neighbor

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The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “neighbor” in English is rendered into Babatana as “different man,” i.e. someone who is not one of your relatives. (Source: David Clark)

In North Alaskan Inupiatun, it is rendered as “a person outside of your building,” in Tzeltal as “your back and side” (implying position of the dwellings), in Indonesian and in Tae’ as “your fellow-man,” in Toraja-Sa’dan it is “your fellow earth-dweller,” in Shona (translation of 1966) as “another person like you,” in Kekchí “younger-brother-older-brother” (a compound which means all one’s neighbors in a community) (sources: Bratcher / Nida and Reiling / Swellengrebel), in Mairasi “your people” (source: Enggavoter 2004), in Mezquital Otomi as “fellow being,” in Tzeltal as “companion,” in Isthmus Zapotec as “another,” in Teutila Cuicatec as “all people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), and in most modern German translations as Mitmensch or “fellow human being” (lit. “with + human being”).

In Matt 19:19, Matt 22:39, Mark 12:31, Mark 12:33, Luke 10:27, Luke 10:29 it is translated into Ixcatlán Mazatec with a term that refers to a person who is socially/physically near. Ixcatlán Mazatec also has a another term for “neighbor” that means “fellow humans-outsiders” which was not chosen for these passages. (Source: Robert Bascom)

In Noongar it is translated as moorta-boordak or “people nearby” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).

kingdom against kingdom

The Hebrew that is translated in English as “kingdom against kingdom” is translated in Klao as “one side of the country against another side of the country” to express the meaning in the context more accurately. (Source: Don Slager)

neighbor - relative

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “neighbor” or “relative” in English is translated in the Contemporary Chichewa translation (2002/2016) and the Buku Lopatulika translation (1922/2018) with just one word: nansi. This word can also be translated as neighbors whom you share a blood relation with because in Chewa context a community is mostly comprised of people of blood relations. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Isaiah 19:2

The appearance of Yahweh will cause civil conflict within Egypt. A general statement introduces the verse and then is expanded in the remainder of the verse. The five occurrences of the preposition against (Hebrew be) give the verse its distinct pattern. Translators will need to balance the demands of syntax, clarity and naturalness against those of poetic rhythm when translating this feature. Both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation offer useful models for handling the Hebrew fivefold repetition.

In verses 2-4 Yahweh speaks directly, so Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch begin with “The LORD says” (similarly Bible en français courant), which may be helpful in other languages. If this is done, quote marks should be placed around the speech. However, in languages that do not favor using direct speech here, the first person pronouns may be replaced by third person references; for example, “2 And the LORD will stir up … 3 … and the LORD will confound … 4 and he will give over….”

I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians: The Hebrew verb rendered stir up occurs only here in the Old Testament. Its meaning is not certain, scholars generally agree that it may be from a root meaning “thorn” or “to prick.” Here it means “motivate someone to action.” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh and Revised English Bible use “incite.” The Hebrew phrase rendered Egyptians against Egyptians could also be read as “Egyptian against Egyptian” (New International Version, Revised English Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) or even “Egypt against Egypt” (New Jerusalem Bible), but in this context it is best to refer to the people of Egypt. An alternative model for this line is “I will stir up the Egyptians against one another.” It would be helpful to use an expression here that reflects the refrain later in the verse.

And they will fight results from Yahweh’s provoking them. This verb phrase applies to each of the phrases that follow. Translators may repeat it if the language demands it.

Every man against his brother: The Hebrew word rendered brother refers to immediate and extended family members, both male and female. This phrase may be rendered “people will fight with members of their own family” or “family member against family member.”

And every man against his neighbor is similar to the previous phrase; again both men and women are included. We can say “people will fight with their neighbors” or “neighbor against neighbor.”

City against city means that the towns throughout the land will fight one another.

Kingdom against kingdom may have a reflexive sense here, so a possible rendering is “the kingdom of Egypt against itself.” On the other hand, this could refer to the provinces of Egypt fighting against each other. Hereditary princes ruled these provinces (so NJPSV footnote|prj:NJPS.Isa 19.2). This could explain the use of kingdom, in an extended meaning. However, in translation it may be better to use a word like “province” or “district” since kingdom suggests an independent nation. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “one part of the nation will wage war against another.”

For the translation of this verse consider the following examples:

• I will incite Egyptian against Egyptian and they will fight,
family member against family member, neighbor against neighbor,
town against town, province against province.

• I will turn the Egyptians against one another. They will fight, each family member against another, each neighbor against another, one town against another, one province against another.

• Yahweh says, “I will incite the Egyptians to turn on one another; within each family there will be fighting, as well as between neighbors; one town will fight against the other, one district against the other.

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 .

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”.