Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 106:43:
Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
“He was saving them most of the times,
but they were confirming about rebellion
and they perished in their sins.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Newari:
“Many times He saved them,
But they were fond of rebelling against Him,
and they were destroyed because of their sin.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon:
“Many times God saved them,
but they intentionally rebelled against him,
so they were-destroyed because of their sin.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Laarim:
“He saved his people many times,
but instead they came and rejected him,
and they spoiled themselves with the sin.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
“Mara nyingi BWANA aliwaokoa watu wake,
lakini wao wakachagua kumwasi,
wakajitumbukiza katika mabaya yao.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
English:
“Many times Yahweh rescued them,
but they continued to rebel against him, and they were finally destroyed because of the sins that they committed.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
God transcends gender, but most languages are limited to grammatical gender expressed in pronouns. In the case of English, this is traditionally confined to “he” (or in the forms “his,” “him,” and “himself”), “she” (and “her,” “hers,” and “herself”), and “it” (and “its” and “itself”).
Modern Mandarin Chinese, however, offers another possibility. Here, the third-person singular pronoun is always pronounced the same (tā), but it is written differently according to its gender (他 is “he,” 她 is “she,” and 它/牠 is “it” and their respective derivative forms). In each of these characters, the first (or upper) part defines the gender (man, woman, or thing/animal), while the second element gives the clue to its pronunciation.
In 1930, after a full century with dozens of Chinese translations, Bible translator Wang Yuande (王元德) coined a new “godly” pronoun: 祂. Chinese readers immediately knew how to pronounce it: tā. But they also recognized that the first part of that character, signifying something spiritual, clarified that each person of the Trinity has no gender aside from being God.
While the most important Protestant and Catholic Chinese versions respectively have opted not to use 祂, some Bible translations do and it is widely used in hymnals and other Christian materials. Among the translations that use 祂 to refer to “God” were early versions of Lü Zhenzhong’s (呂振中) version (New Testament: 1946, complete Bible: 1970). R.P. Kramers (in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 152ff. ) explains why later versions of Lü’s translation did not continue with this practice: “This new way of writing ‘He,’ however, has created a minor problem of its own: must this polite form be used whenever Jesus is referred to? Lü follows the rule that, wherever Jesus is referred to as a human being, the normal tā (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential tā (祂) is used.”
In that system one kind of pronoun is used for humans (male and female alike) and one for natural elements, non-liquid masses, and some spiritual entities (one other is used for large animals and another one for miscellaneous items). While in these languages the pronoun for spiritual entities used to be employed when referring to God, this has changed into the use of the human pronoun.
Lynell Zogbo (in The Bible Translator 1989, p. 401ff. ) explains in the following way: “From informal discussions with young Christians especially, it would appear that, at least for some people, the experience and/or concepts of Christianity are affecting the choice of pronoun for God. Some people explain that God is no longer ‘far away,’ but is somehow tangible and personal. For these speakers God has shifted over into the human category.”
In Kouya, God (the Father) and Jesus are referred to with the human pronoun ɔ, whereas the Holy Spirit is referred to with a non-human pronoun. (Northern Grebo and Western Krahn make a similar distinction.)
Eddie Arthur, a former Kouya Bible translation consultant, says the following: “We tried to insist that this shouldn’t happen, but the Kouya team members were insistent that the human pronoun for the Spirit would not work.”
In Burmese, the pronoun ko taw (ကိုယ်တော်) is used either as 2nd person (you) or 3rd person (he, him, his) reference. “This term clearly has its root in the religious language in Burmese. No ordinary persons are addressed or known by this pronoun because it is reserved for Buddhist monks, famous religious teachers, and in the case of Christianity, the Trinity.” (Source: Gam Seng Shae in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 202ff. )
In Thai, the pronoun phra`ong (พระองค์) is used, a gender-neutral pronoun which must refer to a previously introduced royal or divine being. Similarly, in Northern Khmer, which is spoken in Thailand, “an honorific divine pronoun” is used for the pronoun referring to the persons of the Trinity (source: David Thomas in The Bible Translator 1993, p. 445 ). In Urak Lawoi’, another language spoken in Thailand, the translation often uses tuhat (ตูฮัด) — “God” — ”as a divine pronoun where Thai has phra’ong even though it’s actually a noun.” (Source for Thai and Urak Lawoi’: Stephen Pattemore)
The English “Contemporary Torah” addresses the question of God and gendered pronouns by mostly avoiding pronouns in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (unless God is referred to as “lord,” “father,” “king,” or “warrior”). It does that by either using passive constructs (“He gave us” vs. “we were given”), by using the adjective “divine” or by using “God” rather than a pronoun.
Some Protestant and Orthodox English Bibles use a referential capitalized spelling when referring to the persons of the Trinity with “He,” “His,” “Him,” or “Himself.” This includes for instance the New American Standard Bible or The Orthodox New Testament, but most translations do not. Two other languages where this is also done (in most Bible translations) are the closely related Indonesian and Malay. In both languages this follows the language usage according to the Qur’an, which in turn predicts that usage (see Soesilo in The Bible Translator 1991, p. 442ff. and The Bible Translator 1997, p. 433ff. ).
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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 usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme are (され) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, sukuidas-are-ru (救い出される) or “save out of” or “deliver” is used.
In verses 40-46 the psalmist summarizes a long history of Israel’s constant sins, their punishment, their repentance and cries for help, and the LORD’s recurring mercy–a theme which runs through the historical books of the Old Testament, especially Judges.
Verse 40 describes Yahweh’s reaction: he became angry with his people, and he abhorred them. For the verb “despise, detest, loathe,” see 5.6b. In verse 40b, for Israel as Yahweh’s heritage see verse 5.
It was because of God’s anger that the Israelites were time and again defeated by their enemies and ruled by them (verses 41-42). Good News Translation‘s “abandoned them to the power of the heathen” must be recast in many languages to say, for example, “He allowed the other nations to conquer them.” It should be clear that the nations in line a and those who hated them in line b both refer to the same people, the Gentile powers that time and again oppressed the people of Israel.
Revised Standard Version in verse 42b is unnecessarily wordy; see New Jerusalem Bible “and they were subject to their power,” New International Version “and subjected them to their power,” and New Jerusalem Bible “crushing them under their rule.”
In verse 43a delivered translates the verb used in 7.1. In verse 43b Good News Translation “they chose to rebel” translates “they rebelled in their plans” (see Revised Standard Version); it indicates a deliberate, wilful act (New Jerusalem Bible “they were deliberately rebellious”; New Jerusalem Bible “they still defied him deliberately”). In verse 43c the Hebrew verb is rather unusual, occurring in this form only here in the Old Testament. Verse 43c is literally “and were brought low in their sin,” forming a parallel with line b. “In their sin” can be understood as Good News Translation has, “sank deeper into sin” (also Bible de Jérusalem, New Jerusalem Bible, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Bible en français courant), or else as Revised Standard Version and others, “because of their sin.” The latter may be preferable. In this case the translation can be “and were ruined (or, brought to ruin) because of their sins” or “… because they had sinned.”
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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