And I also scorched them in My wrath, for you are from their root – the roots of Sodom and Gomorrah, whom I uprooted and destroyed their memory from the earth, so that they would no longer exist in their revelry; for they provoked Me, whom I created, by the going of a man as a woman to a man, committing lawless fornication with males and beasts as with women.
1 Meqabyan (also known as 1 Ethiopian Maccabees and 1 Ethiopic Maccabees) is canonical scripture for the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church. While “Meqabyan” is the Ge’ez equivalent of “Maccabees,” the content is completely different from 1 Maccabees. The only complete copies of 1 Meqabyan are available in Ge’ez (Classical Ethiopic), here used with permission by the Bible Society of Ethiopia.
The translation into English was provided by Haileyesus Woldemariam (UBS).
The Greek and Ge’ez that is translated as “sexual immorality” or “fornication” or similar is translated much more specifically in some languages. Morelos Nahuatl has “let a man not yield himself to another woman except only to his wife. Also let a woman not yield herself to another man except only to her husband” or in Lalana Chinantec as “not proper for them to mix themselves with other women. The same is true of women for other men also.” (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
In Low German as Hurenkram or “things related to prostitution (and/or sleeping around)” (translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006) and in the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) typically as Sexgier or “sex cravings” (exceptions: Acts 15:10 and 15:29).
The place name is transliterated as “Gomorrah” in English means “people of fear,” “fear of the people,” “a rebellious people,” “depression,” “bondage.” (Source: Cornwall / Smith 1997 ) #
It is transliterated in Mandarin Chinese as émólā (蛾摩拉) in the Protestant tradition. This is an interesting transliteration because the first character é (蛾) has a negative connotation with the meaning of “moth.” This character is only used here in the Protestant Chinese Bible. For many other transliterations the more neutral character 俄 with the same pronunciation is used. (Source: Zetzsche)
The name of that is transliterated as “Sodom” in English means “flaming,” “burning,” “mystery.” (Source: Cornwall / Smith 1997 )
Sodom and the story of its depravity, especially the attempted rape of the visitors to Lot, has come to refer to “sodomy” in many modern languages, including English, and many other European and non-European languages.
The Greek, Hebrew, and Ge’ez that is translated in English as “Law” or “law” is translated in Mairasi as oro nasinggiei or “prohibited things” (source: Enggavoter 2004) and in Noongar with a capitalized form of the term for “words” (Warrinya) (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).
In Yucateco the phrase that is used for “law” is “ordered-word” (for “commandment,” it is “spoken-word”) (source: Nida 1947, p. 198) and in Central Tarahumara it is “writing-command.” (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
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