The Greek and Hebrew that is translated in English as “grain” (or: “corn”) is translated in Kui as “(unthreshed) rice.” Helen Evans (in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 40ff. ) explains: “Padddy [unthreshed rice] is the main crop of the country and rice the staple diet of the people, besides which [grain] is unknown and there is no word for it, and it seemed to us that paddy and rice in the mind of the Kui people stood for all that corn meant to the Jews.” “Paddy” is also the translation in Pa’o Karen (source: Gordon Luce in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 153f. ).
Other translations include: “wheat” (Teutila Cuicatec), “corn” (Lalana Chinantec), “things to eat” (Morelos Nahuatl), “grass corn” (wheat) (Chichimeca-Jonaz) (source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), or ntimumma lujia / “seeds for food” (Lokạạ — “since Lokạạ does not have specific terms for maize and rice that can be described as grains”) (source: J.A. Naudé, C.L. Miller Naudé, J.O. Obono in Acta Theologica 43/2, 2023, p. 129ff. )
The Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that are translated as “wine” in English is translated into Pass Valley Yali as “grape juice pressed long ago (= fermented)” or “strong water” (source: Daud Soesilo). In Guhu-Samane it is also translated as “strong water” (source: Ernest L. Richert in The Bible Translator 1965, p. 198ff. ), in Noongar as “liquor” (verbatim: “strong water”) (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang), in Hausa as ruwan inabi or “water of grapes” (with no indication whether it’s alcoholic or not — source: Mark A. Gaddis), in sar as kasə nduú or “grape drink” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin), or in Papantla Totonac and Coyutla Totonac as “a drink like Pulque” (for “Pulque,” see here ) (source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1971, p. 169ff. ).
In Swahili, Bible translations try to avoid local words for alcoholic drinks, because “drinking of any alcohol at all was one of the sins most denounced by early missionaries. Hence translators are uncomfortable by the occurrences of wine in the Bible. Some of the established churches which use wine prefer to see church wine as holy, and would not refer to it by the local names used for alcoholic drinks. Instead church wine is often referred to by terms borrowed from other languages, divai (from German, der Wein) or vini/mvinyo (from ltalian/Latin vino/vinum). Several translations done by Protestants have adapted the Swahili divai for ‘wine,’ while those done by Catholics use vini or mvinyo.” (Source: Rachel Konyoro in The Bible Translator 1985, p. 221ff. )
The Swahili divai was in turn borrowed by Sabaot and was turned into tifaayiik and is used as such in the Bible. Kupsabiny, on the other hand, borrowed mvinyo from Swahili and turned it into Finyonik. (Source: Iver Larsen)
In Nyamwezi, two terms are used. Malwa ga muzabibu is a kind of alcohol that people specifically use to get drunk (such as in Genesis 9:21) and ki’neneko is used for a wine made from grapes (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext).
In some Hindi translations (such as the Common Language version, publ. 2015 ), one term (dākharasa दाखरस — grape juice) is used when that particular drink is in the focus (such as in John 2) and another term (madirā मदिरा — “alcohol” or “liquor”) when drunkenness is in the focus (such as in Eph. 5:18).
In Mandarin Chinese, the generic term jiǔ (酒) or “alcohol(ic drink)” is typically used. Exceptions are Leviticus 10:9, Numbers 6:3, Deuteronomy 29:6, Judges 13:4 et al., 1 Samuel 1:15, and Luke 1:15 where a differentiation between weak and strong alcohol is needed. The Mandarin Chinese Union Version (2010) translates that as qīngjiǔ lièjiǔ (清酒烈酒) and dànjiǔ lièjiǔ (淡酒烈酒), both in the form of a Chinese proverb and meaning “light alcohol and strong drink.” (Source: Zetzsche)
Click or tap here to see a short video clip about wine in biblical times (source: Bible Lands 2012)
The conjunction Therefore introduces what Yahweh will do in response to the sins of Israel mentioned in the previous verse (see comments on 2.6).
I will take back my grain in its time, and my wine in its season… means that what Yahweh once gave to Israel he will take away from Israel. The Hebrew expression for I will take back is literally “I will return and I will take.” The Hebrew verb for “return” is the same one used in 2.7, where the woman returns to her husband. Here the LORD returns and takes from his wife Israel, which is an opposite move. It may be hard to retain this wordplay in translation. NET Bible has “go back” in 2.7 and “take back” here. The same Hebrew words are used for grain and wine as in 2.8. The possessive pronoun my is used with each of these crops, emphasizing that they never came from Baal in the first place, but from the LORD, in contrast with the woman’s thoughts in 2.5. Drought seems to be implied as the means of destroying these crops (see 2.3). In its time and in its season refer to the time when grain is harvested and when grapes are gathered and their juice pressed out for making wine. Good News Translation combines these two phrases, saying “at harvest time.” Again, the translator has to consider the literary genre that is used to translate this text. In poetry a certain element of repetition is acceptable in many languages.
And I will take away my wool and my flax: The Hebrew verb for take away means “to snatch,” implying the use of sudden force in grabbing the material away from the woman. New American Bible and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh say “snatch away,” and Bible en français courant and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible translate “tear away.” This verb can also be understood to mean “rescue” (Andersen and Freedman), as if Yahweh is rescuing property that is rightfully his own. Either meaning is appropriate in this context.
My wool and my flax repeat the words used in 2.5. By referring back to things in 2.5 and 2.8, this prophecy demonstrates a feature of good Hebrew style in poetry: various parts of a poem are shown to relate to each other, almost like rhyming patterns of poetry in many Western languages.
Which were to cover her nakedness: Wool and flax would first have to be made into clothing to cover the woman, and some languages may need to specify this fact. The last two lines of this verse are another way of saying that Yahweh will strip her naked (see 2.3, 10).
A translation model for this verse is:
• Therefore I will take back
my grain when it is ripe,
and my wine when it is matured.
I will snatch my wool and my flax
used to cover her nakedness.
Quoted with permission from Dorn, Louis & van Steenbergen, Gerrit. A Handbook on Hosea. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2020. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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 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.