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)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 32:12:
Kupsabiny: “I shall send very fierce soldiers from other countries to destroy your people. They shall defeat/overcome the pride of Egypt and destroy all people.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “I will-have- your many people -killed by the sword of the powerful people who are the most-violent of all the nations. They will- surely -destroy all the people of Egipto as-well-as the things which this nation boasts.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “I will cause very many of your people to be killed by the swords of mighty soldiers from Babylonia, who are more ruthless/cruel than the soldiers of all other nations. They will cause the people of Egypt to quit being proud, because very many of their people will be killed.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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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.
I will cause your multitude to fall by the swords of mighty ones, all of them most terrible among the nations: God will cause the Babylonian soldiers to come and kill the people of Egypt in war. In this context your multitude refers to the people of Egypt (see the comments on 30.10). Swords is used to represent warfare here (see 11.8). Mighty ones may be rendered “mighty soldiers” (New International Reader’s Version, New Century Version), “[mighty] warriors” (New King James Version , Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, Christian Community Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Moffatt), or “strong fighting men.” God again describes these Babylonian soldiers as the most terrible, “most ruthless” (New International Version), “cruelest” (Contemporary English Version) of all people (see the comments on 28.7). They “will not show … any pity” (New International Reader’s Version) to the Egyptians. It may help to use two sentences here, for example, “I will make the people of Egypt die in war. I will send the soldiers who are the cruelest of all the nations to attack them.”
They shall bring to nought the pride of Egypt: The Egyptians had become arrogant and confident in their military strength and political power (see 30.6), and the Babylonian soldiers will bring to nought, that is, “destroy” (New Century Version), “shatter” (New International Version, New Living Translation, Christian Community Bible), “ruin” (Moffatt), that pride. New Century Version makes it clear that what the enemy will destroy is pride by saying “They will destroy the pride of Egypt.” However, Good News Translation understands that the enemy will destroy the things the Egyptians were proud of by saying “everything else you are proud of will be destroyed.” Translators will do well to find the most appropriate way in their language to refer to proud and arrogant people and to use an appropriate verb to describe the downfall of such people.
And all its multitude shall perish repeats the same idea as the first clause of this verse, and may be rendered “and all your people will die.”
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 .
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