swung his sickle over the earth

The Greek in Revelation 14:16 that is translated as “swung his sickle over the earth” or similar in English is translated in the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) as schickte Schnitter mit der Sichel zur Erde or “sent reapers with the sickle to earth.”

complete verse (Revelation 14:16)

Following are a number of back-translations of Revelation 14:16:

  • Uma: “From there the person sitting on top of the clouds really did swing his sickle and he harvested the contents of the world.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Then the one sitting on the cloud swung his sickle in the world and harvested all.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And then the one sitting on the cloud used his sickle, and he reaped the earth.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “So the one seated on the cloud went and sickled and the harvest was finished.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Therefore without anything else, he swung/waved that sickle which he was holding. All the harvest here in the world was cut down by him.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “He who sat on the cloud cut the grain there was on earth. All was gathered up.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Honorary "rare" construct denoting God (“sitting”)

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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 rare (られ) 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, suwatteo-rare-ru (座っておられる) or “sitting” is used.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Revelation 14:16

He who sat upon the cloud: the text does not say whether he got off the cloud in order to reap. A translation should not say or imply that he did.

Swung his sickle on the earth: this is a natural way in English to speak of working with a sickle. In some languages it may be more natural to say “cut with his sickle,” or “reaped with his sickle,” or “worked with his sickle.”

The earth was reaped: that is, the harvest on earth was reaped; the harvest is the human race. However, translators should not say this explicitly. An alternative translation model is “collected (or, gathered) the harvest.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Revelation to John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Revelation 14:16

14:16a–b

This sentence continues using the metaphor that compares gathering people to harvesting grain.

14:16a

swung His sickle over the earth: The person probably swung his sickle close to the ground. He reaped the whole earth.

14:16b

the earth was harvested: This clause is passive. Some languages must use an active clause. For example:

⌊he⌋ gathered the harvest of the earth
-or-
harvested the crops (Contemporary English Version)

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