10He shall build a house for my name. He shall be a son to me, and I will be a father to him, and I will establish his royal throne in Israel forever.’
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 1 Chronicles 22:10:
Kupsabiny: “He is the one who shall build a house where my name can be exalted. He shall be my son and I shall be his father, and his house shall rule the land of Israel forever.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “He will build a temple for my name. He will be my son, I will be his father. One of his descendants will rule in Israel forever.’” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “He is the one-who-will-build a temple for my honor. I will-consider him as my son and I will-be his father. His descendants will-reign in Israel forever/[lit. until whenever].’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “He is the one who will arrange for a temple to be built to honor me. He will be like a son to me, and I will cause some of his descendants to rule over Israel forever.’” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.
Verse 10 is the end of God’s words to David, and some languages will mark this as the end of his words.
He shall build a house for my name: For my name may be rendered “for worshiping me” (similarly New Century Version) or “to honor me” ( NET Bible). See the comments on verses 7 and 8.
He shall be my son, and I will be his father: See the comments on 1 Chr 17.13. The Hebrew pronouns for He here and in the previous clause are emphatic as in verse 9. The emphasis of the Hebrew is better expressed in English as “As for him, he will build a house for my name. He, he will become my son…” (Knoppers). Traduction œcuménique de la Bible provides a different model for communicating this emphasis: “It is he who will build….”
And I will establish his royal throne in Israel for ever is literally “and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.” The sense of this clause is that God will cause Solomon’s descendants to continue to rule. Parole de Vie says “And thanks to me, his royal power will be solidly established,” and Contemporary English Version has “In fact, one of his descendants will always rule in Israel.”
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Chronicles, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2014. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
22:10a He is the one who will build a house for My Name.
He will build the house for worshiping me. -or-
Solomon will build my temple. (Contemporary English Version)
22:10b He will be My son, and I will be his Father.
Solomon will become my son and I will become his father. -or-
He will be like a son to me, and I will be like a father to him. (Contemporary English Version)
22:10c And I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.’
I will make sure that he and his descendants will be kings of Israel for all time.’” -or-
I will make his kingdom strong, and someone from his family will rule Israel forever!” (English Easy-to-Read Version)
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