The Hebrew proverb that is translated as “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge” in English is rendered in Medumba with the existing proverb “They, the others, have eaten caterpillars; And we have got a stomach ache.” (Source: Jan de Waard in The Bible Translator 1971, p. 146ff. )
In Maan, the translation is “Parents ate green grapes, but their children’s teeth were sour.” (Source: Don Slager)
See also like vinegar to the teeth.
The Hebrew in Psalm 18:5 that is translated as “the cords of Sheol” in some English versions is rendered in Medumba with the existing expression “the odor of death.” (Source: Jan de Waard in The Bible Translator 1974, p. 107ff )
In the Contemporary Chichewa translation (2002/2016) it is translated as In “the ropes from the grave.” In Chewa culture these are used to descend a coffin with a dead body into the grave. These ropes are kept at the grave or in some communities at the house of one of the people who take care of the grave. Being tied by these ropes is considered to be a big misfortune as they are associated with death. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
“It was interesting to find how similar some of the Hebrew ways of expression are to Bari idiom. (…) [For instance], in Genesis 49:14 (‘Issachar is a strong(-boned) donkey’) Hebrew literally has ‘a bony donkey.’ In English this would convey the opposite meaning, as we associate ‘bony’ with ‘thin’; but when we came to translate this, Daniele [the language assistant] told me that Bari says ‘You are a man with bones,’ or ‘You have ribs,’ meaning that you are strong. So it seems that it is the bones and ribs in Bari which denote strength, as seems to be the case in Hebrew, rather than the muscles, as in English.” (Source: P. Guillebaud in The Bible Translator 1965, p. 189ff. )
The Samaritan Pentateuch reads this as “ass of sojourners” ( חמר גרים ) or more probably “castrated ass,” which is the meaning that the New English Bible (1961/1970) follows with “gelded ass.” (Source: Jan de Waard in The Bible Translator 1974, p. 107ff. )
See also Issachar.