The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin that is often translated as “gentiles” (or “nations”) in English is often translated as a “local equivalent of ‘foreigners,'” such as “the people of other lands” (Guerrero Amuzgo), “people of other towns” (Tzeltal), “people of other languages” (San Miguel El Grande Mixtec), “strange peoples” (Navajo (Dinė)) (this and above, see Bratcher / Nida), “outsiders” (Ekari), “people of foreign lands” (Kannada), “non-Jews” (North Alaskan Inupiatun), “people being-in-darkness” (a figurative expression for people lacking cultural or religious insight) (Toraja-Sa’dan) (source for this and three above Reiling / Swellengrebel), “from different places all people” (Martu Wangka) (source: Carl Gross).
Tzeltal translates it as “people in all different towns,” Chicahuaxtla Triqui as “the people who live all over the world,” Highland Totonac as “all the outsider people,” Sayula Popoluca as “(people) in every land” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Chichimeca-Jonaz as “foreign people who are not Jews,” Sierra de Juárez Zapotec as “people of other nations” (source of this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), Highland Totonac as “outsider people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Uma as “people who are not the descendants of Israel” (source: Uma Back Translation), “other ethnic groups” (source: Newari Back Translation), and Yakan as “the other tribes” (source: Yakan Back Translation).
In Chichewa, it is translated with mitundu or “races.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Habakkuk 3:6:
Kupsabiny: “When he stopped, the earth shook, and when he looked around, communities trembled. The old mountains and the ancient hills got destroyed. His words/matters go on forever.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “He stops moving and shakes the earth. He looked and the nations tremble. The ancient hills and mountains break into pieces. Those old mountains collapse. His goings are eternal.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “When you (sing.) stand the earth shakes, and when you (sing.) look the people tremble in fear and the ancient/old mountains landslide/collapse. Your (sing.) ways will-continue eternally.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “When he stops walking, this earth earthquakes, the collective-people tremble when he sees them. The sturdy mountains, they will fall-down/collapse, the hills where-he-used-to-walk long-ago, they will landslide.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
English: “When he stopped, the earth shook. When he looked at the nations, all the people trembled. The hills and mountains that have existed for a very long time collapsed and crumbled. Yahweh is the one who exists eternally/forever!” (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 to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. When the referent is God or a person or persons to be greatly honored, the honorific prefix go- (御 or ご) can be used, as in go-ran (ご覧), a combination of “behold / see” (ran) and the honorific prefix go-.
God transcends gender, but most languages are limited to grammatical gender expressed in pronouns. In the case of English, this is traditionally confined to “he” (or in the forms “his,” “him,” and “himself”), “she” (and “her,” “hers,” and “herself”), and “it” (and “its” and “itself”).
Modern Mandarin Chinese, however, offers another possibility. Here, the third-person singular pronoun is always pronounced the same (tā), but it is written differently according to its gender (他 is “he,” 她 is “she,” and 它/牠 is “it” and their respective derivative forms). In each of these characters, the first (or upper) part defines the gender (man, woman, or thing/animal), while the second element gives the clue to its pronunciation.
In 1930, after a full century with dozens of Chinese translations, Bible translator Wang Yuande (王元德) coined a new “godly” pronoun: 祂. Chinese readers immediately knew how to pronounce it: tā. But they also recognized that the first part of that character, signifying something spiritual, clarified that each person of the Trinity has no gender aside from being God.
While the most important Protestant and Catholic Chinese versions respectively have opted not to use 祂, some Bible translations do and it is widely used in hymnals and other Christian materials. Among the translations that use 祂 to refer to “God” were early versions of Lü Zhenzhong’s (呂振中) version (New Testament: 1946, complete Bible: 1970). R.P. Kramers (in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 152ff. ) explains why later versions of Lü’s translation did not continue with this practice: “This new way of writing ‘He,’ however, has created a minor problem of its own: must this polite form be used whenever Jesus is referred to? Lü follows the rule that, wherever Jesus is referred to as a human being, the normal tā (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential tā (祂) is used.”
In that system, one kind of pronoun is used for humans (male and female alike) and others for natural elements, non-liquid masses, and some spiritual entities (one other is used for large animals and another one for miscellaneous items). While in these languages the pronoun for spiritual entities used to be employed when referring to God, this has changed into the use of the human pronoun.
Lynell Zogbo (in The Bible Translator 1989, p. 401ff. ) explains: “From informal discussions with young Christians especially, it would appear that, at least for some people, the experience and/or concepts of Christianity are affecting the choice of pronoun for God. Some people explain that God is no longer ‘far away,’ but is somehow tangible and personal. For these speakers God has shifted over into the human category.”
In Kouya, God (the Father) and Jesus are referred to with the human pronoun ɔ, whereas the Holy Spirit is referred to with a non-human pronoun. (Northern Grebo and Western Krahn make a similar distinction.)
Eddie Arthur, a former Kouya Bible translation consultant, says the following: “We tried to insist that this shouldn’t happen, but the Kouya team members were insistent that the human pronoun for the Spirit would not work.”
In Burmese, the pronoun ko taw (ကိုယ်တော်) is used either as 2nd person (you) or 3rd person (he, him, his) reference. “This term clearly has its root in the religious language in Burmese. No ordinary persons are addressed or known by this pronoun because it is reserved for Buddhist monks, famous religious teachers, and in the case of Christianity, the Trinity.” (Source: Gam Seng Shae in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 202ff. )
In Thai, the pronoun phra`ong (พระองค์) is used, a gender-neutral pronoun which must refer to a previously introduced royal or divine being. Similarly, in Northern Khmer, which is spoken in Thailand, “an honorific divine pronoun” is used for the pronoun referring to the persons of the Trinity (source: David Thomas in The Bible Translator 1993, p. 445 ). In Urak Lawoi’, another language spoken in Thailand, the translation often uses tuhat (ตูฮัด) — “God” — ”as a divine pronoun where Thai has phra’ong even though it’s actually a noun.” (Source for Thai and Urak Lawoi’: Stephen Pattemore)
The English “Contemporary Torah” addresses the question of God and gendered pronouns by mostly avoiding pronouns in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (unless God is referred to as “lord,” “father,” “king,” or “warrior”). It does that by either using passive constructs (“He gave us” vs. “we were given”), by using the adjective “divine” or by using “God” rather than a pronoun.
Some Protestant and Orthodox English Bibles use a referential capitalized spelling when referring to the persons of the Trinity with “He,” “His,” “Him,” or “Himself.” This includes for instance the New American Standard Bible or The Orthodox New Testament, but most translations do not. Two other languages where this is also done (in most Bible translations) are Twents as well as the closely related Indonesian and Malay. In both languages this follows the language usage according to the Qur’an, which in turn predicts that usage (see Soesilo in The Bible Translator 1991, p. 442ff. and The Bible Translator 1997, p. 433ff. ).
The prophet now speaks of the effect of God’s presence on the world. The description mingles language appropriate to a thunderstorm with language appropriate to an earthquake. This kind of mixture is acceptable in Hebrew poetry, which sees God’s presence in all the major events in the world of nature.
He stood is ambiguous. It may refer either to standing up from a sitting position (Jerusalem Bible “When he stands up”) or to standing still in contrast with moving (New American Bible “He pauses,” New English Bible “He stands still”). Since the previous verse implied that God was moving, the second possibility seems much more apt. Good News Translation accepts it and translates unambiguously as “When he stops.” In some languages it will be necessary to indicate what action was completed or stopped. In such a case one may say “When he stops moving…” or “When he stops walking…” (compare Bible en français courant).
Measured the earth: the word translated measured in Revised Standard Version is doubtful in meaning. Many scholars think that the Hebrew form comes from a different verb which means “to shake” (Moffatt, Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible, Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch; compare the Septuagint). Good News Translation accepts this interpretation and renders “the earth shakes.” This fits the context better and is recommended to translators.
He looked and shook the nations: the second line is parallel to the first but extends its thought to include the effect of God’s presence on people. Good News Translation expresses this from the point of view of the people concerned and says “at his glance the nations tremble.” “At his glance” will be difficult to translate in certain languages. An alternative translation is “When he looks….” “The nations” will be rendered in certain languages as “all the people of the world.”
The next two lines say the same thing twice in different words: then the eternal mountains were scattered, the everlasting hills sank low. The language here is drawn from the effect of an earthquake (compare Micah 1.4). The Hebrew verb translated scattered in Revised Standard Version is taken by Good News Translation to come from another root meaning “to shatter.” “Scatter” means to be dispersed or to move away from something (in this case, from the LORD), and “shatter” means to break into little pieces. Major translations are evenly divided between them. “Scatter” or something similar is found in Revised Standard Version, Moffatt, Bible de Jérusalem, Jerusalem Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, and Bible en français courant, while “shatter” or the like occurs in New American Bible, New English Bible, Good News Translation, New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible, and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch. Both meanings fit the context well, and it makes little difference to the overall effect of the verse which one is chosen.
The words translated eternal and everlasting do not imply that the mountains and hills were not created by God. Rather they refer to the apparent permanence and stability of the mountains in contrast with the brief span of a human life. It may perhaps be better to use terms like “ancient mountains” and “age-old hills” (New International Version; compare Gen 49.26; Deut 33.15). In languages which do not use the passive, one may say “He causes the ancient mountains to shatter into pieces (or, to scatter) and the hills to sink down.”
The last line, His ways were as of old, may be understood in two ways. First, it may be taken as a separate statement about God (compare New International Version “His ways are eternal”). Second, it may be taken as in apposition to the previous statement about the mountains and hills. His ways then refers to the mountains and hills as the route by which God moves over the earth. This would be another allusion to the giving of the Law, when the LORD appeared to Moses at the top of Mount Sinai amidst storm and earthquake (Exo 19.16-20). This second interpretation fits the context better and is preferable. Good News Translation accepts it and translates “the hills where he walked in ancient times” (compare Jerusalem Bible, Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). Some translators will prefer to begin a new sentence with this final clause: “These are the hills where he walked….” See Nahum 1.5 for an alternative translation of “mountains.”
An alternative translation model for this verse is:
• When he stops walking, the earth shakes; as he looks, all the people of the earth tremble. He causes the ancient (or, very old) mountains to shatter into pieces (or, to scatter) and the hills to sink down (low), the hills (or, high ground) where he walked in times long ago.
Quoted with permission from Clark, David J. & Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on the Book of Habakkuk. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1989. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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