complete verse (Exodus 9:15)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 9:15:

  • Kupsabiny: “And if I had sent the suffering to eat you and your people, you would have all disappeared from the earth/land!” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “If I would be stretching out my hand toward you and cause you (fam.) and your people to be hit so hard by plagues you would already have been totally destroyed from the earth.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Even in-time-past, I could have-destroyed you (sing.) and your (sing.) people by-means-of diseases, and you (sing.) would-have been-no-more now.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “And if I want, I’m able to destroy you and your people with some great sickness and so kill you off so that you’re finished.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “When I may seek your destruction, I may wipe you out with people your out from earth at the beginning with illnesses difficult.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “By this time I could have used my power to strike you and your people with terrible diseases that would have wiped you all from the earth.” (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 9:15

For by now is literally, “because now.” The idea of by now is suggested by the interpretation of the following verb phrase, which literally says “I stretched out my hand.” (The Hebrew perfect is used.) I could have put forth my hand gives the verb phrase the meaning of something contrary to fact. So Good News Translation has “If I had raised my hand.” Most translations accept this interpretation, especially since the rest of the verse speaks of what has not yet happened. King James Version, however, following the Septuagint, translates the verb as future (“For now I will stretch out my hand”), and a few modern scholars accept this interpretation. Durham, for example, translates “Indeed, now I will let loose my power.” But the translator should bear in mind that this represents a minority opinion. If translators follow the majority interpretation, then verse 14 and the first part of verse 15 may be expressed as follows:

• This time I will punish you more severely than before. I am going to punish not only your officials and your people, but I will punish you as well… In fact, I could have already caused a terrible disease to strike you and your people….

And struck you and your people continues the sense of could have, using the word that literally means to strike, hit, or beat. (See 2.12, 14; 7.17, 20; and others.) Here, of course, the figurative meaning is intended, in the sense of afflicting with pestilence, or “disease.” (See “will fall … upon” in 9.3.) In a number of languages this will be rendered with a causative expression such as “caused a terrible disease to strike,” or even “let you [plural] become sick with a terrible disease.” And you would have been continues the “contrary to fact” meaning, with the result being cut off from the earth. The Hebrew word here means to be hidden, destroyed, or effaced. So Good News Translation has “you would have been completely destroyed.” Many languages will have a descriptive phrase like the Hebrew; for example, “wiped from the earth.”

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 .