prophesy

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The Hebrew and the Greek that are translated in English versions as “prophesy” are translated into Anuak as “sing a song” (source: Loren Bliese), into Balanta-Kentohe as “passing on message of God” (source: Rob Koops), and into Ixcatlán Mazatec with a term that does not only refer to the future, but is “speak on behalf of God” (source: Robert Bascom).

Other translations include: “God making someone to show something in advance” (Ojitlán Chinantec), “God causing someone to think and then say it” (Aguaruna), “speaking God’s thoughts” (Shipibo-Conibo), “God made someone say something” “Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac) (source for this and above: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125), “proclaim God’s message” (Teutila Cuicatec), “speak for God” (Chichimeca-Jonaz), “preach the Word of God” (Lalana Chinantec), “speak God’s words” (Tepeuxila Cuicatec), “that which God’s Spirit will cause one to say one will say” (Mayo) (source for this and four above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), “say what God wants people to hear” (tell people God wod dat e gii oona fa say) (Gullah) (source: Robert Bascom), and “bring God’s mouth” (Bariai) (source: Bariai Back Translation).

In Luang it is translated with different shades of meaning:

  • For Acts 3:18, 3:21, 3:25: nurwowohora — “mouth says words that don’t come from one’s own mind.” (“This term refers to an individual’s speaking words that are not his because either a good or bad spirit is at work through him. The speaker is not in control of himself.”)
  • For Acts 19:6, Acts 21:9: nakotnohora — “talk about.” (“The focus of this term is on telling God’s message for the present as opposed to the future.”)
  • For Acts 21:11: rora — “foretell” (“The focus of this term is giving God’s message concerning the future. The person who speaks is aware of what he is doing and he is using his own mind, yet it is with God’s power that he foretells the future.”)

Source: Kathy Taber in Notes on Translation 1/1999, p. 9-16.

See also prophet and prophesy / prophetic frenzy.

full / complete

In Gbaya, the notion of being full or complete (“surround,” “came together,” “all around”) is emphasized with ɗɛ́kɛ́t, an ideophone that designates that which is complete, filled to the brim; someone who lacks nothing.

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 37:7)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 37:7:

  • Kupsabiny: “So I spoke to those bones like that. While I was still predicting/prophesying I heard the bones rattling joining themselves together.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Therefore I obeyed what was-commanded to me. And while I spoke, I heard the rattling-noise, and the bones were-attached-to-each-other.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “So I spoke to the bones what Yahweh commanded me to speak. As I was speaking, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bones joining to each other.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Ezekiel 37:7

So I prophesied as I was commanded: Ezekiel did what God told him to do in verses 4-6. I prophesied may be rendered “I gave the bones God’s message” (see Ezek 37.4). As I was commanded is a passive construction, which many translators will express more naturally as “as the LORD commanded me [to do].”

And as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling: Before Ezekiel finished giving God’s message to the bones, he heard a noise (“sound” in Revised English Bible). The sound was a rattling (“shaking” in King James Version). The Hebrew word for rattling usually refers to an earthquake (see 3.12), but here it refers to the sound made by the bones knocking together. Many translations put noise and rattling together, saying “rattling noise” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation [1996]), “rattling sound” (New International Version, New International Reader’s Version, Revised English Bible), or “sound of rattling” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Moffatt). This is acceptable. For behold see Ezek 37.2.

And the bones came together, bone to its bone: Ezekiel gives no detail of how the bones came together, but it seems that they moved of their own accord under God’s power. No one was carrying them or pushing them. Bone to its bone means each bone became attached to the bone next to it in the skeleton, so that all the bones “attached themselves as they had been before” (New Living Translation [1996]). Even in languages in which it is strange for dry bones to move by themselves, translators will do well to retain the picture here, if at all possible, without making it explicit that God was moving them.

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 .