burning desire

In Gbaya, the notion of a burning desire (as in a craving, exceeding love, greed, zeal, or longing) is emphasized in the referenced verses with lɛk-lɛk, an ideophone that refers to someone burning with desire.

Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)

sin

The Hebrew, Ge’ez, and Greek that is typically translated as “sin” in English has a wide variety of translations.

The Greek ἁμαρτάνω (hamartanō) carries the original verbatim meaning of “miss the mark” and likewise, many translations contain the “connotation of moral responsibility.”

  • Loma: “leaving the road” (which “implies a definite standard, the transgression of which is sin”)
  • Navajo (Dinė): “that which is off to the side” (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Toraja-Sa’dan: kasalan, originally meaning “transgression of a religious or moral rule” and in the context of the Bible “transgression of God’s commandments” (source: H. van der Veen in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 21ff. )
  • Kaingang: “break God’s word”
  • Bariai: “bad behavior” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Sandawe: “miss the mark” (like the original meaning of the Greek term) (source for this and above: Ursula Wiesemann in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 36ff., 43)
  • Nias: horö, originally a term primarily used for sexual sin. (Source: Hummel / Telaumbanua 2007, p. 256)
  • Mauwake: “heavy” (compare forgiveness as “take away one’s heaviness”) (source: Kwan Poh San in this article )

In Shipibo-Conibo the term is hocha. Nida (1952, p. 149) tells the story of its choosing: “In some instances a native expression for sin includes many connotations, and its full meaning must be completely understood before one ever attempts to use it. This was true, for example, of the term hocha first proposed by Shipibo-Conibo natives as an equivalent for ‘sin.’ The term seemed quite all right until one day the translator heard a girl say after having broken a little pottery jar that she was guilty of ‘hocha.’ Breaking such a little jar scarcely seemed to be sin. However, the Shipibos insisted that hocha was really sin, and they explained more fully the meaning of the word. It could be used of breaking a jar, but only if the jar belonged to someone else. Hocha was nothing more nor less than destroying the possessions of another, but the meaning did not stop with purely material possessions. In their belief God owns the world and all that is in it. Anyone who destroys the work and plan of God is guilty of hocha. Hence the murderer is of all men most guilty of hocha, for he has destroyed God’s most important possession in the world, namely, man. Any destructive and malevolent spirit is hocha, for it is antagonistic and harmful to God’s creation. Rather than being a feeble word for some accidental event, this word for sin turned out to be exceedingly rich in meaning and laid a foundation for the full presentation of the redemptive act of God.”

In Warao it is translated as “bad obojona.” Obojona is a term that “includes the concepts of consciousness, will, attitude, attention and a few other miscellaneous notions.” (Source: Henry Osborn in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 74ff. ). See other occurrences of Obojona in the Warao New Testament.

Martin Ehrensvärd, one of the translators for the Danish Bibelen 2020, comments on the translation of this term: “We would explain terms, such that e.g. sin often became ‘doing what God does not want’ or ‘breaking God’s law’, ‘letting God down’, ‘disrespecting God’, ‘doing evil’, ‘acting stupidly’, ‘becoming guilty’. Now why couldn’t we just use the word sin? Well, sin in contemporary Danish, outside of the church, is mostly used about things such as delicious but unhealthy foods. Exquisite cakes and chocolates are what a sin is today.” (Source: Ehrensvärd in HIPHIL Novum 8/2023, p. 81ff. )

See also sinner.

complete verse (Hosea 4:8)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Hosea 4:8:

  • Kupsabiny: “You are eating the sacrifices that sweep away sin
    and are happy for the mistakes of my people.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “The priests eat the purification offering that the people bring.
    So when the people sin, the priests rejoice.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “You (plur.) want that my people will-sin so-that you (plur.) can-eat their offerings for becoming-clean.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “The priests get food from the offerings that the people bring in order to be forgiven for having sinned,
    so the priests want the people to sin more and more
    in order that the people will bring them more and more offerings.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

1st person pronoun referring to God (Japanese)

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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.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also pronoun for “God”.

Translation commentary on Hosea 4:8

Verse 8 gives the second accusation of God against the priests in this section. The Hebrew tense of the verbs here reflects their habitual actions. The verse has two parallel lines. They feed corresponds with they are greedy, and the sin of my people corresponds with their iniquity.

They feed on the sin of my people: This idiomatic expression will make little sense to most readers. The Hebrew word for sin also means “sin offering.” The priests were given portions of every sin offering to eat, so that they made part of their living in this way (see Lev 6.25-30). Thus the more people sinned, the more sacrifices would be brought, and the more the priests would eat. Bible en français courant says “They live off the sacrifices offered by my guilty people,” and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “They fatten themselves from the sin offerings of my people.” Some scholars try to determine whether the prophet meant “sin” or “sin offering,” since the Hebrew noun here has either meaning. In this context both meanings may be intended: the priests want people to sin to force them into bringing more sin offerings so that they have more to eat. It may be helpful to make this explicit in the translation (see the model below).

Similarly, they are greedy for their iniquity means that the priests desire that the people sin and make themselves guilty. The result will be more profit for the priests! They are greedy is literally “they lift up their soul/life/throat,” which is a good Hebrew expression for describing people who yearn for something, for example, food, destruction (Pro 19.18), or the LORD (Psa 143.8). Does the receptor language have a good figurative expression to convey this meaning? The Hebrew text actually has “his soul/life/throat,” but many Hebrew manuscripts and the ancient versions have the plural pronoun “their.” In view of the plural subject this makes sense. Their iniquity refers to the moral stain or guilt that marks the people who have sinned.

This verse therefore shows how perverse the priests have become. They are eager to have the people sin and thereby become guilty, so that they will have to bring sacrifices for sin to the priests, from which the priests will have plenty to eat.

A translation model for this verse is:

• They make my people sin, so they can eat their offerings.
They long for their offenses.

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 .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Hosea 4:8

4:8a–b

Notice the parallel parts that are similar in meaning:

8a They feed on the sins of My people

8b and set their hearts on iniquity.

Line 4:8a is the reason for 4:8b. The reason that the priests set their hearts on iniquity (4:8b) is that the priests feed on their sins (4:8a). The priests wanted the sins of the people to increase, in order that they might receive a greater supply of sacrificial meat to eat. Some versions make explicit that 4:8a is the reason for 4:8b. For example:

8a Since the priests live off the sin offerings of the people, 8b they want the people to sin more and more. (New Century Version)

4:8a

They feed on the sins of My people: In Hebrew, the word sins has a double meaning here. One meaning is sins, and a second meaning is “sin offerings.” Sin offerings were animals that the people brought to the priest to be sacrificed for sin. The laws in the book of Leviticus allowed the priests to eat a portion of these sacrificial animals. See Leviticus 6:24–30.

The double meaning of sins makes this clause a play on words. The priests were feeding on the people’s sins by eating the sin offerings that the people brought. The New Living Translation (1996) translates both parts of the double meaning:

The priests get fed when the people sin and bring their sin offerings to them (New Living Translation (1996))

Most versions do not include both meanings of this word play. Instead, they translate one of the meanings and leave the other meaning implied. For example:

they feed on the sin of my people (New Revised Standard Version)
-or-
They feed on the sin offerings of my people (NET Bible)

The clause may imply that the priests were eating large quantities of the meat from the sacrifices. For example:

you can stuff yourselves on their sin offerings (Contemporary English Version)

It may also be a figure of speech (synecdoche) that represents a prosperous lifestyle. For example:

You grow rich from the sins of my people (Good News Translation)

4:8b

set their hearts on iniquity: The Hebrew phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as set their hearts is literally “they lift up their throat/appetite.” This is a Hebrew idiom that emphasizes a person’s desire or greed. In this phrase, it means that they intensely desired the people to sin against the LORD.

Some versions keep a figurative word such as “appetite” or “greed” because of the connection with eating the sin offerings (4:8a). For example:

their appetites long for their iniquity (NET Bible)
-or-
they are greedy for their iniquity (New Revised Standard Version)

Other versions translate the meaning without using a figurative term. For example:

you want them to sin more and more (Good News Translation)
-or-
they want them to do wicked things (God’s Word)

General Comment on 4:8a–b

In some languages, it will be more natural to put 4:8b first and the reason second. For example:

8b You encourage others to sin, 8a so you can stuff yourselves on their sin offerings. (Contemporary English Version)

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