lay waste

In Gbaya, the notion of “lay waste” (or “make waste”) is emphasized with lɔkɔti-lɔkɔti, an ideophone used to describe complete destruction, devastation.

Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)

See also is laid waste and other occurrences of lɔkɔti-lɔkɔti.

body of water dried up

In Gbaya, the notion of a body of water has completely dried up is emphasized with ta̧i̧-ta̧i̧, an ideophone that refers to the fact that a body of water is completely dry.

Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)

turn the rivers into islands

In Gbaya, the notion of (almost) dried up water of the rivers is emphasized in Isaiah 42:25 with ɗuŋgum, an ideophone that describes the movement or motion of shaking.

Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)

Note that the ideophone ta̧i̧-ta̧i̧ in the same verse, discussed in body of water dried up refers to the completely dried pools.

complete verse (Isaiah 42:15)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Isaiah 42:15:

  • Kupsabiny: “Mountains and hills will be destroyed
    and the things that grow there will dry up.
    I shall turn rivers to become dry land,
    and made ponds/wells lose water and dry up.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “I will destroy the mountains and hills,
    I will cause the plants to become dry.
    I will change the rivers into islands,
    and I will turn the ponds into dry ground.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “I will-destroy the mountains, and cause-to-wither the plants. I will-turn the rivers into dry land and the pool-of-waters I will-cause-to-become-dry.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

1st person pronoun referring to God (Japanese)

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.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also pronoun for “God”.

Translation commentary on Isaiah 42:15

This is a figurative description of what God will do to Israel’s enemies. They are like lush, fertile land, but God will make them like a desert (compare 41.18-19). He will reverse their present, comfortable situation. This contrasts with what he will do for Israel (see verse 16). Good News Translation inserts a stanza break between verses 15 and 16 to indicate this change in topic.

I will lay waste mountains and hills: The Hebrew verb rendered lay waste can mean “to cause to dry up,” as in 37.25, but here it probably means “to destroy” or “to make desolate,” as in 37.18 (see the comments there). Mountains and hills often occur together in Isaiah (see, for example, 2.2; 40.12; 41.15). Languages that do not distinguish between them may render this line as “I will destroy all [big and small] mountains.”

And dry up all their herbage indicates that God will dry up all the plants and trees on the mountains. These areas will become barren. This line may be rendered “I will make all their plants and trees dry up” (similarly Good News Translation).

I will turn the rivers into islands, and dry up the pools: These parallel lines speak of God turning well-watered places into desert-like areas. I will turn the rivers into islands means the rivers will dry up so much that islands will start to appear in them. The Hebrew noun translated islands is often rendered “coastlands” elsewhere (see the comments on 41.1). Some commentators emend the Hebrew word ʾiyyim rendered islands to read tsiyyim, which means “barren land.” In Hebrew the letters we transcribe as ʾ and ts look very much alike, so it is easy to confuse them. Translators may follow either reading here. Good News Translation follows the emended text with “deserts” (similarly Revised English Bible). The Hebrew word rendered pools can refer to small bodies of water and marshes (see the comments on 14.23 and 35.7).

Translation examples for this verse:

• I will cause mountains and hills to crumble,
and dry up all their plants and trees.
I will turn rivers into dry land,
and dry up marshlands.

• I will destroy mountains and hills,
and will cause all their plant life to wither.
I will change rivers into deserts,
and dry up pools of water.

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 .