rampart

The Greek in Luke 19:43 that is translated as “rampart” (or: “barricade”) in English is translated in Elhomwe as “trapping pits.” Barricades are not known and trapping pits would be used instead. (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

complete verse (Luke 19:43)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 19:43:

  • Noongar: “The day will come when enemies will surround you. They will block your roads and you will not be able to go out.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “The time will come, your enemies will fight-against your town, encircling it with a fence, to the point that there is not way to flee/run away.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “You are really to be pitied for the days will come when your place will be surrounded by your enemies. They will make a barricade/wall-of-soil and surround you closing you in so that you cannot escape.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And there will be a time when your enemies will come upon you, and they will surround you and fight against you, and you will not be able to get out of there.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “In-the-future indeed (prophetic formula) the day will arrive when your (sing.) enemies will surround you (sing.) and they will block you (sing.) in all directions so your (sing.) people will have no place-of-escaping.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Therefore what will be the outcome is, the day really will come when this city of yours will be enclosed/fenced-around by your enemies. You will be beseiged and pinned on-all-sides, there being soldiers all-the-way-around now.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

enemy / foe

The Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic and Latin that is translated as “enemy” or “foe” in English is translated in the Hausa Common Language Bible as “friends of front,” i.e., the person standing opposite you in a battle. (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)

In North Alaskan Inupiatun it is translated with a term that implies that it’s not just someone who hates you, but one who wants to do you harm (Source: Robert Bascom), in Tarok as ukpa ìkum or “companion in war/fighting,” and in Ikwere as nye irno m or “person who hates me” (source for this and one above: Chuck and Karen Tessaro in this newsletter ).

2nd person pronoun with low register (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 second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used anata (あなた) is typically used when the speaker is humbly addressing another person.

In these verses, however, omae (おまえ) is used, a cruder second person pronoun, that Jesus for instance chooses when chiding his disciples. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also first person pronoun with low register and third person pronoun with low register.

Translation commentary on Luke 19:43 – 19:44

Exegesis:

hoti hēxousin hēmerai epi se kai… ‘for days will come upon you and…,’ i.e. ‘a time is coming upon you when…,’ co-ordination instead of the normal subordination of the following clauses (cf. 17.22). For epi referring to the object of unpleasant experiences.

parembalousin hoi echthroi sou charaka soi ‘your enemies will throw up a palisade against you.’ soi is dative of disadvantage.

paremballō ‘to throw up,’ ‘to cast up.’

charax ‘stake,’ here ‘palisade,’ ‘rampart.’

perikuklōsousin se ‘they will encircle you,’ perikukloō.

sunexousin se pantothen ‘they will hem you in from all sides.’ sunechō (cf. on 8.45) may mean ‘to hem in,’ ‘to close in,’ or, ‘to press hard,’ preferably the former.

(V. 44) edaphiousin se kai ta tekna sou en soi ‘they will dash you and your children within you to the ground.’

edaphizō ‘to raze’ (of buildings), ‘to dash to the ground’ (of people).

ouk aphēsousin lithon epi lithon en soi ‘they will not leave one stone upon another within you,’ expressing complete destruction. aphiēmi means ‘to leave where it belongs.’

anth’ hōn ouk egnōs ton kairon tēs episkopēs sou ‘because you did not know/perceive the time of your visitation.’ egnōs takes up egnōs in v. 42.

episkopē ‘visitation,’ i.e. demonstration of God’s grace, cf. on episkeptomai in 1.68.

Translation:

The days shall come upon you, or more clearly pejorative, ‘days of your-ill-luck will come’ (Toraja-Sa’dan), or with a syntactic shift, ‘you will live to see days,’ ‘you will have to endure a time.’

Enemies, see on 1.71.

Cast up a bank, or, ‘pile up earth/soil, or, a wall’ (cf. Tae,’ Uab Meto), ‘build a mud wall’ (Zarma). Bank, or, ‘war-stockade’ (Kele), “barricades” (Good News Translation), “earthworks” (An American Translation), ‘fortifications,’ or any term that refers to strongholds for the protection of besiegers against attacks from those besieged.

About you, or, ‘around you,’ ‘against you,’ ‘to fight you’ (cf. Thai).

Surround you, describing what the banks are cast up for, hence ‘besiege you,’ ‘shut you in completely’ (cf. Tzeltal), blockade you (Good News Translation), ‘surround you so that you cannot go out’ (Navajo, where an unqualified rendering of the verb would imply ‘to guard,’ hence ‘to help’).

Hem you in is referring to movement, i.e. the attacks of the besiegers.

On every side, or, ‘from all sides,’ ‘all-around-it’ (Sundanese).

(V. 44) Dash you to the ground, you and your children within you. If the verses must be addressed not to the city but to its inhabitants (cf. on v. 42), adjustments will have to be made, e.g. ‘dash to the ground yourselves and your city, or, the buildings in your city.’ Dash to the ground, or ‘smash’ (Sranan Tongo), or more generically, “destroy” (Good News Translation), all of which can do duty with both objects. Where such a zeugma is impossible a double rendering of the verb will be required, cf. e.g. ‘level you to the ground and smash your children within you’ (Zürcher Bibel). Your children within you, or, “the people within your walls” (Good News Translation), ‘your inhabitants’ (Tae’ 1933, lit. ‘the people your contents’); and cf. on 1.7.

They will not leave one stone upon another in you, vividly depicting the ruin of the city. Some other renderings are, “not a single stone will they leave in its place” (Good News Translation), ‘they will not let be stone still affixed to its-fellow-stone’ (Tae,’ using a reciprocal affix at the second occurrence of ‘stone’), ‘they will not leave two stones lying-on-each-other’ (Batak Toba).

Know, here in the sense of ‘be aware of.’

The time of your visitation, or shifting to a verbal clause, ‘the time when God comes to visit you, or, to save you’ (cf. Thai, Kituba), ‘when you came to be favoured by God’ (Tzeltal). For ‘to visit’ see on 1.68.

Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.

SIL Translator’s Notes on Luke 19:43

19:43–44

These verses describe a siege, where an army surrounds a city that has walls around it. When the army surrounds the city, the people cannot go out of it, and no one can go in to help them. Jesus predicted that this would happen to Jerusalem in the future, and it did happen. In A.D. 70 the Roman army surrounded Jerusalem and killed many people there.

19:43a

For: In Greek, this verse begins with a conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as For. It connects 19:43–44 to 19:42a. Verse 43 describes the things that would happen to Jerusalem, and those things are the reason why Jesus wept in 19:41b. Many English versions do not have a conjunction here.

In many languages, a simple conjunction such as “for” or “because” may not make the connection clear. If this is true in your language, you may need to make the connection more explicit. You may be able to repeat words or phrases that you used in 19:42a. For example:

⌊It is tragic that you did not know,⌋ because the days will come
-or-

⌊I wish that you had known,⌋ because the days will come

the days will come upon you: Here Jesus introduced what would happen to Jerusalem in the future. Other ways to translate it are:

In the future
-or-
Before long (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
At a future time this is what will happen to you(sing):

The phrase upon you implies that the future events will be bad or difficult. In some languages it may be natural to make this explicit here. For example:

You will soon endure a time when…

19:43b

when your enemies will barricade you: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as barricade refers here to some type of wall or barrier. Such a wall was usually built on a large ridge or mound of dirt and stones. Sometimes it had stakes with sharp points on top of it.

In this context Jesus indicated that enemies would build a large wall/barrier around the city of Jerusalem so that no one could leave or enter the city without their permission. Then they would attack the city from behind the wall.

In your translation it may be helpful to describe the wall according to its purpose. For example:

build a wall/barricade around you to put you under siege
-or-
build a wall/barrier to trap you ⌊in your city⌋ and from which to attack you
-or-
build a wall to surround you and close you in on every side (God’s Word)

19:43c

surround you: The idea of encircling or surrounding the city implies that the city would be put under siege. The surrounding army would not let anyone leave or enter the city. This would prevent the city from getting supplies of food and weapons. If you have not already made the idea of a siege explicit, you could do it here:

will encircle/surround you to put you under siege
-or-
will surround you so that you cannot go out

Because the idea of encircling is implicit in the idea of a siege, it is also possible to simply say:

to blockade/trap you
-or-
to put you under siege

19:43d

hem you in on every side: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as hem you in on every side indicates that the army that surrounded the city will keep moving toward it from every direction. They will press the attack against the city from all sides. Some ways to translate this could be:

press in on you from all sides
-or-
press the attack in upon you from every side
-or-
attack you from every direction

General Comment on 19:43b–d

Jesus stated three actions in 19:43b–d that together describe a siege:

(a) build a wall around you;

(b) encircle you;

(c) hem you in on every side.

As you translate, consider all three of these actions together, since the meanings are similar. For example, the idea of encircling or surrounding the city (b) is implied in (a) and (c). It is recommended that you make the idea of a siege explicit somewhere in your translation of these three phrases. You may also change the order of the phrases if that would be more natural in your language. Some ways to translate it are:

Your enemies will build a wall around/against you. They will surround you so no one can go in or out of your city. Then they will press in on you from all sides.
-or-
Your enemies will encircle/surround you and build a wall around you to put you under siege. They will attack you from every side.

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