Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 50:9:
Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
“I do not want a male cow from your stall
or goats from your stall,” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Newari:
“But I do not need bulls from your cowshed
or goats from your flock.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon:
“But I do- not -need your (plur.) bulls/[lit. bull cows] and goats,” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Laarim:
“I do not want the bulls of your kraals
or the goats from your pens,” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
“Sipokei fahali wa katika nyumba yako,
wala na mbuzi wa katika zizi lako.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
English:
“But I do not really need you to sacrifice the bulls from your barns and the goats from your pens,” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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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.
God explains why animal sacrifices are relatively unimportant to him; he really does not need them, since all animals already belong to him. This idea is radically different from the mythology of the ancient near east, in which the gods go hungry if there are no sacrifices.
Accept: the Hebrew verb ordinarily means to take or to receive (see its use in 49.15b). Here the meaning seems to be something like “need” (Good News Translation, New International Version, Weiser), or “ask for” (Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, Dahood), or “desire” (Oesterley). But some (Bible en français courant, Bible de Jérusalem, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible) translate “I will not take,” like Revised Standard Version and New Jerusalem BibleI will accept no …; New Jerusalem Bible has “I claim no bull … no he-goats”; New English Bible has “I need take no….” This makes for a rather strange statement, as though God were abolishing the sacrificial system as such. One must recognize that often in the Scriptures absolute denials or promises are forceful ways of expressing important truths; but such statements are not to be understood in an absolute fashion. The translator, however, must faithfully represent the meaning of the biblical text without trying to tone down or soften what seems to be an exaggeration. So Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates, “I do not accept your offering–I do not need the bull from your barn.” In some languages it will be clearer to make explicit that the bulls and goats are not needed as sacrifices; for example, “I do not need sacrificed bulls from your farms or sacrificed goats from your flocks.”
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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