complete verse (Leviticus 11:20)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Leviticus 11:20:

  • Kupsabiny: “All insects that have wings and crawl on legs are not clean as far as you are concerned.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “It is detestable to you all winged insects that move to and fro on their feet. [lit.: by foot]” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “You (plur.) may eat the little-animals/little-creatures that fly and crawl which have big legs for jumping/hopping, just-like locusts, crickets and grasshoppers. But you (plur.) must- not -eat the other little-animals which fly and crawls. You (plur.) are-to-consider these little-animals detestable.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “You must detest and not eat flying insects that sometimes walk on the ground.” (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. )

Translation commentary on Leviticus 11:20

The word translated insects here is the same as “swarming creatures” in verse 10 and “swarming things” in verse 29. But with the word winged or “flying” added, it is clear that the reference is to insects with wings.

That go upon all fours: this expression is surprising, since the ancient Jews almost certainly knew that winged insects had six legs. The expression was probably used in a nonliteral sense, meaning “to crawl,” and was used of any flying creature with more than two legs, to distinguish the insects from other flying creatures such as the birds just mentioned in the previous verses. Good News Translation has avoided the problem altogether, and other modern versions have omitted the number “four.” Bible en français courant, for example, has “insects which have wings and legs.” In other languages the idea may possibly be rendered “with more than two legs.”

Abomination: see verses 10 and 11.

Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René and Ellington, John. A Handbook on Leviticus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1990. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .