enemy / foe

The Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Ge’ez, and Latin that is translated as “enemy” or “foe” in English is translated in the Hausa Common Language Bible as “friends of front,” i.e., the person standing opposite you in a battle. (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)

In North Alaskan Inupiatun it is translated with a term that implies that it’s not just someone who hates you, but one who wants to do you harm (Source: Robert Bascom), in Tarok as ukpa ìkum or “companion in war/fighting,” and in Ikwere as nye irno m or “person who hates me” (source for this and one above: Chuck and Karen Tessaro in this newsletter ).

Translation commentary on Judith 13:5

Now is the time to help thy inheritance: Help may be rendered “rescue” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version). For thy inheritance Good News Translation has “your chosen people.” In 8.22 Good News Translation expressed “our inheritance” as “land we have inherited” (see also the note at 9.12). There is no real problem; each is appropriate to its context. The earlier occurrence was speaking of the “desolation” of the inheritance—meaning land.

Carry out my undertaking may be rendered “help me carry out my plan” (Good News Translation).

Destruction of the enemies recalls the words of the allied commanders to Holofernes in 7.9: “lest his army be defeated.”

Who have risen up against us may be rendered “who are threatening to attack us.”

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Judith. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.