complete verse (Deuteronomy 28:26)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Deuteronomy 28:26:

  • Kupsabiny: “The vultures and wild animals will eat your corpses but/and their will be no one to chase them away.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “After you have died the birds and beasts will come and eat your corpses. There will not be anyone to scare them away.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Your (plur.) corpses will-be-eaten-up by the birds and fierce animals, and there shall-be- no one -to-drive- them -away.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “You will die, and birds and wild animals will come and eat your corpses,
    and there will not be anyone to scare/shoo them away.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 28:26

Your dead body: a collective expression; all the Israelites will have been killed. Therefore many translations have “your dead bodies [or, corpses]” or something similar.

Birds of the air … the beasts of the earth: scavenger birds such as vultures and buzzards, and meat-eating animals. Another way to express this is “the scavenger birds and the wild [or, forest] animals.”

No one to frighten them away: because everyone has been killed (see Jer 7.35; 34.20). This final sentence may be placed at the beginning of the verse as follows:

• There will be no one left to scare away [or, frighten] the scavenger birds and wild animals while they are eating your dead bodies.

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 .