sin

The Hebrew and Greek that is typically translated as “sin” in English has a wide variety of translations.

The Greek ἁμαρτάνω (hamartanō) carries the original verbatim meaning of “miss the mark” and likewise, many translations contain the “connotation of moral responsibility.”

  • Loma: “leaving the road” (which “implies a definite standard, the transgression of which is sin”)
  • Navajo (Dinė): “that which is off to the side” (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Toraja-Sa’dan: kasalan, originally meaning “transgression of a religious or moral rule” and in the context of the Bible “transgression of God’s commandments” (source: H. van der Veen in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 21ff. )
  • Kaingang: “break God’s word”
  • Bariai: “bad behavior” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Sandawe: “miss the mark” (like the original meaning of the Greek term) (source for this and above: Ursula Wiesemann in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 36ff., 43)

In Shipibo-Conibo the term is hocha. Nida (1952, p. 149) tells the story of its choosing: “In some instances a native expression for sin includes many connotations, and its full meaning must be completely understood before one ever attempts to use it. This was true, for example, of the term hocha first proposed by Shipibo-Conibo natives as an equivalent for ‘sin.’ The term seemed quite all right until one day the translator heard a girl say after having broken a little pottery jar that she was guilty of ‘hocha.’ Breaking such a little jar scarcely seemed to be sin. However, the Shipibos insisted that hocha was really sin, and they explained more fully the meaning of the word. It could be used of breaking a jar, but only if the jar belonged to someone else. Hocha was nothing more nor less than destroying the possessions of another, but the meaning did not stop with purely material possessions. In their belief God owns the world and all that is in it. Anyone who destroys the work and plan of God is guilty of hocha. Hence the murderer is of all men most guilty of hocha, for he has destroyed God’s most important possession in the world, namely, man. Any destructive and malevolent spirit is hocha, for it is antagonistic and harmful to God’s creation. Rather than being a feeble word for some accidental event, this word for sin turned out to be exceedingly rich in meaning and laid a foundation for the full presentation of the redemptive act of God.”

In Warao it is translated as “bad obojona.” Obojona is a term that “includes the concepts of consciousness, will, attitude, attention and a few other miscellaneous notions.” (Source: Henry Osborn in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 74ff. ). See other occurrences of Obojona in the Warao New Testament.

Martin Ehrensvärd, one of the translators for the Danish Bibelen 2020, comments on the translation of this term: “We would explain terms, such that e.g. sin often became ‘doing what God does not want’ or ‘breaking God’s law’, ‘letting God down’, ‘disrespecting God’, ‘doing evil’, ‘acting stupidly’, ‘becoming guilty’. Now why couldn’t we just use the word sin? Well, sin in contemporary Danish, outside of the church, is mostly used about things such as delicious but unhealthy foods. Exquisite cakes and chocolates are what a sin is today.” (Source: Ehrensvärd in HIPHIL Novum 8/2023, p. 81ff. )

See also sinner.

inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (Lam 5:16)

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.

complete verse (Lamentations 5:16)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Lamentations 5:16:

  • Kupsabiny: “We have been stripped of our dignity
    and we are in a bad situation because of our sin!” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “The crown has fallen from our head,
    woe to us, for we have sinned.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Our honor has gone now. We are pitiful, because we have sinned.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “The wreaths of flowers have fallen off our heads.
    Terrible things have happened to us because of the sins that we committed.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Lamentations 5:16

The crown has fallen from our head is a literal translation. A crown in the Old Testament is sometimes a symbol of royalty, as in 2 Samuel 12.30; Psalm 21.3; Jeremiah 13.18. But a crown of flowers is mentioned in Isaiah 28.1, 3 as a sign of festivity and celebration, just as the removal of his crown in Job 19.9 means that Job’s former position of dignity had ceased. So here the fact that the crown has fallen from Jerusalem’s head may possibly be a reference to the end of the royal line of David. However, in the context which speaks of misery taking the place of past glory, the poet is probably saying “The joyful celebrations are over.” Good News Translation expresses this in slightly different language by saying “Nothing is left of all we were proud of,” and New English Bible attempts to retain something of the figurative language, with “The garlands have fallen from our heads.” Bible en français courant says “It is the end of our dignity.” The sense of this half-line may also be translated figuratively in some languages; for example, “No one holds his face up any more” or “The eyes of everybody look downward now.”

Woe to us translates an interjection of grief, sadness, doom, which Good News Translation translates “we are doomed.” This cry is used many times in the Old Testament, and its sense is expressed in many languages by a repetition of sound suggesting wailing or weeping. The reason for this lament is for we have sinned, which repeats the confession of 3.42. This half of the verse may sometimes be translated, for example, “We have done wrong and so ay, ay, ay!” or “We have sinned and now evil (curse, damnation, suffering, doom) has taken hold of us!”

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