desert / wilderness

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The Greek, Hebrew and Latin that is translated as “desert” or “wilderness” in English is translated in a number of ways:

  • Mairasi: “a place where noisiness is cut off (or: stops)” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Muna: pandaso bhalano pr “big barren-field” (source: René van den Berg)
  • Balinese: “barren field” (source: J.L. Swellengrebel in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 75ff. )
  • Wantoat: “uninhabited place” (source: Holzhausen 1991, p. 38)
  • Umiray Dumaget Agta: “where no people dwell” (source: Larson 1998, p. 98)
  • Shipibo-Conibo: “where no house is” (source: James Lauriault in The Bible Translator 1951, p. 32ff. )
  • Amri Karbi: “waterless region/place” (source: Philippova 2021, p. 368)
  • Ocotlán Zapotec: “large empty place” (source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
  • Pa’o Karen: “jungle” (denoting a place without any towns, villages and tilled fields) (source: Gordon Luce in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 153f. )
  • Low German translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006: “steppe”
  • Yakan: “the lonely place” (source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “a land where no people lived” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “the place with no inhabitants” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Matumbi uses various term: lubele (desert, sandy place without water) — used in John 11:54, lupu’ngu’ti (a place where no people live, can be a scrub land, a forest, or a savanna) — used in Mark 1:3 et al.), and mwitu (a forest, a place where wild animals live) — used in Mark 1:13 et al.) (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
  • Chichewa Contemporary translation (2002/2016): chipululu: a place uninhabited by people with thick forest and bush (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

Note that in Luke 15:4, usually a term is used that denotes pastoral land, such as “eating/grazing-place” in Tagbanwa (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation).

See also wilderness and desolate wilderness.

shepherd

The Greek and Hebrew that is translated as “shepherd” in English is translated in Kouya as Bhlabhlɛɛ ‘yliyɔzʋnyɔ — ” tender of sheep.”

Philip Saunders (p. 231) explains:

“Then one day they tackled the thorny problem of ‘shepherd’. It was problematic because Kouyas don’t have herdsmen who stay with the sheep all the time. Sheep wander freely round the village and its outskirts, and often a young lad will be detailed to drive sheep to another feeding spot. So the usual Kouya expression meant a ‘driver of sheep’, which would miss the idea of a ‘nurturing’ shepherd. ‘A sheep nurturer’ was possible to say, but it was unnatural in most contexts. The group came up with Bhlabhlɛɛ ‘yliyɔzʋnyɔ which meant ‘a tender of sheep’, that is one who keeps an eye on the sheep to make sure they are all right. All, including the translators, agreed that this was a most satisfactory solution.”

Other translations include:

  • Chuj: “carer” (there was no single word for “shepherd”) (source: Ronald Ross)
  • Muna: “sheep guard” (dhagano dhumba) (there was no immediate lexical equivalent) (source: René van den Berg),
  • Mairasi: “people who took care of domesticated animals” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Noongar: “sheep worker” (kookendjeriyang-yakina) (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Kwakum: “those-who-monitor-the-livestock” (source: Stacey Hare in this post )

See also I am the good shepherd, complete verse (Psalm 23:1), and sheep / lamb.

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Shepherds in the Bible .

complete verse (Numbers 14:33)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Numbers 14:33:

  • Kupsabiny: “Your children shall be shepherds here in this wilderness for forty years, because you turned your back on me. They shall do like that until the last one among you has died.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Because of your faithlessness, your children will be wandering here in the wilderness like shepherds for forty years until the very last of your people has died.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Your (plur.) children will-become like the ones-who-watch-over the sheep that will-wander here in the desolate-place for a period/[lit. inside] of 40 years. In this way, they will-suffer because of your (plur.) deceitfulness against me until all of you (plur.) will-die.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “And like shepherds wander around in the desert as they take care of their sheep, your children will wander around in this desert for 40 years. Because you adults were not loyal/faithful to me, your children will suffer until you all die in the desert.” (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 Numbers 14:33

And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years means the “children will wander in the wilderness for forty years” (Good News Translation). New Living Translation keeps the imagery here by using a simile as follows: “And your children will be like shepherds, wandering in the wilderness for forty years.” The Hebrew word for shepherds is roʿim, which may indeed refer to the action of a shepherd taking sheep to pasture. However, it may also refer to the action of sheep that are grazing. According to Rashbam, the Jewish medieval commentator, the Israelites are compared to grazing sheep, not to shepherds. Verbs such as “roam” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) and “wander” (Good News Translation, Bijbel in Gewone Taal) seem to be in line with both interpretations.

And shall suffer for your faithlessness is literally “and they will carry [or, lift up] your prostitution.” Revised English Bible renders suffer for as “paying the penalty of,” which fits this context well. The Hebrew word for faithlessness (zenut) usually refers to sexual immorality and describes the actions of a prostitute. Here the idea of prostitution and the unfaithfulness of a spouse is used to describe the way Israelites sinned against God. They were unfaithful to God like an adulterous spouse. In this context the word zenut does not mean that the people had no faith (faithlessness), but that they were not faithful in obeying God. So faithlessness is better rendered “unfaithfulness” (Good News Translation), “rebelliousness,” or “betrayal” (mentioned by Alter in a footnote).

Until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness is literally “until your corpses are finished in the wilderness.” Good News Translation says “until the last one of you dies,” which seems rather flat. New Living Translation provides a better model with “until the last of you lies dead in the wilderness,” and so does Chewa with “until all of you have finished dying in the wilderness.”

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 .