silent / deserted place

In Gbaya, the notion of a silent or deserted place with no more voices in the referenced verses is emphasized with the ideophone wékéké.

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

complete verse (Ezekiel 33:28)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 33:28:

  • Kupsabiny: “I shall make the country desolate and put an end to the pride/arrogance of those people. The hills of Israel shall become quite so that no person shall ever cross there.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “I will-make the land of Israel desolate, and I will-vanish her boasting of her ability. Even her mountains will-become desolate, and no one ever will-pass-by there.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “I will cause your country to become a desolate wasteland. You will no longer be proud of being a strong country. The mountains of Israel will become very desolate, with the result that no one will walk across them.” (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 33:28

This verse describes what God will do to the land of Israel.

And I will make the land a desolation and a waste: See 6.14. Contemporary English Version says “I will make the whole country an empty wasteland.”

And her proud might shall come to an end: Compare 30.18. God will end the power that gave the Israelites pride. Israel will no longer be a strong and significant country. Her proud might refers to Israel’s arrogant confidence in her strength and military power (see the comments on 30.6). For this whole clause Good News Translation says “and the power they were so proud of will come to an end,” and New Living Translation has “Her arrogant power will come to an end.” Another possible model is “I will put an end to the power they were so proud of.”

And the mountains of Israel shall be so desolate that none will pass through: The mountains of Israel was the area where the Israelites originally settled and which remained the core of the country (see the comments on 6.2). The Hebrew verb rendered desolate comes from the same root as the noun translated desolation. It may be rendered “bare” (Contemporary English Version), “empty” (New Century Version), or “deserted” (New International Reader’s Version, Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible, Christian Community Bible, Moffatt). The mountains will be so barren that none will pass through, that is, no one will live there and no one will travel through the area (compare 29.11).

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 .