The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin that is often translated as “gentiles” (or “nations”) in English is often translated as a “local equivalent of ‘foreigners,'” such as “the people of other lands” (Guerrero Amuzgo), “people of other towns” (Tzeltal), “people of other languages” (San Miguel El Grande Mixtec), “strange peoples” (Navajo (Dinė) (this and above, see Bratcher / Nida), “outsiders” (Ekari), “people of foreign lands” (Kannada), “non-Jews” (North Alaskan Inupiatun), “people being-in-darkness” (a figurative expression for people lacking cultural or religious insight) (Toraja-Sa’dan) (source for this and three above Reiling / Swellengrebel), “from different places all people” (Martu Wangka) (source: Carl Gross).
Tzeltal translates it as “people in all different towns,” Chicahuaxtla Triqui as “the people who live all over the world,” Highland Totonac as “all the outsider people,” Sayula Popoluca as “(people) in every land” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Chichimeca-Jonaz as “foreign people who are not Jews,” Sierra de Juárez Zapotec as “people of other nations” (source of this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), Highland Totonac as “outsider people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Uma as “people who are not the descendants of Israel” (source: Uma Back Translation), “other ethnic groups” (source: Newari Back Translation), and Yakan as “the other tribes” (source: Yakan Back Translation).
In Chichewa, it is translated with mitundu or “races.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 5:14:
Kupsabiny: “Jerusalem, you shall become a deserted place and be insulted/scorned among other nations and even those who pass by shall laugh at you.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “I will-destroy your city and you will-put- you -to-shame by the nations around you and by the ones-who-pass-by your place.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “I will cause your city to be a ruins, with the result that people of other nations that are around you will pass by and see it and sneer at you.” (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.
A new paragraph begins here. In verses 14-15 God describes the fate of Jerusalem after Nebuchadnezzar destroys it. The words in these verses are addressed to the city itself.
Moreover I will make you a desolation and an object of reproach …: Moreover renders the Hebrew waw conjunction, which may be omitted here (so Good News Translation). God says that he will make Jerusalem a desolation, that is, a heap of ruins, and an object of reproach, that is, something that has been so humiliated that people despise and make fun of it. This punishment will come on the city among the nations round about you and in the sight of all that pass by, that is, those who live in the nations nearby and those who are just passing through from far away will see it. Thus the shame of Jerusalem will be complete.
There is a play on words in the Hebrew in this verse. The words for desolation and object of reproach sound very similar: chorbah and cherpah. It is good if translators can reflect this play on words in their language. A model of this verse that does it in English is:
• “Jerusalem, I will make you a heap of ruins so that all the nations around you and everyone who passes by will heap scorn on you.
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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