12Say now to the rebellious house: Do you not know what these things mean? Tell them: The king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, took its king and its officials, and brought them back with him to Babylon.
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)
Some languages do not have a concept of kingship and therefore no immediate equivalent for the Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin that is translated as “king” in English. Here are some (back-) translations:
Ninia Yali: “big brother with the uplifted name” (source: Daud Soesilio in Noss 2007, p. 175)
Nyamwezi: mutemi: generic word for ruler, by specifying the city or nation it becomes clear what kind of ruler (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Ghomála’: Fo (“The word Fo refers to the paramount ruler in the kingdoms of West Cameroon. He holds administrative, political, and religious power over his own people, who are divided into two categories: princes (descendants of royalty) and servants (everyone else).” (Source: Michel Kenmogne in Theologizing in Context: An Example from the Study of a Ghomala’ Christian Hymn))
Faye Edgerton retells how the term in Navajo (Dinė) was determined:
“[This term was] easily expressed in the language of Biblical culture, which had kings and noblemen with their brilliant trappings and their position of honor and praise. But leadership among the Navajos is not accompanied by any such titles or distinctions of dress. Those most respected, especially in earlier days, were their headmen, who were the leaders in raids, and the shaman, who was able to serve the people by appealing for them to the gods, or by exorcising evil spirits. Neither of these made any outward show. Neither held his position by political intrigue or heredity. If the headman failed consistently in raids, he was superceded by a better warrior. If the shaman failed many times in his healing ceremonies, it was considered that he was making mistakes in the chants, or had lost favor with the gods, and another was sought. The term Navajos use for headman is derived from a verb meaning ‘to move the head from side to side as in making an oration.’ The headman must be a good orator, able to move the people to go to war, or to follow him in any important decision. This word is naat’áanii which now means ‘one who rules or bosses.’ It is employed now for a foreman or boss of any kind of labor, as well as for the chairman of the tribal council. So in order to show that the king is not just a common boss but the highest ruler, the word ‘aláahgo, which expresses the superlative degree, was put before naat’áanii, and so ‘aláahgo naat’áanii ‘anyone-more-than-being around-he-moves-his-head-the-one-who’ means ‘the highest ruler.’ Naat’áanii was used for governor as the context usually shows that the person was a ruler of a country or associated with kings.”
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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 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).
Say now to the rebellious house: God tells Ezekiel to speak to the rebellious people of Israel. Because he first asks a question, some translations render Say as “Ask” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version; compare verse 9). Now renders the Hebrew particle naʾ, which adds emphasis here. Some translations omit it (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New International Version, New Living Translation, Revised English Bible, Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible). For the rebellious house, see the comments on 2.5 and 12.2. This phrase describes the Israelites as rebellious. It may be rendered “the people who refuse to obey” (New Century Version) or simply “these rebels” (Good News Translation, New Living Translation).
Do you not know what these things mean?: This question is addressed to the people of Israel and expects the answer will be “No.” This rhetorical question may be rendered as a statement by saying “You don’t know what these things mean.” These things refers to the parable of the eagles and the vine, which Good News Translation makes clear by rendering this clause and the previous one as “Ask these rebels if they know what the parable means.”
Tell them: Immediately, presumably before the Israelites had a chance to answer, God tells Ezekiel to give them the explanation of the story.
For the attention-getting word Behold, see Ezek 17.7.
The king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and took her king and her princes and brought them to him to Babylon: The explanation applies the story to the political situation of Jerusalem at that time, but God does not try to apply every detail of the story to the historical background. In fact, the eagles and the vine are not mentioned at all in the explanation. The three main people mentioned in the explanation are the king of Babylon, that is, Nebuchadnezzar, her king, that is, the king of Judah, Jehoiachin, and in verse 13 “one of the seed royal,” that is, Zedekiah. Although our comments on this subsection will use these names for the sake of clarity, it is best not to include them in translation.
The Hebrew word for Babylon can refer to either the city “Babylon” or to the country “Babylonia” (see the comments on 12.13). In this verse it is best to understand both instances as referring to the country (so Good News Translation). Her princes probably refers to members of the royal family of Judah, but it is unlikely that they were princes in the strict sense, that is, sons of the king (see 11.1). In many cultures “chiefs” would be an appropriate translation for princes. Many translations take them to be the “officials” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), “leaders” (Moffatt) or “important men” (New Century Version) of Jerusalem, but these renderings are too general here. In some languages the verbs came and brought would both mean moving to where the readers are. If so, translators may say “went” and “led.”
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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