The phrase that is translated into English as “you stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears” is translated into Afar as “You dry stones that nothing enters, and people who have hearts that refuse God, and ears closed saying we didn’t hear God’s message.” (stiff-necked > dry stones, uncircumcised in heart > hearts that refuse God, uncircumcised ears > ears closed to hearing God’s message) (Source: Loren Bliese)
Other translations for “uncircumcised in heart and ears” include:
- Rincón Zapotec: “it doesn’t enter your hearts or your ears. You are like those who don’t even believe”
- Eastern Highland Otomi: “hard are your hearts and not a little bit open are your ears”
- Morelos Nahuatl: “you have your heart as unbelievers, you do not want to hear God’s word”
- Highland Popoluca: “you never wanted to do God’s will, never truly believed”
- Teutila Cuicatec: “you are just the same as those who do not believe God’s word because you do not obey”
- Huichol: “you have not been marked with God’s sign in your hearts or in your ears (you are unruly and unsubmissive like an untamed, unbranded bronco)”
- Ojitlán Chinantec: “you do not have the word-sign in your hearts. Your ears are clogged”
- Copainalá Zoque: “you just don’t understand”
- Isthmus Mixe: “your hearts and minds are not open” (source for this and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
- Kaqchikel: “with your hearts unprepared” (source: Nida 1964, p. 220)
- Elhomwe: “like people who do not know God” (source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
In Chichewa (interconfessional translation) “stiff-necked” is translated as “hard-headed.” (Source: Wendland 1987, p. 130)
See also uncircumcised and stiff-necked.
The Greek that is translated as “all scripture is inspired by God (or: is God-breathed)” into English is translated into various languages in the following ways:
- Berom: “All the words that were written in the Leaf of Teaching of Father Sun came away from God thing his” (Mwa neha de bà jɛk e Bwok-basa Dagwi na vey yi na Dagwi pyɛ mɛ)
- Hausa (Common Language Version): “All the writings of the Word of God are blown from his place” (Duk Rubutacciyar Maganar Allah hurarre ce daga wurinsa)
- Kera: “All the words that were written in God’s book come straight from God’s mouth” (Kel gə minti gə jeerə-jeere giidə kefter kə Pepeŋa keɗe ha’aŋ, yə bəŋ ku Pepeŋ da)
- Arabic (True Meaning Arabic edition): “All of this book is a revelation from God” (فهذِهِ الكُتُبُ كُلُّها وَحيٌ مِن اللهِ)
- Chadian Arabic: “The book is completely the word of God which he sent down (الْكِتَابْ كُلَّ كَيْ هُو كَلَامْ اللّٰهْ النَّزَّلَهْ)
- Dari (Today’s Dari Version 2008): “The whole holy book is divine revelation” (تمام کتاب مقدس از الهام خداست)
- French (Parole de Vie 2017): “All the holy books were written with the help of God” (Tous les Livres Saints ont été écrits avec l’aide de Dieu)
- Lamogai: “All of the talk written in God’s book was given by God’s Spirit.”
- Northern Emberá: “God (emph.) made all of his word to be written” (Ãcõrẽbʌrʌ jũma Idji Bed̶eara b̶ʌbisia)
- Hiligaynon: “The whole Written-Item was written by-means-of the power of God” (Kay ang bug-os nga Kasulatan ginbugna sang Dios kag mapuslanon sa pagtudlo sang kamatuoran)
- Sindhi: “The origin/fount of each writing of the holy word/scripture is God (emph. = alone)”
- Dobel: “And God’s Message all of it, it was he alone who put it in people’s thoughts, then they wrote it in The Book” (Sa Dukwaida Ssinan Ler si Rakwin re nam ffui, nai naꞌꞌenni yaꞌa nam i tamatu ada faꞌirandi nama datiya i Suratu Yabil)
- Amele: “All the written good talk God’s Spirit he himself taught/instructed men and they wrote” (Me je jaqec cunug Anutna Kis uqadodoc dana iwaladeceb jaqein)
- Saxwe Gbe: “Every holy writing came from God”
- Aja: “It was God’s Spirit that took all things that were written in the books of God’s Word and put them in the minds/consciences of people, and they wrote them” (source for this and all above: discussion on BT email list, contributions used with permissions)
- Kaqchikel: “All scripture is God’s breath”
On this last translation, the translation into Kaqchikel, Cameron Townsend reports:
“We were struggling with the part of the Scripture that says, ‘All scripture is given by inspiration of God.’ We tried several different ways of translating this, but the men were never satisfied that it communicated well in Kaqchikel. I consulted the Greek and said, ‘How about translating it ‘all scripture is God-breathed?” ‘No,’ they said, ‘that doesn’t sound right.’ Then I suggested using ‘God’s breath.’ The men liked this and we agreed to use this phrase. But I wasn’t entirely convinced it was as accurate as it should be. Then I began to read other portions of Scripture where I noticed that when God spoke in creation it had the same connotation as God’s breath. And so we left it that way: ‘All scripture is God’s breath.'” (Quoted in Steven 1995, p. 196f.)
Derived from this phrase, the word for “Bible” in Armenian is Asdvadz-a-shoonch (Աստվածաշունչ) or “Breath of God.”
See also examined the scriptures, scripture, and complete verse (2 Timothy 3:16).
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “adultery” (typically understood as “marital infidelity”) in English 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”
- 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)
- In Purari: “play hands with” or “play eyes with”
- In Hakha Chin the usual term for “adultery” applies only to women, so the translation for the Greek term that is translated into English as “adultery” was translated in Hakha Chin as “do not take another man’s wife and do not commit adultery.”
- Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “talk secretly with spouses of our fellows”
- Isthmus Zapotec: “go in with other people’s spouses”
- Hopi: “tamper with marriage” (source for this and two above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
- In Falam Chin the term for “adultery” is the phrase for “to share breast” which relates to adultery by either sex. (Source for this and three above: David Clark)
- In Ixcatlán Mazatec a specification needs to be made to include both genders. (Source: Robert Bascom)
See also adultery, adulterer, adulteress, and you shall not commit adultery.
The Hebrew, Greek, and Latin that is translated as “pride” in English is translated as “continually boasting” (Amganad Ifugao), “lifting oneself up” (Tzeltal), “answering haughtily” (Yucateco) (source: Bratcher / Nida), “unbent neck” (like llamas) (Kaqchikel) (source: Nida 1952, p. 151), or “praising oneself, saying: I am better” (Shipibo-Conibo) (source: Nida 1964, p. 237).
In the Hausa Common Language Bible it is idiomatically translated as girman kai or “bigness of head.” (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
The Greek that is translated as “he came to himself” or “he came to his senses” is (back-) translated in a number of ways:
- Sranan Tongo: “he came to get himself”
- Tzeltal: “his heart arrived”
- Thai (translation of 1967): “he sensed himself” (implying realization that he had done wrong)
- Kekchí: “it fell into his heart”
- Tagalog: “his self came back”
- Yaka, Chuukese, Pohnpeian: “he came to wisdom (or: became wise)”
- Kituba: “he understood himself”
- Uab Meto: “his heart came to life again”
- Kaqchikel: “he came out of his stupor”
- Lomwe, Yao: “he was turned, or, aroused (as from sleep), in his heart”
- Javanese: “he became-aware of his own condition”
- Kele: “he thought again about his affair” (source for all above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
- Mairasi: “his own liver’s sky split” (In Mairasi, the liver is the seat of emotions) (source: Enggavoter 2004)
The Hebrew that is translated as “insects that fly” or “swarming insects” in English is translated as “small animals with wings like flies” in Mam, “insects that fly in big groups” in Chuj, and “animals that fly and have more than two legs” in Kaqchikel. None of these languages has a pre-existing category for insects.
See also birds of the air / fish of the sea.
The Hebrew that is translated in English as “He came to a cave (…) and went in to relieve himself. It happened to be the very cave in which David and his men were hiding far back in the cave.” or similar was problematic to translate in Kaqchikel “because the words for ‘cave’ and ‘hole’ are the same in Kaqchikel. So if you are not careful you can wind up with Saul relieving himself in a hole with David at the bottom. In Kaqchikel this was resolved by means of the directional apo (‘onward’) as opposed to ka (‘downward’) (Y rija’ xok k’a apo chiri’ richin . . .) which implies he kept walking more or less on a level plain.”
In the Hebrew text Joab drops his dagger (or: sword) in verse 8 and then uses it to stab Amasa in verse 10 without any mention that he picked it up again. In languages like Kaqchikel it is “necessary to mention that at some point he picked it up. This does seem to affect the element of surprise, but still in languages like Kaqchikel Joab cannot stab Amasa until he picks up his dagger.”
