army

The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Ge’ez, and Latin that is translated as “army” in English is translated in Chichewa as “group of warriors.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

complete verse (Ezekiel 27:10)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 27:10:

  • Kupsabiny: “Your soldiers came from Persia, Lydia and Libya. Those soldiers guarded/kept you with their shields and their hats/helmets making you very famous.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Your soldiers are the ones-from-Persia, Lydia and Put. They hang their shields and helmets on your wall, and it was-able-to-gave/brought honor to you.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Men from as far away as Persia, Lydia, and Libya were soldiers in your army.
    They hung their shields and helmets on the walls of your city,
    and that caused people to admire your city.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

2nd person pronoun with low register (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 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. )

See also first person pronoun with low register and third person pronoun with low register.

Translation commentary on Ezekiel 27:10

Persia and Lud and Put were in your army as your men of war: The picture language of Tyre as a ship resumes in this verse. Ancient trading ships used to carry soldiers for protection against pirates, and God describes how the “ship” of Tyre also carried soldiers to protect it. Those who protected the ship were men from Persia, Lud, and Put. Persia was in the area that is now known as Iran. Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation, and New King James Version identify Lud as “Lydia,” which was the western part of the country that is now called Turkey, and Put as “Libya,” which was in north Africa. These three countries were a long way from Tyre, almost on the edges of the known world at the time. Soldiers from these distant countries were in your army as your men of war, that is, “served as soldiers in your army” (New International Version, New International Reader’s Version). The fact that soldiers from these distant countries served in Tyre’s army showed how important Tyre was and how far its influence had spread. Good News Translation provides a good model for this whole sentence, saying “Soldiers from Persia, Lydia, and Libya served in your army.”

They hung the shield and helmet in you: Soldiers who traveled on ancient ships used to hang their weapons and shields on the sides of the ships around the decks. Here God describes the soldiers on the “ship” of Tyre hanging their shields and helmets around the deck. For shield and helmet, see the comments on 23.24. These two nouns have a collective sense here, so they may be rendered as plurals (so Good News Translation).

They gave you splendor was the result of the soldiers hanging their weapons around the deck of the ship. They were for decoration (so Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). It would have been impressive seeing the sun reflecting off dozens of shiny shields and helmets. In this way God shows how famous and great Tyre was. Splendor refers to “honor” (New Living Translation) and “fame” (similarly Contemporary English Version). By hanging up their weapons, these soldiers helped give Tyre its glory and reputation, its “big name” (Buk Bibel). God does not tell us how they actually did this. They may have done it through war, winning victories against Tyre’s enemies, or it may have just been their presence in the city that enhanced its reputation in this way.

For a model of this verse see the discussion on verse 11.

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 .