host / powers

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “host” or “powers” or similar in English is translated in Mandarin Chinese as wàn​xiàng​ (万象 / 萬象) or “every manifestation of nature” (lit. “10,000 manifestations”). This is a term that is loaned from Buddhist terminology (see here ). (Source: Zetzsche)

See also LORD of hosts.

serve

The Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that is typically translated in English as “serve,” “minister,” “walk with,” or “service” is translated in Igede as myị ẹrụ or “agree with message (of the one you’re serving).” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)

In Quetzaltepec Mixe, “serve” is translated as “obey.” (Source: Robert Bascom)

worship

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The Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek terms that are often translated as “worship” (also, “kneel down” or “bow down”) are likewise translated in other languages in certain categories, including those based on physical activity, those which incorporate some element of “speaking” or “declaring,” and those which specify some type of mental activity.

Following is a list of (back-) translations (click or tap for details):

  • Javanese: “prostrate oneself before”
  • Malay: “kneel and bow the head”
  • Kaqchikel: “kneel before”
  • Loma (Liberia): “drop oneself beneath God’s foot”
  • Tepeuxila Cuicatec: “wag the tail before God” (using a verb which with an animal subject means “to wag the tail,” but with a human subject)
  • Tzotzil: “join to”
  • Kpelle: “raise up a blessing to God”
  • Kekchí: “praise as your God”
  • Cashibo-Cacataibo: “say one is important”
  • San Blas Kuna: “think of God with the heart”
  • Rincón Zapotec: “have one’s heart go out to God”
  • Tabasco Chontal: “holy-remember” (source of this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Bariai: “lift up God’s name” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Q’anjob’al: “humble oneself before” (source: Newberry and Kittie Cox in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 91ff. )
  • Alur: rwo: “complete submission, adoration, consecration” (source: F. G. Lasse in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 22ff. )
  • Obolo: itọtọbọ ebum: “express reverence and devotion” (source: Enene Enene)
  • Ngäbere: “cut oneself down before” (“This figure of speech comes from the picture of towering mahoganies in the forest which, under the woodman’s ax, quiver, waver, and then in solemn, thunderous crashing bury their lofty heads in the upstretched arms of the surrounding forest. This is the experience of every true worshiper who sees ‘the Lord, high and lifted up.’ Our own unworthiness brings us low. As the Valientes say, ‘we cut ourselves down before’ His presence. Our heads, which have been carried high in self-confidence, sink lower and lower in worship.)
  • Tzeltal: “end oneself before God.” (“Only by coming to the end of oneself can one truly worship. The animist worships his deities in the hope of receiving corresponding benefits, and some pagans in Christendom think that church attendance is a guarantee of success in this life and good luck in the future. But God has never set a price on worship except the price that we must pay, namely, ‘coming to the end of ourselves.'”) (Source of this and the one above: Nida 1952, p. 163)
  • Folopa: “die under God” (“an idiom that roughly back-translates “dying under God” which means lifting up his name and praising him and to acknowledge by everything one does and thanks that God is superior.”) (Source: Anderson / Moore, p. 202)
  • Chokwe: kuivayila — “rub something on” (“When anyone goes into the presence of a king or other superior, according to native law and custom the inferior gets down on the ground, takes a little earth in the fingers of his right hand, rubs it on his own body, and then claps his hands in homage and the greeting of friendship. It is a token of veneration, of homage, of extreme gratitude for some favor received. It is also a recognition of kingship, lordship, and a prostrating of oneself in its presence. Yet it simply is the applicative form of ‘to rub something on oneself’, this form of the verb giving the value of ‘because of.’ Thus in God’s presence as king and Lord we metaphorically rub dirt on ourselves, thus acknowledging Him for what He really is and what He has done for us.”) (Source: D. B. Long in The Bible Translator 1952, p. 87ff. )

In Luang it is translated with different shades of meaning:

Source: Kathy Taber in Notes on Translation 1/1999, p. 9-16.

complete verse (Deuteronomy 17:3)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Deuteronomy 17:3:

  • Kupsabiny: “worshipping those idols that other communities worship. (They) may even be worshipping the sun, moon or other things up there in the sky/heaven. That is something that God does not want.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “by disobeying if work has been done such puja to [other] gods, or to the sun, the moon or the stars of the heavens,” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “and disobeyed his command by worshipping other gods or the sun or the moon or the stars.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Suppose someone tells you that that person has worshiped and served other gods, or the sun, or the moon, or the stars.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 17:3

Has gone and served other gods and worshiped them: this is the sin that breaks the covenant, of which the Ten Commandments are the basic stipulations or requirements (see 4.13). Idolatry is prohibited at the very beginning of the commandments (5.7-8; see also 4.19; 8.19). The verbal form has gone does not necessarily indicate travel to a pagan shrine; the verb here is used as an auxiliary (like the frequent use of the verb “to rise”). Contemporary English Version uses the word “start,” as in “… may start worshiping.”

It may be difficult to establish a difference between served and worshiped pagan deities (see 4.19). “Bow down and worship” may be an alternative model.

Or the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven: see 4.19.

Which I have forbidden: as it stands, the first person “I” of the text is Moses himself, who is the speaker. But it seems fairly clear that the text means to say that Yahweh, the God of Israel, was the one who had prohibited idol worship. Bible en français courant follows the Septuagint, “a thing he did not command,” and translates “the LORD never ordered you to do such a thing.” It is on the grounds of context, not text, that Good News Translation has made Yahweh the subject: “contrary to the LORD’s command.” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy and Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje have done the same, and the translator is encouraged to follow this example.

An alternative translation model combining verses 2 and 3 is the following:

• Moses said to the Israelites, “When you are living in the towns that the LORD your God is giving you, you may hear that a man or woman in your town has disobeyed the LORD’s command and has begun to bow down and worship other gods, or even the sun, moon, or stars. By doing this that person has sinned against the LORD and broken his covenant.

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 .