Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Isaiah 25:5:
Kupsabiny: “and it is like a hot desert. But you have extinguished the words/matters of those ruthless people, like when a cloud cools a hot day.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “and like hot sunlight coming to attack in the wilderness. But LORD, you shut the mouths of your enemy, and like a cloud cools the heat you stop the voices of merciless people.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “and like the heat in the desert. But you (sing.) silence the shouting of those who-came-from-other nations. You (sing.) stopped the singings of the cruel people, like the heat which has-disappeared because the cloud covered (it).” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Translators of different languages have found different ways with what kind of formality God is addressed.
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Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or modern English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.
As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator2002, p. 210ff. ), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.
In these verses, in which humans address God, the informal, familiar pronoun is used that communicates closeness.
Voinov notes that “in the Tuvan Bible, God is only addressed with the informal pronoun. No exceptions. An interesting thing about this is that I’ve heard new Tuvan believers praying with the formal form to God until they are corrected by other Christians who tell them that God is close to us so we should address him with the informal pronoun. As a result, the informal pronoun is the only one that is used in praying to God among the Tuvan church.”
In Gbaya, “a superior, whether father, uncle, or older brother, mother, aunt, or older sister, president, governor, or chief, is never addressed in the singular unless the speaker intends a deliberate insult. When addressing the superior face to face, the second person plural pronoun ɛ́nɛ́ or ‘you (pl.)’ is used, similar to the French usage of vous.
Accordingly, the translators of the current version of the Gbaya Bible chose to use the plural ɛ́nɛ́ to address God. There are a few exceptions. In Psalms 86:8, 97:9, and 138:1, God is addressed alongside other “gods,” and here the third person pronoun o is used to avoid confusion about who is being addressed. In several New Testament passages (Matthew 21:23, 26:68, 27:40, Mark 11:28, Luke 20:2, 23:37, as well as in Jesus’ interaction with Pilate and Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well) the less courteous form for Jesus is used to indicate ignorance of his position or mocking.” (Source Philip Noss)
In the most recent Manchu translation of 1835 (a revision of an earlier edition from 1822), God is never addressed with a pronoun but with “father” (ama /ᠠᠮᠠ) instead. Chengcheng Liu (in this post on the Cambridge Centre for Chinese Theology blog ) explains: “In Manchu tradition, as in Chinese etiquette, second-person pronouns could be considered disrespectful when speaking to superiors or spiritual beings. Manchu Shamanist prayers avoided si [‘you’] and sini [‘your’] for this very reason. To use them for God would be, in Lipovzoff’s [one of the two translators] words, ‘the most uncouth and indecent way to speak to the Almighty — as if He were a servant or slave.’ There was also a grammatical problem. In Manchu, si and sini could refer to both singular and plural subjects. For a faith that insisted on the singularity of God, this was potentially confusing. By contrast, repeating ama removed any ambiguity.”
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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 usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme rare (られ) 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, osae-rare-ru (抑えられる) or “subdue” is used.
Like heat in a dry place: This line finishes the sentence begun in the previous line. It gives another illustration of the attack of cruel people. The Hebrew term rendered dry place is only found elsewhere in the Old Testament in 32.2. There it clearly refers to a desert, so for this line New International Version suggests “and like the heat of the desert” (similarly New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, New American Bible). This whole image refers to intense heat.
Thou dost subdue the noise of the aliens: Since Yahweh destroyed the fortifications of foreigners (verse 2), these people are silent. The type of noise here cannot be identified (see the comments 13.4, where the Hebrew term here is rendered “uproar.”). It could be cries for help, shouts of joy, shouts of victory, or some other kind of noise. So translators should use a general word that covers these various possibilities. In this context the verb subdue means “to make quiet” or “to reduce.”
As heat by the shade of a cloud, so the song of the ruthless is stilled: Just as a cloud stops the sun’s heat, so Yahweh stops the singing of cruel people. The song of the ruthless could refer to their song of victory over the poor. The Hebrew verb rendered is stilled has a number of meanings. Its primary meaning is “respond” or “answer,” as in 14.32. Another possible meaning is “sing,” as in Exo 15.21. All the translations consulted render it here with the sense of “make silent.” The passive form is stilled can be changed to an active one by adding Yahweh as the subject (see the examples below).
Translation examples for this verse are:
• … like heat in the desert.
You, Yahweh, silence the noise of the foreigners;
just as heat is reduced by the shade of a cloud,
so you silence the victory song of the mighty.
• … like heat in a dry land.
You, Yahweh, restrain the noise of the aliens;
just as heat is lessened when a cloud gives its shade,
so you remove the victory song from the mighty.
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 .
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