The Hebrew in Proverbs 2:3 that is rendered with “cry out” in English translation is translated into Mam (Ostuncalco) as “call out with all your stomach” (for emphasis).
his word
The Hebrew in 1 Samuel 1:23 that is rendered in English as “his word” is translated into Mam (Huehuetenango) as “his action.” “Word and action may seem contrasting to us, but actually biblically word and action are closely related, especially in the context of a promise to do something, as here (whether God or Hannah).” (Source: Bob Bascom)
deep sleep
The Hebrew phrase that is rendered as “deep sleep” in English versions is translated as “sleep like a trance” in Chenalhó Tzotzil (source: Robert Bascom) and as “die in sleep” in Bariai (source: Bariai Back Translation).
wash feet
David tells Uriah (in English translations in 2 Samuel 11:8) to “go down to his house and wash his feet.” This refers to stay the night, and in particular sleep with his wife (see v. 11). The Chamula Tzotzil translated it as “sweep out your heart,” meaning the same thing as “make yourself at home.”
Dan translators translated it as “to go home and relax.”
fit, worthy
The Greek that is rendered into “worthy” or “fit” in English versions is translated into Sierra Totonac as “proper” / “chief” — “I am not proper / chief enough.” (2nd translation into Sierra Totonac of 1999.)
See also worthy and not worthy / not fit.
mistreat and stone
The Greek in Acts 14:5 that is translated into English as “mistreat them and stone them” or something similar is is translated in Quetzaltepec Mixe with the existing idiomatic expression “whip and stone.”
adultery
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “adultery” in English (here etymologically meaning “to alter”) is typically understood as “marital infidelity.” It is (back-) translated in the following ways:
- Highland Totonac: “to do something together”
- Yucateco: “pair-sin”
- Ngäbere: “robbing another’s half self-possession” (compare “fornication” which is “robbing self-possession,” that is, to rob what belongs to a person)
- Kaqchikel, Chol: “to act like a dog” (see also licentiousness)
- Toraja-Sa’dan: “to measure the depth of the river of (another’s) marriage”
- North Alaskan Inupiatun: “married people using what is not theirs” (compare “fornication” which is “unmarried people using what is not theirs”) (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
- Purari: “play hands with” or “play eyes with”
- Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “talk secretly with spouses of our fellows”
- Isthmus Zapotec: “go in with other people’s spouses”
- Tzeltal: “practice illicit relationship with women”
- Huehuetla Tepehua: “live with some one who isn’t your wife”
- Central Tarahumara: “sleep with a strange partner”
- Hopi: “tamper with marriage” (source for this and seven above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
- German: Ehebrecher or “marriage breaker” / Ehe brechen or “breaking of marriage” (source: Zetzsche)
- In Falam Chin the term for “adultery” is the phrase for “to share breast” which relates to adultery by either sex. (Source: David Clark)
- In Ixcatlán Mazatec a specification needs to be made to include both genders. (Source: Robert Bascom)
- Likewise in Hiligaynon: “commit-adultery-with-a-man or commit-adultery-with-a-woman” (source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
See also adultery, adulterer, adulteress, and you shall not commit adultery.
holy ones
The Greek, Ge’ez, and Hebrew that is typically translated as “holy ones” in English is translated as “angels” in Purepecha and in Chichewa as “(people with a) white heart” since “white” is the word that is used in Chichewa for the translation of “holy.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
See also holy ones (Psalm 34:9) and saint.