In Gbaya, the notion of refers to being broken or shattered into pieces is emphasized in the referenced verses with the ideophone gɛ́tɛ́-gɛ́tɛ́.
Note that in Zephaniah 2:14, the Gbaya translators translated along the lines of the FrenchTraduction œcuménique de la Bible which has “From the threshold onwards, there will be ruins” (Dès le seuil, ce seront des ruines) in line 6 — see also Translation commentary on Zephaniah 2:14.
Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)
Bura-Pabir: “sacrifice mound” (source: Andy Warrren-Rothlin)
Kalanga: “fireplace of sacrifice” (source: project-specific notes in Paratext)
Cherokee: “fire nurturing place” (source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 26) (note that the Jewish priest is “fire feeder” in Cherokee)
The Ignaciano translators decided to translate the difficult term in that language according to the focus of each New Testament passage in which the word appears (click or tap here to see the rest of this insight
Willis Ott (in Notes on Translation 88/1982, p. 18ff.) explains:
Matt. 5:23,24: “When you take your offering to God, and arriving, you remember…, do not offer your gift yet. First go to your brother…Then it is fitting to return and offer your offering to God.” (The focus is on improving relationships with people before attempting to improve a relationship with God, so the means of offering, the altar, is not focal.)
Matt. 23:18 (19,20): “You also teach erroneously: ‘If someone makes a promise, swearing by the offering-place/table, he is not guilty if he should break the promise. But if he swears by the gift that he put on the offering-place/table, he will be guilty if he breaks the promise.'”
Luke 1:11: “…to the right side of the table where they burn incense.”
Luke 11.51. “…the one they killed in front of the temple (or the temple enclosure).” (The focus is on location, with overtones on: “their crime was all the more heinous for killing him there”.)
Rom. 11:3: “Lord, they have killed all my fellow prophets that spoke for you. They do not want anyone to give offerings to you in worship.” (The focus is on the people’s rejection of religion, with God as the object of worship.)
1Cor. 9:13 (10:18): “Remember that those that attend the temple have rights to eat the foods that people bring as offerings to God. They have rights to the meat that the people offer.” (The focus is on the right of priests to the offered food.)
Heb. 7:13: “This one of whom we are talking is from another clan. No one from that clan was ever a priest.” (The focus in on the legitimacy of this priest’s vocation.)
Jas. 2:21: “Remember our ancestor Abraham, when God tested him by asking him to give him his son by death. Abraham was to the point of stabbing/killing his son, thus proving his obedience.” (The focus is on the sacrifice as a demonstration of faith/obedience.)
Rev. 6:9 (8:3,5; 9:13; 14:18; 16:7): “I saw the souls of them that…They were under the table that holds God’s fire/coals.” (This keeps the concepts of: furniture, receptacle for keeping fire, and location near God.)
Rev. 11:1: “Go to the temple, Measure the building and the inside enclosure (the outside is contrasted in v. 2). Measure the burning place for offered animals. Then count the people who are worshiping there.” (This altar is probably the brazen altar in a temple on earth, since people are worshiping there and since outside this area conquerors are allowed to subjugate for a certain time.)
In the Hebraic English translation of Everett Fox it is translated as slaughter-site and likewise in the German translation by Buber / Rosenzweig as Schlachtstatt.
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Amos 3:14:
Kupsabiny: “In that day when I punish the people of Israel for their sins, I shall overturn the things of sacrifice there at Bethel. The horns of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “‘In the day when I punish to the people of Israel for their sin, I will destroy the altars at Bethel completely and the horns of the altar will be broken off and fall the ground.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “On the day that I will-punish those who-come-from-Israel because of their sins, I will-destroy the altars at Betel. I will-break-off-short the as-if-like-horn corners of the altar and these will-fall to the ground.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “When I, Yahweh, punish the people of Israel because of the sins that they have committed, I will cause the altars at Bethel town to be destroyed; even the projections at the corners of the altars will be cut off and fall to the ground.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.
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.
That on the day I punish/On the day when I punish. This is not a simple time reference, and should not be translated merely as “when I punish” (see 2.16).
Punish/punish and destroy are translations of the same Hebrew word (see 3.2). The difference in English translation is necessary because you cannot “punish” altars in English (Revised Standard Version, Moffatt; compare Smith-Goodspeed). The same is true in many other languages. The only solution is to use an equivalent of such a verb as destroy because the immediate context makes clear that utter destruction is meant.
Altars may be hard to translate where no parallels to the “altar” of the Bible exist. Some possible translations include: “the thing on which (sacred) offerings are placed” or “places of sacrifice.”
Bethel should be called a “town” (“the town of Bethel”) so that it will not sound like the name of a God in this context.
Horns of the altar/the corners of every altar. These were horn-like projections at the corners of the altar. Although most English translations use the traditional expression horns of the altar, it makes little sense in modern English and will be completely possible in most languages. It would be possible to translate “the projections in the form of horns on the corners of the place of sacrifice (or: of the thing on which offerings are placed),” but there is no need for something so long and involved; the emphasis is not on the shape. For this reason Good News Translation translates the corners of every altar, which makes clear the location instead of the shape. This will be a good solution in many languages. However, much will depend on the word which is used for “altar.” The reader may need a picture to help him in cases where there is nothing in his own background which makes it possible for him to visualize the altar.
The importance of this act of destroying the “altar-horns” is that they represented a place of safety. The Hebrew means that even this way of escape will be destroyed. Such background information should be provided, and this can best be done in a footnote: “According to such Bible passages as 1 Kgs 1.50 and 2.28, a fugitive secured himself from arrest or violence by catching hold of altar-horns (the corners of the altar).” It may also be possible to translate: “Every hiding place will be destroyed.”
In many languages, God, who does the cutting down, will have to be mentioned: “I will cut off the corners of the altar and they will fall to the ground” or “I will destroy every hiding place.”
Quoted with permission from de Waard, Jan & Smalley, William A. A Handbook on Amos. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1979. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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