The Hebrew that is translated into English as “moving (or: hovering) over the (sur)face of the waters” is translated into Ebira as “(the spirit of God) stayed above the water doing NANANA [ideophone].” (Source: Rob Koops)
In Bari it is translated with bibirto, “which is used of a bird hovering over its nest or fluttering round a bunch of ripe bananas.” (Source: Source: P. Guillebaud in The Bible Translator 1965, p. 189ff.)
In Kutu it is translated as “spreading over the water” and in Nyamwezi as ku’elela: “to circle around slowly over water, without touching it.” In Kwere it is translated with katanda, which carries the meaning of being ‘spread out’ over the water as one would spread a blanket out over a bed. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
The Hebrew that is translated as “flee for your life” in English is translated in Nyamwezi as muyi’pi’zye myoyo yinywe or “save your hearts,” an idiom that means to save yourselves. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
The Hebrew that is translated as “innocent” in English is translated in Nyamwezi as no debt since there is no existing term for the concept. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
The Hebrew that is translated as “the daughter of my mother” in English is translated in Nyamwezi as “not of one stomach,” i.e. not sharing the same mother. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
The Hebrew that is translated as “distance of a bowshot” in English is translated in Nyamwezi as ntambo igana li’mo or “about 100 paces,” since the distance of a bowshot did not communicate distance very well. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
In Swahili, Bible translations try to avoid local words for alcoholic drinks, because “drinking of any alcohol at all was one of the sins most denounced by early missionaries. Hence translators are uncomfortable by the occurrences of wine in the Bible. Some of the established churches which use wine prefer to see church wine as holy, and would not refer to it by the local names used for alcoholic drinks. Instead church wine is often referred to by terms borrowed from other languages, divai (from German, der Wein) or vini/mvinyo (from ltalian/Latin vino/vinum). Several translations done by Protestants have adapted the Swahili divai for ‘wine,’ while those done by Catholics use vini or mvinyo.” (Source: Rachel Konyoro in The Bible Translator 1985, p. 221ff. )
In Nyamwezi, two terms are used. Malwa ga muzabibu is a kind of alcohol that people specifically use to get drunk (such as in Genesis 9:21) and ki’neneko is used for a wine made from grapes (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext).
Click or tap here to see a short video clip about wine in biblical times (source: Bible Lands 2012)
The Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek that is translated as “cubit” or into a metric or imperial measurement in English is translated in Kutu, Kwere, and Nyamwezi as makono or “armlength.” Since a cubit is the measurement from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, one armlength (measured from the center of the chest to the fingertips) equals two cubits or roughly 1 meter. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
In Klao it is converted into “hand spans” (app. 6 inches or 12 cm) and “finger spans” (app. 1 inch or 2 cm) (Source: Don Slager)
The Hebrew that is typically translated as “wise” or “wisdom” in English is translated in Nyamwezi as wu’manyi: “awareness, discernment.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
The Hebrew that is typically translated as “(his) countenance fell” in English is translated in Nyamwezi as wu’syu’ wakwe wasininkalaga: “his face went hard” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
The Hebrew that is most often translated as “destroy them along with the earth” in English is translated in Nyamwezi as “destroy them from the earth” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
The Translator’s Handbook on Genesis (Reyburn / Fry 1997) supports this choice. See also “from the earth” in Genesis 6:7.
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “swear (an oath)” or “vow” is translated as “God sees me, I tell the truth to you” (Tzeltal), “loading yourself down” (Huichol), “to speak-stay” (implying permanence of the utterance) (Sayula Popoluca), “to say what he could not take away” (San Blas Kuna), “because of the tight (i.e. “binding”) word which he had said to her face” (Guerrero Amuzgo), “strong promise” (North Alaskan Inupiatun) (source for all above: Bratcher / Nida), or “eat an oath” (Nyamwezi (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext).
In Bauzi “swear” can be translated in various ways. In Hebrews 6:13, for instance, it is translated with “bones break apart and decisively speak.” (“No bones are literally broken but by saying ‘break bones’ it is like people swear by someone else in this case it is in relation to a rotting corpse’ bones falling apart. If you ‘break bones’ so to speak when you make an utterance, it is a true utterance.”) In other passages, such as in Matthew 26:72, it’s translated with an expression that implies taking ashes (“if a person wants everyone to know that he is telling the truth about a matter, he reaches down into the fireplace, scoops up some ashes and throws them while saying ‘I was not the one who did that.'”). So in Matthew 26:72 the Bauzi text is: “. . . Peter took ashes and defended himself saying, ‘I don’t know that Nazareth person.'” (Source: David Briley)
The Hebrew and Greek that is most often translated as “establish” in English when mentioned in association with establishing a covenant is translated in Nyamwezi with a verb that means “erect.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)