complete verse (Deuteronomy 8:4)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Deuteronomy 8:4:

  • Kupsabiny: “And in those forty years your clothes did not tear and your feet did not swell.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “For these forty years your clothes were not torn, and your feet did not swell.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “For a period/(lit. inside) of 40 years your (plur.) clothes did- not -wear-out/[lit. become-old] and your (plur.) feet did- not -swell in/while walking.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “During those 40 years of walking through the desert, our clothes did not wear out and our feet did not swell from walking a very long way through the desert.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 8:4

The Hebrew text uses the second singular form of address, but translators are urged to use the plural form, unless the singular is more natural style in their language. We may say something like the following: “Your [plural] clothes haven’t worn out and your [plural] feet haven’t swollen up.”

Your clothing did not wear out and your foot did not swell: from walking through the wilderness all those years. This is an exaggerated way of saying that they had come through those difficult forty years in good shape (see also 29.5; Neh 9.21).

For these forty years see verse 2.

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 .