complete verse (Numbers 19:10)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Numbers 19:10:

  • Kupsabiny: “The man who is collecting the ashes must wash his clothes and he is unclean until sunset. This is a law that applies to the people of Israel forever/always and to the foreigners who live among them.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “The one who gathers the ashes of the calf must wash his clothes and he will also be unclean until the time of sundown. This will always be a law for the Israelites and [for] the foreigners who live with them.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “The man who took the ashes of the cow must also wash his clothes, and he also be-considered unclean/dirty until dusk. This regulation should be-obeyed by the Israelinhon and the non Israelinhon who live together with you(p) until forever/[lit. until whenever].’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “The man who gathers up the ashes of the cow must also wash his clothes, and he also will be unfit to do any more sacred work until that evening. That is a regulation that will never be changed. It must be obeyed by you Israeli people and by any foreigners who live among you.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (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 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 Numbers 19:10

And he who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until evening: This sentence refers to the ceremonially clean man mentioned in verse 9. Because he handled the ashes of the cow, he too became ritually unclean and had to purify himself like the others (verses 7-8), though apparently he did not require a ritual bath.

And this shall be to the people of Israel, and to the stranger who sojourns among them, a perpetual statute: This sentence concludes verses 1-10a and introduces verses 11-22. The demonstrative pronoun this (literally “it”) refers back to the whole ritual in the previous verses. This concluding transitional sentence needs to be more clearly marked as such; for example, Revised English Bible begins with “This statute is to be binding for all time…” (similarly Good News Translation). For the stranger who sojourns among them, which may be rendered “the resident aliens living among them,” see 9.14. For perpetual statute, which New Living Translation translates “permanent law,” see 10.8. This phrase is probably placed at the end of this verse in Hebrew for emphasis. In other languages it may fit more naturally near the beginning of the sentence (so Good News Translation).

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 .