The phrase that is rendered in English versions as “land flowing with milk and honey” (“milk and syrup” in Goldingay [2018]) is translated into Afar as niqmatak tan baaxoy buqre kee lacah meqehiyya: “a blessed land good for fields and cattle.” (Source: Loren Bliese)
In the interconfessional Chichewa translation (publ. 1999) it is translated with the existing proverb dziko lamwanaalirenji or “a land of what (type of food) can the child cry for?” (i.e. there is more than enough to eat). (Source: Ernst Wendland in The Bible Translator 1981, p. 107 )
In Kwere it is “good/fertile land.” (Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
The Hebrew word for “honey”, devash, is also used for syrup extracted from figs, dates, and grapes, or from certain types of palm tree. The phrase “a land flowing with milk and honey” refers to a land that is fertile and thus rich in pasture, fruit, and the grain and flowers from which bees make honey. (Source: All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators) )
In Russian, the phrase молоко и мед (moloko i med) or “milk and honey” is widely used as an idiom in every-day life. (Source: Reznikov 2020, p. 67)
The Hebrew and Greek that is typically translated in English as “hardened” or “stubborn” is translated in the HausaCommon Language Bible idiomatically as taurin kai or “tough head.”
Other languages spoken in Nigeria translate similarly: Abua uses oḅom ẹmhu or “strong head,” Bura-Pabirkəra ɓəɓal or “hard head,” Gokanaagẹ̀ togó or “hard/strong head,” Igedeegbeju-ọngịrị or “hard head,” Deragɨddɨng koi or “strong head,” Resheɾiʃitə ɾigbaŋgba or “strong head,” and in Chadian Arabicraas gawi (رَاسْكُو قَوِي) or “hard head” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
Other translation approaches include Western Bukidnon Manobo with “breath is very hard” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation) or Ixil with “callous heart” (source: Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 40).
In Gbaya, the notion of a calamity affecting a large groups of people at the same time and/or a destructive fire is emphasized in the referenced verses with the ideophone gbɔyɛɛ.
Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)
The now commonly-used English idiom “stiff-necked” (meaning haughtily or arrogantly obstinate) was first coined in 1526 in the English New Testament translation of William Tyndale (in the spelling stife necked). (Source: Crystal 2010, p. 284)
For other idioms in English that were coined by Bible translation, see here.
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 33:3:
Kupsabiny: “You are going to a fat/fertile land of milk and honey. But I will not go with you because you are very arrogant people, or otherwise I might crush you on the way. ’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “Go up to the country of flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you. For you are the stiff-necked people I might destroy you on the way.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “in that land which is-good and fertile/causes-to-produce-a-harvest. You (plur.) are the only who is-to-go there; I will- not -go with you (plur.) for your (plur.) heads are hard, and I might kill you (plur.) on the way/(road).’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Bariai: “Therefore go to that good land. That land is very fertile (lit. has big grease) and so honey and bulmakaos’ milk is coming forth in it. But I will not go with you. For you people are very stubborn. Lest I go with you, and then destroy you on the way.’” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
Opo: “you must go the place which honey and milk be abundant there. And I, we (incl.) not with you will go together, because you be they who be hard head, and I may perhaps will wipe out you on the road.»” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
English: “You will go to a land that will be very good for raising livestock and growing crops. But I will not go with you myself, because if I did that, I might get rid of you while you are traveling, because you are very stubborn people.’” (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 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).
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.
Go up to a land, literally “unto a land,” has no verb; the force of the verb in verse 1 carries over into this verse. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, in fact, uses dashes to set off verse 2 as a parenthetical expression. Good News Translation simply has “You are going to a … land,” which is clearly implied from the context. Flowing with milk and honey is the same expression used in 3.8. (See the comment there.)
But I will not go up among you is literally “for I will not ascend in your midst.” This simply means “I will not go with you myself” (Good News Translation), or “I shall not journey in your company” (Revised English Bible). The singular form of you is used because of the following reference to people, which is singular in form.
Lest I consume you in the way is literally “otherwise I will finish you off in the way.” Consume means “exterminate” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), or “annihilate” (New Jerusalem Bible). So Good News Translation has “I might destroy you on the way.” (See the comment at 32.10.) For in the wayContemporary English Version has “before they get there,” and this will be a possible rendering in some languages. For you are a stiff-necked people is the same expression used in 32.9. (See the comment there.) The you is singular in both cases.
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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