Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 23:48:
Kupsabiny: “So, I shall put an end to the lust of women in the whole land so that it acts as a warning to the prostitutes who would want to imitate them.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “In this way I can-put-an-end to the dirty/rude deeds in this nation. And this also will-become a warning to others never to follow what they did.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “In that way I will cause them to stop their immoral behavior. It will warn other women to not imitate/do what you people of Jerusalem are doing.” (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).
In this verse and the next one God addresses directly Oholah and Oholibah, that is, the people of Samaria and Jerusalem. The Hebrew pronoun for you is plural, referring to Oholah and Oholibah. Translators will need to take care that the decisions they made earlier in the chapter regarding which pronouns to use remain consistent right to the end; for example, Contemporary English Version consistently uses second person pronouns throughout this subsection to refer to the two sisters.
Thus I will put an end to lewdness in the land: See verse 27. Here lewdness refers to the sexual immorality of Oholah and Oholibah, which stands for their worship of false gods. It may not be natural in some languages to use the impersonal construction I will put an end to lewdness, so translators may have to say “I will stop you from committing sexual sins.” The land is the country of Israel.
That all women may take warning and not commit lewdness as you have done: God will bring an end to the sexual immorality of Oholah and Oholibah, so that it will be a warning to other women not to do the same immoral things. Since the two women of the parable stand for cities of Samaria and Jerusalem, it may be that the women mentioned here refer to the people of other towns and villages in Israel and Judah. However, translators should not make this explicit. A possible model here is “This will be a warning to all women so that they will not commit sexual sins as you have done.” Most commentators take the view that this last half of the verse is a general moral statement against adultery and sexual immorality. This view does not fit the context at all. In the context of the parable, the issue is not sexual immorality but unfaithfulness to God. The two women, Oholah and Oholibah, stand for cities and nations, and their sexual immorality stands for unfaithfulness to God and the worship of false gods. The parable was addressed to the surviving people of Judah, whether in exile or still in the land. It should be taken as a warning to them to remain faithful to God, and not to look to other nations for help. If they did not remain faithful, they risked being punished as the cities of Samaria and Jerusalem were.
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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