king

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Some languages do not have a concept of kingship and therefore no immediate equivalent for the Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin that is translated as “king” in English. Here are some (back-) translations:

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  • Piro: “a great one”
  • Highland Totonac: “the big boss”
  • Huichol: “the one who commanded” (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Ekari: “the one who holds the country” (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • Una: weik sienyi: “big headman” (source: Kroneman 2004, p. 407)
  • Pass Valley Yali: “Big Man” (source: Daud Soesilo)
  • Ninia Yali: “big brother with the uplifted name” (source: Daud Soesilio in Noss 2007, p. 175)
  • Nyamwezi: mutemi: generic word for ruler, by specifying the city or nation it becomes clear what kind of ruler (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
  • Ghomála’: Fo (“The word Fo refers to the paramount ruler in the kingdoms of West Cameroon. He holds administrative, political, and religious power over his own people, who are divided into two categories: princes (descendants of royalty) and servants (everyone else).” (Source: Michel Kenmogne in Theologizing in Context: An Example from the Study of a Ghomala’ Christian Hymn))

Faye Edgerton retells how the term in Navajo (Dinė) was determined:

“[This term was] easily expressed in the language of Biblical culture, which had kings and noblemen with their brilliant trappings and their position of honor and praise. But leadership among the Navajos is not accompanied by any such titles or distinctions of dress. Those most respected, especially in earlier days, were their headmen, who were the leaders in raids, and the shaman, who was able to serve the people by appealing for them to the gods, or by exorcising evil spirits. Neither of these made any outward show. Neither held his position by political intrigue or heredity. If the headman failed consistently in raids, he was superceded by a better warrior. If the shaman failed many times in his healing ceremonies, it was considered that he was making mistakes in the chants, or had lost favor with the gods, and another was sought. The term Navajos use for headman is derived from a verb meaning ‘to move the head from side to side as in making an oration.’ The headman must be a good orator, able to move the people to go to war, or to follow him in any important decision. This word is naat’áanii which now means ‘one who rules or bosses.’ It is employed now for a foreman or boss of any kind of labor, as well as for the chairman of the tribal council. So in order to show that the king is not just a common boss but the highest ruler, the word ‘aláahgo, which expresses the superlative degree, was put before naat’áanii, and so ‘aláahgo naat’áanii ‘anyone-more-than-being around-he-moves-his-head-the-one-who’ means ‘the highest ruler.’ Naat’áanii was used for governor as the context usually shows that the person was a ruler of a country or associated with kings.”

(Source: Faye Edgerton in The Bible Translator 1962, p. 25ff. )

See also king (Japanese honorifics).

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 27:35

Verses 35-36 describe the reactions of three groups of people who have watched the fall of Tyre. These two verses continue the funeral song begun at verse 32b (so Revised Standard Version) even though Good News Translation ends it at the end of verse 34.

All the inhabitants of the coastlands are appalled at you: The inhabitants of the coastlands were the people who lived in the areas along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea and on the islands just off the coast (see the comments on 26.15). They are appalled at you means they are “shocked” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New International Reader’s Version, New Century Version) or “stunned” (New Jerusalem Bible) at what happened to Tyre. For the Hebrew verb rendered appalled, see the comments on 3.15, where it is translated “overwhelmed.”

And their kings are horribly afraid: Revised Standard Version captures only one part of the meaning here. As well as strong fear, the Hebrew verb rendered are horribly afraid carries the sense of “horror” (so Contemporary English Version, New International Version, New Living Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Moffatt), that feeling of strongly disliking something and wanting to turn away from it or keep it away from oneself. The Hebrew verb is repeated here for emphasis. New English Bible and Revised English Bible render this line well with “their hair stands on end,” which is a picture of one’s hair bristling when one becomes afraid when something terrible seems to be about to happen, or something spooky has happened.

Their faces are convulsed is literally “they thunder with respect to their faces,” which describes the expression on the faces of the kings who have watched Tyre fall, but it is not clear what this expression is. Some translations think it is a look of “terror” (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New Century Version) or “horror” (so Revised English Bible), or both (so Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). Others think that their faces are drawn out of shape (so Revised Standard Version/New Revised Standard Version, New American Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Moffatt). Still others put the two ideas together; for example, New International Version has “distorted with fear,” and New International Reader’s Version says “twisted in horror.” Some use a fairly neutral term, such as “troubled” (King James Version / New King James Version, New American Standard Bible) or “downcast” (New Jerusalem Bible; similarly Jerusalem Bible), but these renderings do not seem strong enough in this context. There does not seem to be any justification to understand that their faces were contorted in any way. Greenberg has identified it as a sullen look, where the face is dark, gloomy and threatening. It was probably mixed with some anger and much fear as well. Translators will do well to look for words in their own language that capture this mixture of emotions.

Verse 35 is another example of the type of parallelism seen in verse 33 whereby the second part adds something to the first part. The first half speaks of inhabitants, the second half of their kings. In the first half the people are shocked, but the kings in the second half are absolutely horrified and even their faces show terror and distress. Revised English Bible captures this parallelism well as follows:

All who dwell on the coasts and islands
are aghast at your fate;
horror is written on the faces of their kings
and their hair stands on end.

Another model is:

• All the people who live along the coast are shocked at what happened to you.
As for the kings, their hair stands up in terror and their faces show how horrified they are.

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 .