3but Baruch son of Neriah is inciting you against us, to hand us over to the Chaldeans, in order that they may kill us or take us into exile in Babylon.”
The Hebrew and Greek that is transliterated as “Baruch” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with a sign depicting “Assistant to Jeremiah,” referring to Jeremiah 36:4 et al. For Jeremiah as the “crying prophet” in sign language translation, see here. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)
The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).
For this verse, the Jarai and the Adamawa Fulfulde translation both use the exclusive pronoun, excluding Jeremiah.
The name that is transliterated as “Chaldean” in English is translated in Libras (Brazilian Sign Language) with the sign that combines “Mesopotamia” (see here) and “spreading out,” since the Chaldeans originated in southern Mesopotamia and spread out from there. (Source: Missão Kophós )
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 43:3:
Kupsabiny: “It is the words of Baruch son of Neriah that have incited you to have set a trap for us so that the Babylonians can catch us and kill us or take us to become prisoners in Babylon.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “Baruc the child of Neria is-inciting to you that we will-be-handed to those from-Babilonia, so that they will-kill us or taken-captive to Babilonia.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “We think that Baruch has urged/persuaded you to say this, in order that if we stay here, the soldiers from Babylonia will seize us and kill us or take us to Babylonia.’” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Set you against us: Many English translations have “incited you against us.” The idiomatic “stirred you up against us” (Good News Translation) is also good.
Hand represents “power” (see 15.21). New International Version translates deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans as “hand us over to the Babylonians.” This is more accurate than Good News Translation “the Babylonians will gain power over us,” because it correctly gives the sense that the people are suggesting Jeremiah would be the agent in turning the people over to the Babylonians.
Chaldeans; that is, “Babylonians” (Good News Translation). See 21.4.
Exile, especially where high officials are concerned, may not have involved more than the hardship of being removed from their native land (see 24.1). Here, as usual, Good News Translation avoids the term and renders “take us away to Babylonia.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch uses a word that may mean either “carry off” or “deport.”
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 .
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