complete verse (Ezekiel 23:13)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 23:13:

  • Kupsabiny: “I saw that (she) also was defiling (her)self because they both went on one road/way.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “I saw that she was like her sibling; she also defiled herself.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “I saw what she did that caused her to became unacceptable to me, just like herolder sister.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

1st person pronoun referring to God (Japanese)

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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.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also pronoun for “God”.

Translation commentary on Ezekiel 23:13

And I saw that she was defiled: God saw that Oholibah made herself ritually unclean by her wicked actions (see Ezek 23.7). Good News Translation provides a good model here, saying “I saw that she was completely immoral.”

They both took the same way means “both sisters were equally bad” (New Jerusalem Bible). Good News Translation says “the second sister was as bad as the first.” Another possible model is “both sisters behaved in exactly the same way.”

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 .