complete verse (Jeremiah 5:26)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 5:26:

  • Kupsabiny: “There are evil/sinful people in the midst of my people.
    Those people lie in wait for other people by the road
    so they can rob them of their things.
    They are like people who set traps for birds
    in the way they look for people.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘There are wicked men/people among my people who lie-in-wait for their victim like a man who snares bird. They placed traps for other people.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Among my people are wicked people who hide along the roads to ambush/attack people
    like men who hunt birds put out nets/set traps to catch them.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 5:26

Most translators will begin a new section here and drop the transition word For.

Wicked men are found among my people may require restructuring: “Evildoers live among my people” (Good News Translation) and “Among my folk there are unscrupulous people” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). The translation “folk” and “people” is to indicate that the German uses two separate terms for “people” in this sentence. English does not have two good words for “people,” though it is possible to restructure: “Some of my people are evil” or “For among my people there are some who are wicked.” Although the text has men, the reference is really to people, not just males.

The Revised Standard Version footnote indicates that they lurk like fowlers lying in wait is “uncertain” in Hebrew. However, most translations interpret the text in the same sense as Revised Standard Version; for example, “they lie in wait like those who lay nets to catch birds” (Good News Translation) and “who lie in wait like men who snare birds” (New International Version). This also is the interpretation preferred by Hebrew Old Testament Text Project. The second part of the metaphor can be rendered “but they set their traps and catch people.”

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 .