complete verse (Jeremiah 9:3)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 9:3:

  • Kupsabiny: “God said/says,
    ‘Their tongues throw/spit out lies
    like bows that shoot arrows.
    (They) live with lying in the land
    and continue to do this and that evil.
    Those people do not follow what I am saying.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “The LORD said, ‘They are always ready to lie like a bow-and-arrow ready to shoot. Lies supersede in this land and not (the) truth. Their sinning is-extremely-becoming-worse, and they do not acknowledge me.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Yahweh replied to me,
    ‘They use their tongues to tell lies
    like people shoot arrows with bows.
    It is because they tell lies that they have become more powerful in this land,
    and they do not know me.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

1st person pronoun referring to God (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 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”.

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 9:3

The first part of this verse in Hebrew is extremely difficult. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project suggests a meaning that may be expressed as follows: “They use their tongues to tell lies, just as an archer uses a bow to shoot arrows. They have grown powerful, but they are not faithful to the LORD.” In this rendering the noun truth is taken to mean “faithfulness” or “loyalty” in relation to God. See the comment at 5.1. A possible variation on the second sentence of this model is “It is because of their falsehood they have become powerful in the land, not because they are loyal to me.” Note that Good News Translation has dropped the image of the bow, but most translators will try to retain it, as in the example above.

For they proceed from evil to evil is more naturally expressed by Good News Translation as “My people do one evil thing after another.”

They do not know me: See the comment on “knew” at 1.5. New Jerusalem Bible has “but me they do not know” and New English Bible “and for me they care nothing”; Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “they will have nothing to do with me” and Good News Translation “and do not acknowledge me as their God.” Translators should find a natural way to express the focus and meaning given in these versions.

For says the LORD, see 1.8.

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 .