calamity for many / destructive fire

In Gbaya, the notion of a calamity affecting a large groups of people at the same time and/or a destructive fire is emphasized in the referenced verses with the ideophone gbɔyɛɛ.

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

complete verse (Genesis 19:25)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Genesis 19:25:

  • Kankanaey: “And everything that was in the plain and those two towns, including all the people and everything also that was-growing there was-burned-up.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Newari: “He also destroyed the neighboring [lit.: right and left] villages as well as everything there that bore fruit.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “The LORD destroyed the two towns and the entire valley/flat-area. All who lived there died including all the plants.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “In that way, he destroyed those cities and all the people who were living in those cities. He also destroyed everything in the valley, including all the plants/vegetation.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Honorary "are" construct denoting God ("destroy")

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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 usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme are (され) 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, horobos-are-ru (滅ぼされる) or “destroy” is used.

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

Translation commentary on Genesis 19:25

And he overthrew those cities: those cities refers to Sodom and Gomorrah. Overthrew, the same term as in verse 21, means “he destroyed.” In the light of the previous verse, some translations prefer to say “he burned up….”

And all the valley: that is, the valley or low-lying land where the cities are located. The same word is used in verse 17.

And all the inhabitants of the cities: translators may find it is clearer to link this statement to the destruction of the cities, and the final clause of the verse with all the valley. We may then translate “He destroyed those cities and their people [all the people who lived in them] and destroyed everything that grew in the entire valley.”

The lines of this verse follow the pattern a-b-a-b, in which a refers to the cities and b to the valley and land.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .