6You must observe them and perform them, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!’
Ixcatlán Mazatec: “with your best/biggest thinking” (source: Robert Bascom)
Noongar: dwangka-boola, lit. “ear much” (source: Portions of the Holy Bible in the Nyunga language of Australia, 2018 — see also remember)
Kwere “to know how to live well” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Dobel: “their ear holes are long-lasting” (in Acts 6:3) (source: Jock Hughes)
Gbaya: iŋa-mgbara-mɔ or “knowing-about-things” (note that in comparison to that, “knowledge” is translated as iŋa-mɔ or “knowing things”) (source: Philip Noss in The Bible Translator 2001, p. 114ff. )
Chichewa: nzeru, meaning both “knowledge” and “wisdom” (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
In Hungarian Sign Language it is translated with a hand gesture referring to God to indicate a human quality to communicate that wisdom does not originate from man but is linked to and connected with the fear of God (source: Jenjelvi Biblia and Andrea Bokros):
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)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Deuteronomy 4:6:
Kupsabiny: “Take hold of those laws and those regulations and follow (them), because if you continue to do like that the people of other communities will know that you have knowledge and wisdom. They will say, ‘Truly, the people of this community have much wisdom and knowledge.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “If you do like the LORD says, it will show your wisdom and understanding to the other nations. And, hearing these commands, they will say, "Surely the people of this great nation have wisdom and understanding."” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “You (plur.) follow them carefully, for through it you (plur.) can-show your (plur.) wisdom and understanding to the other nations. When they will-hear all these statutes they will-say, ‘(It is) truly true that the people of this mighty nation have wisdom and understanding.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “Obey them faithfully because, if you do that, you will show the people of other nations that you are very wise. When they hear about all these laws, they will say, ‘The people of this great nation of Israel are certainly very wise !’” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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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 formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).
Keep them and do them: that is, “Obey them faithfully” (Good News Translation, and similarly Contemporary English Version), “Practice them carefully.” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “Observe them faithfully”; New International Version and Revised English Bible “Observe them carefully,” and New Revised Standard Version “Observe them diligently.”
That will be your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the peoples: by carefully obeying God’s laws, the Israelites will be regarded by their neighbors as a wise and intelligent people, as a people full of wisdom and good sense. Alternative ways of saying this are “Obey them faithfully, and this will show the people of other nations how wise you are” (Good News Translation), or “If you faithfully obey the things that I have taught you to do, you will show the people of other nations that you are very wise.”
When they hear all these statutes: this probably means “when they learn of” or “when they know about” (Revised English Bible). New Jerusalem Bible has “Once they know what all the laws are.” It does not mean that all the laws would be read to the other nations. Contemporary English Version has a good model: “In fact, everyone who hears about your laws will say….”
Upon learning of these laws, the neighboring peoples will exclaim, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people”—using the same two adjectives to describe them. Other ways to render this are “The people of this great nation must be very wise” or “The people of this large and powerful nation must be….” Great here means both large in number and politically powerful.
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 .
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