gentiles / nations

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The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin that is often translated as “gentiles” (or “nations”) in English is often translated as a “local equivalent of ‘foreigners,'” such as “the people of other lands” (Guerrero Amuzgo), “people of other towns” (Tzeltal), “people of other languages” (San Miguel El Grande Mixtec), “strange peoples” (Navajo (Dinė)) (this and above, see Bratcher / Nida), “outsiders” (Ekari), “people of foreign lands” (Kannada), “non-Jews” (North Alaskan Inupiatun), “people being-in-darkness” (a figurative expression for people lacking cultural or religious insight) (Toraja-Sa’dan) (source for this and three above Reiling / Swellengrebel), “from different places all people” (Martu Wangka) (source: Carl Gross).

Tzeltal translates it as “people in all different towns,” Chicahuaxtla Triqui as “the people who live all over the world,” Highland Totonac as “all the outsider people,” Sayula Popoluca as “(people) in every land” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Chichimeca-Jonaz as “foreign people who are not Jews,” Sierra de Juárez Zapotec as “people of other nations” (source of this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), Highland Totonac as “outsider people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Uma as “people who are not the descendants of Israel” (source: Uma Back Translation), “other ethnic groups” (source: Newari Back Translation), and Yakan as “the other tribes” (source: Yakan Back Translation).

In Chichewa, it is translated with mitundu or “races.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

See also nations.

complete verse (Deuteronomy 4:38)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Deuteronomy 4:38:

  • Kupsabiny: “He chased big communities away with you (plur.) watching a power surpassing you and he gave their land to become yours as it is/happened.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Bringing them into a land of nations that were greater and more powerful than you, He drove them out to make it your possession. [And] until today it is [still] in your possession.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “He had- you (plur.) -drove-out the nations who are more powerful than you (plur.) to bring you (plur.) to their land in-order to give it to you (plur.) as your (plur.) inheritance, like now.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “As they advanced, he expelled the people of nations that were greater and more powerful than they were, in order that he could allow them to capture their land and cause it to become yours, which is what is happening now.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 4:38

Driving out before you nations …: this can be a reference to the conquest of territories east of the Jordan ruled by King Sihon of Heshbon (2.26-37), and by King Og of Bashan (3.1-7). The tribes of Reuben and Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh settled in these regions. Versions like Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, and New Jerusalem Bible (“dispossessing…”) put this conquest in the past, and therefore must refer in this context to the territories east of Jordan. But it is also possible that Moses is speaking of the conquest of the land of Canaan (see 7.1; 9.1; 11.23). New International Version “to drive out” and Revised English Bible “so that he might drive out” are versions that allow the conquest to be still in the future. Since the discourse context is Moses speaking to the Israelites before they enter Canaan to conquer it, translators who choose this option will need to express it as action that is still to happen.

Nations greater and mightier than yourselves: the translation of nations may be a problem. These were large, organized racial and tribal groups, with laws and some form of political structure, but not nation-states in the modern sense of the word, with territorial boundaries strictly defined. A word such as “tribes” should be avoided if possible. But if it must be used, we may say, for example, “large tribes” or “big groups of people.” By definition these were pagan peoples; traditionally there were seven of them in Canaan (see 7.1). Greater and mightier means “larger in number and more powerful [militarily].”

To bring you in: in some languages care must be taken about the point of view of the person who is speaking; here Moses and his audience are outside Canaan, so “take you in” fits better than “bring you in.”

To give you their land for an inheritance: very rarely will the noun “inheritance” or the verb “inherit” be suitable in a text like this (see verse 21 also), since the words mean (at least in English) receiving something as the result of the death of the former owner. What is meant is “to possess,” “to own,” “to make it [permanently] yours.”

As at this day: this clearly reflects the writer’s point of view (see 2.22; 4.20). Good News Translation has “the land which still belongs to you.”

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 .