The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin that is often translated as “gentiles” (or “nations”) in English is often translated as a “local equivalent of ‘foreigners,'” such as “the people of other lands” (Guerrero Amuzgo), “people of other towns” (Tzeltal), “people of other languages” (San Miguel El Grande Mixtec), “strange peoples” (Navajo (Dinė)) (this and above, see Bratcher / Nida), “outsiders” (Ekari), “people of foreign lands” (Kannada), “non-Jews” (North Alaskan Inupiatun), “people being-in-darkness” (a figurative expression for people lacking cultural or religious insight) (Toraja-Sa’dan) (source for this and three above Reiling / Swellengrebel), “from different places all people” (Martu Wangka) (source: Carl Gross).
Tzeltal translates it as “people in all different towns,” Chicahuaxtla Triqui as “the people who live all over the world,” Highland Totonac as “all the outsider people,” Sayula Popoluca as “(people) in every land” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Chichimeca-Jonaz as “foreign people who are not Jews,” Sierra de Juárez Zapotec as “people of other nations” (source of this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), Highland Totonac as “outsider people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Uma as “people who are not the descendants of Israel” (source: Uma Back Translation), “other ethnic groups” (source: Newari Back Translation), and Yakan as “the other tribes” (source: Yakan Back Translation).
In Chichewa, it is translated with mitundu or “races.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 46:12:
Kupsabiny: “Other nations will hear how you were humiliated your cries will be heard all over the world. One soldier will be shot (with arrows) leaning on another and both will fall down and die.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “The nations in the whole world will-know your shame and crying. Your soldiers will-fall-down on-top-of-each-other.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “People in the other nations will hear how you were humiliated. People all over the earth will hear you wailing. Your mighty warriors will stumble over each other and they will all fall down together.’” (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 second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used anata (あなた) is typically used when the speaker is humbly addressing another person.
In these verses, however, omae (おまえ) is used, a cruder second person pronoun, that Jesus for instance chooses when chiding his disciples. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
The nations: See verse 1. Here “other nations” or “all the nations” would be good renderings.
Your shame may be misunderstood, as though Egypt had done some shameful thing. The sense here can be expressed as “how you were humiliated.”
The earth is full of your cry: This can be “Everywhere on earth people can hear your cries [of pain].” The first two lines of this verse are translated by Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch as “The nations have found out how terribly you were humbled; all the world has heard you scream.”
Warrior has stumbled against warrior: This expression is usually translated as “One soldier trips over another” (Good News Translation) or “soldiers stumble against each other.”
They have both fallen together: Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch understands this to mean “no one escapes with their life.” Other translations have the more literal “they both fall down” or “they all fall together.”
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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