The Hebrew that is translated as “the poor” in English is translated in Chichewa as “people without power.” In Chichewa context this refers to those who are in the lower class in terms of both social status and political influence in a community. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
In Cherokee it is translated as “those who are not doing well.” “The concept of poverty was unknown to Cherokee prior to European arrival due to the sharing of resources among clan members and the shared and welfare tradition known as gadugi (ᎦᏚᎩ). In contrast, the concepts of rich and poor play a large role in the world and message or the New Testament (…) This phrase (‘those who are not doing well’), still used today for ‘poor,’ speaks to a more general understanding of well-being than the presence of monetary resources.” (Source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 45)
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “interest” (as in payments for a loan) in English is translated in the Contemporary Chichewa translation (2002/2016) as chiwongoladzanja which literary means something that stretches the hand. The understanding is that an interest is paid to thank the hand that was stretched out in the process of giving a loan. Since a person gets a loan to be helped from their problems, thanking the hand that has given (stretched out in giving) is considered to be an important way of expressing one’s gratitude. (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 Exodus 22:25:
Kupsabiny: “If a person loans out money to any fellow person (of the same house) and that person is weak/poor, he should not pile up/add much interest as (professional) money-lenders do.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not be like a moneylender, charge him no interest.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “‘If you (plur.) lend money to any of my people who are poor, you (plur.) should- not -have-(them)-pay-interest like what the ones-who-lend money do.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Bariai: “‘If some of my people in your midst don’t have enough things and so they borrow your money, you (pl.) can’t/mustn’t say for them to pay back their debt to you together with its extension/extra as the market people are doing.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
Opo: “My one who be poor, if you will give him money that he might borrow it, you (sing., imp.) not (imp.) him say that it must give birth as they who they borrow money from do.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
English: “If you lend money to any of my people who are poor, do not act like a moneylender and require him to pay interest on the money.” (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 first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.
Verses 25-27 are concerned with the proper treatment of poor Israelites (my people). But they deal with the same concern of verses 21-24, since strangers, widows, and orphans were also disadvantaged. Furthermore, this verse begins with the word ʾim (If) rather than ki, which suggests a connection with the preceding laws.
If you lend money is literally “If silver you [singular] cause to borrow,” and in many languages the more natural rendering will be “If you let any of my people … borrow money from you.” “Silver,” of course, was used as money. (See the comment at 21.32.) Any of my people with you who is poor is simply “my people, the poor with you [singular].” Any of is understood. Revised Standard Version has who is poor because poor is singular, but Good News Translation‘s “any … who are poor” is better English. New Revised Standard Version avoids the problem, with “to my people, to the poor among you.” The word for poor means to be overwhelmed by want, and it is related to the verb “afflict” in verse 22. Contemporary English Version has “people who are in need.” In some cultures where only certain people own material things, the poor will be termed “people who have nothing” or “people who are like those who live far from the chief’s compound.”
You shall not be to him as a creditor means, as Good News Translation translates, that you should not “act like a moneylender.” Creditor literally means “lender,” with the implied meaning of “usurer” (New Jerusalem Bible), or one who collects interest. This is made clear in the next clause: and you shall not exact interest from him. In many languages it will be helpful to say something like “When you lend money to any of my people who are in need, you shall not act like other money lenders, who require the borrower to pay interest” or “… you shall not act like other money lenders, who take back more money than they loaned.” The and is not in the Hebrew, so some translations place a semicolon after creditor (New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh).
(Deut 23.19-20 allows for charging interest from a foreigner, but not from a fellow-Israelite.)
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 .
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