complete verse (Numbers 35:13)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Numbers 35:13:

  • Kupsabiny: “Choose six cities that one can flee to.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “There must be six cities to give refuge.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “These six towns will-be your (plur.) towns of refuge. The three towns you (plur.) will-place in the east of Jordan and three in Canaan.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “You must set apart six cities to be cities to which someone who killed another person accidentally may run and be safe.” (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 35:13 - 35:14

Verses 13-14 deal with the number and location of the cities of refuge. These cities are named in Josh 20.7-8. A city of refuge had to be within feasible reach everywhere in the country.

And the cities which you give shall be your six cities of refuge: In languages where the verb give is unnatural or cannot stand without an indirect object, this sentence may be rendered “Of the cities which you will appoint, six will be cities of refuge for you” (La Nouvelle Bible Segond; similarly Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Reina-Valera revisida, De Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling) or “Of the cities that you give to the Levites, six will be cities of refuge” (Reina-Valera Contemporánea). These renderings are closer to the meaning of the Hebrew here than the one in Good News Translation, which has simply “Choose six cities.” The six cities of refuge stand in contrast to the other forty-two cities in verse 6.

You shall give three cities beyond the Jordan, and three cities in the land of Canaan, to be cities of refuge: Beyond the Jordan refers to “east of the Jordan River” (New International Readers Version), where the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh settled. A possible model for this sentence is “Assign three on this side of the Jordan and three in Canaan as cities of refuge” (similarly TNIV).

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 .