Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 22:21:
Kupsabiny: “I shall gather you in Jerusalem and I shall blow on you the fire of my anger.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “like a man who gathers silver, bronze, iron, lead or can in-order to-being-melted in the blazing furnace. Yes, I will-gather you in Jerusalem in my extreme anger, and there I will-punish you seem-like metals that being-melted.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “It will be as though I will blow on you with a hot breath that shows that I am very angry, andit will be as though you will be melted,” (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).
I will gather you and blow upon you with the fire of my wrath: See verse 20. Blow upon you with the fire of my wrath does not mean that God will blow a stream of fire out of his mouth like a mythical dragon. Rather, he compares his anger to a fire that is burning very hot due to the action of bellows. Translators may need to use a simile here, such as “Just like blowing on a fire to make it hotter, I will make you feel the fire of my anger.”
And you shall be melted in the midst of it: The extreme heat will cause the people to melt in the fire. This is a figurative description of the punishment that will come upon the people of Jerusalem.
A model for translating this verse is included at the end of the discussion on verse 22.
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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