complete verse (Deuteronomy 1:16)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Deuteronomy 1:16:

  • Kupsabiny: “I told those councilors (at that time), ‘Listen carefully to your people and do justice when you organize the matters of your people and those of the foreigners who live with you.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “At that time I gave this command to your judges, "Hear the legal cases between your elder and younger brothers or between Israelite elder and younger brothers and foreigners, [and] render [lit.: do] correct judgments.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “At that time I commanded your (plur.) judges, ‘[You (plur.)] solve/settle the cases/disputes of the people, and [you (plur.) pl] judge with righteousness, not just with the Israelinhon but-instead including also those (who are) not Israelinhon who live/dwell together-with you (plur.).” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “I instructed/told your leaders, ‘Listen to the disputes that occur among your people. Judge each dispute, including disputes between close relatives and quarrels between your people and people from other countries who live among you.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (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 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 Deuteronomy 1:16

And I charged your judges at that time: unlike Good News Translation, a translation should represent the Hebrew text and use the appropriate word for “judges,” as distinct from “commanders” and “officers.” The verb “charge” means to command, order, or instruct. The word translated judges is used elsewhere in the general sense of “leaders,” but here it means those who settle legal disputes among the people. Contemporary English Version makes it clear that those judges were not the same people as in the previous verse: “and others became judges.” We may also express this as “and I appointed other men as judges. I gave them the following instructions….”

At that time: as in verse 9.

Hear the cases between your brethren, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the alien that is with him: the formal equivalence of the Hebrew text in Revised Standard Version makes for very unnatural English. New Revised Standard Version is much better: “Give the members of your community a fair hearing, and judge rightly between one person and another, whether citizen or resident alien.” And Revised English Bible has “Hear the cases that arise among your kinsmen and judge fairly between one person and another, whether fellow-countryman or resident alien.” Good News Translation likewise has reconstructed the text in order to make sense.

Hear the cases means to listen, as judge, to what two (or more) people claim about their dispute with each other; your brethren means “your fellow-Israelites” or more generally “your people” (Good News Translation). To judge righteously means to judge in a fair and impartial way; a man and his brother in this context means a man (or, person) and another Israelite, or “between two Israelites” (Contemporary English Version); while the alien that is with him means the non-Jew that the Israelite is having a legal dispute with. The Hebrew word translated alien (or, “resident alien”) means a foreigner who lived permanently in an Israelite community; not being able to own land, he had little influence and could be the object of discrimination and exploitation. The Israelites knew what it was to live as resident aliens in a foreign land (see 10.29). New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh translates “… and decide justly between any man and a fellow Israelite or a stranger.”

Contemporary English Version has a radical reordering of the clauses of this verse. In some languages this will be a helpful model to follow:

• and others became judges. I gave these judges the following instructions: When you settle legal cases, your decisions must be fair. It doesn’t matter if the case is between two Israelites, or between an Israelite and a foreigner living in your community.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .