Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 6:27:
Kupsabiny: “Jeremiah, you are the one who shall do the testing, and you shall examine my people carefully. Test them so you may see how their paths/ways are.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “The LORD said to me, ‘I have-made you (plur.) as-if a tester of metals so-that you (plur.) can test the ways of my people.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “Then Yahweh said to me, ‘Jeremiah, I have caused you to become like someone who heats metal very hot to completely burn the impurities. You will examine my people’s behavior.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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.
Translators who want to put a section heading here can say something like “The people are tested like metal” or “The people are [like] impure metal.”
In order to indicate that the LORD is now speaking to Jeremiah, Good News Translation identifies him by name at the beginning of this verse, whereas Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “The Lord said to me….” This is extremely important in translation, so that the reader may recognize the difference between the persons addressed in verses 22-26 and 27-30.
Assayer is a technical term used of someone who tests precious metals by the process of smelting. The word is not found elsewhere in the Old Testament.
Tester does not translate the Hebrew, which has “a fortress” (see the notes in Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, New Jerusalem Bible). Although the word tester (parallel in meaning to assayer) may be arrived at by reading different vowels in the noun “fortress,” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project proposes otherwise. The committee believes that the text as it stands makes sense, if “fortress” is understood as an allusion or reference back to the title given Jeremiah in 1.18. We might then translate the whole verse:
• I have placed you among my people, in order that you might put them to the test as a person tests metal. I have placed you there as a fortress, and you are to examine my people and put them to the test.
The New International Version translation retains the assayer image only:
• I have made you a tester of metals
and my people the ore,
that you may observe
and test their ways.
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 .
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.