Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 2:16:
Uma: “What has happened here, is the fulfillment of what the Lord God foretold ahead-of-time long ago, with the lips of Nabi Yoel, like this its sound:” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “But this that you see now,’ he said, ‘has been foretold by Nabi Joel and now it is fulfilled. He said,” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “This is what was prophesied long ago by the one inspired by God, Joel, because he said,” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “What was-done to us (excl.) a short-while-ago, that was what Joel prophesied long ago saying,” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “On the contrary, this which has happened today is the fulfilling of the written word of the prophet Joel, saying,” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Teutila Cuicatec: “What you are seeing is what the prophet Joel wrote about in former times.”
Morelos Nahuatl: “This is happening as the prophet Joel who talked about God’s Word said in time past.”
Tepeuxila Cuicatec: “This is what spoke the prophet Joel who spoke of that which is to come.” (Source for this and two above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 3:20:
Uma: “So relatives, repent from your sins and submit to the Lord God, so that he may forgive your sins. From there, the Lord God will strengthen your hearts and he will order Yesus to come to us. Because he is the one whom God decided upon from-the-start to become our Redeemer King.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “So-then times of encouraging your livers will be coming/arriving from God, and he will send back into the world Isa, he is Almasi the one chosen to rule over you.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And he will send here to us Jesus, who is the one he chose to rule over us.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Because if you do that, God will cause-to-arrive a time of calming and strengthening of the mind/thoughts, and furthermore he will again send Jesus the Messiah whom he appointed previously to rule over us.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Provided you will do this, God will give you far-from-ordinary happiness and peace/protection of your mind/inner-being. And also, the day will come when he will again cause Jesu-Cristo to descend, that Savior whom God ordained to reign over us.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Chuj: “God will send again Jesus the second time because God has given remaining Christ’s office to be your savior.
Teutila Cuicatec: “Then he will send again Jesus, the one who is Christ, who was set apart for you since former times.
Morelos Nahuatl: “Then God will send Jesus Christ again. God chose him in order to save you from your sins.”
Rincón Zapotec: “God will send again Jesus, the Christ whom he designated since before to be your ruler.”
Tataltepec Chatino: “Then God will give orders to Jesus to come back again, Jesus whom God chose to be your boss.” (Source for this and three above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
The cardinal directions “east” and “west” are easy to translate into Maan here since the language uses “where the sun comes up” and “where the sun goes down.” For “north” the translator had “facing toward the sun rising to the left,” and for “south” she had “facing toward the sun rising to the right.” So the listener had to think hard before knowing what direction was in view when translating “to the north and south, to the east and west.” So, in case all four directions are mentioned, it was shortened by saying simply “all directions.” Manya uses a similar nomenclature for the cardinal directions. (Source: Don Slager)
Likewise, Yakan has “from the four corners of the earth” (source: Yakan back-translation) or Western Bukidnon Manobo “from the four directions here on the earth” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo back-translation).
Kankanaey is “from the coming-out and the going-away of the sun and the north and the south” (source: Kankanaey back-translation), Northern Emberá “from where the sun comes up, from where it falls, from the looking [left] hand, from the real [right] hand” (source: Charles Mortensen), Amele “from the direction of the sun going up, from the direction of the sun going down, from the north and from the south” (source: John Roberts), Ejamat “look up to see the side where the sun comes from, and the side where it sets, and look on your right side, and on your left” (source: David Frank in this blog post ).
In Lamba, only umutulesuŵa, “where the sun rises” and imbonsi, “where the sun sets” were available as cardinal directions that were not tied to the local area of language speakers (“north” is kumausi — “to the Aushi country” — and “south” kumalenje — “to the Lenje country”). So “north” and “south” were introduced as loanwords, nofu and saufu respectively. The whole phrase is kunofu nakusaufu nakumutulesuŵa nakumbonsi. (Source C. M. Doke in The Bible Translator 1958, p. 57ff. )
“West” is translated in Tzeltal as “where the sun pours-out” and in Kele as “down-river” (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel).
In Morelos Nahuatl, “north” is translated as “from above” and “south” as “from below.” (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
In Matumbi cardinal directions are defined as in relation to another place. “East” for instance typically is “toward the beach” since the coast is in the eastern direction in Matumbi-speaking areas. “North” and “south” can be defined as above or below another place. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
The Hebrew text that gives instructions where to place items in the tabernacle with the help of cardinal directions (north and south) had to be approached in the Bambam translation specific to spacial concepts of that culture.
Phil Campbell explains: “There are no words in Bambam for north and south. In Exodus 26:35, God instructs that the table is to be placed on the north side and the lamp on the south side inside the tabernacle. The team wants to use right and left to tell where the lamp and table are located. In many languages we would say that the table is on the right and the lampstand is on the left based on the view of someone entering the tabernacle. However, that is not how Bambam people view it. They view the placement of things and rooms in a building according to the orientation of someone standing inside the building facing the front of the building. So that means the table is on the left side and the lampstand is on the right side.”
