6And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you, and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love and have given him a son to sit on his throne today.
The Hebrew that is translated as “steadfast love,” “lovingkindness” or similar in English is translated in Vidunda as “love of enduring.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
In Bura-Pabir it is translated as hyirkur na a palidzi wa or “love which cannot be-changed,” in the HausaCommon Language Bible as kaunarsa marar canjawa or “his love without changing” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin), in Elhomwe as echikondi yoohisintheya or “love that does not finish” (source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext), and in Nyamwezi as chelu, combining “love,” “faithfulness,” “loyalty,” and “kindness” (source: James Lundeen).
In Pijintinghevi long or “think heavy about” is used. “The Pijin expression ‘think heavy about’ is very much within the domain of committed relationships. The relationship between father and child, husband and wife, God and His people. There is a very strong element of ‘loyalty’ in this expression.” (Source: Bob Carter)
The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin terms that are typically translated as “mercy” (or “compassion” or “kindness”) in English are translated in various ways. Bratcher / Nida classify them in (1) those based on the quality of heart, or other psychological center, (2) those which introduce the concept of weeping or extreme sorrow, (3) those which involve willingness to look upon and recognize the condition of others, or (4) those which involve a variety of intense feelings.
While the Englishmercy originates from the Latinmerces, originally “price paid,” Romance languages (Italian, Spanish, Corsican, Catalan) and other Germanic languages (German, Swedish, Danish — Barmherzigkeit, barmhärtighet and barmhjertighed, respectively) tend to follow the Latin misericordia, lit. “misery-heart.”
The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is transliterated as “Solomon” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with the sign for “wise” referring to 1 Kings 3:12. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
The Greek, Hebrew, and Latin terms that are translated in English mostly as “righteous” as an adjective or personified noun or “righteousness” (also as “justice”) are most commonly expressed with concept of “straightness,” though this may be expressed in a number of ways. (Click or tap here to see the details)
Following is a list of (back-) translations of various languages:
Paasaal: “white heart” (source: Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
Nuer: “way of right” (“there is a complex concept of “right” vs. ‘left’ in Nuer where ‘right’ indicates that which is masculine, strong, good, and moral, and ‘left’ denotes what is feminine, weak, and sinful (a strictly masculine viewpoint!) The ‘way of right’ is therefore righteousness, but of course women may also attain this way, for the opposition is more classificatory than descriptive.”) (This and all above from Bratcher / Nida except for Bilua: Carl Gross; Tiv: Rob Koops; Muna: René van den Berg)
Yatzachi Zapotec: “walk straight” (source for this and four previous: John Beekman in Notes on Translation November 1964, p. 1-22)
Makonde: “doing what God wants” (in a context of us doing) and “be good in God’s eyes” (in the context of being made righteous by God) (note that justify / justification is translated as “to be made good in the eyes of God.” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
Aari: The Pauline word for “righteous” is generally rendered by “makes one without sin” in the Aari, sometimes “before God” is added for clarity. (Source: Loren Bliese)
Ekari: maakodo bokouto or “enormous truth” (the same word that is also used for “truth“; bokouto — “enormous” — is being used as an attribute for abstract nouns to denote that they are of God [see also here]; source: Marion Doble in The Bible Translator 1963, p. 37ff. ).
Guhu-Samane: pobi or “right” (also: “right (side),” “(legal) right,” “straightness,” “correction,” “south,” “possession,” “pertinence,” “kingdom,” “fame,” “information,” or “speech” — “According to [Guhu-Samane] thinking there is a common core of meaning among all these glosses. Even from an English point of view the first five can be seen to be closely related, simply because of their similarity in English. However, from that point the nuances of meaning are not so apparent. They relate in some such a fashion as this: As one faces the morning sun, south lies to the right hand (as north lies to the left); then at one’s right hand are his possessions and whatever pertains to him; thus, a rich man’s many possessions and scope of power and influence is his kingdom; so, the rich and other important people encounter fame; and all of this spreads as information and forms most of the framework of the people’s speech.”) (Source: Ernest Richert in Notes on Translation 1964, p. 11ff.)
German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999): Gerechtheit, a neologism to differentiate it from the commonly-used Gerechtigkeit which can mean “righteousness” but is more often used in modern German as “fairness” (Berger / Nord especially use Gerechtheit in Letter to the Romans) or Gerechtestun, also a neologism, meaning “righteous deeds” (especially in Letter to the Ephesians)
Translators of different languages have found different ways with what kind of formality God is addressed. The first example is from a language where God is always addressed distinctly formal whereas the second is one where the opposite choice was made.
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Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.
As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator2002, p. 210ff. ), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.
In these verses, in which humans address God, the informal, familiar pronoun is used that communicates closeness.
Voinov notes that “in the Tuvan Bible, God is only addressed with the informal pronoun. No exceptions. An interesting thing about this is that I’ve heard new Tuvan believers praying with the formal form to God until they are corrected by other Christians who tell them that God is close to us so we should address him with the informal pronoun. As a result, the informal pronoun is the only one that is used in praying to God among the Tuvan church.”
In Gbaya, “a superior, whether father, uncle, or older brother, mother, aunt, or older sister, president, governor, or chief, is never addressed in the singular unless the speaker intends a deliberate insult. When addressing the superior face to face, the second person plural pronoun ɛ́nɛ́ or ‘you (pl.)’ is used, similar to the French usage of vous.
Accordingly, the translators of the current version of the Gbaya Bible chose to use the plural ɛ́nɛ́ to address God. There are a few exceptions. In Psalms 86:8, 97:9, and 138:1, God is addressed alongside other “gods,” and here the third person pronoun o is used to avoid confusion about who is being addressed. In several New Testament passages (Matthew 21:23, 26:68, 27:40, Mark 11:28, Luke 20:2, 23:37, as well as in Jesus’ interaction with Pilate and Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well) the less courteous form for Jesus is used to indicate ignorance of his position or mocking (source Philip Noss).
In Dutch and Western Frisian translations, however, God is always addressed with the formal pronoun.
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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 usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme are (され) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, hodokos-are-ru (施される) or “dispense” is used.
The use of the archaic English pronouns, thou, thy and thee, in prayers to God is standard in Revised Standard Version, but it will be noted that this practice has been abandoned in New Revised Standard Version and other modern versions since such pronouns are no longer a part of everyday English and they do not reflect any difference in the Hebrew original. Translators should certainly not attempt to reflect this Revised Standard Version distinction in their own language. Note that Revised Standard Version also uses archaic verb forms in prayers, such as hast in this verse. However, in Hebrew only common verb forms are used.
Thou hast shown great and steadfast love to thy servant David: Hast shown … steadfast love renders a Hebrew expression meaning “to do kindness” (see the comments on “deal loyally” in 1 Kgs 2.7). The sense is that God has acted toward David in a way that demonstrates his steadfast love for David. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh says “You dealt most graciously….” In Hebrew the pronoun “You” is emphatic, but this is not represented in either Revised Standard Version or Good News Translation (see also the comments on the beginning of verse 7). Compare, however, “You yourself have done…” (Chouraqui) and “You have acted with great loyalty…” (Anchor Bible). The emphatic pronoun shows that God is the one who took the initiative.
The Hebrew noun rendered steadfast love occurs twice in this verse. This same term in Hebrew is sometimes translated “loyalty” in Revised Standard Version. Revised English Bible uses the expression “constant love.”
The word servant here is used figuratively to describe David’s relationship to God as someone who was faithful to him and submissive to his will. For a fuller discussion on servant, see “Translating 1–2 Kings,” page 12.
Walked: See the comments on verse 3.
In faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart: Each of these nouns in Hebrew functions as an adverb, telling “how” David had lived in relationship with God. Notice that Good News Translation rephrases here and uses three adjectives in place of the three nouns of the Hebrew text: “good, loyal, and honest”. Faithfulness renders a Hebrew noun that expresses the sense of “certainty” or “dependability.” It is similar in meaning to steadfast love, but the focus is clearly on stability and trustworthiness. This noun seems to be the basis for the Good News Translation rendering “loyal.” Righteousness renders a Hebrew noun that is sometimes translated “justice.” The noun implies agreement with some standard of behavior that is expected of people because they have a certain relationship. While the noun includes the idea of moral, ethical behavior, the Hebrew word implies right behavior within a relationship in a way that the English word righteousness does not. In this context the term is better translated “loyal” (Good News Translation) or “true” (New Living Translation). Uprightness of heart is rendered “in integrity of heart” in New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh and simply “integrity” in Anchor Bible. The Hebrew noun translated uprightness comes from a root meaning “to be straight” or “to be upright.” Words based on this root are sometimes used in a literal sense. But they are also often used in an ethical sense, as in this verse, where Holladay renders the Hebrew noun “sincerity.”
Hast given him a son to sit on his throne: The son who sits on David’s throne refers to Solomon himself. See the comments on 1 Kgs 1.13.
This day is literally “as this day.” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh expresses the idea of comparison with the rendering “as is now the case.”
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 .
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