31I will set your borders from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines and from the wilderness to the Euphrates, for I will hand over to you the inhabitants of the land, and you shall drive them out before you.
Low German translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006: “steppe”
Yakan: “the lonely place” (source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “a land where no people lived” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “the place with no inhabitants” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Cherokee: inage or “far away downstream” (source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 16)
Matumbi uses various term: lubele (desert, sandy place without water) — used in John 11:54, lupu’ngu’ti (a place where no people live, can be a scrub land, a forest, or a savanna) — used in Mark 1:3 et al.), and mwitu (a forest, a place where wild animals live) — used in Mark 1:13 et al.) (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
Chichewa Contemporary translation (2002/2016): chipululu: a place uninhabited by people with thick forest and bush (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Adioukrou: loj or “savannah” — “land that is not village, nor forest, nor field (source: Hill 2006)
Note that in Luke 15:4, usually a term is used that denotes pastoral land, such as “eating/grazing-place,” in Tagbanwa (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation).
The term that is transliterated as “Philistines” in English means “(from) the land of wanderers,” “(from the) land of strangers” (same as “Palestinian”). (Source: Cornwall / Smith 1997 )
It is translated in American Sign Language with a sign that signifies the helmet the Philistine warriors wore was decorated with feather-like objects. (Source: Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)
“Philistines” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor
Click or tap here to see a short video clip about Philistines (source: Bible Lands 2012)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 23:31:
Kupsabiny: “You will expand the boundary of your territory right from the valley of Aqaba to the Mediterranean sea. It will again proceed from the desert in the south to river Euphrates. I will make you defeat the people of those places and chase them away when you (plur.) are about to reach there.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “I will expand your borders from the Red Sea to the Philistine coast, and from the desert to the Euphrates. I will hand over to you the people who live in the land and you will drive them out before you.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “‘I will-make-sure that the borders of your (plur.) land will-start-from the Red Sea to the Sea of Mediteraneo, and from the desert in the south to/up-to the River of the Eufrates. I will-hand-over to you (plur.) the residents of that-particular land, and you (plur.) will-drive- them -out.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Bariai: “‘I’m going to set the end of the boundary marker for your (pl.) land to go down at the Red ocean’s beach, and the end of its opposite boundary marker will do down at the great ocean of the Pilistia people, and the end of its opposite boundary marker will go down in the desolate area, and the end of its opposite boundary marker will go down at the great river Iupretis. And the people who are living in that area, I’m going to place them up into your hands, and so you will drive them away so that they flee and go.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
Opo: “And I will delimit country your at edge of Water Red until edge of Water of Philistines, from wilderness until river of Euphrates, because they who be present that country all, I will give you them in hand, and you will chase them away out.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
English: “I will cause the borders of your land to extend from the Red Sea/Gulf of Aqaba in the southeast to the Mediterranean Sea in the northwest, and from the Sinai Desert in the southwest to the Euphrates River in the northeast of the country. I will enable you to expel the people who live there, so that you will expel them as you occupy more of the country.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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 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.
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).
The various Greek, Aramaic, Ge’ez, and Latin and Hebrew terms that are translated as “sea,” “ocean,” or “lake” in English are all translated in Chichewa with one term: nyanja. Malawi, where Chichewa is spoken, has a lot of lakes but does not share a border with the ocean. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
In Malagasy culture, the sea is perceived as sacred because it was a path taken by the ancestors. That is why the Malagasy word for the “sea” is ranomasina, which literally means “the sacred water.” The word masina actually has two different meanings: “salted” and “sacred/holy.” Salt is used for the conservation of some foods, such as meat or fish, that are to be set aside for later use. In this sense, the Malagasy phrase for “Holy Spirit” has the literal meaning of “Salted Spirit.” (Source: Brigitte Rabarijaona in The Bible Translator 2022, p. 103ff.)
I will set your bounds refers to the “borders” (Good News Translation), or boundary lines marking the extent of Israel’s territory. Revised English Bible has “I will establish your frontiers.” Your is singular. From the Red Sea, literally “from the Sea of Reeds,” refers to what is now called “the Gulf of Aqaba” (Good News Translation), not to the area where the Israelites had crossed in their escape from Egypt. (See the discussion at 10.19. See also 1Kgs 9.26.) To the sea of the Philistines is obviously “the Mediterranean Sea” (Good News Translation). This marks the distance from the southeast to the northwest.
And from the wilderness refers to the Sinai “desert” to the southwest of Palestine, and to the Euphrates marks the distance to “the Euphrates River” (Good News Translation) in the northeast. The Hebrew simply has “the river,” which in 1.22 refers to the Nile River in Egypt. But after the Israelites settled in Palestine, reference to “the River” (New International Version and others) meant the great Euphrates river northeast of Palestine, which flows into the Persian Gulf.
For I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hands is literally “for I will give in your [plural] hand the dwellers of the land.” This, of course, refers to the Canaanites and the other ethnic groups that occupied the area of Palestine. Good News Translation brings out the meaning: “I will give you power over the inhabitants.” And you shall drive them out before you shifts back to the singular you. The occasional shift in the second person from singular to plural, and from plural to singular, is not always significant in meaning. In such cases it should not be followed if the translation would sound unnatural. Before you is identical with “from before you” in verses 29-30. Good News Translation has a good model, “you will drive them out as you advance,” and Contemporary English Version has “and you will force them out of the land.”
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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