• Western Kanjobal: “think in the soul”
• Kekchí: “pain in the heart”
• Northwestern Dinka: “turn the heart”
• Pedi: “become untwisted”
• Baoulé: “it hurts to make you quit it” (source for this and above: Nida 1952, p. 137)
• Balinese: “putting on a new mind”
• Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “be sorry on account of one’s sins”
• Uab Meto: “turn the heart upside down” (source for this and the two above: Bratcher / Nida)
• Central Mazahua / Chichimeca-Jonaz: “turn back the heart” (source: Nida 1952, p. 40)
• Suki: biaekwatrudap gjaeraesae: “turn with sorrow” (source: L. and E. Twyman in The Bible Translator 1953, p. 91ff. )
• Yamba and Bulu: “turn over the heart” (source: W. Reyburn in The Bible Translator 1959, p. 1ff. )
• Chichewa: kutembenuka mtima (“to be turned around in one’s heart”) (source: Ernst Wendland in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 319ff. )
• Caribbean Javanese: mertobat (“tired of old life”)
• Saramaccan: bia libi ko a Massa Gadu (“turn your life to the Lord God”)
• Sranan Tongo: drai yu libi (“turn your life”) or kenki libi (“change life”)
• Eastern Maroon Creole: dai yu libi (“turn your life”) (source for this and 3 above: Jabini 2015)
• Eggon: “bow in the dust” (source: Kilgour, p. 80)
• 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)
• Anuak: “liver falls down”
• Kafa: “return from way of sin to God” (source for this and the one above: Loren Bliese)
• Latvian: atgriezties (verb) / atgriešanās (noun) (“turn around / return” — see turn around / convert) (source: Katie Roth)
• Obolo: igwugwu ikom: “turn back (from evil)” (source: Enene Enene)
• Mairasi: make an end (of wrongdoing) (source: Enggavoter 2004)
• Luchazi: ku aluluka mutima: “turn in heart” (source: E. Pearson in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 160ff. )
• Chokwe: kulinkonyeka: “fold back over” or “go back on oneself” (source D.B. Long in The Bible Translator 1953, p. 135ff. ).
• 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. )
• San Blas Kuna: “sorry for wrong done in the heart” (source: Claudio and Marvel Iglesias in The Bible Translator 1951, p. 85ff. )
• Desano: “change your bad deeds for good ones”
• Isthmus Mixe: “put one’s hearts and minds on the good road”
• Eastern Highland Otomi: “change one’s thinking about evil and walk in the way of God”
• San Mateo del Mar Huave: “just remember that you have done wicked, in order that you might do good”
• Coatlán Mixe: “heart-return to God” (source for this and four above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
• Sierra de Juárez Zapotec: “get on the right road”
• 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)
• Tibetan: ‘gyod tshangs byed (འགྱོད་​ཚངས་​བྱེད།), lit. “regret + pure” (source: gSungrab website )
• 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)

In Hungarian Sign Language it is translated with a sign that expresses the turning of one’s attention toward God (see 1 Thessalonians 1:9 and Acts 3:19). (Source: Jenjelvi Biblia and HSL Bible Translation Group)

“Repent” in Hungarian Sign Language (source )

See also: convert / conversion / turn back and see Seat of the Mind for traditional views of “ways of knowing, thinking, and feeling.”