The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “blessing” in English is translated in Dzùùngoo as dzwɛ which derives from dziɛ’ ̀(“mouth”) dzuà (“palate”), emphasizing that a blessing is thought of as being spoken. To form a verb (“to bless”), the noun dzwɛ needs to be connected with verbs like “put,” “have,” “be,” or “catch.” “Catch” or kun is used in the associated verses when God (the only possible origin of blessings in Dzùùn understanding) is thought to act on a blessing. (Source: Traoré Fabé in Le Sycomore, 16/1, 2022 .)
Note that in Luke 1:42, the first blessing is “caught” and the second blessing is “had.”
The Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Ge’ez, and Aramaic that is translated into English as “(to) bless” or “blessed” is translated into a wide variety of possibilities.
The Hebrew term barak (and the Aramaic term berak) also (and originally) means “kneel” (a meaning which the word has retained — see Gen. 24:11) and can be used for God blessing people (or things), people blessing each other, or people blessing God. While English Bible translators have not seen a stumbling block in always using the same term (“bless” in its various forms), other languages need to make distinctions (see below).
In Bari, spoken in South Sudan, the connection between blessing and knees/legs is still apparent. For Genesis 30:30 (in English: “the Lord has blessed you wherever I turned”), Bari uses a common expression that says (much like the Hebrew), ‘… blessed you to my feet.'” (Source: P. Guillebaud in The Bible Translator 1965, p. 189ff. .)
Other examples for the translation of “bless” when God is the one who blesses include (click or tap here to see the rest of this insight):
“sprinkle with a propitious (lit. cool) face” (a poetic expression occurring in the priests’ language) (Toraja Sa’dan) (source for this and above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
“give good things” (Mairasi) (source: Enggavoter 2004)
“ask good” (Yakan) (source: Yakan Back Translation)
“praise, say good things” (Central Yupik) (source: Robert Bascom)
“showing a good heart” (Kutu) (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
“good luck — have — good fortune — have” (verbatim) ꓶꓼ ꓙꓳ ꓫꓱꓹ ꓙꓳ — ɯa dzho shes zho (Lisu). This construction follows a traditional four-couplet construct in oral Lisu poetry that is usually in the form ABAC or ABCB. (Source: Arrington 2020, p. 58)
wodala — denoting a person who is considered fortunate because he/she has something good that the majority of people do not have. It also acknowledges someone as a causative agent behind “being blessed.” (Chichewa) (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
In Tagbanwa a phrase is used for both the blessing done by people and God that back-translates to “caused to be pierced by words causing grace/favor” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation) and in Benabena a term denoted “good spell” or “good magic” (source: Renck 1990, p. 112).
Ixcatlán Mazatec had to select a separate term when relating “to people ‘blessing’ God” (or things of God): “praise(d)” or “give thanks for” (in 1 Cor. 10:16) (“as it is humans doing the ‘blessing’ and people do not bless the things of God or God himself the way God blesses people” — source: Robert Bascom). Eastern Bru and Kui also use “praise” for this a God-directed blessing (source: Bru back translation and Helen Evans in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 40ff. ) and Uma uses “appropriate/worthy to be worshipped” (source: Uma back translation).
When related to someone who is blessing someone else, it is translated into Tsou as “speak good hopes for.” In Waiwai it is translated as “may God be good and kind to you now.” (Sources: Peng Kuo-Wei for Tsou and Robert Hawkins in The Bible Translator 1962, pp. 164ff. for Waiwai.)
Some languages associate an expression that originally means “spitting” or “saliva” with blessing. The Bantu language Koonzime, for instance, uses that expression for “blessing” in their translation coming from either God or man. Traditionally, the term was used in an application of blessing by an aged superior upon a younger inferior, often in relation to a desire for fertility, or in a ritualistic, but not actually performed spitting past the back of the hand. The spitting of saliva has the effect of giving that person “tenderness of face,” which can be translated as “blessedness.” (Source: Keith Beavon)
Martin Ehrensvärd, one of the translators for the DanishBibelen 2020, comments on the translation of this term: “As for ‘blessing’, in the end we in most instances actually kept the word, after initially preferring the expression ‘giving life strength’. The backlash against dropping the word blessing was too hard. But we would often add a few words to help the reader understand what the word means in a given context — people often understand it to refer more to a spiritual connection with God, but in the Hebrew texts, it usually has to do with material things or good health or many children. So when e.g. in Isaiah 19:25 the Hebrew text says ‘God bless them’, we say ‘God bless them’ and we add: ‘and give them strength’. ‘And give them strength’ is not found in the overt Hebrew text, but we are again making explicit what we believe is the meaning so as to avoid misunderstanding.” (Source: Ehrensvärd in HIPHIL Novum 8/2023, p. 81ff. )
Following are a number of back-translations of Hebrews 6:14:
Uma: “When God said his promise to Abraham, he strengthened his promise by swearing, he said: ‘Really-really I say that I will fulfill what I am promising to you: I bless you with a big blessing, and I make you have many descendants.’ There is nothing greater than God, so he swore naming himself.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “This is what God said, he said, ‘I will really bless you very much and I will cause your descendants to be really many.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “By means of His name, He said to Abraham, he said, ‘It is absolutely true that I will bless you with good, and your descendants will come to be very, very many.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “He said to Abraham, ‘I will surely bless you (sing.) and will multiply (lit. cause-to-be-many) your (sing.) descendants.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “What he promised says, ‘What I am promising is certain that I will grace you(sing.) very much and very-greatly-increase your descendants.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “When people say that it is true what they are saying, they call upon God to be their witness. When a person has called on God to be his witness, then his friend with whom he is talking cannot say that it is not true in what he said. But God promised a word to Abraham and since no one is greater than God, therefore he used his own name, telling Abraham it is God’s own word that which was said. He said to him: ‘It is true what I say to you, overflowingly I will bless you. I will cause that very much will increase your children,’ he said. But Abraham did not get anxious concerning the word God spoke. Rather he waited, waited until there came the day when it happened according to the word God promised would happen.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
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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 choice of a first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.
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 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, iw-are-ru (言われる) or “say” is used.
The Greek is more emphatic than Good News Translation; compare New English Bible “I vow that I will bless you….” Ways of emphasizing statements vary from one language to another. The text uses a strong “Indeed” or “Surely” (Revised Standard Version) at the beginning of the quotation, followed by an idiomatic repetition for emphasis as reflected in King James Version, “blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.” Such an expression is unnatural in English, as it is unnatural in Greek outside the Bible.
I promise you that I will bless you may seem rather strange in some languages if translated literally, since the declaration of blessing is itself the promise. It is in fact the certainty of the promise which is emphasized, and therefore an equivalent expression in some instances is “I will most surely bless you.”
Give you many descendants may have to be rendered as a causative; for example, “cause you to have many descendants” or, more specifically, “cause you to have many children and grandchildren.”
Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Letter of the Hebrews. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
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