38But he said, “My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he alone is left. If harm should come to him on the journey that you are to make, you would bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.”
The Greek, Latin and Hebrew that is translated in English as “painful” or “sorrow” is translated in Huba as “cut the insides.” David Frank explains: “Huba has just one expression that covers both ‘angry’ and ‘sad.’ They don’t make a distinction in their language. I suppose you could say that the term they use means more generically, ‘strong emotional reaction.’ (Source: David Frank in this blog post )
In Noongar it is translated as koort-warra or “heart bad.” (Source: Bardip Ruth-Ang 2020)
In Enlhet it is translated as “going aside of the innermost.” “Innermost” or valhoc is a term that is frequently used in Enlhet to describe a large variety of emotions or states of mind (for other examples see here). (Source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 24ff. )
The Greek and Hebrew that is translated as “brother” in English is translated in Kwere as sekulu and in Mandarin Chinese as gēgē (哥哥), both “older brother.”
Note that Kwere also uses lumbu — “older sibling” in some cases. (Source for Kwere: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Genesis 42:38:
Kankanaey: “But Jacob refused saying, ‘It is not possible that Benjamin can-go-with you, because his older-sibling died and he for-his-part is my only-one child. If you take-him-along where- you -are-going and there-is something-that-happens to him, I will die in my sorrow (lit. pain of my thoughts), because I am already an old-man.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Newari: “Jacob said — ‘I will not send Benjamin to Egypt with you. His elder brother is no more. Now this is the only one I still have. I have now already become an old man. If anything happens to him on the way, I will die from pain.'” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “But Jacob said, ‘I will- not -let- my child -accompany you (pl.). His sibling/(brother) (is) now dead and he (is) the only one left now. Something-bad might happen to him on the road, and in this old age of mine I will- just -die mourning.'” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “But Jacob said, ‘No, I will not let my son go down there with you. His older brother is dead, and he is the only one of my wife Rachel’s sons who is left! If something harms him while you are traveling, you would cause me, a gray-haired old man, to die because of sorrow.'” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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 show different degree of politeness is through the choice of a second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used anata (あなた) is typically used when the speaker is humbly addressing another person.
In these verses, however, omae (おまえ) is used, a cruder second person pronoun, that Jesus for instance chooses when chiding his disciples.
In spite of Reuben’s promise and his willingness to gamble the lives of his own children, Jacob is not willing to agree to Benjamin going away from him.
My son shall not go down with you [plural]: in some languages a strong negative is required at the beginning of this speech: “No! My son can’t go with you” or “No! I won’t let him go with you.” For go down see verse 2. The plural pronoun you shows that Jacob is addressing not just Reuben but all the brothers who returned from Egypt.
His brother is dead: that is, “Benjamin’s older brother Joseph is dead.”
And he only: that is, “only Benjamin is left.” Benjamin is not the only son left to Jacob; he is the only son left to the union of Jacob and Rachel. A translation that brings this out says “he is the last boy of his mother.”
If harm should befall him on the journey … make: that is, “If something were to happen to him….” Another way of expressing this is “Something might happen to him on the road, and then I would….”
You [plural] would bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol: gray hairs translates the Hebrew noun meaning “a head that is old and gray.” In this way Jacob refers to himself as an old man. Bring down … to Sheol means “cause me to die [and go to my grave].” One translation of this is simply “I would die from it!”
We may translate this expression, for example, “If something should happen, … you [plural] would cause me to die an old man full of sorrow,” “I am an old gray head; if…, you [plural] would make me die of sorrow,” or “He might have an accident on the road. I am an old man, and if … you [plural] would give me great grief and I would go to….” See also Good News Translation.
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 .