calamity for many / destructive fire

In Gbaya, the notion of a calamity affecting a large groups of people at the same time and/or a destructive fire is emphasized in the referenced verses with the ideophone gbɔyɛɛ.

Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)

God's anger, wrath of God

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated into English as “the wrath of God” or “God’s anger” has to be referred to in Bengali as judgment, punishment or whatever fits the context. In Bengali culture, anger is by definition bad and can never be predicated of God. (Source: David Clark)

Translations in other languages:

  • Quetzaltepec Mixe: “translated with a term that not only expresses anger, but also punishment” (source: Robert Bascom)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “the coming punishment of God on mankind” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “God’s fearful/terrible future punishing of people” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “the coming anger/hatred of God” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “the punishment which will come” (source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “God’s action of anger comes forth in the open” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Mairasi: “His anger keeps increasing (until it will definitely arrive)” (source: Enggavoter 2004)

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 to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. When the referent is God, the “divine” honorific prefix mi- (御) is used as in mi-ikari (御怒り) or “wrath (of God)” in the referenced verses. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also anger and the coming wrath.

anger

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The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is translated as “anger” or similar in English in this verse is translated with a variety of solutions (Bratcher / Nida says: “Since anger has so many manifestations and seems to affect so many aspects of personality, it is not strange that expressions used to describe this emotional response are so varied”).

  • Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “be warm inside”
  • Mende: “have a cut heart”
  • Mískito: “have a split heart”
  • Tzotzil: “have a hot heart”
  • Mossi: “a swollen heart”
  • Western Kanjobal: “fire of the viscera”
  • San Blas Kuna: “pain in the heart”
  • Chimborazo Highland Quichua: “not with good eye”
  • Chichewa: “have a burning heart” (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation) (see also anger burned in him)
  • Citak: two different terms, one meaning “angry” and one meaning “offended,” both are actually descriptions of facial expressions. The former can be represented by an angry stretching of the eyes or by an angry frown. The latter is similarly expressed by an offended type of frown with one’s head lowered. (Source: Graham Ogden)

In Akan, a number of metaphors are used, most importantly abufuo, lit. “weedy chest” (the chest is seen as a container that contains the heart but can also metaphorically be filled with other fluids etc.), but also abufuhyeε lit. “hot/burning weedy chest” and anibereε, lit. “reddened eyes.” (Source: Gladys Nyarko Ansah in Kövecses / Benczes / Szelid 2024, p. 21ff.)

See also God’s anger and angry.

complete verse (Deuteronomy 32:22)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Deuteronomy 32:22:

  • Kupsabiny: “My anger will start a fire
    that burns to the place of the dead.
    It will destroy the world/land and things inside it
    and burn what the mountains rest on (are founded on).” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Now my anger has burned like fire.
    It will reduce all that is on the earth to ashes.
    It will go spreading, reaching to the bottom of this earth,
    and it will burn even to the roots of the mountains.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “For my anger will-blaze like fire.
    It will-burn the ground and all its produce,
    as-well-as the depth of the ground, and the foundations of the mountains.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “I will be very angry, and I will destroy them
    like a fire that will burn on the earth and all the way down to the place where dead people are ;
    that fire will destroy the earth and everything that grows on it,
    and it will even burn what is down under the mountains.” (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 Deuteronomy 32:22

A fire is kindled by my anger: God’s anger is compared to a fire that destroys everything before it (see 4.24). Good News Translation uses a simile: “My anger will flame up like fire.” We may also say “I will be very angry, and just like fire flares up, my anger will burn.” Contemporary English Version uses another picture: “I will breathe out fire that….”

It burns to the depths of Sheol: God’s fire burns all the way through the surface of the earth to the very bottom of the world of the dead.

Devours the earth and its increase: that is, the earth and everything that grows on it; New International Version translates “the earth and its harvests.”

Notice that Good News Translation, logically enough, reverses the order of these two lines, beginning with the earth, and then going down to the roots of the mountains and the world of the dead.

The foundations of the mountains: in the Hebrew concept of the universe, the sky was a flat disk supported by the mountains, whose roots reached down to the depths of Sheol (see Psa 18.7-8; Amos 7.4). Good News Translation may serve as a model for this verse.

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 .