complete verse (Leviticus 7:26)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Leviticus 7:26:

  • Kupsabiny: “Do not eat blood from a bird or any animal wherever you will be living.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “No matter where you are, it is never OK to eat the blood of birds and beasts.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “And wherever you (plur.) live, you (plur.) must- not at-all -eat the blood of an animal including the blood of a bird.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “And wherever you live, you must not eat the blood of any bird or animal.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

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 7:26

In 3.17 passing mention is made of “blood” along with the fat that is not to be consumed. Verses 26 and 27 develop and clarify this prohibition. It will be further discussed and justified in 17.3-14.

Moreover: in addition to being somewhat archaic, the transition word used in Revised Standard Version is too strong. The word in Hebrew at this point is the common conjunction that is often translated “and” or “but,” but is frequently left untranslated. Some versions make a paragraph break at this point (New English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, and Traduction oecuménique de la Bible) but have no transition word. Others (such as Good News Translation) continue the same paragraph without any transition word.

You: the plural pronoun indicates that the people of Israel are being addressed directly and as a group. Note that the restructuring of Good News Translation makes it necessary to transform the direct address to a kind of indirect address and change the pronoun to “they.”

Fowl: that is, any kind of bird.

In any of your dwellings: see 3.17, where the Hebrew is the same in spite of the slightly different renderings in Revised Standard Version. Here this information has been shifted forward in Good News Translation and rendered “No matter where the Israelites live….” However, in some languages such a rendering may give too much prominence to this element.

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 .