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 ).

complete verse (Nahum 3:13)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Nahum 3:13:

  • Kupsabiny: “Your soldiers are weak. All the gates of your land are open. Fire will destroy the locking mechanisms of those doors.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Your soldiers are not strong.
    They are like helpless women.
    The main gates of your land are wide open
    to your enemies.
    The bars of the gates have been eaten by fire.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “[You (plur.)] look-at your (plur.) soldiers — as-if-like they (are) women! The bars of the entrance/gate of your (plur.) city will-be-burned-up, therefore it (is) now easy to-be-entered by your (plur.) enemies.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Look at your soldiers!
    They will be as weak/helpless as women!
    The gates of your city will be opened wide
    to allow your enemies to enter them,
    and then the bars of those gates will be burned.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

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 Nahum 3:13

Behold is omitted by several modern English translations (Moffatt, Revised English Bible, Good News Translation). Compare comments on 2.13.

Your troops are women in your midst means that they have lost their military skill and courage and cannot fight the enemy (compare Isa 19.16; Jer 51.30). In certain languages it will be necessary to explain this implicit meaning and say “Your soldiers have lost their fighting skill and courage and have become like women.” The Hebrew actually says “your people” (Jerusalem Bible), but clearly the troops (Good News Translation‘s “soldiers”) are in mind, and Revised Standard Version makes this explicit (compare New American Bible, New English Bible, New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible).

Because the defenders cannot fight, The gates of your land are wide open to your foes. It is not certain whether The gates of your land refers to the gates of the city of Nineveh itself (compare Jer 15.7) or to the mountain passes that gave entry to the country of Assyria as a whole. The use of your land rather than “your city” suggests the latter, and Good News Translation seems to take it that way. Good News Translation also drops the figurative use of gates and expresses the meaning in plain language as “your country stands defenseless before your enemies.” One may also translate this sentence as “And there is no one to defend you as your enemies attack.” For the translation of “enemies,” see 1.2.

Fire has devoured your bars: these are the bars used to fasten shut the gates of cities (compare Amos 1.5), but it is not clear whether the sense here is literal or figurative. If figurative, then the bars probably stand for the fortresses that guarded the mountain passes which were called gates in the previous clause. If literal, then the bars would be the wooden beams which prevented the gates of Nineveh itself from being opened. Good News Translation follows this interpretation and says “Fire will destroy the bars across your gates.” Probably it is better either to take the gates and bars as both literal, or as both figurative. If translators take both the gates and bars as figurative, a possible translation model is the following: “The borders of your land are wide open to your enemies, and fire will destroy your fortresses.”

Has devoured: the perfect tense has been translated as future in Good News Translation (“will destroy”), as this event is still part of things which will happen in the future.

Quoted with permission from Clark, David J. & Hatton, Howard A . A Handbook on the Book of Nahum. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1989. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .