complete verse (Ezekiel 14:19)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 14:19:

  • Kupsabiny: “Or if I was angry and sent to that land an epidemic to kill many people and their animals,” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘Or for-example, in my anger I will-send a disease to that nation to kill her residents and animals.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Or, if I send a plague into that land and cause the people and the animals to diefrom the plague because I am very angry with those people,” (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 14:19

Or if I send a pestilence into that land …: For the fourth time the same pattern appears in verses 19-20 as in the previous verses. Here God’s punishment for the sinful nation is pestilence (see 5.12), which may be rendered “disease” (New Century Version), “deadly disease” (Contemporary English Version), “epidemic” (Good News Translation), or “plague” (New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible).

And pour out my wrath upon it with blood means God will kill many people and animals in his anger. For the imagery of God pouring out his anger as if it were a boiling hot liquid, see the comments on 7.8 and 9.8. With blood should not be translated as if God were pouring out blood and his anger from the same container. The blood is the means through which God will show his anger, so New International Version says “through bloodshed.” Blood refers to the people and animals dying from disease. Good News Translation expresses the sense of this clause by saying “and in my anger take many lives.”

To cut off from it man and beast: See verses 13 and 17. This clause may be combined with the previous one by saying “and in my anger I kill all the people and animals in the land.”

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 .