dwell

Targumim (or: Targums) are translations of the Hebrew Bible into Aramaic. They were translated and used when Jewish congregations increasingly could not understand the biblical Hebrew anymore. Targum Onqelos (also: Onkelos) is the name of the Aramaic translation of the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) probably composed in Israel/Palestine in the 1st or 2nd century CE and later edited in Babylon in the 4th or 5th century, making it reflect Jewish Babylonian Aramaic. It is the most famous Aramaic translation and was widely used throughout the Jewish communities.

In many, but not all, cases the translation of Targum Onqelos avoids anthropomorphisms (attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions) as they relate in the original Hebrew text to God.

The Hebrew of these verses that is translated in English as “(I will) dwell” with God as the subject are translated in the Targum Onqelos as “my presence will dwell.” (Source: Schochet 1966, p. 29ff.)

See also dwell (Japanese honorifics).

complete verse (Numbers 5:3)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Numbers 5:3:

  • Kupsabiny: “Chase out a man or woman who is unclean so that they do not defile the village/area where I live together with you.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Whether it is a woman or a man, they are to be expelled from the camp. Your camp, [in] which I live, must not become unclean because of them."” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Yes, you (plur.) cause- them -to-come-out, either male or female so they will- not -make- the camp -dirty, where I live among you (plur.).’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Send them away from there in order that they will not touch people in the camp area where I live among you and cause them to become unacceptable to me.’’” (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”.

Translation commentary on Numbers 5:3

You shall put out both male and female, putting them outside the camp: The Hebrew verbs rendered you shall put out and putting are plural, referring to Moses and the people. Good News Translation renders both male and female as “all these ritually unclean people,” which misses the point that these circumstances apply equally to women as well as men. (This is an important matter, since a number of other instructions in the book of Numbers apply specifically to men or specifically to women.)

That they may not defile their camp: The Hebrew verb for defile comes from the same root as the word rendered “unclean” in the previous verse. It means cause to be polluted, that is, ritually impure or unclean. Languages often have an idiomatic or euphemistic manner of expressing this; for example, Chewa has “cause [someone/something] to be bad,” and Tonga (a major language of southern Zambia) says “cause [someone/something] to become dirty.” Translators must ensure that they maintain consistency with regard to all the terms pertaining to ceremonial purity and pollution that have already been researched and tested in previous books, such as Leviticus.

In the midst of which I dwell is literally “where I dwell among them.” God lived among the Israelites in the Tabernacle (see Exo 25.8). Revised English Bible and Luther emend the Hebrew text here to read “in which I dwell among you,” which follows the Vulgate. Some languages may find this reading helpful since God is addressing Moses and the people.

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 .