hardened / stubborn

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The Hebrew and Greek that is typically translated in English as “hardened” or “stubborn” is translated in the Hausa Common Language Bible idiomatically as taurin kai or “tough head.”

Other languages spoken in Nigeria translate similarly: Abua uses oḅom ẹmhu or “strong head,” Bura-Pabir kəra ɓəɓal or “hard head,” Gokana agẹ̀ togó or “hard/strong head,” Igede egbeju-ọngịrị or “hard head,” Dera gɨddɨng koi or “strong head,” Reshe ɾiʃitə ɾigbaŋgba or “strong head,” and in Chadian Arabic raas gawi (رَاسْكُو قَوِي) or “hard head” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)

Other translation approaches include Western Bukidnon Manobo with “breath is very hard” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation) or Ixil with “callous heart” (source: Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 40).

See also hardness of heart.

complete verse (Jeremiah 5:23)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 5:23:

  • Kupsabiny: “These people are rebels who do not listen!
    They have gone astray from where I am and gone their own way.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “But these people were hard headed and rebellious. They turned-away and fled from me.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “But you people are not like the waves that obey me.
    You people are very stubborn and rebellious.
    You have constantly turned away from me.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 5:23

This verse is set in contrast with the last part of verse 22: the sea has always stayed within the boundaries that the LORD assigned it, but God’s people are stubborn and rebellious; they constantly turn aside and go away from him.

Whether to say this people or “you people” will depend on what translators have done in the previous verse.

Stubborn translates a participial form of a verb which is used in Jeremiah only here and in 6.28. There it appears in conjunction with a participle from the verb translated turned aside in the last half of this verse. Revised Standard Version renders the combined forms in 6.28 as “stubbornly rebellious.” In many languages heart will be dropped: “You people are stubborn and rebellious.”

Turned aside (other than its usage in 6.28) is found also in 15.5; 17.5; 32.40.

Gone away translates a verb that literally means “walk” or “go,” but its usage here in conjunction with turned aside indicates that the meaning is as Revised Standard Version has given it. Good News Translation translates “left me.” Moffatt renders “defiantly,” apparently following a proposal for change which is without textual support. For the last line translators can say “You have turned away from [following] me and have gone your own way.”

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 .