16I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strays, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.
The Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic and Latin that is translated as “justice” in English is translated in American Sign Language with a sign that describes the quality or principle of fairness, righteousness, and impartiality in treating other people. A literal back-translation of the signs are “FOLLOW(God is implied) ACTIONS, DECISIONS JUST-RIGHT”. A more idiomatic back-translation would be: “actions and decisions are right/fitting/just in accordance to God’s will.” The movement in the signs itself helps to indicate that this is a noun, not a verb. (Source: Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)
“Justice” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 34:16:
Kupsabiny: “I shall go around searching for the lost ones and bring back the lonely/isolated ones. I shall treat the broken ones and comfort the weak but I shall destroy those who think they are strong and those with power because I am a shepherd who does what is right.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “I will-look for those who were-lost and gone-astray. I will-bind-up the ones who have wounds and will-strengthen the ones who are weak. But I will-destroy the ones who-are-fat and strong. I will-do to them what is just.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “I will search for those who are lost and bring back the ones who have strayed away. I will bandage those who have been injured and strengthen those who are weak. But I will get rid of those who are fat and powerful. I will act fairly toward the people who are like my sheep. That is what I, Yahweh, promise.” (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 seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the crippled, and I will strengthen the weak: These four clauses present a total contrast between God and the bad leaders. Here God promises to do for his people all the things that the bad shepherds did not do in verse 4 (see the comments there). The only difference between the two lists is that the fourth clause in this verse combines the first two items in verse 4, that is, God says I will strengthen the weak. Weak is literally “sick” (Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible). Translators may use either term because the Hebrew words for “sick” and weak come from the same root and are very similar. A model for the first half of this verse is “I will go looking for the sheep that are lost; I will bring back home those that have strayed away; I will put bandages on those with broken bones to heal them; and I will give strength to those that are sick.”
And the fat and the strong I will watch over: The fat and the strong are the healthy and powerful sheep. I will watch over follows the Septuagint, which makes a minor change to the Hebrew text here. However, most translations keep the Hebrew text, which says “I will destroy” (New Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, New International Version, New International Reader’s Version, New Living Translation, New Century Version, King James Version / New King James Version, New American Standard Bible, English Standard Version, New American Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Hebrew Old Testament Text Project; similarly Contemporary English Version, Christian Community Bible). At first sight it seems strange that God will kill the best and strongest of the sheep, and this is perhaps why the Septuagint and Revised Standard Version looked for a different meaning. But if the fat and strong sheep stand for the bad leaders of Israel, it is consistent that God will punish them for mistreating his people. Although we recommend “I will destroy” as the best reading, an alternative is to follow the lead of the Septuagint and Revised Standard Version and understand that God will “keep his eye on” the leaders and restrain them, so that they cannot repeat their mistreatment of the people (so Block). Therefore for this clause translators may have either “I will destroy those that are fat and strong” or “I will watch the fat and strong very carefully.”
I will feed them in justice refers to the way God will be the people’s shepherd. For feed see Ezek 34.2. Here this verb is better rendered “take care of.” The pronoun them refers to the people, not the leaders. In justice may be translated “in the right way,” “correctly,” “with fairness” (New Century Version), or “fairly” (New International Reader’s Version). For the whole clause Good News Translation says “because I am a shepherd who does what is right.”
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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