Jeremiah

The name that is transliterated as “Jeremiah” in English is translated in American Sign Language with the sign signifying “prophet (seeing into the future)” and “crying.” (Source: Phil King in Journal of Translation 16/2 2020, p. 33ff.)


“Jeremiah” in American Sign Language (source )

In Swiss-German Sign Language it is translated with a sign that depicts to lament often.


“Jeremiah” in Swiss-German Sign Language, source: DSGS-Lexikon biblischer Begriffe , © CGG Schweiz

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Jeremiah .

For more information on translations of proper names with sign language see Sign Language Bible Translations Have Something to Say to Hearing Christians .

Translation commentary on 1 Esdras 1:30

And the king said to his servants: The servants involved in warfare with Josiah would be his bodyguard or possibly some of his officers.

Take me away from the battle, for I am very weak: I am very weak here obviously means “I’m badly wounded” (Contemporary English Version), not that he has somehow lost the strength to fight. We learn from the parallel passage of 2 Chr 35.23 that Egyptian archers shot him. There is a problem here, since readers would expect to be told that Josiah was wounded before learning of it in Josiah’s words to his servants. The models below suggest a way around this problem.

And immediately his servants took him out of the line of battle. The line of battle refers to the place where the actual hand-to-hand combat was taking place.

Alternative models for this verse are:

• Josiah was badly wounded in the fight, and asked his servants [or, bodyguards] to take him out of the area where the battle was going on. They did so immediately.

• The Egyptians wounded Josiah badly, so he asked his servants to take him out of the area where they were fighting. They did so immediately.

• … So he ordered his servants, “Take me away from here!” They….

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on 1-2 Esdras. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2019. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.