mourn

The Hebrew, Latin, and Greek that is translated as “mourn” or similar in English is translated in Newari as “have one’s heart broken” or “have a bursting heart” (source: Newari Back Translation).

In Cherokee it is translated as “going around feeling badly” (source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 16).

complete verse (Ezekiel 24:16)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 24:16:

  • Kupsabiny: “‘Ezekiel, I am going to crush you with a heavy thing. I am going to take from you your person whom you have loved very much. Do not grieve or cry, shout or let your tears flow down from your eyes.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘Man, I am-going-to-take suddenly the woman whom you love dearly. But you will- not -cry and mourn for her.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “‘You human, I am going to suddenly take from youyour wife, whom you love very much. Butwhen she dies, do notshow that you are sad or lament or cry.” (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 24:16

For Son of man, see Ezek 24.2.

Behold, I am about to take the delight of your eyes away from you at a stroke: Behold renders the Hebrew particle hinneh. Here it introduces a shocking message for Ezekiel. God says he will allow Ezekiel’s wife to die suddenly, but Ezekiel must not mourn for her in the usual way. Although the Hebrew expression for the delight of your eyes can be used of things (see 1 Kgs 20.5, where it is rendered “whatever pleases them”), here it clearly refers to a person (compare Song 5.16), but we are not told that it refers to his wife until verse 18. Most languages will have an indigenous idiom to refer to a beloved person. Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version say “the person you love most,” Revised English Bible has “the dearest thing you have,” and New Living Translation translates “your dearest treasure.” Another possibility is “what [or, the person] you look at with love.” The Hebrew expression for at a stroke does not refer to the medical condition where the brain is injured by a blood clot or bleeding. Rather, it refers to something that happens “suddenly” (Contemporary English Version, New Century Version, Jerusalem Bible; compare Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “through a sudden death”). Ezekiel’s wife probably died because of a quick-acting illness (so New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). It is often more natural to move this phrase to the beginning of the sentence, as in “Very suddenly I am going to take away from you the person you love the most.”

Yet you shall not mourn or weep nor shall your tears run down: Yet renders the Hebrew waw conjunction. Here it introduces something unexpected, so another possible connector is “but” (Revised English Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). Mourn, weep, and tears run down render ordinary Hebrew expressions for the way a person reacts in grief when a loved one dies. Translators may use terms that are appropriate in their own cultures. A possible model for this sentence is “but you must not wail, cry, or shed any tears.”

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 .