Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Isaiah 3:4:
Kupsabiny: “God will put boys to be leading people and mere children shall rule/govern people.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “The LORD says like this, "I will make young ones their officials and the youngest children will rule over them."” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “The LORD will-have- the young-ones/men/people -overpower/rule-over them.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
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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.
And I will make boys their princes: Yahweh will also overturn the social order in Judah. He will appoint young men (boys) as leaders (princes) to replace the old leaders. The Hebrew term translated princes was rendered “captains” in the previous verse, but the term is a general one used for many kinds of leaders (see 1.23).
The Hebrew text has the pronoun I. The person speaking is the LORD. This may be clarified in translation by adding a quotation frame such as “The LORD says” and quotation marks (see Bible en français courant, quoted below). Another way of handling this direct quotation is to make it indirect, referring to the LORD in the third person; for example, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh begins with “And He will make…” (with a footnote saying Hebrew has “I”). Good News Translation says “The LORD will let….” All these approaches can be clear and effective, depending in part on whether direct speech is used in the receptor language. The quotation that begins in this verse continues through verse 5 (Bible en français courant ends it with this verse).
And babes shall rule over them has a link with the thought of verse 12, which says the young rulers are oppressors. In the present context this line repeats the basic information of the first line. Babes is synonymous with boys. It stresses the immaturity of the rulers even more. This illustrates the chaos in society, since those unfit to rule take over from those who have been removed from office. The Hebrew noun rendered babes comes from a root meaning “to act without consideration,” that is, to act irresponsibly. For this reason Revised English Bible has rendered this line as “and they will govern as the whim takes them,” and New American Bible has “and the fickle shall govern them.” Bible en français courant renders the whole verse as follows: “‘As their leaders, says the Lord, I will give them young brats, who will govern them according to their whims.’” On the other hand, the parallelism in the verse seems to favor the traditional rendering babes.
A simple translation example for this verse is:
• Young people will become their leaders,
and babies will rule 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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