cut into pieces

In Gbaya, the notion of cutting (or tearing) into pieces is emphasized with the ideophone sɛ́kɛ́ɗɛ́-sɛ́kɛ́ɗɛ́.

Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)

complete verse (Ezekiel 16:40)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 16:40:

  • Kupsabiny: “Those people will incite many people to throw stones at you and cut you to pieces completely with their swords.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “They will-have- you -attack by a group of men who will-stone and chop you with sword.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “They will bring a mob to attack you, and that mob will throw stones at you and cut you to pieces with their swords.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Ezekiel 16:40

They shall bring up a host against you: The pronoun They refers to the girl’s former lovers who are now enemies. Translators may need to make this explicit by saying “The former lovers” or “These enemies.” They will gather a host to execute her. In Lev 24.16 “the congregation” of the people executes the evildoer. Here a different Hebrew word is used for host, but the meaning is the same, namely, “assembly of citizens” (New Jerusalem Bible; similarly New King James Version , New American Bible). Some translations imply that this group is an unruly mob; for example, New American Standard Bible renders this clause as “They will incite a crowd against you” (similarly Good News Translation), and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “Then they shall assemble a mob against you.” However, it is better to avoid this implication. A possible model is “They will assemble a large group of people against you.”

And they shall stone you means the large group will kill the girl by throwing stones at her. According to the Law of Moses, this was the way to execute adulterers and murderers. The pronoun they refers to the group of people whom the enemies bring against her.

And cut you to pieces with their swords means the large group will cut the girl’s dead body into pieces with large fighting knives. For swords see 5.1.

A model for this verse is:

• They [or, Your lovers] will gather a large group of people against you who will stone you and cut up your body with their swords.

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 .