shatter

In Gbaya, the notion of being shattered (or devour/strip/torture) is emphasized with ɗɛ́sɛ́-ɗɛ́sɛ, an ideophone that expresses the action of shattering, like a glass or pane of glass.

Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)

altar

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The Greek, Latin and Hebrew that is translated as “altar” in English is translated in a number of ways:

  • Obolo: ntook or “raised structure for keeping utensils (esp. sacrifice)” (source: Enene Enene)
  • Muna: medha kaefoampe’a or “offering table” (source: René van den Berg)
  • Luchazi: muytula or “the place where one sets the burden down”/”the place where the life is laid down” (source: E. Pearson in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 160ff. )
  • Tzotzil: “where they place God’s gifts” (source: John Beekman in Notes on Translation, March 1965, p. 2ff.)
  • Tsafiki: “table for giving to God” (source: Bruce Moore in Notes on Translation 1/1992, p. 1ff.)
  • Noongar: karla-kooranyi or “sacred fire” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “offering-burning table” (source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “place for sacrificing” (source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “burning-place” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tibetan: mchod khri (མཆོད་​ཁྲི།) or “offering throne” (source: gSungrab website )
  • Bura-Pabir: “sacrifice mound” (source: Andy Warrren-Rothlin)
  • Kalanga: “fireplace of sacrifice” (source: project-specific notes in Paratext)
The Ignaciano translators decided to translate the difficult term in that language according to the focus of each New Testament passage in which the word appears (click or tap here to see the rest of this insight

Willis Ott (in Notes on Translation 88/1982, p. 18ff.) explains:

  • Matt. 5:23,24: “When you take your offering to God, and arriving, you remember…, do not offer your gift yet. First go to your brother…Then it is fitting to return and offer your offering to God.” (The focus is on improving relationships with people before attempting to improve a relationship with God, so the means of offering, the altar, is not focal.)
  • Matt. 23:18 (19,20): “You also teach erroneously: ‘If someone makes a promise, swearing by the offering-place/table, he is not guilty if he should break the promise. But if he swears by the gift that he put on the offering-place/table, he will be guilty if he breaks the promise.'”
  • Luke 1:11: “…to the right side of the table where they burn incense.”
  • Luke 11.51. “…the one they killed in front of the temple (or the temple enclosure).” (The focus is on location, with overtones on: “their crime was all the more heinous for killing him there”.)
  • Rom. 11:3: “Lord, they have killed all my fellow prophets that spoke for you. They do not want anyone to give offerings to you in worship.” (The focus is on the people’s rejection of religion, with God as the object of worship.)
  • 1Cor. 9:13 (10:18): “Remember that those that attend the temple have rights to eat the foods that people bring as offerings to God. They have rights to the meat that the people offer.” (The focus is on the right of priests to the offered food.)
  • Heb. 7:13: “This one of whom we are talking is from another clan. No one from that clan was ever a priest.” (The focus in on the legitimacy of this priest’s vocation.)
  • Jas. 2:21: “Remember our ancestor Abraham, when God tested him by asking him to give him his son by death. Abraham was to the point of stabbing/killing his son, thus proving his obedience.” (The focus is on the sacrifice as a demonstration of faith/obedience.)
  • Rev. 6:9 (8:3,5; 9:13; 14:18; 16:7): “I saw the souls of them that…They were under the table that holds God’s fire/coals.” (This keeps the concepts of: furniture, receptacle for keeping fire, and location near God.)
  • Rev. 11:1: “Go to the temple, Measure the building and the inside enclosure (the outside is contrasted in v. 2). Measure the burning place for offered animals. Then count the people who are worshiping there.” (This altar is probably the brazen altar in a temple on earth, since people are worshiping there and since outside this area conquerors are allowed to subjugate for a certain time.)

See also altar (Acts 17:23).


In the Hebraic English translation of Everett Fox it is translated as slaughter-site and likewise in the German translation by Buber / Rosenzweig as Schlachtstatt.

high places

The Hebrew, Greek, and Ge’ez that is translated as “high places” in English is translated in Chitonga as malende. Ernst Wendland (1987, p. 57) explains: “The preceding expression [‘place for worship/sacrifice on top of hills’], though intelligible linguistically, sounds rather strange to the Tonga who live on the relatively flat plains of southern Zambia. There are ‘hills’ in their country, but normally no one would ever worship regularly there. For this reason the new translation will try out a cultural substitute (see below), malende, the ‘local shrine’ of Tonga traditional religion, where the ‘priest’ (clan head, who may be a chief as well) makes sacrifices to the spirits in time of corporate calamity, especially drought. This would seem to approximate quite closely the main elements of both form and function of the term ‘high places’ in the Old Testament, which were not always or even usually set upon hills, especially in the latter days of the monarchy (cp. 2 Kings 17:9, 29).”

In the Chichewa interconfessional translation (publ. 1999), it is translated as “shrines for worshiping images there.” (Source: Ernst Wendland in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 319ff. )

idol / idols

The Hebrew, Greek and Latin that is translated as “idol(s)” in English is translated in Central Subanen as ledawan or “images.” (Source: Robert Brichoux in OPTAT 1988/2, p. 80ff. )

In German, typically the term Götze is used. Originally this was used as a term of endearment for Gott (“God” — see here ), later for “icon” and “image, likeness.” Luther started to use it in the 16th century in the meaning of “false god, idol.”

Other terms that are used in German include Götzenbild(er) (“image[s] of idols”) or Bildnis (“image” — Protestant) / Kultbild (“cultish image” — Catholic) (used for instance in Exodus 20:4 and Deuteronomy 5:8). The latest revision of the Catholic Einheitsübersetzung (publ. 2016) also uses the neologism Nichtse (“nothings”) in 1 Chron. 16:26 and Psalm 96:5. (Source: Zetzsche)

See also worthless idols.

complete verse (Ezekiel 6:6)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 6:6:

  • Kupsabiny: “All the cities that you will live in will become deserted and the high places will be overturned so that those things of sacrifices will become nothing! Those idols that you bow to will be smashed and destroyed and where those things that smell sweet are burned and everything that you have made will be demolished.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Your every town in Israel will-be-destroyed so that your places-of-worship in the high places, little-gods/false-gods and altars as-well-as the altar where incense is-being-burned, and the other like this which you have-done will-be-smashed/ruined.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Wherever the Israelis live, their towns will be ruined, and the shrines where they worship idols will be smashed. Their altars will be completely smashed , their idols will be completely smashed , and everything that they own will become a pile of ruins.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

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 formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Ezekiel 6:6

Wherever you dwell: New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh takes this clause with the previous sentence, saying “and scatter your bones around your altars 7 in all your settlements.” This is possible, but most other translations follow Revised Standard Version by attaching this clause to what follows; for example, New Century Version has “In all the places you live,” Bible en français courant and Parole de Vie say “Wherever you live,” and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates “In all Israel.” The pronoun you refers to the people of Israel.

Your cities shall be waste and your high places ruined: Cities may be rendered “towns” (New International Version, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). The Hebrew verb rendered be waste (charav) is very similar in meaning to the one translated “become desolate” (shamam) in verse 4. The original meaning of both these verbs is “deserted” or “uninhabited,” that is, “where no one lives or goes,” but they can sometimes have the extended meaning of “destroyed” or “ruined.” The two words are often used together in Ezekiel. Possible renderings for be waste are “be destroyed” (Good News Translation), “lie in ruins” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), and “become empty” (New Century Version). For high places, see the comments on Ezek 6.3. The Hebrew verb rendered be … ruined (yasham) comes from the same root as the one translated “become desolate” in verse 4 (see the comments there). Here it may be rendered “be deserted” or “be destroyed.” God is the one who will cause these things to happen. Languages that require active verbs here may render the first half of this verse as “Wherever you live, I will make your cities into ruins and will destroy your shrines of worship.” Your cities and your high places is literally “the cities” and “the high places.” Revised Standard Version adds the pronoun your to make clear what places God has in mind. Here God may be talking to the people of Israel, or to the mountains and the other areas of Israel again (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version). A model that views the land of Israel as the addressee is “Wherever the people of Israel live, I will leave the cities in ruin and destroy the shrines of worship.”

So that your altars will be waste and ruined: Here Ezekiel gives the reason why the cities and shrines will be destroyed by God and deserted. New Century Version says “your altars will become lonely ruins.” Be waste renders the same Hebrew verb (charav) as in the first half of the verse. Instead of be … ruined, the Hebrew text has “be made guilty” (see the Revised Standard Version footnote), which means “be desecrated” or “be made unclean” in this context. The Hebrew word for “be made guilty” (ʾasham) is very similar to the one for be … ruined (yasham). Hebrew Old Testament Text Project recommends following the Hebrew text, saying “be desecrated.” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, and La Bible Pléiade follow this reading. There is probably a play on words here with the true meaning being an ambiguous mixture between the two readings. Therefore either meaning is acceptable. Translators may render this clause as “so that your altars will be ruined and no longer sacred [or, fit for worship]” or “so that your altars will be destroyed and in ruins.”

Your idols broken and destroyed: Idols renders the same Hebrew word as in verses 4-5. Once again New Jerusalem Bible says “foul idols.” Broken means they will be “smashed to pieces” (Good News Translation; see Ezek 6.4). The Hebrew verb rendered destroyed means “bring to an end.” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh says “annihilated,” that is, cease to exist. Translators may render this clause as “your idols will be destroyed and will no longer be usable” or “I will destroy your idols so that they can no longer be used.”

Your incense altars cut down: For incense altars, see Ezek 6.4. The Hebrew verb rendered cut down is a strong word, which may be translated “chopped down.” This clause may be translated “I will chop down your stands for burning incense.”

And your works wiped out: Everything the Israelites made to worship their false gods will be totally destroyed. New Century Version renders your works as “the things you made.” The Hebrew verb translated wiped out is a very strong word meaning “obliterate,” “blot out,” or “totally destroy” (see Gen 7.23; Deut 25.6; Jdg 21.17; Psa 109.13-14). This clause may be translated “I will totally destroy all the religious objects that you’ve made.”

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 .