wild animal / wild beast

The Hebrew, Latin, Ge’ez, and Greek that is translated in English as “wild animal” or “wild beast” is translated in Newari as “animal that lives in the jungle.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)

complete verse (Ezekiel 14:15)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 14:15:

  • Kupsabiny: “And I would be able to send wild animals to kill people so that the land became desolate.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘Or for-example, I will-send fierce animals to that nation to kill her residents, and that place will-become desolate and no one will-pass there anymore because of fear of fierce animals.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Or, if I send wild animals throughout the country, and they attack and killmany of the people, with the result that travel in that country becomes very dangerous and no one travels through that country,” (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 Ezekiel 14:15

Verses 15-20 consist of three pairs of verses that follow the same basic pattern as verses 13-14. In each pair there is a long, complicated conditional sentence, which refers first to the punishment God threatens to bring on the land, and then states that not even the virtue of the three good men, Noah, Danel and Job, would be able to save any of the people living in the land. So the message is exactly the same as in verses 13-14; only some of the details have changed. The main change is that the first clause of verse 13 (“a land sins against me by acting faithlessly”) is missing from verses 15, 17 and 19. However, the message of each pair in verses 15-20 depends on that clause. It gives the reason for the punishment that God describes in verses 15-20. In many languages translators may need to repeat something about the nation turning to sin at the beginning of each pair of verses; for example, Contemporary English Version refers to “a sinful nation” in verses 17 and 19 to remind the reader of this fundamental fact. New Century Version shows the connection by beginning each pair with the conjunction “Or.”

If I cause wild beasts to pass through the land …: The punishment described in verse 15 is wild animals roving throughout the land, killing the people and destroying the land, making it impossible for people to live there. Pass through the land does not mean to go across the land and leave. A better rendering here is “rove through the land.”

And they ravage it is literally “and it [the wild animals] make it [the land] childless.” New International Version says “and they leave it childless,” New Jerusalem Bible has “to rob it of its children,” and New Century Version translates “leaving the land … without children.” However, it is acceptable to translate this clause more simply as “to kill the people” (Good News Translation) or “to destroy the population” (Revised English Bible).

And it be made desolate means the land will be in ruins, empty and deserted. All its buildings will be ruined, and no one will live in the land. For the Hebrew word rendered desolate, see the comments on 12.20, where it is translated “desolation.” It is going too far to say the land will become “a barren desert” (Contemporary English Version; similarly New Jerusalem Bible).

So that no man may pass through because of the beasts means the land will be too dangerous to travel through, probably because the wild animals will be so numerous and fierce that people will be afraid of them. This clause may be rendered “People will not be able to travel there because they will be afraid of the wild animals.”

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 .