gentiles / nations

Click here to view graphically

The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin that is often translated as “gentiles” (or “nations”) in English is often translated as a “local equivalent of ‘foreigners,'” such as “the people of other lands” (Guerrero Amuzgo), “people of other towns” (Tzeltal), “people of other languages” (San Miguel El Grande Mixtec), “strange peoples” (Navajo (Dinė)) (this and above, see Bratcher / Nida), “outsiders” (Ekari), “people of foreign lands” (Kannada), “non-Jews” (North Alaskan Inupiatun), “people being-in-darkness” (a figurative expression for people lacking cultural or religious insight) (Toraja-Sa’dan) (source for this and three above Reiling / Swellengrebel), “from different places all people” (Martu Wangka) (source: Carl Gross).

Tzeltal translates it as “people in all different towns,” Chicahuaxtla Triqui as “the people who live all over the world,” Highland Totonac as “all the outsider people,” Sayula Popoluca as “(people) in every land” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Chichimeca-Jonaz as “foreign people who are not Jews,” Sierra de Juárez Zapotec as “people of other nations” (source of this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), Highland Totonac as “outsider people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Uma as “people who are not the descendants of Israel” (source: Uma Back Translation), “other ethnic groups” (source: Newari Back Translation), and Yakan as “the other tribes” (source: Yakan Back Translation).

In Chichewa, it is translated with mitundu or “races.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

See also nations.

complete verse (Ezekiel 19:4)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 19:4:

  • Kupsabiny: “Those matters reached to other nations
    and they set a trap for that child/cub to fall into a ditch/hole.
    Then it was dragged with hooks
    along the ground until/up to Egypt.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “When the other nations learned/heard it/this they trapped him and brought to Egipto which had-been-hooked.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “When people from other nations heard about him,
    they trapped him in a pit.
    Then they used hooks
    to drag him to Egypt.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Ezekiel 19:4

The nations sounded an alarm against him: Revised Standard Version changes the Hebrew text here, which reads “And the nations heard about him” (similarly Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New International Version, New Living Translation, New Century Version, King James Version / New King James Version, New Jerusalem Bible, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). There is no need to change it (so Hebrew Old Testament Text Project).

The nations hunted and caught the lion in the normal way. First, he was taken in their pit. A pit is a hole in the ground that hunters dig and cover with branches so that an animal, not knowing that the hole is there, will fall into it and not be able to get away. For languages that do not use passive verbs, this line may be rendered “and they trapped him in a pit” (similarly Good News Translation).

And they brought him with hooks to the land of Egypt: Hooks were sometimes placed through the cheeks, lips, nose, or jaw of captured animals or people to control them (see 29.4; 38.4; 2 Kgs 19.28; Job 40.24). Some translations render the Hebrew word for hooks as “chains” (King James Version / New King James Version). This is a possible interpretation of the word, because both methods were used in ancient times to control animals and people. Good News Translation provides a good model for this line, saying “With hooks they dragged him off to Egypt.”

The picture of the lions changes to the historical situation in this verse. The fact that The nations, that is, the people from Israel’s surrounding countries, decided to hunt a single lion in the mountains of Israel shows that the parable refers to a political situation. Finally, when they took the captured lion to Egypt, it becomes clear to Ezekiel’s audience that the lion represents Jehoahaz.

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 .