The Hebrew in Psalm 43:4 that is rendered in English as “God my exceeding joy” is translated into Poqomchi’ as “God who makes my heart delicious.”
See also joy.
Language-specific Insights
narrative order (Ruth 3:14)
The Hebrew that is typically translated in English as “So she lay there at his feet, but she got up before it was light enough for her to be seen, because Boaz did not want anyone to know that she had been there.” needed to be reordered in languages like Bribri and Poqomchi’ “to reverse the order of the cause and effect, putting the cause first: ‘Boaz didn’t want anybody to know that Ruth had slept there. Because of that, Ruth got up very early the next morning (to go).'”
hear the words of the LORD
The Hebrew in 2 Chronicles 18:18 that is typically translated in English as “hear the words of the Lord” is translated in Poqomchi’ as “look at what the Lord has shown me” because “what follows are not words of the Lord at all” (the text continues with “I saw the Lord” in the English translation)
purify
In Nehemiah 12:30 reference is made to ritual purification. In Poqomchi’ it was felt necessary to emphasize that is “not simply taken a bath and hosing down the new walls. The Poqomchi’s did this by clarifying ‘according to the commandment of God.'”
merchant
The Hebrew in Job 41:6 that is translated as “merchants” (for Leviathan) in English had to be translated more specifically in Poqomchi’.
Ronald Ross explains: “In at least some Mayan languages the word for ‘vendor’ cannot be used without expressing what it is they sell. So here, in Poqomchi’ we have had to put ‘fish vendors,’ even though we are assuming that Leviathan is a crocodile. [See Leviathan] It seems that even in the Hebrew the context is that of a fish market, which is logical since Leviathan is considered to be a sea monster. This may be a case of Hebrew classification of anything that swims or lives in the water being a fish, like anything that flies is a bird (bats, for example).”
implicit information made explicit (Job 41:8)
The Hebrew is translated in English as “Lay hands on it [the Leviathan]; think of the battle; you will not do it again!” or similar. Here and in the Hebrew original the fear of touching the Leviathan again is implied. In Poqomchi’ it had to be made explicit with the addition of “because you’ll be very much afraid of him.”
See also Leviathan.
diligent, negligent, slack
Proverbs 10:4 with its dichotomy of “negligent” and “diligent” (in the English translation) is translated into Poqomchi’ as “Whoever does not grab his heart to work, becomes poor, but whoever grabs his heart to work, becomes rich.” (Reminiscent of the biblical expression “gird up your loins.”)
rejoice with trembling
The Hebrew in Psalm 2:11 that is translated as “rejoice with trembling” (or just: “trembling”) in English is translated in Poqomchi’ with the existing phrase “tremble with joy,” “so the source of the trembling seems to come from the joy and not from the fear of God.”