not resistant / falling into destruction

In Gbaya, the notion of something not being resistant or falling into destruction in the referenced verses is emphasized with mbulɛɛ, an ideophone used to designate something that is not resistant, that is falling into ruin, or someone who lives in poverty.

Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)

See also complete verse (Wisdom 1:11).

complete verse (Ezekiel 28:18)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 28:18:

  • Kupsabiny: “Your sins and your business of stealing where one prays from caused you shame.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Because of your many sins and cheating in business, you defiled the places where- you -worship. Therefore before/[lit. in front of] everyone who look-at you, I burned your place and you were-burned until you became just ash on the ground.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “By committing many sins
    and by trading things dishonestly,
    you caused your places of worship to become unacceptable to me.
    So I caused a fire to burn down your city.
    Your city was burned completely;
    the people who were watching it saw
    that only ashes remained on the ground.” (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 28:18

By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your trade: By rewording the ideas of verse 16, God stresses the wickedness of the king’s actions. The multitude of your iniquities were those that he committed while conducting his dishonest trade. New International Version says “By your many sins and dishonest trade” (similarly New International Reader’s Version, New Living Translation, New Century Version). Good News Translation is better with “You did such evil in buying and selling.” Contemporary English Version says “You have cheated so many other merchants,” and Revised English Bible has “So great was the sin in your dishonest trading.” Instead of the plural word iniquities, Revised English Bible reads it as a singular with “sin” (so also New English Bible; similarly New American Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Moffatt, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). This is acceptable.

You profaned your sanctuaries: The king’s wickedness in business made all his places of worship unclean and unusable. For profaned see 7.21. Your sanctuaries refers to Tyre’s pagan temples. It may be helpful to restructure the first three lines of this verse as follows: “You committed many sins when you were dishonest in your trade. This made all your places of worship unfit for worship.”

So I brought forth fire in the midst of you; it consumed you, and I turned you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all who saw you: Although on the surface God still addresses the king of Tyre, he now focuses on the city itself. God destroyed the city of Tyre with fire. It began in the midst of you, that is, in the city (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). It consumed you means the fire “burned it [the city] down” (Contemporary English Version). Turned you to ashes upon the earth means the fire left the city in ashes. Good News Translation says “reduced to ashes.” In the sight of all who saw you means the city’s punishment was visible and public, just as was the king’s punishment in the previous verse. This line may be rendered “Everyone could see what happened to you.” New Century Version provides a clear model for the last four lines of this verse, saying “So I set on fire the place where you lived, and the fire burned you up. I turned you into ashes on the ground for all those watching to see.”

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 .