The Greek, Latin and Hebrew that is translated as “envy” or “envious” in most English translations is, according to Nida (1952, p. 134), translated into Tzeltal and Tabasco Chontal in the following manner:
“Envy is bred of covetousness and self-centeredness. The Tzeltals, who recognize a covetous man as having a ‘small heart,’ say that an envious person has ‘a greedy heart.’ ‘Small hearts’ and ‘greedy hearts’ go together, and the soul shrinks in direct proportion to its greediness. The envious person is never satisfied, for he can never keep step with his own insatiable ego.
“The Chontal Indians, living in the low, swampy delta land of Tabasco in southern Mexico, regard envy in a more subtle way. They say of the man who is envious of his neighbor, ‘He did not want to see his neighbor.’ This describes the end result of envy. People cannot bear to see others enjoying the privileges which they insist should be their own. The envious man has acquired such a self-directed stare that he cannot take his eyes off self to see another’s enjoyment.”
In Central Mazahua is is translated as “jealous of each other, their fellow people,” in Sayula Popoluca as “hate those who have something” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), in Matumbi as sukya, which means “envy” but also “hate” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext), and in Kupsabiny as “blackstomached” (source: Kupsabiny Back Translation).
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “vanity,” “emptiness,” “breath,” or similar in English is translated in Mandarin Chinese as xūkōng (虚空) or “hollow,” “empty.” This is a term that is loaned from Buddhist terminology where it is used for Akasha (Sanskrit: आकाश). (Source: Zetzsche)
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “neighbor” in English is rendered into Babatana as “different man,” i.e. someone who is not one of your relatives. (Source: David Clark)
In North Alaskan Inupiatun, it is rendered as “a person outside of your building,” in Tzeltal as “your back and side” (implying position of the dwellings), in Indonesian and in Tae’ as “your fellow-man,” in Toraja-Sa’dan it is “your fellow earth-dweller,” in Shona (translation of 1966) as “another person like you,” in Kekchí “younger-brother-older-brother” (a compound which means all one’s neighbors in a community) (sources: Bratcher / Nida and Reiling / Swellengrebel), in Mairasi “your people” (source: Enggavoter 2004), in Mezquital Otomi as “fellow being,” in Tzeltal as “companion,” in Isthmus Zapotec as “another,” in Teutila Cuicatec as “all people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), and in most modern German translations as Mitmensch or “fellow human being” (lit. “with + human being”).
In Matt 19:19, Matt 22:39, Mark 12:31, Mark 12:33, Luke 10:27, Luke 10:29 it is translated into Ixcatlán Mazatec with a term that refers to a person who is socially/physically near. Ixcatlán Mazatec also has a another term for “neighbor” that means “fellow humans-outsiders” which was not chosen for these passages. (Source: Robert Bascom)
In Noongar it is translated as moorta-boordak or “people nearby” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ecclesiastes 4:4:
Kupsabiny: “And again, I realized why a person is working so hard. (He) does that out of envy/wishes. This is in vain and it is like when a person chases the wind.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “Then I also saw that all the painful work is done and the prosperity that is achieved only because a person envies his neighbors. This too is meaningless and is just like chasing the wind.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “I also saw that man(kind) works-hard and truly does what he is-capable-of for he is jealous of his fellowman. This too has no value, (it-is) as-if like you are only chasing the wind.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “I also thought about all the hard work that people do and the skills that they have. And I thought about how they compete with each other because they are envious of others, and I concluded that this also is something that is not accomplishing anything useful, like chasing the wind.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Then I saw: see comments on this introductory form in 3.10 and 4.1.
All toil and all skill in work: two concepts are examined by Qoheleth, toil or labor, and skill. These are related to each other by the fact that people need skill in order to accomplish their work (or, toil). On the meaning of toil see comments at 2.10. In this general setting it is not possible, nor is it desirable, to define the activities more closely. Qoheleth is speaking only of general principles. That is to say, he is thinking of any task and the skills we need to accomplish it. Good News Translation “why people work so hard to succeed” focuses only on effort rather than on the skill people develop and use. We should note that being skillful does not guarantee that a person will be successful. We shall give further consideration to the terms toil and skill below.
Come from a man’s envy of his neighbor: Revised Standard Versioncome from is an interpretation of the Hebrew, which says literally only that toil and skill themselves are the envy of a person’s neighbor, not that toil and skill stem from envy. Some have taken these words to mean that the outcome of one person’s work and skill provokes envy on the part of others. But Qoheleth appears here to be talking either about motives for what people do, or the effects of competition. Toil and skill are powered by, or perhaps motivated by, the desire to perform better than someone else. Translators will need to find a natural way of expressing this idea in their language. Some possibilities are to say that skill at a task “comes from,” “grows out of,” “is motivated by,” “is spurred on by,” or “is the result of” a sense of competition.
Envy of his neighbor carries a somewhat negative tone in English, as envy, like the word “jealousy,” is a desire to have what someone else has, or to be able to do what they can do. It conveys the sense that we are lacking something and we are unhappy about that fact. Yet this same Hebrew root also means “zeal,” or “passion,” and in Exo 20.5 it is used to describe the LORD’s attitude to those who have made a covenant with him. He is jealous of the relationship and wants nothing to interrupt it. Here it can only have a positive sense. From the way it is used in the Jewish Talmud, we note that the word translated here as “envy” actually means “a sense of rivalry.” It may at times have negative results, but often it is very positive, a stimulus encouraging a person to greater effort when confronting a challenge. Our translation should not give the idea that this is an unhealthy or sinful activity; rather, it is a natural human response to a challenge. A term like “jealousy” in English, then, should be avoided; “an honest sense of competition” may come closer to the meaning. Neighbor is used in the general biblical sense of “the other person” and not with the narrower meaning of a person living in the same village or adjoining house.
The question we need to ask now is what relationship there is between toil, skill, and a sense of competition. Competition may push us to improve our skills, but how can it produce toil? Our conclusion here is that in this passage toil and skill are being used as terms that have almost the same meaning. The first term, toil, is the broad one, and this is then more narrowly defined as skill in working, which is talent, ability, or training to do a task well. This view of the relationship between the two terms will affect our translation. “Skill at a given task” may be a way to combine the two expressions.
Some models for translators to consider in this part of the verse are:
• The skill people acquire in doing any task comes from competing against others.
• A person’s skill in his work is sharpened by a sense of rivalry.
• Skill at a given task and an honest sense of competition go hand in hand.
This also is vanity and a striving after wind: see comments for translation at 1.14. If the above statement about “envy” is correct, namely, that it can have a positive meaning, then in this context hevel cannot mean “vanity” or “meaninglessness.” Qoheleth adds the refrain that “this is hevel” here to indicate that he does not understand how this competitive drive works; he has to admit that it is an enigma.
Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Zogbo, Lynell. A Handbook on the Book of Ecclesiates. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.