, since it is not likely that the same objects would be both burned and carried away. Good News Translation renders “will either burn their gods or carry them off.” We may also translate “he will burn some of their gods and carry others off.”

He shall clean the land of Egypt essentially means that he will either take or destroy everything of value in Egypt. There will be nothing left when he has finished. Translators should try to retain the image of clean, particularly because it fits well with the next image of cleaning lice off a cloak. But if this is not possible, they can have “he will leave nothing of worth in Egypt” or “he will leave Egypt completely bare.”

As a shepherd cleans his cloak of vermin is the meaning that most translations follow for the Hebrew verb here (Good News Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, New American Bible, Revised English Bible). It is also the one we recommend, though New Jerusalem Bible has “like a shepherd wrapping his cloak round him,” which is the meaning also followed by New International Version. The problem is that a verb from an identical root occurs several times in the Old Testament with the meaning “cover,” whereas this is the only place in the Hebrew Old Testament where this particular meaning (“pick off”) is seen for the verb. The Septuagint, which has a verb that means “delouse,” supports this interpretation. Vermin in English can refer to animals such as rats and mice as well as to insects. But vermin that are on a cloak are more likely to be lice, which is the usual translation.

He shall go away from there in peace may be misleading, suggesting that the land itself will be left in peace when he leaves. The meaning is rather “and then leave victorious” (Good News Translation) or “Then he will leave without anyone standing in his way” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). New Jerusalem Bible has “and then leave without anyone laying hands on him.”

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 .