adultery

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The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “adultery” in English (here etymologically meaning “to alter”) is typically understood as “marital infidelity.” It is (back-) translated in the following ways:

  • Highland Totonac: “to do something together”
  • Yucateco: “pair-sin”
  • Ngäbere: “robbing another’s half self-possession” (compare “fornication” which is “robbing self-possession,” that is, to rob what belongs to a person)
  • Kaqchikel, Chol: “to act like a dog” (see also licentiousness)
  • Toraja-Sa’dan: “to measure the depth of the river of (another’s) marriage”
  • North Alaskan Inupiatun: “married people using what is not theirs” (compare “fornication” which is “unmarried people using what is not theirs”) (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Purari: “play hands with” or “play eyes with”
  • Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “talk secretly with spouses of our fellows”
  • Isthmus Zapotec: “go in with other people’s spouses”
  • Tzeltal: “practice illicit relationship with women”
  • Huehuetla Tepehua: “live with some one who isn’t your wife”
  • Central Tarahumara: “sleep with a strange partner”
  • Hopi: “tamper with marriage” (source for this and seven above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
  • German: Ehebrecher or “marriage breaker” / Ehe brechen or “breaking of marriage” (source: Zetzsche)
  • In Falam Chin the term for “adultery” is the phrase for “to share breast” which relates to adultery by either sex. (Source: David Clark)
  • In Ixcatlán Mazatec a specification needs to be made to include both genders. (Source: Robert Bascom)
  • Likewise in Hiligaynon: “commit-adultery-with-a-man or commit-adultery-with-a-woman” (source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

See also adultery, adulterer, adulteress, and you shall not commit adultery.

complete verse (Ezekiel 16:38)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 16:38:

  • Kupsabiny: “I will condemn you on account of your promiscuity and murder. I shall punish you for the anger which you have strangled me with so that I shall kill you.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “I will-punish you in your committing-adultery and killing. And in my fierce anger, I will-kill you.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “I will punish you like women who commit adultery and who murder people are punished. I will get revenge on you and get rid of you because I am extremely angry with you.” (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 16:38

And I will judge you as women who break wedlock and shed blood are judged: Women who break wedlock are adulterers, and women who shed blood are murderers. Thus God will impose on the girl the same penalties that apply to adulterers and murderers, namely, death (see Lev 20.10; 24.17). Good News Translation says “I will condemn you for adultery and murder,” and New Century Version has “I will punish you as women guilty of adultery or as murderers are punished.” Another possible model is “I will punish you as people punish women who are guilty of adultery or murder.”

And bring upon you the blood of wrath and jealousy clearly indicates that the girl will die because of her sins. Bring upon you the blood means “punish you with death” (Good News Translation). The Hebrew word for wrath has the idea of a burning emotion inside a person, and the word for jealousy refers to a very strong, intense emotion that can be positive or negative (see the comments on 5.13). In English the word “jealous” has the idea of marital suspicion. In this context, where God is judging his unfaithful wife, such a meaning might be appropriate, but it is far better to interpret these two words of emotion as both referring to intense anger here. They may be combined by saying “burning rage” or “fierce anger” (Contemporary English Version).

A model for this verse is:

• When I judge you, I will give you the same sentence as those women who commit adultery and murder. I will sentence you to death in my burning rage.

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 .