κύριος ὄνομά σοι· σὺ ράξον αὐτῶν τὴν ἰσχὺν ἐν δυνάμει σου καὶ κάταξον τὸ κράτος αὐτῶν ἐν τῷ θυμῷ σου· ἐβουλεύσαντο γὰρ βεβηλῶσαι τὰ ἅγιά σου, μιᾶναι τὸ σκήνωμα τῆς καταπαύσεως τοῦ ὀνόματος τῆς δόξης σου, καταβαλεῖν σιδήρῳ κέρας θυσιαστηρίου σου.
8Break their strength by your might, and bring down their power in your anger, for they intend to profane your sanctuary and to pollute the tabernacle where your glorious name resides and to break off the horns of your altar with the sword.
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated in English as “horns (of the altar)” is translated in the French common language editions (1997 and 2019) as angles relevés or “raised angles” and in the Parole de Vie of 2017 as coins relevés or “raised corners.”
In the Arabic TMA translation it is translated as hayth tjllyat Allah (حيث تجلّيات الله) or “where God’s manifestation are” and in the Hausa Common Language Bible as “corners (of the altar).” (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
The Greek, Latin and Hebrew that is translated as “altar” in English is translated in a number of ways:
Willis Ott (in Notes on Translation 88/1982, p. 18ff.) explains:
See also altar (Acts 17:23).
In the Hebraic English translation of Everett Fox it is translated as slaughter-site and likewise in the German translation by Buber / Rosenzweig as Schlachtstatt.
The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is translated as “anger” or similar in English in this verse is translated with a variety of solutions (Bratcher / Nida says: “Since anger has so many manifestations and seems to affect so many aspects of personality, it is not strange that expressions used to describe this emotional response are so varied”).
In Akan, a number of metaphors are used, most importantly abufuo, lit. “weedy chest” (the chest is seen as a container that contains the heart but can also metaphorically be filled with other fluids etc.), but also abufuhyeε lit. “hot/burning weedy chest” and anibereε, lit. “reddened eyes.” (Source: Gladys Nyarko Ansah in Kövecses / Benczes / Szelid 2024, p. 21ff.)
See also God’s anger and angry.
The Hebrew, Ge’ez, and Greek that is translated as “tabernacle” in English is translated in San Blas Kuna as “house of prayer that can be carried.” (Source: Ronald Ross)
In Bandi it is translated as “holy sitting place.” The “sitting place for the Bandi is where you live.” Therefore the tabernacle is the place where God lived. (Source: Becky Grossmann in this newsletter )
In Vidunda it is translated as “God’s tent” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext) and in Tibetan as gur mchog (གུར་མཆོག) or “perfect tent” (source: gSungrab website )
In American Sign Language it is translated with with a sign for “tent” combined with a sign referring to the outer court surrounding the tent (see Exodus 27:9 and following). (Source: Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)
“Tabernacle” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor
See also tabernacle (verb) / dwell, festival of Tabernacles and ark of the covenant.
The Hebrew, Greek and Latin that is translated as “sanctuary” in English is translated in the Contemporary Chichewa translation (2002/2016) with opatulika or “separated place.” This is understood in a religious setup as a place designated for worship. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Translators of different languages have found different ways with what kind of formality God is addressed.
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 Translator 2002, 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.”
In Dutch, Afrikaans, Gronings, and Western Frisian translations, God is always addressed with the formal pronoun.
See also formal pronoun: disciples addressing Jesus, female second person singular pronoun in Psalms.
Break their strength by thy might, and bring down their power in thy anger: Good News Translation combines these two parallel sentences (Break/ bring down, strength/ power, might/ anger). Unless one is trying to reproduce the poetic structure that would have been evident in Hebrew, it is all right to do this. The “army” (Good News Translation) is not specifically mentioned in the Greek, but clearly implied. In thy anger may be also expressed “You are angry, so….”
They intend to defile thy sanctuary, and to pollute the tabernacle: Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version combine defile and pollute, as well as sanctuary and tabernacle. The verbs defile and pollute are used in 9.2 with reference to Dinah. Just as the Shechemites defiled Dinah, the Assyrians intend to defile or “disgrace” (Contemporary English Version) the temple. Both sanctuary and tabernacle are poetic references to the “Temple” (Good News Translation).
Where thy glorious name rests: Thy glorious name refers to God himself. The temple is where he has come to dwell, so Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version translate this clause “where you are worshiped.” Another possible rendering is “where people worship you.”
Cast down the horn of thy altar with the sword: “Hack off” (Good News Translation) or “chop off” (Contemporary English Version) much better describes the breaking off of a hard object with a sword than cast down does. The text does not actually say this is to be done with swords specifically, but with iron implements of some kind. Iron axes could have been used. New Jerusalem Bible simply omits the reference; it is well enough implied with its verb “hack down.” However, in languages that must show what implement was used, “axes” is the most likely. We may then translate, for example, “and use axes to chop off the horns [or, corners] of your altar.” For altar see Tob 1.7. The horn of thy altar refers to projections at the top four corners of the altar that appeared to be in the shape of animal horns (Exo 27.2). Grasping the horns of the altar provided sanctuary from someone seeking vengeance (1 Kgs 2.28). To cut the horns from the altar was thus to deprive the people of their security (see Amos 3.14). Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version render these horns as “corners,” which is possible if the use of horns is misunderstood.
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.
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