complete verse (Exodus 5:14)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 5:14:

  • Kupsabiny: “Then those Egyptian leaders beat the people of Israel who were in charge of /the foremen) those slaves. They asked, ‘Why have you not made the bricks like what you used to make?’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “The slave drivers beat the foreman from Israel saying, ‘Why are you making a smaller number of bricks than before?’” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Then they beat/whipped the Israelinhon foremen and asked, ‘Why were- you (plur.) not -able-to-do yesterday and today the number of bricks that has-been-assigned- for you (plur.) -to-do, which (is) the same number in-time-past?’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “And then the work leaders of the Isip people were whipping the Israel people’s spokespersons of the laborers and so said, ‘Why is it that you didn’t finish your work of making hard stones yesterday and today, as your were doing before?’” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “And people of Israel who chiefs of work put for head of work, they took them, beat them, asking like this «Today yesterday, What is it that you not for it bricks make that it might be fulfilled as when you made it previously?»” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “When they were not able to do that, the slave bosses had the Israeli supervisors beaten with sticks, and they asked them, ‘Why have all the men you are supervising not been able to make the same number of bricks today/now as they did before ?’” (Source: Translation for Translators)

2nd person pronoun with low register (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 second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used anata (あなた) is typically used when the speaker is humbly addressing another person.

In these verses, however, omae (おまえ) is used, a cruder second person pronoun, that Jesus for instance chooses when chiding his disciples. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also first person pronoun with low register and third person pronoun with low register.

Honorary "are" construct denoting God ("say")

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 usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme are (され) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, iw-are-ru (言われる) or “say” is used.

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

Translation commentary on Exod 5:14

Two things are clear in this verse: The foremen of the people of Israel are here identified as “Israelite foremen,” especially since they are the ones who were beaten. (See verses 6 and 10.) And Pharaoh’s taskmasters are also the same “Egyptian slave drivers” mentioned earlier. However, it is not clearly stated that they were the ones who “beat the Israelite foremen,” since a causative passive form of the verb is used. Neither is it clear just how they were beaten, for the word that is used simply means to strike or hit. (See 2.11 and comment.)

Probably the taskmasters were the ones who at least caused the foremen to be beaten, for a chain of command is clearly indicated here. In some languages it is possible to express this as “The Egyptian slave drivers caused the Israelite foremen to be beaten,” but in languages that do not use the passive voice, it is probably safer to assume that the slave drivers did the beating and to translate in a similar way to Good News Translation. Whom refers to the foremen and them refers to the people of Israel. Thus the foremen had been set over the Israelite workers, that is, they had been appointed or “put in charge of the work” (Good News Translation) by Pharaoh’s taskmasters. And Pharaoh’s taskmasters in turn were responsible to the king.

The foremen are the ones who were asked the question, and here again it is probable that the taskmasters were the ones who asked it. Why have you not done all your task may be restated as “Why have you not completed your assigned work.” Of making bricks is literally “to make bricks.”

Today, as hitherto is a simplified rendering of a complex phrase in the Hebrew: “as up to now, both yesterday and also today.” The phrase “as up to now” (as hitherto) refers to the time before the new law of verse 7 was imposed, when the quota of bricks was evidently met. The phrase “both before and also today” compares today with yesterday, both days being after the law was imposed, when the quota was no longer met. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh tries to express all this as “Why did you not complete the prescribed amount of bricks, either yesterday or today, as you did before?”

Both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, however, seem to interpret “yesterday” as referring to the time before the law was imposed, and thus contrast only before and after: “Why aren’t you people making the same number of bricks that you made before?” The question is probably rhetorical, for the answer was obvious. That is why Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch changes it into an exclamation, “You have again today produced too few bricks!” The foremen themselves weren’t actually making the bricks but were forcing other Israelites to do the work. So it is possible to render this question as “Why aren’t you [the foremen] forcing the workers to make as many bricks yesterday and today as they did before?”

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 .