The Hebrew in Isaiah 1:15 that is translated as “your hands are full of blood” in English is translated in K’iche’ as “your hands are covered with blood form killing people.”
Robert Bascom (in Omanson 2001, p. 255) explains: “A difficult metaphor to translate into some languages is ‘your hands are full of blood,’ which refers to God’s rejection of the sacrifices due to the blood covering the hands of the priests. It was not clear to the translators of the K’iche’ Bible in Guatemala what kind of blood this was. Animal blood from the sacrifices? Had the priests been messy, getting blood all over their hands, and thus God had rejected their sacrifices? When the translators were told that this was human blood, the reason for it being on the priests’ hands was still not clear to them. Had they been bandaging wounded people? Again, was there something unclean about this which made God upset with their sacrifices? What made this image more difficult was that it was a play on images even in Hebrew. ‘Hands covered with blood’ is a common enough metaphor for murder in the Bible, but of course the priests would have literally bloody hands from sacrificing. It would be nice to preserve the play on images, but if that is not possible, the best solution is to specify ‘hands covered with blood… from killing people.’”
“beg” or “ask,” (full expression: “ask with one’s heart coming out,” which leaves out selfish praying, for asking with the heart out leaves no place for self to hide) (Tzotzil)
“raise up one’s words to God” (implying an element of worship, as well as communication) (Miskito, Lacandon) (source of this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
“speak to God” (Shilluk) (source: Nida 1964, p. 237)
“talk together with Great Above One (=God)” (Mairasi) (source: Enggavoter, 2004)
“beg” (waan) (Ik). Terrill Schrock (in Wycliffe Bible Translators 2016, p. 93) explains (click or tap here to read more):
What do begging and praying have to do with each other? Do you beg when you pray? Do I?
“The Ik word for ‘visitor’ is waanam, which means ‘begging person.’ Do you beg when you go visiting? The Ik do. Maybe you don’t beg, but maybe when you visit someone, you are looking for something. Maybe it’s just a listening ear.
When the Ik hear that [my wife] Amber and I are planning trip to this or that place for a certain amount of time, the letters and lists start coming. As the days dwindle before our departure, the little stack of guests grows. ‘Please, sir, remember me for the allowing: shoes, jacket (rainproof), watch, box, trousers, pens, and money for the children. Thank you, sir, for your assistance.’
“A few people come by just to greet us or spend bit of time with us. Another precious few will occasionally confide in us about their problems without asking for anything more than a listening ear. I love that.
“The other day I was in our spare bedroom praying my list of requests to God — a nice list covering most areas of my life, certainly all the points of anxiety. Then it hit me: Does God want my list, or does he want my relationship?
“I decided to try something. Instead of reading off my list of requests to God, I just talk to him about my issues without any expectation of how he should respond. I make it more about our relationship than my list, because if our personhood is like God’s personhood, then maybe God prefers our confidence and time to our lists, letters, and enumerations.”
In Luang it is translated with different shades of meaning (click or tap here to read more):
For Acts 1:14, 20:36, 21:5: kola ttieru-yawur nehla — “hold the waist and hug the neck.” (“This is the more general term for prayer and often refers to worship in prayer as opposed to petition. The Luang people spend the majority of their prayers worshiping rather than petitioning, which explains why this term often is used generically for prayer.”)
For Acts 28:9: sumbiani — “pray.” (“This term is also used generically for ‘prayer’. When praying is referred to several times in close proximity, it serves as a variation for kola ttieru-yawur nehla, in keeping with Luang discourse style. It is also used when a prayer is made up of many requests.”)
For Acts 8:15, 12:5: polu-waka — “call-ask.” (“This is a term for petition that is used especially when the need is very intense.”)
Source: Kathy Taber in Notes on Translation 1/1999, p. 9-16.
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Isaiah 1:15:
Kupsabiny: “When you raise the hands praying, I turn my back to you. Although you have prayed much to me, I do not listen to you at all, because you have spilled blood.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “When you lift your hands in prayer, I will not look at you. No matter how many times you pray, I will not listen, because your hands are full of blood.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “‘When you (plur.) pray I will- not -pay-attention to you (plur.). I will- not -listen even-though how many times you (plur.) will-pray, because you (plur.) have-killed many people.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “So, when you lift up your hands when you pray to me, I will not even look at you. Even if you pray to me very frequently, I will not listen to you, because it is as though your hands are covered with the blood of people whom you have killed.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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 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 choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).
Yahweh continues to condemn Israel’s empty religious life. He mentions two religious activities and his negative reaction to each one. The final line, your hands are full of blood, summarizes the problem that causes Yahweh to react in this way. There is a double reference to hands (although the Hebrew words are not the same), each used in a figurative way but with very different implications. The word blood links this verse with verse 11, although here it takes on a more sinister meaning.
When you spread forth your hands: When may be rendered “Whenever,” as in verse 12. The Hebrew word for hand refers to the hollow of the hand or the hand that is held in the form of a cup. To show the hollow of the hand means to ask God to fulfill a need. The Israelites prayed while standing with their arms stretched out to God. Good News Translation has made this explicit with “When you lift your hands in prayer.” This may be necessary in languages where the reader may not understand that the stretching out of hands means “prayer.” A simpler way to render this line is “Whenever you pray.” However, translators should try to keep the reference to hands because of what comes at the end of the verse.
I will hide my eyes from you: Here Yahweh says he will cover his eyes so he does not see what the people of Israel are doing. The Revised Standard Version rendering could possibly mean that God will not let the people see his eyes, but that is not the sense. It simply means “I will not look at you” (Good News Translation), meaning “I will take no notice of your prayer requests.” Bible en français courant says “I cover up my eyes in order not to see,” and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “I’ll look away.” Another possibility is “I keep my eyes closed.”
Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: Once again the LORD mentions the prayers of his people, but this time without figurative language. No matter how long and how often the people pray when they are in the Temple to offer sacrifices, he will not pay attention.
Your hands are full of blood is the reason why Yahweh will not listen to their prayer. This concluding statement is important because of the way Yahweh accuses the people directly. In that sense it is the climax to verses 10-15. It also leads in to the final two verses that are a call to a change of life. Hands refers primarily to the people’s actions, to what they do. But there is another level of meaning possible, namely, it is a reference to actual hands, covered with blood from the useless sacrifices that were offered. But it is more likely that the expression refers figuratively to the injustice and evil mentioned in the following verses. The Hebrew word rendered blood is plural here. It often refers to the killing of humans in battle or, as it does here, to murder. The sense of evil against other human beings is probably its primary meaning here, with “bloodstains” as the secondary meaning. A translation that allows for both possibilities is recommended. For English Revised English Bible provides an excellent example with “there is blood on your hands.”
Two translation examples for this verse are:
• Every time you spread your hands in prayer,
I refuse to look;
no matter how many times you pray,
I will not listen.
There is blood on your hands!
• Every time you pray I will turn my eyes away;
even if you pray often, I will not listen to you.
Your hands are covered with blood.
Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.