19You have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, putting to death those who should not die and keeping alive those who should not live, by your lies to my people, who listen to lies.
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 13:19:
Kupsabiny: “You abuse/insult me in front of my people so that you get a little barley and bread. You kill those who should not have died and leave alone/spare those who ought to die. You deceive my people to believe in your lies.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “You blaspheme me before/[lit. in front of] my people just because of an handful of barley and few pieces of bread. Through your lying, you declare that the one who should not die will-die, and you also declare that the one who should die will- not -die. And my people believe your lying.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “You dishonored meby telling lies in order to get from my people a few handfuls of barley and a few pieces of bread. My people listen to lies; and you women who are lying to them have caused to be killed people who did not deserve to die and have spared/allowed to remain alive those who should not continue to live.’” (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 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).
Barley Hordeum distichum or Hordeum vulgare is a type of grass like wheat and rice. It has been cultivated in the Middle East for thousands of years and is now one of the most prominent seed crops grown in the world. Twenty species are known, of which eight are European. Barley needs less rain than wheat does, so in the Holy Land it was typically found in the drier areas above the coastal plain and near the desert. From 2 Kings 7:1 and Revelation 6:6 we know that barley was considered inferior to wheat and was often used to feed animals, as it is today. When the wheat supply ran out, people had to make their bread with barley. Barley was gathered before wheat, the harvest coming around March or April in the lower regions and in May in the mountains (see Exodus 9:31 et al.). In Egypt and in ancient Greece barley was used to make beer.
Barley plants look like wheat or rice. They are less than 1 meter (3 feet) tall, and have a single head on each stalk, with six rows of kernels, although the biblical kind may have had only two rows. The head bends at a down-ward angle when it is ripe.
In the story of Gideon and the Midianites in Judges 7:13, “a cake of barley” representing the (despised) Israelite army tumbles into the Midianite camp and knocks down the tent (representing the nomadic Midianites).
Barley is a plant of temperate zones, like Europe and the Near East; it does not grow well in the tropics. However, barley has been recently introduced along with wheat into many parts of the world for brewing beer and other malted drinks. It is also known to have grown in Korea as early as 1500 B.C. along with wheat and millet. It is becoming known in Malay as barli. Except for the reference in Judges, all references to barley in the Bible are non-rhetorical, so unrelated cultural equivalents are discouraged. Some receptor language speakers may coin a name for it as in Malay, or the translator can use a transliteration from Hebrew (se‘orah), Latin (horideyo), or from a major language (for example, Arabic sha’ir, Spanish cebada, French orge, Portuguese cevada, Swahili shayiri), together with a classifier, if there is one (for example, “grain of shayir”).
You have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread: The Hebrew verb rendered profaned means to treat with contempt or disdain something that is sacred or holy, in this case God himself. You have profaned me among my people may mean the female prophets misused God’s name during their false predictions, thus breaking the commandment against taking the name of God in vain; for example, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch says “By your deeds you take my name in vain.” This clause may also mean they dishonored God by their use of magic, or they dishonored him by turning the people away from him by their false predictions; for example, New Living Translation (1996) has “You turn my people away from me.” Also likely in this context is that they dishonored God by saying that their predictions came from him when in fact they didn’t. In any case, what is clear is that in some way they dishonored God among his own people. Some scholars think handfuls of barley and pieces of bread refer to what the women scattered around as part of their magic rites, perhaps to find out from where they fell if a certain person would live or die. Others believe the barley and bread were the price for which the women sold what they claimed to be messages from God. It is not explicit how many handfuls are meant—it may have been only two or three. In any case, the price was not large because barley was the cereal that poor people normally ate (see 4.9). If it is not known, translators may say “grain” or “flour.” Bread of any sort was the staple diet of the people. This whole sentence may be rendered “You have dishonored me among my own people for a few handfuls of barley and a few pieces of bread [or, for a few handfuls of food].”
Putting to death persons who should not die and keeping alive persons who should not live, by your lies to my people, who listen to lies: This last half of the verse in Hebrew means the lying female prophets were able to kill some people and keep other people alive (so Revised Standard Version); for example, Revised English Bible says “By telling my people lies they wish to hear, you bring death to those who should not die, and keep alive those who should not live.” But it may also mean they were making false predictions about who would die and who would live; for example, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “you have announced the death of persons who will not die and the survival of persons who will not live—lying to My people, who listen to your lies.”
Two models for verses 18-19 are:
• 18 Ezekiel, say this: ‘This is a message from the Lord Yahweh: “It will be terrible for those women who make stuffed pouches and tie them on to people’s arms, and make head coverings for everyone, no matter how big or small they are. They are using these things to trap people by magic. It is my people they are trapping, but they are saving themselves! 19 They have dishonored me by making predictions [about Jerusalem] to my people. They are charging a few handfuls of barley and a few pieces of bread for these predictions. [or, They use a few handfuls of barley and some crumbs of bread to ‘see’ their predictions.] They are predicting that some people will die—but they won’t die—and they are predicting that some people will stay alive—but they won’t stay alive. What they are predicting to my people are lies, yet my people are listening to their lies.” ’
• 18 Ezekiel, say this: ‘Here is a message from the Lord Yahweh: “How terrible it will be for you women who are trying to gain control over people with your magic. You make magic charms and put them on people’s wrists and you make head coverings for people of all ages. You are trying to trap my people with your magic so you can make some money for yourselves. 19 You have dishonored me among my own people for a few handfuls of barley and a few pieces of bread. You tell people the lies they want to hear when you say that some people will die who are not going to die, and others will live who in fact are not going to survive.” ’
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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