Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Isaiah 26:14:
Kupsabiny: “Those people who used to rule us are dead so they are no more and they have become ancestral spirits and shall never rise up. You punished those people destroying them so that they never shall be thought about/remembered again.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “Now they have died, and they will not be able to live again, There spirits do not rise. for by punishing them, you have destroyed them. They will not be remembered by anyone.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “They are now dead and they will- no-longer -live again. You (sing.) punished them and destroy; and forgotten them.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “Those who ruled us are now gone; they are dead; their spirits have left this earth, and they will not become alive again. You punished those rulers and got rid of them, and people do not even remember them any more.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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, sa-rare-ru (去られる) or “leave/disappear” is used.
Now they are dead, they will not live is literally “The dead will not live.” The pronoun they refers to the “other lords” in the previous verse, so for clarity Now they are dead may be rendered “Those other lords have now died.” In the present context the Hebrew imperfect verb rendered will not live means “will not live again” (Revised English Bible). New Jerusalem Bible expresses it well with “will not come back to life.”
They are shades, they will not arise is parallel to the previous line. For shades see the comments on 14.9. They will not arise means they will come back to life. Like Good News Translation, most translations use “rise” rather than arise. For this clause Bible en français courant has “they will not stand up again.”
The fourfold statement in the first two lines of this verse is particularly emphatic. It indicates that there is no future hope at all for the foreign rulers who ruled Judah. The expressions here are used again in verse 19, but in the context of hope for God’s people. There is a sharp contrast between verses 14 and 19 through the use of the same terminology. The Hebrew negative particle bal reinforces the contrast (see the introductory comments on verses 7-19). Not live and not arise in this verse are in contrast with “live” and “rise” in verse 19.
To that end thou hast visited them with destruction: To that end renders a Hebrew particle that is often translated “therefore.” However, this sense does not fit well here. In this context it is more likely a logical connector introducing a reason, which may be rendered “for” (Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible) or “because” (New Revised Standard Version), or an emphatic particle, which may be rendered “indeed,” “of a truth” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), or “It is true” (Bible en français courant). BDB suggests that it develops what is implicit in the previous statement. “In other words” is a way to express that sense. Thou hast visited them with destruction is literally “you have visited and caused to destroy them.” The Hebrew verb rendered visited has the negative sense of “punished” (Good News Translation) here (see the comments on this verb at 24.21).
And wiped out all remembrance of them: Yahweh has caused everyone to forget the foreign leaders of Judah. This could mean that they had no family members or descendants to remember them.
Translation models for this verse are:
• They are dead, they will not live again;
they are the departed, they will not rise to life again.
Indeed, you, Yahweh, have destroyed them,
you have wiped out all memory of them.
• Those lords are dead, they will not live again;
those lords are in the grave, they will not come back to life.
That is because you, Yahweh, have punished them by destroying them,
wiping out all recollection of them.
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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