The Hebrew in Genesis 49:3 that is translated into English as something like “my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my strength” is translated into Western Lawa as “my first born, born when I was young and strong — like the first fruit of a tree.”
Language-specific Insights
men of renown
The Hebrew in Genesis 6:4 that is often translated as “men of renown” in English is translated in Western Lawa as “men who are like horns of a barking deer” (= famous men).
your eyes will be opened
The Hebrew in Genesis 3:5 that is translated in English as “your eyes will be opened” is translated into Western Lawa as “your eyes will become light.”
See also open eyes and open heart / heart opened.
fugitive, vagabond, wanderer
The Hebrew that is translated as “vagabond,” “fugitive,” or “wanderer” in English is translated in Western Lawa as one who has “no house to live in and no granary to eat out of.”
go to your fathers (ancestors) in peace
The Hebrew in Genesis 15:15 that is translated as “go to your fathers (or: ancestors) in peace” in English is translated in Western Lawa as “die a delicious death.”
heal (from infertility)
The Hebrew in Genesis 20:17 that is translated as “heal” (from infertility) in English could not be translated directly in Western Lawa. “Barrenness and impotency are not understood as sickness in the Western Lawa culture. Thus the verb ‘heal’ could not be used. Therefore the last part of the verse was translated: ‘Abimelech was saved from what God had planned to do to him. God caused his wife and women slaves to be able to have children like before.'”
See also barren and healed (of spirits).
Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Barrenness .
sleep fled from my eyes, sleepless
The Hebrew in Genesis 31:40 that is translated as “sleepless” or “sleep fled from my eyes” in English is translated in Western Lawa with a couplet which says, “I can neither eat deliciously nor sleep peacefully.”