In Garifuna the second person singular pronoun (“you” in English) has two forms. One is used in women’s speech and one in men’s speech. In the Garifuna Bible the form used in men’s speech is typically used, except when it’s clear that a woman is quoted or in Psalms where the women on the translation team insisted that the form used in women’s speech (buguya) would be used throughout the whole book.
Ronald Ross (in Omanson 2001, p. 375f.) tells the story: “Throughout most of the translation, [the distinctions between the different forms of the pronouns] presented no problem. Whenever the speaker in the text was perceived as a man, the male speech forms were used; and when a woman was speaking, the female speech forms were used. True, the women members of the translation team did object on occasion to the use of the male forms when the author (and narrator) of a book was unknown and the men translators had used the male speech forms as the default. Serious discord arose, however, during the translation of the Psalms because of their highly devotional nature and because throughout the book the psalmist is addressing God. The male translators had, predictably, used the male form to address God, and the male form to refer to the psalmist, even though women speakers of Garifuna never use those forms to address anyone. The women contended that they could not as women read the Psalms meaningfully if God and the psalmist were always addressed as if the readers were men. The men, of course, turned the argument around, claiming that neither could they read the Psalms comfortably if the reader was assumed to be a woman.
“Initially there seemed to be no way out of this impasse. However a solution was found in the ongoing evolution of the language. There is a strong propensity for male speech and female speech to merge in favor of the latter, so the few remaining male forms are gradually dying out. Moreover, male children learn female speech from their mothers and only shift to the male speech forms when they reach adolescence to avoid sounding effeminate. However they use the female form buguya when addressing their parents throughout life. So the women wielded two arguments: First, the general development of the language favored the increasing use of the female forms. Secondly, the female forms are less strange to the men than the male forms are to the women, because the men habitually use them during early childhood and continue to use them to address their parents even in adulthood. Therefore, the female pronominal forms prevailed and were adopted throughout the book of Psalms, though the male forms remained the default forms in the rest of the translation.”
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 71:15:
Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
“My mouth will describe about your righteousness,
about your salvation all day,
though I do not know its measure.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Newari:
“I will keep telling everyone
the good things You have done.
Every day I will tell of Your salvation.
Though I am not really able
to tell the work that You do.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon:
“I will- always -tell-about your (sing.) righteous deeds/[lit. doing] which is saving your (sing.) people,
even-though I can- not -fathom this.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Laarim:
“I will tell your kindness with my mouth,
I will tell your salvation all day long,
even though your salvation is bigger more the matter that I know.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
“Nitatangaza matendo yako ya unyofu,
nitatangaza mchana wote matendo yako ya wokovu,
ijapokuwa hayo yameipita akili yangu.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
English:
“I will tell people that you do what is right;
all day long I will tell people how you have saved me,
although what you have done is more than I can fully understand.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
The Greek, Hebrew, and Latin terms that are translated in English mostly as “righteous” as an adjective or personified noun or “righteousness” (also as “upright(ness)” and “just(ice)”) are most commonly expressed with concept of “straightness,” though this may be expressed in a number of ways. (Click or tap here to see the details)
Following is a list of (back-) translations of various languages:
Paasaal: “white heart” (source: Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
(San Mateo del Mar Huave: “completely good” (the translation does not imply sinless perfection)
Nuer: “way of right” (“there is a complex concept of “right” vs. ‘left’ in Nuer where ‘right’ indicates that which is masculine, strong, good, and moral, and ‘left’ denotes what is feminine, weak, and sinful (a strictly masculine viewpoint!) The ‘way of right’ is therefore righteousness, but of course women may also attain this way, for the opposition is more classificatory than descriptive.”) (This and all above from Bratcher / Nida except for Bilua: Carl Gross; Tiv: Rob Koops; Muna: René van den Berg)
Yatzachi Zapotec: “walk straight” (source for this and four previous: John Beekman in Notes on Translation November 1964, p. 1-22)
Makonde: “doing what God wants” (in a context of us doing) and “be good in God’s eyes” (in the context of being made righteous by God) (note that justify / justification is translated as “to be made good in the eyes of God.” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
Aari: The Pauline word for “righteous” is generally rendered by “makes one without sin” in the Aari, sometimes “before God” is added for clarity. (Source: Loren Bliese)
Ekari: maakodo bokouto or “enormous truth” (the same word that is also used for “truth“; bokouto — “enormous” — is being used as an attribute for abstract nouns to denote that they are of God [see also here]; source: Marion Doble in The Bible Translator 1963, p. 37ff. ).
Guhu-Samane: pobi or “right” (also: “right (side),” “(legal) right,” “straightness,” “correction,” “south,” “possession,” “pertinence,” “kingdom,” “fame,” “information,” or “speech” — “According to [Guhu-Samane] thinking there is a common core of meaning among all these glosses. Even from an English point of view the first five can be seen to be closely related, simply because of their similarity in English. However, from that point the nuances of meaning are not so apparent. They relate in some such a fashion as this: As one faces the morning sun, south lies to the right hand (as north lies to the left); then at one’s right hand are his possessions and whatever pertains to him; thus, a rich man’s many possessions and scope of power and influence is his kingdom; so, the rich and other important people encounter fame; and all of this spreads as information and forms most of the framework of the people’s speech.”) (Source: Ernest Richert in Notes on Translation 1964, p. 11ff.)
German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999): Gerechtheit, a neologism to differentiate it from the commonly-used Gerechtigkeit which can mean “righteousness” but is more often used in modern German as “fairness” (Berger / Nord especially use Gerechtheit in Letter to the Romans) or Gerechtestun, also a neologism, meaning “righteous deeds” (especially in Letter to the Ephesians)
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.
The psalmist’s hope rests on God (verse 14a), for which he will praise him more and more (literally “I will add to all your praise”). I will hope continually may be rendered “I will always look forward with confidence,” or figuratively, “I will always place my heart on you.”
Thy righteous acts and thy deeds of salvation in verse 15a-b translate the plural of “your righteousness” and “your salvation.” This agrees well with the plural “numbers” in line c, but the initial conjunction of that line is used in a concessive sense, “although, even though” (see Good News Translation), and not as Revised Standard Version has it, for (which makes for a contradiction). It seems better, however, to use the plural forms as Revised Standard Version does, and make the two lines quite synonymous: “your saving actions … the things you did to save us.”
In some languages tell of thy righteous acts requires shifting so that there is a listener; for example, “I will tell the people about the good things you have done.” In some languages the noun phrase deeds of salvation must be shifted to a clause; for example, “I will tell the people how you have saved us” or “I will tell them how you saved your people.” In some languages all the day, if translated literally, will mean that the psalmist speaks of God’s acts only during daylight hours, whereas the intention is “all the time,” and in such languages it will have to be translated by an equivalent expression.
The third line of verse 15 is somewhat strange in Hebrew; the word translated their number is understood in different ways. Some take it to be the plural of a word occurring nowhere else in the Old Testament, “numbers”; others take it to be the plural of the word for “list, book.” Good News Translation understands the Hebrew to say “for I don’t know the number (of them),” in the sense “it is more than I can understand” (similarly New American Bible “though I know not their extent”; also Biblia Dios Habla Hoy); see a similar expression in 40.5.14-16 Hebrew Old Testament Text Project calls this a difficult passage and states that the proposed interpretation, “I cannot count them,” is the most probable one. Bible de Jérusalem and New Jerusalem Bible take it to be a marginal note by a copyist: “I have not known how to read the letters” (see the Septuagint). New Jerusalem Bible has “though I know not how to tell it”; New English Bible “although I have not the skill of a poet”; and Bible en français courant “even though your good deeds are innumerable.” Good News Translation‘s interpretation seems to be the best one to follow.
In verse 16a I will come may imply that the psalmist is talking about going to the Temple to praise God (so Bible en français courant “I will enter your house”; also Anderson). Good News Translation has taken it as an affirmation of the psalmist’s determination to praise God (see also Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). It is difficult to make sense of Revised Standard VersionWith the mighty deeds … I will come. Good News Translation “strength” translates the singular form “in power” found in many Hebrew manuscripts; Revised Standard Version follows the Masoretic text plural form mighty deeds. Both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation take this to refer to God; New Jerusalem Bible has “I will come in the power of Yahweh,” and Bible en français courant “because of your intervention (on my behalf).” If the translator follows Good News Translation “I will go in the strength of the LORD God,” it may be necessary in some languages to shift to a reason-result clause structure; for example, “because you are powerful, LORD, I will praise you,” or “I will say you are great, LORD, because you are powerful,” or “… because you do powerful deeds.”
Lord GOD (Good News Translation “LORD God”) translates “Lord Yahweh.”
I will praise in verse 16b translates the causative of the Hebrew verb for “to remember”; the causative means “cause to be remembered; to profess, praise.” Righteousness translates tsedaqah (see comments at 5.8); Bible en français courant has “your faithfulness,” and New Jerusalem Bible “your saving powers.” Praise thy righteousness must often be shifted into two clauses; for example, “I will say that you are great because you are faithful,” or as two coordinate clauses, “you are loyal to your people and I will praise you.”
The final words, thine alone, express the psalmist’s complete dedication to God, which he has expressed so eloquently in verses 14-16. There is no other source, human or divine, from which comes salvation. Thine alone may be translated as an exclusive restriction on the psalmist’s praise: “I will praise you, and no one else” or “I will praise you only–no one else.”
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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