And the prophet answered and said to him: "I know that now your repentance is accepted, for there has been no one before you among your kin who acknowledged his sin.
2 Meqabyan (also known as 2 Ethiopian Maccabees and 2 Ethiopic Maccabees) is canonical scripture for the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church. While «Meqabyan» is the Ge’ez equivalent of «Maccabees,» the content is completely different from 2 Maccabees. The only complete copies of 2 Meqabyan are available in Ge’ez (Classical Ethiopic), here used with permission by the Bible Society of Ethiopia.
The translation into English was provided by Haileyesus Woldemariam (UBS).
The Greek, Ge’ez, Latin and Hebrew that is often translated as «repent» or «repentance» is (back-) translated in various ways (click or tap here to see the rest of this insight):
Embu: «change heart» («2 Cor. 7:10 says ‘For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death.’ In ordinary speech the terms ‘repent’ and ‘regret’ are used interchangeably in Embu, so that this verse comes out as: ‘godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no repentance,’ which is contradictory. The problem was solved by using ‘changing heart’ in the first, and ‘sadness’ in the second.») (source: Jan Sterk)
Muna: dofetompa’ao dhosa bhe dodoli ne Lahata’ala: «radically-end sin and to turn to God» (source: René van den Berg)
Bacama: por-njiya: «fetch sand» («Before the coming of Christianity 100 years ago, when the elders went to pray to the gods, they would take sand and throw it over each shoulder and down their backs while confessing their sins. Covering themselves with sand was a ritual to show that they were sorry for what they had done wrong, sort of like covering oneself with sackcloth and ashes. Now idol worship for the most part is abandoned in Bacama culture, but the Christian church has retained the phrase por-njiya to mean ‘repent, doing something to show sorrow for one’s sins’» — source: David Frank in this blog post .)
Enlhet «exchange innermosts.» «Innermost» or valhoc is a term that is frequently used in Enlhet to describe a large variety of emotions or states of mind (for other examples see here). (Source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 24ff. )
Isthmus Zapotec: «heart becomes soft» (source for this and above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
Cherokee: «change one’s thinking» (source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 23)
Sabaot: «give one’s neck» — relating to traditional legal proceedings where someone who is convicted of a crime kneels before the aggrieved person who can either behead the accused or completely forgive (source Danny Foster in this recording )
Kâte: maŋ bârisiezo or «turn the insides around» (source: Renck 1990, p. 108)
Merina Malagasy: fifonana, deriving from mifona «meaning ‘to completely uproot so that something new can grow’ (a term also used for the loss of a baby tooth)» (source: Brigitte Rabarijaona)
«In Tzotzil two reflexive verbs to communicate the biblical concept of repentance are used. Xca’i jba means to know or to reflect inwardly on one’s self. This self inquiry or self examination is similar to the attitude of the prodigal son where Luke 15:17 records that ‘he came to his senses.’ Broke, starving, and slopping hogs, the prodigal admitted to himself that he was in the wrong place. The second reflexive verb ‘jsutes jba’ means turning away from what one is and turning to something else. In a sense, it is deciding against one’s self and toward someone else. It is similar to the attitude of the prodigal son when he said, ‘I will get up and go to my father’ (Luke 15:18).» (source: Aeilts 2009, p. 118)
The Hebrew, Ge’ez, and Greek that is typically translated as «sin» in English has a wide variety of translations.
The Greek ἁμαρτάνω (hamartanō) carries the original verbatim meaning of «miss the mark» and likewise, many translations contain the «connotation of moral responsibility.»
Loma: «leaving the road» (which «implies a definite standard, the transgression of which is sin»)
Navajo (Dinė): «that which is off to the side» (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida)
Toraja-Sa’dan: kasalan, originally meaning «transgression of a religious or moral rule» and in the context of the Bible «transgression of God’s commandments» (source: H. van der Veen in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 21ff. )
Bariai: «bad behavior» (source: Bariai Back Translation)
Sandawe: «miss the mark» (like the original meaning of the Greek term) (source for this and above: Ursula Wiesemann in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 36ff., 43)
Nias: horö, originally a term primarily used for sexual sin. (Source: Hummel / Telaumbanua 2007, p. 256)
In Shipibo-Conibo the term is hocha. Nida (1952, p. 149) tells the story of its choosing: «In some instances a native expression for sin includes many connotations, and its full meaning must be completely understood before one ever attempts to use it. This was true, for example, of the term hocha first proposed by Shipibo-Conibo natives as an equivalent for ‘sin.’ The term seemed quite all right until one day the translator heard a girl say after having broken a little pottery jar that she was guilty of ‘hocha.’ Breaking such a little jar scarcely seemed to be sin. However, the Shipibos insisted that hocha was really sin, and they explained more fully the meaning of the word. It could be used of breaking a jar, but only if the jar belonged to someone else. Hocha was nothing more nor less than destroying the possessions of another, but the meaning did not stop with purely material possessions. In their belief God owns the world and all that is in it. Anyone who destroys the work and plan of God is guilty of hocha. Hence the murderer is of all men most guilty of hocha, for he has destroyed God’s most important possession in the world, namely, man. Any destructive and malevolent spirit is hocha, for it is antagonistic and harmful to God’s creation. Rather than being a feeble word for some accidental event, this word for sin turned out to be exceedingly rich in meaning and laid a foundation for the full presentation of the redemptive act of God.»
Martin Ehrensvärd, one of the translators for the DanishBibelen 2020, comments on the translation of this term: «We would explain terms, such that e.g. sin often became ‘doing what God does not want’ or ‘breaking God’s law’, ‘letting God down’, ‘disrespecting God’, ‘doing evil’, ‘acting stupidly’, ‘becoming guilty’. Now why couldn’t we just use the word sin? Well, sin in contemporary Danish, outside of the church, is mostly used about things such as delicious but unhealthy foods. Exquisite cakes and chocolates are what a sin is today.» (Source: Ehrensvärd in HIPHIL Novum 8/2023, p. 81ff. )
Eugene Nida wrote the following about the translation of the Hebrew, Aramaic, Ge’ez, and Greek terms that are typically translated with «prophet» in English:
«The tendency in many translations is to use ‘to foretell the future’ for ‘prophesy,’ and ‘one who foretells the future’ for ‘prophet.’ This is not always a recommended usage, particularly if such expressions denote certain special native practices of spirit contact and control. It is true, of course, that prophets of the Bible did foretell the future, but this was not always their principal function. One essential significance of the Greek word prophētēs is ‘one who speaks forth,’ principally, of course, as a forth-teller of the Divine will. A translation such as ‘spokesman for God’ may often be employed profitably.» (1947, p. 234f.)
Following is a list of (back-) translations from other languages (click or tap for details):
Ayutla Mixtec: «one who talks as God’s representative»
Isthmus Mixe: «speaker for God» (source for this and two above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
Mezquital Otomi / Paasaal: «God’s messenger» (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff. and Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
Noongar: Warda Marridjiny or «News Traveling» (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Kutu: mtula ndagu or «one who gives the prediction of the past and the future» (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Ebira: ọnịsẹ, a neologism that combines the prefix ọn for «a person» with ịsẹ for «prediction» (source: Scholz /Scholz 2015, p. 49)
French 1985 translation by Chouraqui: inspiré or «inspired one» («someone in whom God has breathed [Latin: in + spiro]) (source: Watson 2023, p. 45)
Cherokee: adolehosgi (ᎠᏙᎴᎰᏍᎩ) or «discoverer of things,» a «term that was was traditionally applied to Cherokee medicine men or women who used divining.» (Source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 49)
In Ixcatlán Mazatec a term is used that specifically includes women. (Source: Robert Bascom)
«In some instances these spiritual terms result from adaptations reflecting the native life and culture. Among the Northern Grebo people of Liberia, a missionary wanted some adequate term for ‘prophet,’ and she was fully aware that the native word for ‘soothsayer’ or ‘diviner’ was no equivalent for the Biblical prophet who spoke forth for God. Of course, much of what the prophets said referred to the future, and though this was an essential part of much of their ministry, it was by no means all. The right word for the Gbeapo people would have to include something which would not only mean the foretelling of important events but the proclamation of truth as God’s representative among the people. At last the right word came; it was ‘God’s town-crier.’ Every morning and evening the official representative of the chief goes through the village crying out the news, delivering the orders of the chief, and announcing important coming events. ‘God’s town-crier’ would be the official representative of God, announcing to the people God’s doings, His commands, and His pronouncements for their salvation and well-being. For the Northern Grebo people the prophet is no weird person from forgotten times; he is as real as the human, moving message of the plowman Amos, who became God’s town-crier to a calloused people.» (source: Nida 1952, p. 20)
In British Sign Language it is is translated with a sign that depicts a message coming from God to a person (the upright finger) and then being passed on to others. (Source: Anna Smith)
«Prophet» in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)
