Language-specific Insights

blaspheme, blasphemy

The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Ge’ez, and Latin that is translated as “blasphemy” or “blaspheme” is translated in various forms:

singular vs. plural (Neh. 2:12-15)

The narrative in Nehemiah 2:12-15 mentions that Nehemiah is accompanied by a number of other people. Yet, the verb forms (and pronouns) in this and the preceding verses are all singular in the Hebrew text. In the Chuj translation everything is retold in plural forms, except the verb forms of “inspect” in verses 13 and 15 since Nehemiah “had not confided in the men what his plans are, so presumably only he is inspecting walls.”

For the Mam on the other hand, translation consultant and the translators reached a different decision: “The team and I discussed this issue in depth and concluded that the level of leadership of the other men was so extremely low (they are only mentioned once and were not even aware of the purpose of the trip) that the singulars could stand.”

clothe with cursing as a coat

The Hebrew of Psalm 109:18 that is translate in English as “he clothed himself with cursing as his coat, may it soak into his body like water, like oil into his bones” or similar is translated in Mam (Ostuncalco) with an expression which comes from the way liquor enters into the entire body to warm it, and they used this idiom to replace the two figures for complete identification of the curse with the person: “May the curse saturate him as liquor saturates the one who drinks it.”