LORD your God / Lord your God

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated in English as “Lord your God” or “Lord your God” is translated as “Lord our God” and “Lord our God” in Tzotzil as well as in many other Mayan languages if the speaker is included as one who calls the Lord their God. If the speaker said “your God” in Tzotzil, he or she would refer to the God of the people he or she addresses but would specifically exclude himself or herself. (Source: Robert Bascom in Omanson 2001, p. 254)

See also my God.

complete verse (Joshua 1:11)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Joshua 1:11:

  • Kupsabiny: “‘Go around in the camp and say to people, ‘Prepare your food and your other possessions because you are going to cross the river Jordan in three days to come. Go and take over that land which God will give you to be yours.’ ’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Having gone into the midst of the camp, give the command to the people saying, ‘Prepare food to eat, for three days from now you must cross the Jordan to take possession of the land that the LORD your God is giving you.’” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘[You (plur.)] go-through/[lit. go-around] to the camp and tell the people that they are-to-get-ready/prepare their food for three days from now, we (incl.) will-cross-over the River of Jordan to possess the land that the LORD our (incl.) God is-giving to us (incl.).’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “‘Go throughout the camp and tell the people this: ‘Prepare all the food that you will take with you, because the day after tomorrow you will cross this Jordan River, in order to possess the land that Yahweh, our God, is about to give you.’ ’” (Source: Translation for Translators)

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (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 formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )