18Now then bring it about, for the Lord has promised David: Through my servant David I will save my people Israel from the hand of the Philistines and from all their enemies.”
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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 Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.
Now then bring it about: literally “And now do [plural]!” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, like Moffatt, captures this brief imperative by translating “Now act!” The Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch and Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente rendering is a bit longer but conveys the same idea: “Now is the time to take action.”
The word hand is used three times in this verse. As in verse 12, this refers to the power or actions of the person or persons whose hand is mentioned. It is David’s power that will save Israel from the power of its enemies. In most languages it will not be advisable to translate this word literally.
I will save is the translation of a single verb in Hebrew. The Hebrew word is either a third person verb, meaning “he will save,” or it is an infinitive (“to save”). The Septuagint and some Hebrew manuscripts have a verb in the first person singular, that is, “I [God] will save.” Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament gives a {B} rating to the Masoretic Text and suggests that the infinitive here functions to express certainty. Following this interpretation, one may translate “I will surely save my people” or “I will indeed save my people.”
The hand of all their enemies: since the Philistines, who have just been mentioned, are clearly the enemies of the people of Israel, it will be prudent to speak here of “all their other enemies” as in Good News Translation. The last two phrases may, in fact, be restructured as in Contemporary English Version, “to rescue his people Israel from their enemies, especially from the Philistines.”
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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