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The Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin that is translated as a form of “save” in English is translated in Shipibo-Conibo with a phrase that means literally “make to live,” which combines the meaning of “to rescue” and “to deliver from danger,” but also the concept of “to heal” or “restore to health.”

Other translations include:

  • San Blas Kuna: “help the heart”
  • Laka: “take by the hand” in the meaning of “rescue” or “deliver”
  • Huautla Mazatec: “lift out on behalf of”
  • Anuak: “have life because of”
  • Central Mazahua: “be healed in the heart”
  • Baoulé: “save one’s head”
  • Guerrero Amuzgo: “come out well”
  • Northwestern Dinka: “be helped as to his breath” (or “life”) (source for all above: Bratcher / Nida),
  • Matumbi: “rescue (from danger)” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
  • Noongar: barrang-ngandabat or “hold life” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • South Bolivian Quechua: “make to escape”
  • Highland Puebla Nahuatl: “cause people to come out with the aid of the hand” (source for this and one above: Nida 1947, p. 222)
  • Bariai: “retrieve one back” (source: Bariai Back Translation)

See also salvation and save (Japanese honorifics).

Translation commentary on 2 Esdras 9:14 - 9:16

I answered and said may be rendered “I replied” (Contemporary English Version) or “I said” (Good News Bible).

I said before, and I say now, and will say it again: Compare 2 Esd 7.45. Good News Bible says simply “I must repeat what I said before,” and Contemporary English Version has “I will repeat again what I’ve already said.”

There are more who perish than those who will be saved: See 2 Esd 7.45-61.

As a wave is greater than a drop of water: The word wave refers to a wave of water in the ocean. If translators work in languages that are not well equipped to deal with ocean metaphors, they may consider using some other comparison here. The point of this simile is that the number of the saved is very small indeed compared with those who will not be saved.

Good News Bible gives us a good model for verses 14-16. Here is another possible one:

• 14 I replied [or, I said to God], 15 “I will repeat what I have already said: More people will die than you will save. 16 It’s like comparing an ocean wave to a drop of water.”

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.