complete verse (Jeremiah 51:13)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 51:13:

  • Kupsabiny: “This city has many rivers and great wealth, but the day has come in which your breath/spirit is to be closed.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “O Babilonia, much is your water and very-much your wealth. But your end has- now -come, the time of your destruction.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Babylon is a city near the great Euphrates River,
    a city in which there are many rich people,
    but it is time for Babylon to be finished;
    the time for the city to exist is ended.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

2nd person pronoun with low register (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 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 51:13

O you who dwell by many waters is clearly the city of Babylon. The waters would be the Euphrates River and the various channels that flowed from it to water the Babylonian farmland. See 50.38. Good News Translation makes this a statement, “That country has many rivers,” but it can also be retained as a form of address, “You people who live beside many rivers.”

Rich in treasures is possibly a reference to the riches that flowed into Babylonia from the conquered nations. Translators can say something like “you are very wealthy” or “you have an abundance of treasures.”

Your end has come, the thread of your life is cut: The thread of your life is cut is a metaphor taken from weaving. See, for example, Isa 38.12, where death is symbolized by the cutting of the web from the loom. For most languages this will be a metaphor that is not easily understood. Bible en français courant renders “the measure is complete,” with the note “or the thread of your life is cut.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates the two lines as “Your time has run out, you have plundered enough!” Good News Translation, on the other hand, attempts to explain the meaning and retains something of the metaphor: “but its time is up, and its thread of life is cut.” Some translators will be able to use a simile; for example, “You are finished; your life is ended just like someone cuts a thread.” Others will prefer to drop the image: “You are finished; your time of living is ended.”

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 .