24Mortal, the inhabitants of these waste places in the land of Israel keep saying, “Abraham was only one man, yet he got possession of the land, but we are many; the land is surely given us to possess.”
Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)
The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).
For this verse, the Jarai and the Adamawa Fulfulde translation both use the inclusive pronoun, including everyone.
The name that is transliterated as “Abraham” in English means “father of a multitude,” “father of mercy,” “father of many nations.” (Source: Cornwall / Smith 1997 )
In the vast majority of sign languages, including American Sign Language it is translated with the sign signifying “hold back arm” (referring to Genesis 22:12).
In Vietnamese (Hanoi) Sign Language it is translated with a sign for that demonstrates his new destiny. Previously, he had been called to wander from his home, and the name “Abram” reflected this movement (see here). The new sign name is in one location and stays there, showing Abraham will be given a land to call his own. At this time, Abraham was in the southern part of Canaan, which is shown on the base arm by the location near the elbow. (Source: The Vietnamese Sign Language translation team, VSLBT)
“Abraham” in Vietnamese Sign Language, source: SooSL
In Tira it is transliterated as Abaram. The choice of this, rather than the widely-known “Ibrahim,” as used in the Tira translation of the Qu’ran, was to offset it against the Muslim transliteration which originates from Arabic. (Source: J.A. Naudé, C.L. Miller Naudé, J.O. Obono in Acta Theologica 43/2, 2023, p. 129ff. )
Click or tap here to see two short video clips about Abraham (source: Bible Lands 2012)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 33:24:
Kupsabiny: “‘Ezekiel, those people who live in deserted/ruined homes in Israel are saying, ‘Abraham was one person but he was given the land. We are many and we have been given this land to be ours.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “‘Man, the people who live there in the ruined towns of Israel say, ‘Abraham was only one, and to him was given the entire land. We (incl.) are many, so surely we should have-possession of this land.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “‘You human, the people who are living in the ruins in Israel are saying, ‘Abraham was only one person, but Yahweh promised him that he and his descendants would possess this land. But we are many; so surely this land has been given to us by Yahweh to continue to possess.’” (Source: Translation for Translators)
The inhabitants of these waste places in the land of Israel keep saying: The speakers here are the people who still lived in the land of Israel after Jerusalem was destroyed. These waste places refers to “the ruined cities” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation) and “those broken-down buildings” (New International Reader’s Version) that were all that remained after the Babylonians had destroyed the city of Jerusalem and the surrounding villages. This clause may be rendered “The people who are living in the ruined cities in the land of Israel keep saying.”
Abraham was only one man, yet he got possession of the land …: The people remaining in the ruined land of Israel were using this saying to claim the land as their own property. They looked back to the early history of Israel, when God promised to give the land to Abraham, even though he had no children at the time (see Gen 12.7; 15.18-20). He got possession of the land does not mean he bought the land or captured it in war. Those languages that need to explain how Abraham got the land may say that God gave it to him; for example, Contemporary English Version renders this sentence as “Abraham was just one man, and the LORD gave him this whole land of Israel.”
But we are many; the land is surely given us to possess continues the people’s saying. Their argument was that, if God had given the land to one man, Abraham, he would also give it to them as their own property, because there were many of them. Contemporary English Version continues with “There are many of us, and so this land must be ours.”
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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