gentiles / nations

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The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin that is often translated as “gentiles” (or “nations”) in English is often translated as a “local equivalent of ‘foreigners,'” such as “the people of other lands” (Guerrero Amuzgo), “people of other towns” (Tzeltal), “people of other languages” (San Miguel El Grande Mixtec), “strange peoples” (Navajo (Dinė)) (this and above, see Bratcher / Nida), “outsiders” (Ekari), “people of foreign lands” (Kannada), “non-Jews” (North Alaskan Inupiatun), “people being-in-darkness” (a figurative expression for people lacking cultural or religious insight) (Toraja-Sa’dan) (source for this and three above Reiling / Swellengrebel), “from different places all people” (Martu Wangka) (source: Carl Gross).

Tzeltal translates it as “people in all different towns,” Chicahuaxtla Triqui as “the people who live all over the world,” Highland Totonac as “all the outsider people,” Sayula Popoluca as “(people) in every land” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Chichimeca-Jonaz as “foreign people who are not Jews,” Sierra de Juárez Zapotec as “people of other nations” (source of this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), Highland Totonac as “outsider people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Uma as “people who are not the descendants of Israel” (source: Uma Back Translation), “other ethnic groups” (source: Newari Back Translation), and Yakan as “the other tribes” (source: Yakan Back Translation).

In Chichewa, it is translated with mitundu or “races.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

See also nations.

complete verse (Amos 9:9)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Amos 9:9:

  • Kupsabiny: “I shall speak and shake (sideways) the people of Israel in the whole world. I shall sift (them) like husks of wheat and I shall not leave even one to remain where the wheat is.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “I will give the command-
    Among all the nations I will sift the House of Israel
    as one sifts grain with a hasa [Newar item]
    yet not one of the small stones will fall to the ground. ” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Look! I will- now -command; I will-sift you (plur.) people of Israel together-with all the nations, like the sifting of grains. As the small-rocks/[lit. rock-rock] can- not -get-through in the thing-used-for sifting,” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “When I command it, it will be as though I will shake you Israeli people who are living in various nations,
    like a farmer shakes a sieve to separate the stone pebbles from the grain,
    in order that they do not fall on the ground with the grain.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

1st person pronoun referring to God (Japanese)

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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.

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

See also pronoun for “God”.

Translation commentary on Amos 9:9

For lo. The Hebrew word is the same as for behold (see 2.13).

I will command/I will give the command. On the need to say to whom the command was given, see 6.11. Here again it is probably the enemy: “I will command the enemy and have/make/let them shake the people…”

And shake the house of Israel … as one shakes (Hebrew: as is shaken) with a sieve, but no pebble shall fall upon the earth/and shake the people of Israel like grain in a sieve. I will shake them … to remove all who are worthless. In order to translate meaningfully, one must decide what the picture is and with what it is being compared. The Hebrew word for sieve probably refers to a coarse type of sieve in which stones are kept while the grain passes through. The same type of sieve was also used by bricklayers, who separated the larger stones from the fine sand which they used for mortar. The picture used here could therefore be based on either grain or sand. It does not really matter which picture the translator chooses, since the important point is that not one of the stones gets through the sieve. They will all be caught and then discarded.

God is commanding the enemy to treat Israel like this: none of the sinners among the people of Israel will escape punishment, just as no stone gets through the sieve. It may be possible to translate “I will shake/sift the people of Israel like someone shakes sand (or: grain) in a sieve, through which not a single stone falls to the ground. I will shake/sift them to remove the bad people from among them.”

Among all the nations/among the nations. This phrase is difficult to make fit in a meaningful way. Probably the best solution is to translate something like “… when/as they (will) live among (other) nations….” This phrase could be related to “shake/sift” in either of the restructured sentences suggested above.

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 .