complete verse (Ezekiel 35:5)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 35:5:

  • Kupsabiny: “You (sing.) were always arrogant/rude to Israel long ago repeatedly while killing its people in the days of trouble when pain/punishment was heavy on them.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Your grudge is already a long-time to those from-Israel, and you left- them -behind-to-be-attacked in times of their difficulty, the times they had- been-punished already because of their sins.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “You have always been enemies of the Israeli people. You rejoiced when they experienced a great disaster: their enemies attacked them with swords, when I punished them for the sins that they had committed.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

2nd person pronoun with low register (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 second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used anata (あなた) is typically used when the speaker is humbly addressing another person.

In these verses, however, omae (おまえ) is used, a cruder second person pronoun, that Jesus for instance chooses when chiding his disciples. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also first person pronoun with low register and third person pronoun with low register.

Translation commentary on Ezekiel 35:5

This verse gives two reasons for the punishment that is coming on Edom. The connector Because introduces these reasons.

You cherished perpetual enmity (literally “there was to you hatred of forever”) is the first reason. God accuses the Edomites of having the same “continual hatred” (New Living Translation [1996]) of the Israelites that the Philistines had (see 25.15, where the Hebrew expression for perpetual enmity is rendered “never-ending enmity”). Their hatred for Israel just went on and on, without stopping. New Century Version says “You have always been an enemy of Israel.” An alternative meaning for the Hebrew phrase translated perpetual enmity is “ancient hatred” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh; similarly Revised English Bible), that is, their hatred for Israel started long ago and still went on. New International Reader’s Version expresses this sense by saying “you have been Israel’s enemies for a long time.” This hatred first began between Esau, the forefather of the Edomites, and Jacob, the forefather of the Israelites (see Gen 25.19-34; 27.1-45; 32.1–33.20).

And gave over the people of Israel to the power of the sword …: God also will punish the Edomites because they betrayed the Israelites by allowing them to be killed. Gave over … to the power of the sword renders an unusual Hebrew phrase, which is literally “you poured/hurled down … on the hands of the sword.” This is vivid picture language that is much stronger than “let her people be slaughtered” (Good News Translation), although that is the basic meaning. It is a picture of very many people being poured out onto swords and falling down dead all over the place. But it also carries the idea of betrayal, as if the Edomites betrayed the Israelites by allowing them to be killed. New Century Version expresses this clause well, saying “You let them be defeated in war.” For sword as an image for war, see 5.1-2. The people of Israel are the Israelites who lived in and around Jerusalem.

At the time of their calamity and at the time of their final punishment refer to the same event, which was the fall of Jerusalem when Nebuchadnezzar defeated the nation of Judah and took its people into exile because of their sins. The Edomites’ sin was that they betrayed the Israelites at a time of great crisis. When the Israelites needed help as they were facing death, the Edomites, their neighbors, sided with the enemy. Good News Translation renders these two phrases as “in the time of her disaster, the time of final punishment for her sins,” and New Century Version has “when they were in trouble at the time of their final punishment.”

A model for this verse is:

• You have always been an enemy of Israel. You even betrayed the Israelites and let their enemies slaughter them everywhere, at the time they were in big trouble when I [God] at last punished them for their sins.

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 .