15Thus I will spend my wrath upon the wall and upon those who have smeared it with whitewash, and I will say to you, “The wall is no more, nor those who smeared it—
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 13:15:
Kupsabiny: “I shall pour out my anger on that wall and the people who smeared it with white soul. Then I will say to you (plur.), ‘The wall does no longer exist and also those people who smeared it with white soil are finished.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “I will-cause- the stone-wall and those who plastered it -to-experience my anger. Then I will-have-it-known that the stone-wall is no more as-well-as those who plastered it” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “In that way I will show that I am very angry withthe people who built the wall and those who covered it with whitewash/white paint. Then I will say to you, ‘The wall is destroyed/gone, and those prophets who put whitewash/white paint on it have been killed.’” (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).
Thus will I spend my wrath upon the wall, and upon those who have daubed it with whitewash: By destroying the city of Jerusalem and its false prophets, God’s anger will subside and come to an end. For will I spend my wrath, see 5.13. As there, many translations are more threatening than the Hebrew here; for example, Good News Translation says “The wall and those who covered it with whitewash will feel the force of my anger,” and Contemporary English Version has “The city of Jerusalem and its lying prophets will feel my fierce anger.” Both these renderings miss the sense of God’s anger coming to an end. A better model is “That is how I will satisfy [or, use up completely] my anger on the wall and on those who have covered it with whitewash” or “At last my anger against the wall and those who covered it with whitewash will be satisfied” (New Living Translation).
And I will say to you, The wall is no more, nor those who daubed it: The pronoun you probably refers to the people of Israel in general, that is, Ezekiel’s audience. Translators will do well to keep the picture of the wall of loose stones here, even though the city of Jerusalem is also clearly in view. This sentence may be rendered “Then I will say to my people, ‘The wall is gone and so are those who whitewashed it [or, and those who whitewashed it are dead].’ ”
Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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