complete verse (Exodus 22:27)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 22:27:

  • Kupsabiny: “Do like that because that is the only clothes he has for covering himself at night. Hey! You want him to cover himself with what? If you don’t do like that and he cries to me, I will come to his aid because I am a merciful God.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Because he has nothing to cover his body besides this cloak. What else will he sleep in? When he cries out to me, I will hear for I am compassionate.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “For this is his only covering to his body when he sleeps at-night. If he asks-for help from me, I will-help him/her for I am compassionate/(merciful).” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “For he doesn’t have anything else to cover his body. And when it sleeps, what will he cover himself with? Therefore if he cries to me, then I’m going to listen to his cry. Because all the time, I have compassion (lit. a wounded interior) on people like that.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “because be his cover-cloth, he lacks clothes other [with] which he might cover, there is no clothes other [by] which he might sleep. Therefore, if he will call me, my heart will be bad concerning him.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “because he needs it to keep him warm during the night. That is the only covering that poor people have when they sleep at night./What else will he cover himself with during the night? If you do not act mercifully toward him by returning his cloak, when he cries out to me asking for my help, I will help him, because I always act mercifully.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

1st person pronoun referring to God (Japanese)

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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.

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

See also pronoun for “God”.

Translation commentary on Exod 22:26 - 22:27

If you ever take is literally “If [ʾim] taking you [singular] will take-in-pledge.” This is the emphatic form used in 21.12, but it is not easy to express it. Revised Standard Version adds ever, but this has been omitted in New Revised Standard Version. Durham has “If you actually take as collateral.” “Take-in-pledge” is one word in the Hebrew. It means to take possession of something owned by the borrower which will be returned to him only when the debt is paid. In this way the lender has some guarantee that that loan will be repaid. New Revised Standard Version has “take … in pawn,” and Translator’s Old Testament translates “take … as security for a loan.”

Your neighbor’s garment, literally “the wrapper of your fellow,” probably refers to “a fellow-Israelite’s [outer] cloak.” The same word is used in verse 9. It is helpful to note that the poor Israelite at that time probably wore only an undergarment and a wide outer garment, and the outer garment served as both a “cloak” (New Revised Standard Version) and a blanket. You shall restore it to him means, as Good News Translation expresses it, “you must give it back to him.” And before the sun goes down, of course, means “by sunset” (New International Version). Contemporary English Version restructures this as follows: “Before sunset you must return any coat taken as security for a loan.” Another possible model is “If you take someone else’s cloak as security when you loan money to him, you must return it to him before the sun sets.”

For that is his only covering uses a word meaning almost the same as the word for garment, but it has the more general meaning of a covering. It is his mantle for his body uses what appears to be a third word, mantle (salmah), but it is a synonym of the one translated as garment (samlah), with only a slight difference in spelling and pronunciation.

Thus there appear to be three different words in these two verses that mean almost the same thing: garment, covering, and mantle. It is not necessary to find three different words in translation. New Revised Standard Version changes the third word to a verb, “to use as a cover,” and Translator’s Old Testament has “to wrap himself in.” Good News Translation combines the second and third into one, “covering.” His body is literally “his skin” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). (Durham has “his bare skin.”) Good News Translation brings out the meaning clearly: “it is the only covering he has to keep him warm.”

In what else shall he sleep? is literally “in what will he lie down?” The idea of else is understood. Contemporary English Version is even clearer: “because that is the only cover the poor have when they sleep at night.” And if he cries to me is literally “and it will be when [ki] he will cry out unto me.” I will hear is the same word used in verse 23, meaning “I will listen” (New Revised Standard Version), or “I will heed.” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Good News Translation, and Translator’s Old Testament have “I will answer him.”) For I am compassionate is literally “because gracious [am] I.” Good News Translation uses “merciful.”

An alternative translation model for these two verses is:

• If you take someone’s cloak as security when you loan money to him, you must return it before the sun sets, because that is the only covering the poor have to keep them warm when they sleep at night. I am a merciful God, and when the poor call out to me, I will certainly help them.

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 .