complete verse (Ezekiel 27:28)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 27:28:

  • Kupsabiny: “The shores of the ocean shall quake on that day while your people scream from pain.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘ ‘The ones who-live near the sea will-tremble in fear when they hear the screaming of the crew who are-sinking.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

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 27:28

At the sound of the cry of your pilots refers to the sailors crying out in terror and distress as they drown. For pilots see Ezek 27.8. New Century Version renders this line as “when your sailors cry out.”

The countryside shakes: The Hebrew word for countryside normally refers to the common gardens and pasturelands around a village or town, but here it probably refers to the country and villages on the mainland opposite the island on which Tyre stood. New Century Version renders the countryside as “The people on the shore” (similarly Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version), and New International Reader’s Version has “The lands along the coast.” The whole area shakes, that is, the people on the shore will shake with fear as if in an earthquake (compare 26.15).

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 .