complete verse (Numbers 14:31)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Numbers 14:31:

  • Kupsabiny: “But concerning your children, you said that they would be taken as captives, but they are the ones whom I shall bring to that country that you refused and that place shall be their home.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “You said that your children would be snatched away like plundered goods, But I will bring them into the land, they shall know the land which you have despised.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Concerning your (plur.) children that you (plur.) said to-be-taken-captive, I will-bring them to the land which you (plur.) rejected and it will-become theirs.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “You said that your children would be taken from you to become slaves, but I will take them into the land, and they will enjoy living in the land that you rejected/said that you could not conquer.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

1st person pronoun referring to God (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 first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also pronoun for “God”.

2nd person pronoun with low register (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 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 Numbers 14:31

But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in: See verse 3. The Hebrew puts emphasis on the little ones, contrasting them with the adults. God will allow the children to enter Canaan. Good News Translation adds “into the land” to the phrase I will bring in. In view of the importance of this land in the Old Testament, this is a helpful addition.

And they shall know the land which you have despised: Good News Translation expresses the sense of the clause they shall know the land by saying “it will be their home.” However, Bijbel in Gewone Taal provides a more helpful model for this whole sentence as follows: “In that land, which you rejected, they will feel at home.” This model shows the contrast between the two generations and between despised and know more clearly than Revised Standard Version or Good News Translation. A similar rendering is “They will fully enjoy the land that you have rejected.” Despised renders a different Hebrew verb than the one in verse 11, but the sense is similar.

Quoted with permission from de Regt, Lénart J. and Wendland, Ernst R. A Handbook on Numbers. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .