heifer, stallion

In Afar “you frisk about like a heifer on the grass, and neigh like stallions” is translated as Qaysok cayya iyyeh xobbaaqa gaalih innah xobbaqten. Canak cayye mooyuh innah kaqitten.: “You frisk like camels satisfied with grass, and jump like goat kids satisfied with milk.” (Horses don’t survive in the Afar desert, but camels thrive.)

happiness / joy

The Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that is typically translated in English as “joy” or “happiness” is translated in the Hausa Common Language Bible idiomatically as farin ciki or “white stomach.” In some cases, such as in Genesis 29:11, it is also added for emphatic purposes.

Other languages that use the same expression include Southern Birifor (pʋpɛl), Dera (popolok awo), Reshe (ɾipo ɾipuhã). (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)

See also Seat of the Mind / Seat of Emotions, rejoiced greatly / celebrated, the Mossi translation of “righteous”, and joy.

complete verse (Jeremiah 50:11)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 50:11:

  • Kupsabiny: “But you Babylonians who plundered the wealth of my people
    and you were so happy and grinned (showed the teeth),
    you jumped around like a heifer/calf that is satisfied,
    you made a noise like a male horse.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘You (plur.) people of Babilonia, you (plur.) have-taken the possessions of the people whom I possess. You rejoice and marrying like a calf in the grazing-field or a horse that is neighing.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

1st person pronoun referring to God (Japanese)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

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”.

2nd person pronoun with low register (Japanese)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

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. )

See also first person pronoun with low register and third person pronoun with low register.

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 50:11

Though scholars agree that the following verses are spoken to the people of Babylonia, this would be almost impossible for average readers to work out unless they are told. That is why Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch introduce a noun of address (“People of Babylonia”). Moffatt also identifies the persons addressed in verse 11.

Though you rejoice, though you exult, O plunderers of my heritage: Rejoice is also used in 31.13; 41.13. In a causative sense the verb appears in 20.15 (Revised Standard Version “making glad”); 31.13 (Revised Standard Version “give gladness”). Though exult is used much less frequently in the Old Testament than the verb rejoice, it is found more often in Jeremiah: 11.15; 15.17 (Revised Standard Version “rejoice”); 51.39 (Revised Standard Version “rejoice” in a footnote). A person’s heritage (see 37.12, where Revised Standard Version has “portion”) was the land inherited from his or her ancestors. The LORD is here using it in a figure of speech to describe his people, who are his own special possession. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh renders “You who plundered my possessions.” This address form probably needs to come first in the sentence: “You people who plundered my possession, you may be rejoicing and gloating now.” Good News Translation uses short sentences, also a useful model for some languages: “you plundered my nation. You are happy and glad.”

Wanton as a heifer at grass is an almost impossible expression for English readers to understand without the help of a commentary! The picture would seem to be that of a young cow threshing grain (so Hebrew Old Testament Text Project). According to Deut 25.4, the Israelites were forbidden to muzzle cattle that were treading grain. Translators can say something like “though you run about happy as a young cow in the pasture” or “though you frolic like a young cow at the time of threshing grain.”

Neigh like stallions: See 8.16.

In the text the sentence continues in the next verse. See the discussion there for ways to structure the verses.

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 .