desert / wilderness

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The Greek, Hebrew and Latin that is translated as “desert” or “wilderness” in English is translated in a number of ways:

  • Mairasi: “a place where noisiness is cut off (or: stops)” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Muna: pandaso bhalano pr “big barren-field” (source: René van den Berg)
  • Balinese: “barren field” (source: J.L. Swellengrebel in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 75ff. )
  • Wantoat: “uninhabited place” (source: Holzhausen 1991, p. 38)
  • Umiray Dumaget Agta: “where no people dwell” (source: Larson 1998, p. 98)
  • Shipibo-Conibo: “where no house is” (source: James Lauriault in The Bible Translator 1951, p. 32ff. )
  • Amri Karbi: “waterless region/place” (source: Philippova 2021, p. 368)
  • Ocotlán Zapotec: “large empty place” (source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
  • Pa’o Karen: “jungle” (denoting a place without any towns, villages and tilled fields) (source: Gordon Luce in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 153f. )
  • Low German translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006: “steppe”
  • Yakan: “the lonely place” (source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “a land where no people lived” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “the place with no inhabitants” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Matumbi uses various term: lubele (desert, sandy place without water) — used in John 11:54, lupu’ngu’ti (a place where no people live, can be a scrub land, a forest, or a savanna) — used in Mark 1:3 et al.), and mwitu (a forest, a place where wild animals live) — used in Mark 1:13 et al.) (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
  • Chichewa Contemporary translation (2002/2016): chipululu: a place uninhabited by people with thick forest and bush (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

Note that in Luke 15:4, usually a term is used that denotes pastoral land, such as “eating/grazing-place” in Tagbanwa (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation).

See also wilderness and desolate wilderness.

inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (Lam 5:9)

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 5:9)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Lamentations 5:9:

  • Kupsabiny: “We wander around in the desert where enemies are
    risking/endangering ourselves searching for something to eat.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Because of the sword in the countryside,
    we must search for our food at the risks of our lives.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “In our searching for food our lives have-been-put in danger from the armed men in the desolate-place.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “When we roam around in the desert searching for food, we are in danger of being killed,
    because people there kill strangers with their swords.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Lamentations 5:9

The first line in Revised Standard Version states the fact, the second states the reason. Bread is again the main item of food and is used to represent all food, produce, crops. At the peril of our lives is literally “With our souls we bring in our bread.” The sense here is “we risk our lives” (Good News Translation). We may also say, for example, “We put our lives in danger to get food.”

Because of the sword in the wilderness is literally “from the face of the sword in the wilderness,” which means “from the presence of the sword….” However, in this context sword probably refers to people who use their swords to rob, and therefore, as in Bible en français courant, to “armed bands,” or in Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, to “desert warriors.” New English Bible finds the expression sword in the wilderness too odd, and so alters one vowel in the Hebrew to get “heat” and translates “in the scorching heat.” Moffatt takes the expression to refer to Arabs who carried swords, and translates “Arabs of the desert.” Good News Translation says “Murderers.” The Handbook recommends an expression like that of Bible en français courant, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, or Good News Translation. Wilderness is the same word used in 4.3, but here it refers to the outlying areas in the country away from the city, and presumably to places where crops may grow or where wild plants may be available for food.

Note that Good News Translation and others reverse the order of the statements in this verse so that the situation is named first, followed by the consequence. We may also translate, for example, “Because armed people wander through the countryside, we risk our lives when we go there in search of food.”

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 .