20the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and the animals of the field and all creeping things that creep on the ground and all humans who are on the face of the earth shall quake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the cliffs shall fall, and every wall shall tumble to the ground.
The Greek, Ge’ez, and Hebrew phrases that are often translated as “birds of the air” or similar in English “refer to the undomesticated song birds or wild birds, to be distinguished in a number of languages from domesticated fowl. In Tzeltal these former are ‘field birds’.” (source: Bratcher / Nida)
Q’anjob’al also uses an established term for non-domesticated birds. Newberry and Kittie Cox (in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 91ff. ) explain: “Qʼanjobʼal has two distinct terms, one to identify domesticated birds and the other non-domesticated birds. The additional descriptive phrase ‘of the air’ seemed entirely misleading, for Qʼanjobʼal speakers had never heard of such creatures. Actually, of course, all that was necessary was the term for non-domesticated birds, for that is precisely the meaning of the Biblical expression.”
In Elhomwe they are just translated as “birds” or “birds of the bush” (i.e., wild birds) to “not give the impression that these are special type of birds.” (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
The Hebrew, Latin, Ge’ez, and Greek that is translated in English as “reptiles” or “creeping things” or similar is translated as “those which crawl along upon their stomach” in San Mateo del Mar Huave, “those that crawl the way they travel” in Chichimeca-Jonaz, and “animals that crawl on the ground” in Lalana Chinantec. (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
In Nyamwezi it is translated as as vitundwa vya ku’yu’mba or “creatures that move.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
The Hebrew words zachal and remes literally mean “creeping [things]” or “crawling [things]”, which is the Hebrew way of referring to small unclean creatures, reptiles in particular. The Greek word herpeton is also a general word for reptile; it includes snakes and lizards. All of the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin words usually exclude fish.
The Hebrew words carry the connotation of uncleanness.
In languages which have a word meaning “reptile”, this will fit most contexts. In languages which do not, phrases such as “snakes and lizards”, “wriggling things”, and so forth could be used.
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 38:20:
Kupsabiny: “Everything shall shake before me including the fish of the ocean, birds, animals of the bush, those who crawl on the ground and all the people in the land. Mountains shall turn upside down, cliffs shall fall and all the walls shall be destroyed completely!” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “In my presence will-shake in fear all the people on the earth and all kinds of animals: the one-who-walks, the one-who-flies, the one-who-crawls, and the one-who-swim. The mountains and the slopes will-landslide, and the stone-walls will-fall-down.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “The fish in the sea, the birds, the wild animals, and the animals/creatures that crawl on the ground, and all the people on the earth will tremble because of what I am doing. Mountains will fall down, cliffs will crumble, and walls everywhere will fall to the ground.” (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.
The various Greek, Aramaic, Ge’ez, and Latin and Hebrew terms that are translated as “sea,” “ocean,” or “lake” in English are all translated in Chichewa with one term: nyanja. Malawi, where Chichewa is spoken, has a lot of lakes but does not share a border with the ocean. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
In Malagasy culture, the sea is perceived as sacred because it was a path taken by the ancestors. That is why the Malagasy word for the “sea” is ranomasina, which literally means “the sacred water.” The word masina actually has two different meanings: “salted” and “sacred/holy.” Salt is used for the conservation of some foods, such as meat or fish, that are to be set aside for later use. In this sense, the Malagasy phrase for “Holy Spirit” has the literal meaning of “Salted Spirit.” (Source: Brigitte Rabarijaona in The Bible Translator 2022, p. 103ff.)
The fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep on the ground, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall quake at my presence: When the earthquake happens, every living creature, including people, will be terrified. Fish of the sea is the common Hebrew expression for all fish, including freshwater fish. Similarly, birds of the air is the common expression for all birds (see the comments on 29.5), those that normally fly and domestic birds like chickens that normally do not fly. The Hebrew expression for beasts of the field often refers to wild animals (see, for example, where it is rendered “wild beasts”), but here it refers to all kinds of four-footed animals. Creeping things that creep on the ground refers to reptiles, small animals such as rats and mice, and crawling insects (see the comments on 8.10). Translators who lack a general term for these creatures may call them “small animals” to distinguish them from the beasts of the field, which are “big animals.” All the men that are upon the face of the earth refers to every living person. Good News Translation says “every human being on the face of the earth.” If the expression “all people” adequately reflects the Hebrew here, translators do not need to specify that they are upon the face of the earth (so New Living Translation [1996]). The Hebrew verb rendered quake comes from the same root as the word for “earthquake” (Good News Translation) in verse 19. While the ground is shaking, all the living creatures will shake in fear. Many translations make the fear explicit by rendering quake as “shake with fear” (New Century Version) or “tremble in fear” (Contemporary English Version). At my presence makes it clear the fear will not be due simply to the terrifying effects of the earthquake. God implies that he will cause the earthquake, so the fear will also be due to the feeling that God is physically present in the land. The earthquake will produce more dramatic results as well.
And the mountains shall be thrown down: Normally the Hebrew verb rendered thrown down refers to someone breaking down something they have made (for example, a wall or a house; see 13.14). Since no one but God has made the mountains, this clause pictures them being broken apart by the earthquake and falling down. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch says “The mountains break apart.”
And the cliffs shall fall: Cliffs are the steep sides of mountains and hills. This clause pictures those steep places breaking off from the mountainsides and crashing down in huge landslides.
And every wall shall tumble to the ground: The same thing that happens to natural phenomena such as mountains and cliffs will happen also to things that people have built. Tumble renders the same Hebrew word translated fall.
The English translations tend to look for different words to render the verbs in the last half of this verse. Some of the words used in the different translations are “fall,” “crumble,” “collapse,” “thrown down,” “crash,” “tumble,” “come crashing down,” “break into pieces,” “overthrown,” and “topple.” They do this for the sake of variety. Translators need to be sensitive to what is natural in their own languages to choose appropriate words. Depending on the language, it may be acceptable to use the same word throughout, or to choose different ones, as long as the meaning is clear.
A model for this verse is:
• All the fish and all the birds, and all the animals both large and small, and every person on earth will shake from fear because they are in my presence. The mountains will break apart, the cliffs on the mountains will crash down, and all the walls will collapse.
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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