your bone and your flesh

The Hebrew that is translated in English as “I am your bone and your flesh” (or: “my bone and my flesh”) is translated into Afar as anu sin qabalaay sin nabsi kinniyo: “I am your blood and body.” (Source: Loren Bliese)

It is translated likewise in Kutu and in Kwere. In Vidunda, it is translated as “family.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

In Elhomwe it is translated with the idiomatic mbalaaka, literally “of my knee.” (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

See also become one flesh and our body.

complete verse (Genesis 29:14)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Genesis 29:14:

  • Newari: “Then Laban said — ‘You are my flesh and blood.’ One day after Jacob had lived with him one month,” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Laban said to him, ‘(It is) really true that we (incl.) are blood-relatives.’ After one month of the staying of Jacob with Laban and company,” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Then Laban said to him, ‘Truly, you are part of my family!’ After Jacob had stayed there and worked for Laban for a month,” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Genesis 29:14

Laban’s response on hearing Jacob’s account is Surely you are my bone and my flesh! Surely translates an emphatic particle that can also be rendered “Certainly,” “There is no question,” “Without doubt.”

My bone and my flesh has the same sense as the expression used by Adam in 2.23. By using this idiom Laban recognizes Jacob as his relative or close kinsman. Good News Translation and others employ an English equivalent, “my own flesh and blood.” Bible en français courant says “You certainly are of my family, the same blood as I,” and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “Truly you are a person of my own blood.” We may also say, for example, “You are really part of my family” or “We-two are from the same ancestor.”

This part of the narrative closes with And he stayed with him a month; that is, “Jacob remained in Laban’s house for a month.”

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 .