complete verse (Ezekiel 27:4)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 27:4:

  • Kupsabiny: “You live at the ocean and builders built you to become extremely beautiful!” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “You widened your territory in the sea. You were-made- very -beautiful by the ones-who-built you.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “You controlled what was bought and sold by people who lived along the sea.
    Those who built your city caused it to become very beautiful.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

sea / lake

The various Greek, Aramaic, Ge’ez, and Latin and Hebrew terms that are translated as “sea,” “ocean,” or “lake” in English are all translated in Chichewa with one term: nyanja. Malawi, where Chichewa is spoken, has a lot of lakes but does not share a border with the ocean. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

In Malagasy culture, the sea is perceived as sacred because it was a path taken by the ancestors. That is why the Malagasy word for the “sea” is ranomasina, which literally means “the sacred water.” The word masina actually has two different meanings: “salted” and “sacred/holy.” Salt is used for the conservation of some foods, such as meat or fish, that are to be set aside for later use. In this sense, the Malagasy phrase for “Holy Spirit” has the literal meaning of “Salted Spirit.” (Source: Brigitte Rabarijaona in The Bible Translator 2022, p. 103ff.)

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 27:4

Your borders are in the heart of the seas: This line reflects that the city of Tyre was on an island, surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea. This is where the picture language of Tyre as a ship starts, because the Hebrew word for borders may also mean “edges,” that is, the rim or hull of a ship. New Living Translation renders this line as “You extended your boundaries into the sea,” but this translation loses the picture of the small island or ship surrounded by the sea, so we do not recommend it. Revised English Bible and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh are better with “Your frontiers were on the high seas.” The heart of the seas refers to the deepest parts of the sea, so another possible model is “Your edges [or, hull] extend right out into the middle of the sea.”

Your builders made perfect your beauty: Your builders can refer to the builders of the city and those who built the ship. Some translations make the reference to the ship explicit at this point; for example, Good News Translation renders this line as “Your builders made you like a beautiful ship,” and Contemporary English Version has “You are a ship built to perfection.” These renderings are acceptable, but it is best to keep both meanings open for as long as possible. Parole de Vie provides a good model here, saying “and those [people] who built you made you perfectly beautiful.”

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 .