12Those far off shall die of pestilence, those nearby shall fall by the sword, and any who are left and are spared shall die of famine. Thus I will spend my fury upon them.
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 6:12:
Kupsabiny: “An epidemic/plague kills those that are far from the war and those who are near will be speared and the one who escapes hunger/famine will destroy (him), Then all people shall see my fierceness.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “Those who-are far-away will-die from disease. The ones-who-are near will-die by war. And the remaining-ones will-die by hunger/famine. In this way they will-experience/[lit. feel] my anger with them.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “Those who are far from Jerusalem will die from plagues, those who are close to Jerusalem will be killed by their enemies’ swords, and those who are still alive will die from hunger. That is how I will punish them.” (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.
This verse repeats the information in the last part of the previous verse, but adds a little more detail.
He that is far off shall die of pestilence refers to those who will die of disease. They will be far from the land of Israel in exile. And he that is near shall fall by the sword refers to those who will be killed in war. They will be living in and around the land of Israel. And he that is left and is preserved shall die of famine refers to those who will starve to death since they escape death in the other two ways. Revised Standard Version follows the Hebrew by using the generic masculine singular to refer to people in general. Most translators will need to use inclusive terms here. A good rendering that does this is “Those who are living in distant countries are the ones who will die of disease. Those who live in and around Israel are the ones who will be killed in battle. Those who survive are the ones who will starve to death.”
Some translations have a totally different interpretation of the Hebrew word rendered preserved. King James Version, for example, renders he that … is preserved as “he that … is besieged” (similarly Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). This rendering makes good sense in the context because people who were trapped inside a besieged city often starved to death. But it gives an unusual sense to the Hebrew word here and is not recommended.
Thus will I spend my fury upon them: See the comments on 5.13. By punishing the people in these three ways, God will bring an end to his anger. One possible translation here is “I will go on till my anger against them is finished.”
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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