compassion

The Hebrew, Greek, Ge’ez, and Latin that is typically as “compassion” in English (“compassion” comes from the Latin compatior and means suffering with) is translated in various ways:

  • Shilluk´: “cries in the soul” (source: Nida, 1952, p. 132)
  • Q’anjob’al: “crying in one’s stomach” (source: Newberry and Kittie Cox in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 91ff. )
  • Aari: “has a good stomach” (=”sympathetic”) (source: Loren Bliese)
  • Una: “has a big liver” (source: Kroneman 2004, p. 471)
  • Uma: “heart is moved (lit., far-away)” (source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Chitonga: “to have the intestines twisting in compassion/sorrow for someone” (kumyongwa) (source: Wendland 1987, p. 128f.)

See also pain-love, moved with compassion (pity), and Seat of the Mind for traditional views of “ways of knowing, thinking, and feeling.”

Translation commentary on 2 Esdras 7:136

And abundant in compassion, because he makes his compassions abound more and more to those now living and to those who are gone and to those yet to come: For the implied idea at the beginning of this verse, see the comments on verse 133. Good News Bible makes it explicit by beginning with “And he is known as.” Abundant in compassion may be rendered “very compassionate” or even better “very forgiving.” For those yet to come, compare verse 132. Here is an alternative model for this verse:

• He [or, God] is also known as very forgiving, because he is always forgiving sinners, not only those now living but also those who have died and those who have not yet been born.

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.