21Now David had said, “Surely it was in vain that I protected all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him, but he has returned me evil for good.
Low German translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006: “steppe”
Yakan: “the lonely place” (source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “a land where no people lived” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “the place with no inhabitants” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Matumbi uses various term: lubele (desert, sandy place without water) — used in John 11:54, lupu’ngu’ti (a place where no people live, can be a scrub land, a forest, or a savanna) — used in Mark 1:3 et al.), and mwitu (a forest, a place where wild animals live) — used in Mark 1:13 et al.) (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
Chichewa Contemporary translation (2002/2016): chipululu: a place uninhabited by people with thick forest and bush (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Note that in Luke 15:4, usually a term is used that denotes pastoral land, such as “eating/grazing-place,” in Tagbanwa (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation).
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 to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The Hebrew that is translated as “let” in English is translated in the Shinkaiyaku Bible as o-yurushi (お許し), combining “allow/permit” (yurushi) with the respectful prefix o- and “hear” is translated as o-ki (お聞), combining “hear” (ki) with o-.
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 1 Samuel 25:21:
Kupsabiny: “Before they met, David was thinking that, ‘Did we really help Nabal for nothing? We were guarding his wealth in the wilderness! He/They completely did not lose anything when we were together with them. So he has done me bad things to exchange the good I did to him.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “David was thinking like this, [lit. had been keeping in his mind like this] "It was in vain that we protected the property of these people in the desert so that nothing at all got lost. In return for the good that I did he did me evil.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “(It) has- not -been-a-long-time David said, ‘(It) has-been-of-no-value — my watching-over the properties of Nabal in the desolate-place so-that nothing would-go-missing/be-lost. His pay-back to me (is) evil for my goodness to him.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “David had been saying to his men, ‘It was useless for us to protect that man and all his possessions here in this desert. We did not steal anything that belonged to him, but he has done evil to me in return for our good things we did for him.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
The first part of this verse repeats the statements found in verses 7 and 15 above.
The verb had said is taken by Good News Translation as meaning “had said to himself.” New Jerusalem Bible is similar with “had decided.” But most English versions prefer the interpretation that David was speaking out loud, almost certainly to those traveling with him. The verb form in Hebrew is also significant. It indicates something said or thought at some time before the moment that David encountered Abigail on the trail. Both New International Version and New Century Version translate “had just said,” implying that it was only a matter of a few moments between the time that he uttered these words and the time when he met Abigail. New American Bible and Contemporary English Version similarly say “had just been saying.”
In vain: the root meaning of the word so translated has to do with deception. But the idea is well translated by Moffatt: “it was all for nothing.”
He has returned me evil for good: as the verb tense of Revised Standard Version indicates, Nabal had already done wrong to David by refusing to help his men.
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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