complete verse (Numbers 32:8)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Numbers 32:8:

  • Kupsabiny: “Your fathers lost hope when I sent (them) from Kadesh-barnea to go and check out the country.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “When I sent your fathers from Kadesh Barnea to look at that place, your fathers also did exactly like this.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “This is also what your (plur.) ancestors did in-the-time-past when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to look-at for this land.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Your ancestors did the same kind of thing. I sent them from Kadesh-Barnea to see what the land of Canaan was like.” (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 32:8

Thus did your fathers: Moses is referring to the failure of the previous generation to take possession of the land of Canaan (chapters 13–14) as a negative example. It is implied that if the Gadites and Reubenites do as their fathers did they will suffer the same fate (so Sherwood, page 184). The phrase your fathers highlights this parallel conveyed by the Hebrew particle rendered Thus even more. NET Bible renders this clause well with “Your fathers did the same thing” (similarly New Living Translation). Compare verse 14.

When I sent them from Kadesh-barnea refers to the time when Moses sent spies to explore Canaan (see chapter 13). Kadesh-barnea is called “Kadesh” in 13.26 (see the comments there). This fuller name is more common in Deuteronomy (see, for example, Deut 1.19; 2.14; 9.23).

To see the land: In this context the verb see should be rendered more precisely as “explore” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation, Bible en français courant) or “survey” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh).

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 .