neighbor

Click here to view graphically

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).

complete verse (Exodus 22:14)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 22:14:

  • Kupsabiny: “And if someone begs for an animal from his neighbor and after that, that animal is wounded or dies and the owner is not there, he should compensate (it).” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “If a man borrows an animal from his neighbor and it is injured or dies while the owner is not present, he must make restitution.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘For-example, a man borrows an animal from his neighbor, and this gets-hurt/wounded or dies, and the owner was-not there when this happened. The one who-borrowed must pay for-it.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “‘If a man borrows his fellow companion’s tame animal and so makes payment to him in advance for however many days, but something happens to that animal, or it dies, and the animal’s owner didn’t see it, the man who borrowed the animal must bring the full payment to the owner of the animal.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “If a man will entreat a man his animal for work, and animal die or be bad some part for its owner be absent, one who took it, he must give it all.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “If someone borrows an animal, and if that animal is hurt or dies when its owner is not there, the one who borrowed it must pay the owner for the animal.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Exod 22:14

If a man borrows anything of his neighbor is literally “And if [ki] a man will borrow from his fellow.” New Revised Standard Version has “when,” to show that this is a new law. The text does not have the word anything, but most translations supply “an animal (Good News Translation),” since the context makes this clear. The word for neighbor can mean “comrade,” “friend,” “fellow-Israelite” (Translator’s Old Testament), or simply “another man” (Good News Translation). And it is hurt or dies uses the same words as verse 10 but in reverse order. Contemporary English Version has “and it gets injured or dies.”

The owner not being with it is literally “there is not its owner with it.” This simply means that “its owner is not present” (Good News Translation) at the time. He shall make full restitution uses the emphatic form again as in 21.12, which is literally “paying back he shall pay back.” (See verse 6.)

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 .