desolate / destroy

In Gbaya, the notion of “(to make) desolate” or “to destroy” is emphasized with lɔkɔti-lɔkɔti, an ideophone used to describe complete destruction, devastation.

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 other occurrences of lɔkɔti-lɔkɔti.

gentiles / nations

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The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin that is often translated as “gentiles” (or “nations”) in English is often translated as a “local equivalent of ‘foreigners,'” such as “the people of other lands” (Guerrero Amuzgo), “people of other towns” (Tzeltal), “people of other languages” (San Miguel El Grande Mixtec), “strange peoples” (Navajo (Dinė)) (this and above, see Bratcher / Nida), “outsiders” (Ekari), “people of foreign lands” (Kannada), “non-Jews” (North Alaskan Inupiatun), “people being-in-darkness” (a figurative expression for people lacking cultural or religious insight) (Toraja-Sa’dan) (source for this and three above Reiling / Swellengrebel), “from different places all people” (Martu Wangka) (source: Carl Gross).

Tzeltal translates it as “people in all different towns,” Chicahuaxtla Triqui as “the people who live all over the world,” Highland Totonac as “all the outsider people,” Sayula Popoluca as “(people) in every land” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Chichimeca-Jonaz as “foreign people who are not Jews,” Sierra de Juárez Zapotec as “people of other nations” (source of this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), Highland Totonac as “outsider people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Uma as “people who are not the descendants of Israel” (source: Uma Back Translation), “other ethnic groups” (source: Newari Back Translation), and Yakan as “the other tribes” (source: Yakan Back Translation).

In Chichewa, it is translated with mitundu or “races.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

See also nations.

complete verse (Ezekiel 30:11)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 30:11:

  • Kupsabiny: “He shall come with his soldiers who are rude/brutal in the whole world shall and come to demolish that land of Egypt. They shall kill those Egyptians so the bodies fill the land.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “He and his soldiers, who are the-most-violent of all the nations, I will-send to Egipto to destroy it. They will-attack it, and the dead-ones will-be-scattered everywhere.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Nebuchadnezzar and his army, whose soldiers are extremely ruthless,
    will come to destroy Egypt.
    They will pull out their swords
    and fill Egypt with the corpses of those whom they have killed.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Ezekiel 30:11

He and his people with him refers to “Nebuchadnezzar and his army” (New Century Version; similarly Good News Translation, New International Reader’s Version, New Living Translation). New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh says “He, together with his troops” (similarly Contemporary English Version).

For the most terrible of the nations, which describes the Babylonians, see 28.7.

Shall be brought in to destroy the land implies that God will send the Babylonian army not only to kill the Egyptians, but also to make the ground of Egypt itself unproductive by burning its crops and cutting down its trees. It may be clearer in some languages to translate the first sentence of this verse as “He and his soldiers [or, army] are the most ruthless [or, violent] people of all the nations. I will send them in to destroy the land [of Egypt].”

And they shall draw their swords against Egypt means the Babylonian soldiers will “unsheathe” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) or “pull out” (New Century Version) their swords to kill the Egyptians. For draw their swords, see the comments on 5.2. This is another example of sword being used to represent war (see Ezek 30.4), so this clause may be rendered “They will make war against Egypt” (New Living Translation).

And fill the land with the slain is a figurative expression that means the Babylonian soldiers will kill very many Egyptians. Slain refers to people who are killed (see Ezek 30.4), and may be rendered “corpses” (Good News Translation) or “dead bodies” (Contemporary English Version, New International Reader’s Version). Translations have used various idiomatic expressions to describe the slaughter here, for example, “and leave your dead bodies piled up everywhere” (Contemporary English Version), “and the land will be full of corpses” (Good News Translation), and “until slaughtered Egyptians cover the ground” (New Living Translation). Another model is “They will fill the land with bodies of the people they kill.” Most languages will have ways to express this idea vividly.

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 .