complete verse (Amos 4:7)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Amos 4:7:

  • Kupsabiny: “And again, I withheld rain
    when only three months remained before the harvest was ready.
    I made it rain in one city
    and there was no rain in another.
    It rained in one field
    but crops were drying up in another.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “I stopped the rain in your place
    three months before the harvest.
    I sent rain in one city
    and I withheld rain from another city.
    One field had rain
    and another field had none and dried up.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘I was- the -one-who-withheld the rain three months before the harvest-time/season comes. I caused-to-rain in some towns but not on-the-other-hand in others. I caused-to-rain in some fields but others on-the-other-hand became-dry.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

1st person pronoun referring to God (Japanese)

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.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also pronoun for “God”.

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

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 formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Amos 4:7

I also withheld the rain from you/I kept it from raining. God’s control over the weather is expressed differently in different languages. One may have to say “I caused (made/gave) that it did not rain” or “I did not allow rain to fall (arrive).” The same type of problem comes later in the verse, where it can be translated “I would cause the rain to fall on one city, but would not allow it to fall on another city.”

When there were yet three months to the harvest/when your crops needed it most. This means that the “latter rain” of the spring (March-April), which is so necessary for the grain harvest three months later (May–June), did not fall. However, the timing is related to the climate in the Middle East and will not necessarily be understood in other areas. For that reason Good News Translation qualities the information by saying when your crops needed it most. In such a translation something about the Middle Eastern culture is left out, but it could easily be included as well: “three months before the harvest, when your crops needed it most.”

There may be no specific word for harvest in a language, but it can be described as “the time when grain was cut.”

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 .