complete verse (Leviticus 25:22)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Leviticus 25:22:

  • Kupsabiny: “When you sow in the eighth year, you will still be eating the food you harvested until it reached to the new food in the ninth year.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “When you plant in the fields in the 8th year, you will be eating the old harvest. And you will continue eating the old harvest until you reap the harvest in the 9th year.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “So while you (plur.) are-planting in the eighth year, you (plur.) will- still -be-eating what/[lit. the-one] (was) your (plur.) harvest on the sixth year, and your (plur.) food-(supply) (will) still (be) plenty until the harvest-season on the ninth year.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Then, after you plant seed during the eighth/next year and wait for the crops to grow, you will eat the food grown in the sixth year, and continue to eat it until more food is harvested in the ninth year!” (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 25:22

The eighth year: that is, the year after the Rest Year or the first year in the new cycle of seven years. Sowing was permitted at the beginning of this year (in the fall), and the harvest took place in the following spring. In the meantime the people were fed by the previously harvested crop.

Old produce … the old: the use of the word old may convey the idea of staleness in some languages. But since the grain was well preserved, this idea should be avoided. Good News Translation does so by translating “what you harvested during the sixth year.” It should not be necessary to repeat this a second time as in Revised Standard Version.

Until the ninth year: or “until the crops you planted (in the eighth year) are harvested.”

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 .