The Hebrew in Nehemiah 6:11 that is rendered in English versions as “I’m not the kind of person that runs and hides” or “Should a man like me run away?” was translated into Afar as Kudaah ambooqorem, yi migaq hinna.: “My name is not fleeing and hiding.” (One’s character is one’s name in Afar idiom.)
shout like those who tread grapes
The phrase in Jeremiah 25:30 that is translated in English versions as “shout, like those who tread grapes” is translated into Afar as Carbih gexa mari edde haa tirtirat heele: “He will make a war cry that men going to battle make.”
land flowing with milk and honey
The phrase that is rendered in English versions as “land flowing with milk and honey” (“milk and syrup” in Goldingay [2018]) is translated into Afar as niqmatak tan baaxoy buqre kee lacah meqehiyya: “a blessed land good for fields and cattle.” (Source: Loren Bliese)
In the interconfessional Chichewa translation (publ. 1999) it is translated with the existing proverb dziko lamwanaalirenji or “a land of what (type of food) can the child cry for?” (i.e. there is more than enough to eat). (Source: Ernst Wendland in The Bible Translator 1981, p. 107 )
In Kwere it is “good/fertile land.” (Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
The Hebrew word for “honey”, devash, is also used for syrup extracted from figs, dates, and grapes, or from certain types of palm tree. The phrase “a land flowing with milk and honey” refers to a land that is fertile and thus rich in pasture, fruit, and the grain and flowers from which bees make honey. (Source: All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators) )
In Russian, the phrase молоко и мед (moloko i med) or “milk and honey” is widely used as an idiom in every-day life. (Source: Reznikov 2020, p. 67)
Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Milk and Honey in Ancient Israel .
perverted justice
The Hebrew in 1 Samuel 8:3 that is translated in many English versions as “perverted justice” is translated into Anuak as “changed the word of the people.”
under tongues are mischief and iniquity
The Hebrew in Psalm 10:7 that is rendered in English as “under their tongues are mischief and iniquity” is translated into Afar as “words that come from their mouth are like vomit.”
turned aside after gain
The Hebrew in 1 Samuel 8:3 that is translated as “turned aside after gain” in many English versions is translated into Anuak as “livers became big for things.”
See turned aside and Seat of the Mind for traditional views of “ways of knowing, thinking, and feeling.”
surround like men guarding a field
The Hebrew in Jeremiah 4:17 that is rendered in English versions as “surround like men guarding a field” does not fit in Afar as a metaphor for a siege of a city since the intent of guarding a field is protection while that of the siege is to harm. So it was translated as “They will encircle Jerusalem as when men encircle a bad-tempered bull they want to slaughter.” (Fields are not common, so a cattle-raising comparison was used.)
bird hatching eggs that it did not (Jeremiah 17:11)
The Hebrew simile in Jeremiah 17:11 that is translated in English as “a bird hatching eggs that it didn’t lay” is not clear in Afar so it was changed to “like a man who wants to inherit property which his parents didn’t leave to him.”