widow

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “widow” in English is translated in West Kewa as ona wasa or “woman shadow” (source: Karl J. Franklin in Notes on Translation 70/1978, pp. 13ff.) and in Newari as “husband already died ones” or “ones who have no husband” (source: Newari Back Translation).

The etymological meaning of the Hebrew almanah (אַלְמָנָה) is likely “pain, ache,” the Greek chéra (χήρα) is likely “to leave behind,” “abandon,” and the English widow (as well as related terms in languages such as Dutch, German, Sanskrit, Welsh, or Persian) is “to separate,” “divide” (source: Wiktionary).

See also widows.

complete verse (Jeremiah 7:6)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 7:6:

  • Kupsabiny: “Do not oppress the foreigners, the poor/orphans and the women who are widows. Refuse the killing of people who have no mistake in this land, and do not worship idols since (it) destroys/defiles you.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “and you (plur.) no longer oppress the parentless/orphans, widows, and not Israelinhon who live with you (plur.). You (plur.) do not sentence to kill innocents, and you (plur.) do not worship other gods that can- only -harm you (plur.).” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “and if you stop oppressing foreigners who live in your country, and orphans and widows,
    and if you stop murdering people,
    and if you stop worshiping foreign gods/idols.
    However, if you continue to do those things, you will be destroyed.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 7:6

An alien was a foreigner who had settled among the people of Israel. Through the bond of hospitality he had certain rights and obligations, but he did not share in the full benefits of a native-born individual. Thus there were situations where a native-born citizen of the country might take advantage of an alien. Alien is generally translated as “foreigner” or “foreigner in your land.” And since oppress means to put down by a misuse of power, some translations have “harm the foreigners among you by unfair use of power” or even “treat unfairly the foreigners in your land.” The fatherless (Good News Translation “orphans”) and the widow were also persons who could easily be taken advantage of, and from all indications this was frequently the case. For fatherless see 5.28.

It is sometimes helpful to put all the terms for these oppressed groups in the plural: “those people living among you who are from other countries, those who are orphans or widows.”

To shed innocent blood is a typical Old Testament expression meaning “kill innocent people” (Good News Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).

As in verse 3, Good News Translation understands in this place to refer to the land.

Go after is used in the sense of “worshiping” (Good News Translation). Both Revised English Bible and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch have “run after,” which reflects something of the sarcasm in Jeremiah’s remark.

Other gods are best understood as “foreign gods” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). See 1.16.

To your own hurt (New American Bible “to your own harm”) is translated as a clause by Good News Translation (“for that will destroy you”) and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch (“because in that way you will hurl yourself into disaster”). This phrase interrupts the flow of the argument; in a sense it is parenthetical, and translators sometimes set it off, as in “… and if you do not run after other gods, by which in any case you will only destroy yourselves, then….”

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 .