adultery

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The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “adultery” in English (here etymologically meaning “to alter”) is typically understood as “marital infidelity.” It is (back-) translated in the following ways:

  • Highland Totonac: “to do something together”
  • Yucateco: “pair-sin”
  • Ngäbere: “robbing another’s half self-possession” (compare “fornication” which is “robbing self-possession,” that is, to rob what belongs to a person)
  • Kaqchikel, Chol: “to act like a dog” (see also licentiousness)
  • Toraja-Sa’dan: “to measure the depth of the river of (another’s) marriage”
  • North Alaskan Inupiatun: “married people using what is not theirs” (compare “fornication” which is “unmarried people using what is not theirs”) (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Purari: “play hands with” or “play eyes with”
  • Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “talk secretly with spouses of our fellows”
  • Isthmus Zapotec: “go in with other people’s spouses”
  • Tzeltal: “practice illicit relationship with women”
  • Huehuetla Tepehua: “live with some one who isn’t your wife”
  • Central Tarahumara: “sleep with a strange partner”
  • Hopi: “tamper with marriage” (source for this and seven above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
  • German: Ehebrecher or “marriage breaker” / Ehe brechen or “breaking of marriage” (source: Zetzsche)
  • In Falam Chin the term for “adultery” is the phrase for “to share breast” which relates to adultery by either sex. (Source: David Clark)
  • In Ixcatlán Mazatec a specification needs to be made to include both genders. (Source: Robert Bascom)
  • Likewise in Hiligaynon: “commit-adultery-with-a-man or commit-adultery-with-a-woman” (source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

See also adultery, adulterer, adulteress, and you shall not commit adultery.

forget

The Hebrew, Latin, and Greek that is translated as “forget” in English is translated in Noongar as dwangka-anbangbat, lit. “ear-lose.” (Source: Portions of the Holy Bible in the Nyunga language of Australia, 2018).

See also remember and forget (Japanese honorifics).

Translation commentary on Wisdom 14:26

Confusion over what is good: This phrase is ambiguous. Revised Standard Version takes good to refer to an abstract principle; Good News Translation takes it to refer to people. Either is possible, but we prefer the approach of Good News Translation, so another possible rendering is “they harass [or, persecute] innocent people.”

Forgetfulness of favors: This is simply “ingratitude” (Good News Translation). It may be expanded to “they do not show gratitude.”

Pollution of souls: “Moral decay” (Good News Translation) is a good way of rendering this, but we may also say “moral corruption” (New English Bible) or “they become completely immoral.”

Sex perversion: This refers to unnatural sex acts, so it may be rendered “they commit unnatural sexual acts.”

Disorder in marriage, adultery, and debauchery: Disorder in marriage refers to “breakdown of marriage” (New English Bible) or “broken marriages” (Good News Translation). Debauchery describes sexual indulgence without any limits or sense of propriety at all, so it may be rendered “they indulge in all sorts of disgusting sexual acts.”

Good News Translation gives a good model for the whole verse. But for those translators who prefer to use expanded clauses like those in the models above, they could continue, rearranging the items somewhat as follows:

• They harass [or, persecute] innocent people, they show no gratitude. Their morals are corrupted; they commit adultery and destroy their marriages, they indulge in any kind of sexual activity, no matter how unnatural.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Wisdom of Solomon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2004. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.