Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 22:24:
Kupsabiny: “‘Ezekiel, tell these people of Israel, ‘I am going to punish you and spit/vomit my anger on you. That is when you (plur.) shall crack like soil when rain has gone.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “‘Man, tell the Israelinhon that because they do- not -allow that I will-clean them I will- never -pity them in the day that I will-show my anger to them.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “‘You human, say to the Israeli people, ‘WhenYahweh is angry with you, there has been no rain or showers in your country.’” (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 second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used anata (あなた) is typically used when the speaker is humbly addressing another person.
In these verses, however, omae (おまえ) is used, a cruder second person pronoun, that Jesus for instance chooses when chiding his disciples. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
Say to her: The pronoun her probably refers to the land of Israel (so New International Version, New Century Version), not the city of Jerusalem (so Revised English Bible). This clause may be rendered “say to the land [of Israel]” or “say to the people of the land [of Israel].”
You are a land that is not cleansed, or rained upon in the day of indignation: A land that is not cleansed means it is “unholy” (Good News Translation), “full of sin” (Contemporary English Version), or “ritually unclean” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). This phrase may be rendered “a land that is not clean in my sight.” The fact that no rain has fallen there (not … rained upon) emphasizes the sinfulness of the land (compare Lev 26.4-5, 19 concerning the lack of rain as punishment for sin). So closely are these two ideas related that Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version omit the reference to rain, but it is better to keep it. In the day of indignation means the time when God will punish his people in anger. Indignation is another word for anger (see 21.31), and day refers to the time of judgment, not a period of 24 hours. Translators may render these two clauses as “You are a land that is not clean in my sight, so you will not have any rain when I punish you in anger.”
Many translations follow the Septuagint here and change the Hebrew text to include a second reference to rain; for example, New International Version says “You are a land that has had no rain or showers in the day of wrath” (similarly New Century Version, Revised English Bible, Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, Moffatt). Although the meaning is the same, it is not as clear, and there is no textual basis for making the change. It is best not to follow this reading.
Models for this verse are:
• “Mortal man, say to the land of Israel: ‘You are a land that is so unholy. I am so angry with you that it will not rain at all when I punish you.’
• “Mortal man, say to the land of Israel: ‘You are a land that will not become [ritually] clean or have any rain at the time when I punish you in my anger.’
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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