your blood be on your own heads

The Hebrew and Greek that is often translated as “your blood be on your own heads” or similar in English is translated as

  • “you have the guilt if you don’t receive eternal life” in Highland Popoluca
  • “you are to blame if you lose your own souls” in Coatlán Mixe
  • “you will be to blame yourselves when you do not go to a good place” in Isthmus Mixe
  • “you will be lost but you are at fault yourselves” in Morelos Nahuatl
  • “you are the ones who are guilty that you will be lost” in Lalana Chinantec (source for this and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
  • “if you die in your bad deeds, it’s your own bad fault” in Bariai (source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • “let your own blood alone eat you” in Kupsabiny (source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • “You have killed yourselves with your own heart” in Chichewa (source: Wendland 1987, p. 28)
  • “your blood will be to you” (existing idiom) in Kwere (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

complete verse (1 Kings 2:37)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 1 Kings 2:37:

  • Kupsabiny: “If you cross the valley of Kidron, know that you will be killed and you yourself will bring your own death.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “The day you leave the city and cross over the Kidron river you will die. Your blood guilt will be on your head."” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “At the time/moment you leave and cross-over to Kidron which is the channel/passageway of water, surely you will-die, and you yourself will-be-blamed if this will-happen.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Be sure that the day that you leave Jerusalem and go across the Kidron Brook, you will be executed, and it will be your own fault/what you deserve.’” (Source: Translation for Translators)

2nd person pronoun with low register (Japanese)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

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 second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used anata (あなた) is typically used when the speaker is humbly addressing another person.

In these verses, however, omae (おまえ) is used, a cruder second person pronoun, that Jesus for instance chooses when chiding his disciples. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also first person pronoun with low register and third person pronoun with low register.

Translation commentary on 1 Kings 2:37

If the direct discourse of the previous verse is made indirect, this part seems to lend itself more to direct discourse since it is a specific prohibition and warning.

The brook Kidron, which runs from north to south, formed the eastern boundary of Jerusalem. Centuries later, Jesus and his disciples crossed this brook on the way to Gethsemane (John 18.1).

Know for certain translates a Hebrew construction that is literally “knowing you know.” But the meaning is “you can be absolutely sure” or “there must be no doubt in your mind.” See the discussion on reinforcing verbs in “Translating 1–2 Kings,” page 15.

Instead of you shall die, which may be interpreted as a natural death, some translators prefer “someone will kill you” (New Century Version). The Hebrew construction is literally “to die you shall die.” The meaning is “you shall surely die.”

Your blood shall be upon your own head: This common Hebrew expression is used when a person has broken a law of God and deserves to be punished by death. The sense here is that Shimei will be responsible for his own death, that is, he himself will be the one who causes his own death (compare verse 33).

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .