complete verse (Deuteronomy 25:11)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Deuteronomy 25:11:

  • Kupsabiny: “If two men are fighting and the wife of one of these people comes to the aid and grabs/squeezes the testicles of the other man,” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “If a wife, having come to a place where two men were fighting, goes forward to protect her husband and tightly grasps the other man’s private parts,” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘If there are two men who are-fighting and the wife of the other came-near to help her husband by squeezing the genitals/sexual-organ of the opponent,” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “When two men are fighting with each other, and the one man’s wife comes near to help her husband by grabbing hold of the other man’s genitals,” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 25:11

With the beginning of a new section, Moses should be reintroduced as the speaker.

Men fight with one another: the context makes it clear that this is a case of two men having a fight. So we may say “If two men are fighting with each other.”

To rescue her husband from the hand of him who is beating him: that is, “from his assailant’s attack.” It is clear that it is the wife of the man who is losing the fight who rushes in to help her husband.

The private parts: in translation an appropriate word or expression that can be read aloud in mixed company must be used to refer to the male genitals.

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 .