4I will turn you around and put hooks into your jaws, and I will lead you out with all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great company, all of them with shield and buckler, wielding swords.
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 show 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.
And I will turn you about: This clause pictures God taking complete control of Gog (compare Contemporary English Version “I will make you powerless!”) and forcing him to change the direction he is facing. It may be necessary for some languages to say “I will make you turn from the direction you are looking and make you look toward Israel.”
And put hooks into your jaws: See the comments on 29.4.
And I will bring you forth means God will “drag” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version) or “lead” (New Revised Standard Version, New Living Translation, New King James Version , Revised English Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) Gog out, perhaps like a person drags a reluctant dog or other animal along on a leash. He will lead him from his own land to go toward Israel to attack God’s people (see Ezek 38.8) The hooks may be the way God uses to turn Gog around, or they may be the means by which he drags Gog out of his country to attack Israel. Most likely it refers to both, so translators may bring the reference to hooks to the beginning of this verse to make it clear that God will use the hooks to turn Gog around and to lead him out toward Israel. Translators who want to avoid the picture of hooks in Gog’s jaws may begin this verse with “I will turn you around and lead you from your country to go to war.”
And all your army …: Gog was not alone. He was the commander of a large army, that is, he had very many soldiers.
Horses and horsemen: For horses see 17.15. The Hebrew word for horsemen usually refers to “charioteers” (men in chariots being pulled long by horses; see the comments on 23.6). Horses here may refer to the spare horses for the chariots, but it is more likely refers to the horses and their riders that accompany the charioteers. “Cavalry troops” (Contemporary English Version) is a good rendering for horses and horsemen. Translators may also say “soldiers riding on horses.”
All of them clothed in full armor is literally “all of them dressed to perfection.” Compare 23.12, where the phrase “dressed to perfection” probably means wearing beautiful and impressive uniforms. Here it probably means wearing their war equipment, ready for battle.
A great company renders a Hebrew expression for a large group of people, here a large group of soldiers (see 17.17).
All of them with buckler and shield, wielding swords: All of Gog’s soldiers had shields and weapons. For buckler and shield, see the comments on 23.24. These terms are collective nouns, meaning that all the soldiers were carrying these shields, so they may be translated as plurals; for example, New International Version has “large and small shields.” For swords see 5.1.
It will be more natural in some languages if translators use several sentences to render this verse. A model that does this is:
• I will turn you around, and put hooks in your jaws so I can make you and all your army come away from your land. All your large army and the soldiers in the war chariots and those riding horses will wear their armor [or, the things they need in battle]. They will have large and small shields and will carry their swords.
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 .
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 show 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.