22Yet survivors shall be left in it, sons and daughters who will be brought out; they will come out to you. When you see their ways and their deeds, you will be consoled for the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, for all that I have brought upon it.
The name that is transliterated as “Jerusalem” in English is signed in French Sign Language with a sign that depicts worshiping at the Western Wall in Jerusalem:
While a similar sign is also used in British Sign Language, another, more neutral sign that combines the sign “J” and the signs for “place” is used as well. (Source: Anna Smith)
“Jerusalem” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “survive,” “escape,” “save,” or similar in English is translated in the Contemporary Chichewa translation (2002/2016) in these verses with pulumuka, describing someone whose life was in danger but who has freed himself or herself. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 14:22:
Kupsabiny: “Only a few people shall escape. And when they come to where you (plur.) are and you see how big a sin they have, you will agree that they deserved to be punished,” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “But there some who-will-be-left alive among them, and they will-be-brought here in Babilonia in-order to-be-joined with you as captives. You will-see how wicked are their ways and their doings, and your bad feeling against me in my punishing Jerusalem will-vanish.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “But some of your people will remain alive, both adults and children. They will come to you, Ezekiel, in Babylon. And when you see theirdisgusting behavior and actions, you will realize that I had good reasons for causing the people of Jerusalem to experience those many great disasters that I have sent to them.” (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).
Yet, if there should be left in it any survivors to lead out sons and daughters: New King James Version reflects the Hebrew better here with “Yet behold, there shall be left in it a remnant who will be brought out, both sons and daughters,” and so does New Revised Standard Version with “Yet, survivors shall be left in it, sons and daughters who will be brought out” (similarly New International Version). Yet is literally “And behold.” The Hebrew word hinneh (“behold”) draws attention to something surprising here. It is surprising that after God’s four terrible punishments, there will actually be some survivors in Jerusalem. It will be good if translators can express this word here. Block does so by beginning this verse with “But look!” The survivors are the people who will not die in the judgment of Jerusalem. Instead of to lead out sons and daughters, the Hebrew text has “sons and daughter who will be brought out” (New Revised Standard Version). In Hebrew the verb here is passive, not active. Languages that do not have the passive voice will need to say that someone, probably the enemy soldiers, will bring the survivors out of the city. In Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation the survivors and the sons and daughters are two different groups, but in fact they are the same group of people in the Hebrew text. The sons and daughters are the survivors. Sons and daughters may be interpreted in two different ways as follows: (1) this phrase may refer to the actual children of the people in Ezekiel’s audience who had to leave their children in Jerusalem when they were taken into exile in Babylonia, or (2) it may be a figurative expression for the inhabitants of Jerusalem (so New Jerusalem Bible). We prefer the second interpretation.
When they come forth to you renders an independent clause in Hebrew, which is literally “behold they will come out to you.” It is introduced by the Hebrew word hinneh (rendered “behold” in King James Version) to continue the element of surprise and excitement that there are any survivors at all. Revised Standard Version makes this clause a subordinate one with the conjunction when, but it is better to keep it independent as in New Revised Standard Version, which says “they will come out to you” (similarly New International Version), that is, the survivors will come from Jerusalem to Babylonia. The Hebrew pronoun for you is plural, referring to Ezekiel’s audience in Babylonia. Contemporary English Version implies that it refers only to Ezekiel, but this is incorrect.
And you see their ways and their doings: Their ways and their doings refers to the wicked behavior and actions of the survivors from Jerusalem. New Jerusalem Bible says “their conduct and actions” (similarly New American Bible), and Revised English Bible has “how they have behaved and what they have done.” Contemporary English Version combines these two phrases, saying “how sinful they are” (similarly Good News Translation). New International Version appropriately renders this clause as a subordinate one, saying “and when you see their conduct and their actions” (similarly New Revised Standard Version).
You will be consoled for the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem: When Ezekiel’s audience sees the sinful lifestyle of the survivors from Jerusalem, they will not feel so sad about God’s destruction of Jerusalem because they will understand that God was right to punish the city and its people. This clause may be rendered “you will feel better about the terrible things I did to Jerusalem” (similarly New Living Translation).
For all that I have brought upon it: The clause simply repeats the sense of the previous one for emphasis.
A model for this verse is:
• Hey! There will be some people—men and women—left in Jerusalem who will stay alive. The enemy soldiers will bring them out of the city, and, yes, they will come to you here to Babylonia. When you see them, you will realize how sinful they were, and then you will not feel so sad that I, Yahweh, did all those terrible things to Jerusalem.
An alternative model for the first part of the verse is:
• Hey! There will be some people left in Jerusalem who will stay alive. They will be your sons and daughters who have been wicked and do not deserve to be saved. The enemy soldiers will bring them out of the city.
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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