Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)
The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).
For this verse, the Jarai and the Adamawa Fulfulde translation both use the exclusive pronoun, excluding the Lord.
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 44:14:
Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
“You have caused that we should be despised among the people of other races;
people shake their heads when they see us.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Newari:
“You have made us like clowns among the nations.
When people see us, scoffing, they shake their heads.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon:
“They have sayings/bywords which insult us (excl.),
and they shake-(their)-heads-right-and-left mocking us (excl.).” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Eastern Bru:
“You have allowed them to step on us disrespectfully by way of what they say. So those many people, they shake their heads scorning us.” (Source: Bru Back Translation)
Laarim:
“You allowed nations to laughed at us,
then they shook their heads.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
“Umetufanya kuabishwa na watu wa katika makabila mengine,
wanatikisa vichwa vyao.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
English:
“They make jokes using the name of our country,
they shake their heads to indicate that they despise us.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Translators of different languages have found different ways with what kind of formality God is addressed. The first example is from a language where God is always addressed distinctly formal whereas the second is one where the opposite choice was made.
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Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.
As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator2002, p. 210ff. ), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.
In these verses, in which humans address God, the informal, familiar pronoun is used that communicates closeness.
Voinov notes that “in the Tuvan Bible, God is only addressed with the informal pronoun. No exceptions. An interesting thing about this is that I’ve heard new Tuvan believers praying with the formal form to God until they are corrected by other Christians who tell them that God is close to us so we should address him with the informal pronoun. As a result, the informal pronoun is the only one that is used in praying to God among the Tuvan church.”
In Gbaya, “a superior, whether father, uncle, or older brother, mother, aunt, or older sister, president, governor, or chief, is never addressed in the singular unless the speaker intends a deliberate insult. When addressing the superior face to face, the second person plural pronoun ɛ́nɛ́ or ‘you (pl.)’ is used, similar to the French usage of vous.
Accordingly, the translators of the current version of the Gbaya Bible chose to use the plural ɛ́nɛ́ to address God. There are a few exceptions. In Psalms 86:8, 97:9, and 138:1, God is addressed alongside other “gods,” and here the third person pronoun o is used to avoid confusion about who is being addressed. In several New Testament passages (Matthew 21:23, 26:68, 27:40, Mark 11:28, Luke 20:2, 23:37, as well as in Jesus’ interaction with Pilate and Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well) the less courteous form for Jesus is used to indicate ignorance of his position or mocking (source Philip Noss).
In Dutch and Western Frisian translations, however, God is always addressed with the formal pronoun.
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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, s-are-ru (される) or “do/reckon” is used.
The psalmist uses various synonymous terms to describe how neighboring peoples (our neighbors) deride and taunt the Israelites for their shameful defeat: taunt, derision, scorn (verse 13). In verse 13a the Hebrew is literally “You made us the scorn of our neighbors” (see Revised Standard Version), which means that the attitude of Israel’s pagan neighbors is the result of what God has done to Israel (verses 9-12)–which Good News Translation has represented by “Our neighbors see what you did to us, and they mock us….”
Our neighbors should not be translated in a way as to refer to the people who live next door, nor as mankind in general, but to the people of the other tribes, namely, the Gentiles. Hence one can often say “the other tribes that live around us.”
Verse 13 in Hebrew is a case of gender-matched parallelism, in that line a has taunt (feminine) and neighbors (masculine), while line b has derision and scorn (masculine) and “neighborhood” (feminine). Cross gender is used in this manner to make the statement emphatic. Translators should use the poetic devices that are normal for emphasis in the receptor language.
A byword (verse 14a) translates the Hebrew word for “proverb, saying”; in this context it means that Israel is used as a joke, a term of contempt and mockery (see 1 Kgs 9.7; Jer 24.9). Thou hast made us a byword can in some languages be translated as “you have made of us two small words” or “you have made us a story to laugh at.”
In verse 14b, as the Revised Standard Version footnote shows, the Israelites have become “a shaking of the head” to their Gentile neighbors. This is a gesture of scorn. All these words are indicative of the attitude of Israel’s Gentile neighbors.
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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