4The man said to me, “Mortal, look closely and listen attentively, and set your mind on all that I shall show you, for you were brought here in order that I might show it to you; declare all that you see to the house of Israel.”
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 40:4:
Kupsabiny: “The man said to me, ‘Ezekiel, see the things that I am showing you and listen to the words that I am telling you because that is what made you to be brought here. Tell the stomach of Israel everything you see.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “The man said to me, ‘Man, you listen, and look carefully everything that I will-show you for this is the reason why you were-brought here. Then tell to the people of Israel everything that you see.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “He said to me, ‘You human, look carefully at everything that I am going to show you, and pay attention to everything that I say and everything that I will show you, because that is why you have been brought here. And then later you must tell the Israeli people everything that you have seen here.’” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.
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.
Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.
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 usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme rare (られ) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, hanashikake-rare-ru (話しかけられる) or “speak to” is used.
And the man said to me: In the vision the man shining like polished metal spoke to Ezekiel.
For Son of man (International Children’s Bible “Human being”),
Look with your eyes, and hear with your ears is an emphatic way of saying “watch and listen” (compare 12.2). Translators should not follow the Hebrew idioms here too closely, since these idioms can sound absurd if rendered literally, but they should try to find appropriately emphatic terms in their own languages. Revised English Bible has “look closely and listen carefully.”
And set your mind upon all that I shall show you: Set your mind upon may be rendered “pay close attention to” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation) or “note well” (Revised English Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). All that I shall show you refers to everything that the man shows to Ezekiel in the Temple area, as it is described in the next few chapters.
For you were brought here in order that I might show it to you: God brought Ezekiel to Jerusalem, so that the man could show him the new Temple. New Century Version renders this clause simply as “that’s why you have been brought here” (similarly Contemporary English Version), and New International Reader’s Version has “That is why the LORD brought you here.”
Declare all that you see to the house of Israel: After seeing everything, Ezekiel must describe it all to the people of Israel. For the house of Israel, that is, “the people of Israel” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New International Reader’s Version, New Living Translation, New Century Version), see the comments on 3.1. This sentence may be rendered “Tell the people of Israel everything you see.”
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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