righteous, righteousness

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The Greek, Hebrew, and Latin terms that are translated in English mostly as “righteous” as an adjective or personified noun or “righteousness” (also as “upright(ness)” and “just(ice)”) are most commonly expressed with concept of “straightness,” though this may be expressed in a number of ways. (Click or tap here to see the details)

Following is a list of (back-) translations of various languages:

  • Bambara, Southern Bobo Madaré, Chokwe (ululi), Amganad Ifugao, Chol, Eastern Maninkakan, Toraja-Sa’dan, Pamona, Batak Toba, Bilua, Tiv: “be straight”
  • Laka: “follow the straight way” or “to straight-straight” (a reduplicated form for emphasis)
  • Sayula Popoluca: “walk straight”
  • Highland Puebla Nahuatl, Kekchí, Muna: “have a straight heart”
  • Kipsigis: “do the truth”
  • Mezquital Otomi: “do according to the truth”
  • Huautla Mazatec: “have truth”
  • Yine: “fulfill what one should do”
  • Indonesian: “be true”
  • Navajo (Dinė): “do just so”
  • Anuak: “do as it should be”
  • Mossi: “have a white stomach” (see also happiness / joy)
  • Paasaal: “white heart” (source: Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
  • (San Mateo del Mar Huave: “completely good” (the translation does not imply sinless perfection)
  • Nuer: “way of right” (“there is a complex concept of “right” vs. ‘left’ in Nuer where ‘right’ indicates that which is masculine, strong, good, and moral, and ‘left’ denotes what is feminine, weak, and sinful (a strictly masculine viewpoint!) The ‘way of right’ is therefore righteousness, but of course women may also attain this way, for the opposition is more classificatory than descriptive.”) (This and all above from Bratcher / Nida except for Bilua: Carl Gross; Tiv: Rob Koops; Muna: René van den Berg)
  • Central Subanen: “wise-good” (source: Robert Brichoux in OPTAT 1988/2, p. 80ff. )
  • Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac: “live well”
  • Mezquital Otomi: “goodness before the face of God” (source for this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
  • Eastern Huasteca Nahuatl: “the result of heart-straightening” (source: Nida 1947, p. 224)
  • Eastern Highland Otomi: “entirely good” (when referred to God), “do good” or “not be a debtor as God sees one” (when referred to people)
  • Carib: “level”
  • Tzotzil: “straight-hearted”
  • Ojitlán Chinantec: “right and straight”
  • Yatzachi Zapotec: “walk straight” (source for this and four previous: John Beekman in Notes on Translation November 1964, p. 1-22)
  • Makonde: “doing what God wants” (in a context of us doing) and “be good in God’s eyes” (in the context of being made righteous by God) (note that justify / justification is translated as “to be made good in the eyes of God.” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
  • Aari: The Pauline word for “righteous” is generally rendered by “makes one without sin” in the Aari, sometimes “before God” is added for clarity. (Source: Loren Bliese)
  • North Alaskan Inupiatun: “having sin taken away” (Source: Nida 1952, p. 144)
  • Nyamwezi: wa lole: “just” or “someone who follows the law of God” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
  • Venda: “nothing wrong, OK” (Source: J.A. van Roy in The Bible Translator 1972, p. 418ff. )
  • Ekari: maakodo bokouto or “enormous truth” (the same word that is also used for “truth“; bokouto — “enormous” — is being used as an attribute for abstract nouns to denote that they are of God [see also here]; source: Marion Doble in The Bible Translator 1963, p. 37ff. ).
  • Guhu-Samane: pobi or “right” (also: “right (side),” “(legal) right,” “straightness,” “correction,” “south,” “possession,” “pertinence,” “kingdom,” “fame,” “information,” or “speech” — “According to [Guhu-Samane] thinking there is a common core of meaning among all these glosses. Even from an English point of view the first five can be seen to be closely related, simply because of their similarity in English. However, from that point the nuances of meaning are not so apparent. They relate in some such a fashion as this: As one faces the morning sun, south lies to the right hand (as north lies to the left); then at one’s right hand are his possessions and whatever pertains to him; thus, a rich man’s many possessions and scope of power and influence is his kingdom; so, the rich and other important people encounter fame; and all of this spreads as information and forms most of the framework of the people’s speech.”) (Source: Ernest Richert in Notes on Translation 1964, p. 11ff.)
  • German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999): Gerechtheit, a neologism to differentiate it from the commonly-used Gerechtigkeit which can mean “righteousness” but is more often used in modern German as “fairness” (Berger / Nord especially use Gerechtheit in Letter to the Romans) or Gerechtestun, also a neologism, meaning “righteous deeds” (especially in Letter to the Ephesians)
  • “did what he should” (Eastern Highland Otomi)
  • “a clear man, good [man]” (Mairasi) (source: Enggavoter 2004)

See also respectable, righteous, righteous (person), devout, and She is more in the right(eous) than I.

complete verse (Job 27:17)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 27:17:

  • Kupsabiny: “the righteous will be wearing those clothes
    and people who have no fault shall distribute/divide their money.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “the righteous ones will put [it] on,
    those who have no guilt will take his wealth and property and share [it].” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “he is not the one-who-can-benefit them. The righteous and innocent people will-wear his clothes, and they will-divide his silver.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “but those wicked people will die, and then righteous people will wear those clothes,
    and honest/innocent people will get their silver and divide it among themselves.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Job 27:16 - 27:17

In the next two verses the speaker shifts from the family of the wicked to his wealth. These two verses form a chiastic structure in which the first line is balanced by the fourth and the second by the third. Verse 16 is conditional and verse 17 the consequence. Accordingly the two are handled here as a unit.

Though he heap up silver like dust: heap up is used in Genesis 41.49; Psalm 39.6. In Zechariah 9.3 it is used as here, referring to silver, and with the same simile “like dust.” Good News Translation has dropped the similes of heap … like dust and pile up … like clay and expressed abundance in a nonfigurative way: “too much to count” and “more than anyone needs.” The translator must decide if heaping or piling up silver is a natural way to speak of having it in great quantities, and furthermore, if comparing great quantities to dust gives the sense of it being common and plentiful. If these images give another sense, or no sense at all, adjustments must be made. For example, it may be more natural to say “Although the wicked pile up silver like dirt” or “like sand.”

And pile up clothing like clay: the verb here is different than the one in the previous line, but it is used commonly with the sense of “prepare, arrange, put in a pile.” When pile up is used with clay, it refers to heaping the clay in a mound in preparation for shaping it into a vessel. A verb that is parallel to the one in line a, but which can be used with clothing, is desirable. Clothing is a general term and refers to any kind of clothing that is worn on the body. Clothing was a symbol of wealth and so is used in parallel with silver. Clay and dust are used in parallel in 4.19; 10.9; 30.19. Clay and dust may not be appropriate as images for quantity in some languages. Bible en français courant says “and piles of clothing like mud,” and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy avoids the image, “and may have clothes in large quantities.”

He may pile it up, but the just will wear it: this refers to the clothing in verse 16b. Pile it up repeats the same verb used of clothing there. New Jerusalem Bible, which translates pile up in verse 16b as “gather,” translates it here as “let him gather!” Good News Translation does not repeat the verb. Just refers to a person who is the opposite of the wicked, often translated “righteous,” as in New Jerusalem Bible and New International Version. The sense is “a good, honorable, upright person,” and so Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, and others have “some good man.” Wear it translates the Hebrew verb from which the noun clothing is derived. It refers to the clothing and will often be translated by a plural pronoun. This line may also be rendered, for example, “The wicked person may have great amounts of clothing, but the good person will wear those clothes.” In some languages the failure of the rich to keep his own possessions may not be clear without further information. In such cases it may be necessary to say, for example, “The wicked person may have lots of clothes, but he will not live to wear them; some good person will wear them instead.”

And the innocent will divide the silver: in 17.8 the “upright” and “the innocent” are used in parallel. See also 22.19. For comments on innocent see 4.7. Divide the silver may be understood as sharing it as one would an inheritance, and so New English Bible “His silver will be shared among the innocent,” or as in Good News Translation, “some honest man will get the silver.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .