Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 2 Samuel 22:24:
Kupsabiny: “I do not have any wrong before God, and I became careful not to commit any sin.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “He knows that I am one who has no guilt and [that I] have been moving away from sin.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “You know that my life is without blame and I keep-away from sinning.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “You know that I have not done anything that is evil; I have kept myself from doing things for which I should be punished.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
God transcends gender, but most languages are limited to grammatical gender expressed in pronouns. In the case of English, this is traditionally confined to “he” (or in the forms “his,” “him,” and “himself”), “she” (and “her,” “hers,” and “herself”), and “it” (and “its” and “itself”).
Modern Mandarin Chinese, however, offers another possibility. Here, the third-person singular pronoun is always pronounced the same (tā), but it is written differently according to its gender (他 is “he,” 她 is “she,” and 它/牠 is “it” and their respective derivative forms). In each of these characters, the first (or upper) part defines the gender (man, woman, or thing/animal), while the second element gives the clue to its pronunciation.
In 1930, after a full century with dozens of Chinese translations, Bible translator Wang Yuande (王元德) coined a new “godly” pronoun: 祂. Chinese readers immediately knew how to pronounce it: tā. But they also recognized that the first part of that character, signifying something spiritual, clarified that each person of the Trinity has no gender aside from being God.
While the most important Protestant and Catholic Chinese versions respectively have opted not to use 祂, some Bible translations do and it is widely used in hymnals and other Christian materials. Among the translations that use 祂 to refer to “God” were early versions of Lü Zhenzhong’s (呂振中) version (New Testament: 1946, complete Bible: 1970). R.P. Kramers (in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 152ff. ) explains why later versions of Lü’s translation did not continue with this practice: “This new way of writing ‘He,’ however, has created a minor problem of its own: must this polite form be used whenever Jesus is referred to? Lü follows the rule that, wherever Jesus is referred to as a human being, the normal tā (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential tā (祂) is used.”
In that system one kind of pronoun is used for humans (male and female alike) and one for natural elements, non-liquid masses, and some spiritual entities (one other is used for large animals and another one for miscellaneous items). While in these languages the pronoun for spiritual entities used to be employed when referring to God, this has changed into the use of the human pronoun.
Lynell Zogbo (in The Bible Translator 1989, p. 401ff. ) explains in the following way: “From informal discussions with young Christians especially, it would appear that, at least for some people, the experience and/or concepts of Christianity are affecting the choice of pronoun for God. Some people explain that God is no longer ‘far away,’ but is somehow tangible and personal. For these speakers God has shifted over into the human category.”
In Kouya, God (the Father) and Jesus are referred to with the human pronoun ɔ, whereas the Holy Spirit is referred to with a non-human pronoun. (Northern Grebo and Western Krahn make a similar distinction.)
Eddie Arthur, a former Kouya Bible translation consultant, says the following: “We tried to insist that this shouldn’t happen, but the Kouya team members were insistent that the human pronoun for the Spirit would not work.”
In Burmese, the pronoun ko taw (ကိုယ်တော်) is used either as 2nd person (you) or 3rd person (he, him, his) reference. “This term clearly has its root in the religious language in Burmese. No ordinary persons are addressed or known by this pronoun because it is reserved for Buddhist monks, famous religious teachers, and in the case of Christianity, the Trinity.” (Source: Gam Seng Shae in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 202ff. )
In Thai, the pronoun phra`ong (พระองค์) is used, a gender-neutral pronoun which must refer to a previously introduced royal or divine being. Similarly, in Northern Khmer, which is spoken in Thailand, “an honorific divine pronoun” is used for the pronoun referring to the persons of the Trinity (source: David Thomas in The Bible Translator 1993, p. 445 ). In Urak Lawoi’, another language spoken in Thailand, the translation often uses tuhat (ตูฮัด) — “God” — ”as a divine pronoun where Thai has phra’ong even though it’s actually a noun.” (Source for Thai and Urak Lawoi’: Stephen Pattemore)
The English “Contemporary Torah” addresses the question of God and gendered pronouns by mostly avoiding pronouns in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (unless God is referred to as “lord,” “father,” “king,” or “warrior”). It does that by either using passive constructs (“He gave us” vs. “we were given”), by using the adjective “divine” or by using “God” rather than a pronoun.
Some Protestant and Orthodox English Bibles use a referential capitalized spelling when referring to the persons of the Trinity with “He,” “His,” “Him,” or “Himself.” This includes for instance the New American Standard Bible or The Orthodox New Testament, but most translations do not. Two other languages where this is also done (in most Bible translations) are the closely related Indonesian and Malay. In both languages this follows the language usage according to the Qur’an, which in turn predicts that usage (see Soesilo in The Bible Translator 1991, p. 442ff. and The Bible Translator 1997, p. 433ff. ).
In verse 23 ordinances and statutes are both synonyms of “the ways of the LORD” in verse 22; and the verbs in verse 23 were before me and not turn aside are also nearly synonymous with “kept” and “not wickedly departed from” in verse 22. In some languages translators may be forced to use similar or even identical vocabulary to translate some of these terms.
The word translated ordinances is the plural of the word translated “justice” in 8.15 and “judgment” in 15.2, 6 (see the comments). Statutes stands for a word that means “a legal prescription, regulation, decree.” It does not occur elsewhere in the books of Samuel but occurs quite frequently in other books, including Gen 26.5, along with other law synonyms. If translators follow Good News Translation‘s “observed all his laws,” they must avoid communicating the idea of merely looking at the laws without actually obeying them. In languages where it is not possible to render the synonyms ordinances and statutes as nouns, it is often possible to do so by verbs; for example, “I have obeyed everything he showed me to do” or “I have not refused anything he taught me to do.”
In verse 24 blameless translates the word meaning “perfect,” or “without spot or defect.” It involves having “integrity,” and this, in fact, is how it is translated in Psa 7.8. It may often be rendered by a verb phrase like “no one can accuse me of doing wrong,” “I have obeyed you completely,” or “I have done no evil things.”
The phrase before him may mean either in his presence or in his sight (that is, from his point of view); “in his sight” seems more probable. Good News Translation represents this meaning by “He knows that….”
Guilt is generally understood to refer to a person’s awareness of having done wrong and feeling bad about it. The Hebrew word is better represented by “evil” (New Jerusalem Bible), “sinning” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), “sin” (New International Version), or “doing wrong” (Good News Translation), since it refers more to the perverse deed and the consequences of the evil deed than to the sense of guilt.
Verse 25 is practically a repetition of verse 21; recompensed translates the verb, which appears also in verse 21b. As in verse 21, Good News Translation translates the verb as a continuous present (“rewards me”), while Revised Standard Version takes the verb to refer to past action (has recompensed me). Either is possible, but it seems advisable to follow Good News Translation here. My cleanness may sometimes be rendered idiomatically; for example, “because my heart is white” or “because my stomach is hollow.” Most manuscript evidence here favors this shorter expression rather than the similar one in verse 21 (“the cleanness of my hands”). Stuttgarter Erklärungsbibel and a few other translations follow the ancient versions that harmonize this verse with the parallels in verse 21 and Psa 18, but most follow the Masoretic Text, which receives a {B} rating from Hebrew Old Testament Text Project. But as in verse 21, the translator should see if the intensification of line b is accomplished by placing the figure of cleanness in the second line. Even if this is the case, it may still be necessary to employ a different figure.
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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