Hail

The Hebrew and Ge’ez that is translated as “hail” in English is translated in Tagakaulo as batu na ayis or “rocks of ice.” (Source: Scott and Becky Burton in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 73)

complete verse (Exodus 10:5)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 10:5:

  • Kupsabiny: “The locusts will fill the land/earth that there will be no place to step. Those locusts will eat everything that the hailstones left. (They) will also eat every tree that was left in your (sing.) field” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “They will cover the ground so that it cannot be seen (emph.). They will devour what remains after the hail including all the trees growing in the fields.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Because-of their great-number, the land will- not -be-seen. They will-eat the leftover plants that were- not -destroyed by the rain ice, including all your (plur.) trees.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “They will cover every area and so fully occupy it, and so it won’t be possible for you to see the surface of the ground. That part of the food which the hard raindrops didn’t destroy, that’s the very thing the grasshoppers will consume until it’s finished together with the trees which are growing in the bush and in the garden.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “It will fill land all, so [that] they might not land see. And food which remains which hail not spoil, it will eat it all. And tree which be present field and wild, it will eat its leaf all.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “They will completely cover the ground so that you will not even be able to see the ground. They will eat everything that the hail did not destroy. They will eat everything that is left on the trees.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

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).

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Exod 10:5

They shall cover the face of the land means that “There will be so many that they will completely cover the ground” (Good News Translation). (See Joel 1.4 and 2.3-11 for another graphic description of a swarm of locusts.) So that no one can see the land simply describes further how dense the swarm of locusts will be. Good News Translation omits this second clause as unnecessary, but it adds emphasis to the warning. A translation model for the first two clauses is “They will completely cover the country [or, Egypt] so that you [plural] won’t be able to see the ground.”

They shall eat describes exactly what the locusts will do to the plant life. What is left to you is literally “the remainder of what is left, the leftover things for you [plural].” It refers to all the crops of the Egyptians that were not destroyed by the hailstorm of the seventh plague (but see the comment in the next paragraph relating to 9.25). After the hail is literally “from the hail.” Another way to express and they shall eat … is “The hailstones destroyed most of your crops, and these locusts will eat what is left.”

Every tree of yours is a general statement that simply emphasizes the extent of the destruction to come. Which grows in the field uses the participle of the verb “to sprout” with the article (literally “the sprouting ones”). New American Bible interprets this to mean “all foliage that has since sprouted in your fields” (the word “since” is added), and Translator’s Old Testament has “all the trees which are beginning to grow again,” adding the word “again.” Although this softens the apparent contradiction of the verse with 9.25, most translations take the description of complete ruin in 9.25 as hyperbole (exaggeration) intended to make the narrative more emphatic. The translator should guard against harmonizing separate accounts. In the field is not intended to exclude any trees that may have been growing in enclosed areas. The destruction by the locusts was to be complete (see 10.15).

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• They will completely cover Egypt so that you [plural] won’t be able to see the ground. The hailstones destroyed most of your crops, and these locusts will eat what is left, even the trees that are beginning to grow again.

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .