survive / escape / save

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “survive,” “escape,” “save,” or similar in English is translated in the Contemporary Chichewa translation (2002/2016) in these verses with pulumuka, describing someone whose life was in danger but who has freed himself or herself. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

complete verse (Jeremiah 11:15)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 11:15:

  • Kupsabiny: “Tell those people, ‘Why do you enter my House and become people who commit sin? Or do you think that meat which is offered can save you? Do those things make you happy?” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “The people whom I loved have-done many wicked things. So, what is their right to come to my temple? Can- their offerings -hold/block/stop the destruction that will-come to them? When they do wickedness they still/even rejoice!’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Then Yahweh said,
    ‘The people of Judah whom I love certainly no longer have a right to come to my temple,
    because they continually do many evil things.
    They think that continually making sacrifices of meat to me certainly will protect them from disasters,
    with the result that they will be able to rejoice.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

1st person pronoun referring to God (Japanese)

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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.

(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 Jeremiah 11:15

Of verses 15-16 one commentator states: “The text is exceedingly corrupt, and any reconstruction conjectural.” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project believes that the Hebrew may be followed, but that any translation of it “can only be a tentative one.” The proposal of the Committee may be stated as follows: “The people I love no longer have any right to be in my house. Most of them are so wicked that they even carry away the meat of the sacrifices. But when I strike them with disaster, they will no longer be happy.” Translators may well find following this interpretation the best way to proceed, as for example in “The people I love have done so much evil they have no right to be in my temple. They even carry away [for themselves] the meat that has been prepared for sacrifices [to me]. But when I destroy them, they will have nothing to be joyful about.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch follows the Septuagint (with a footnote indicating that the Hebrew is unclear): “ ‘The people I love,’ says the Lord, ‘are involved in an evil game. What are they trying to do in my temple? Do they think their offerings will turn away the approaching destruction and that they will soon be able to rejoice again?’ ”

Notice that my house is “my Temple” in Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, and sacrificial flesh refers to meat prepared for sacrifice.

Throughout verses 15-17 the references to the LORD shift several times between first and third person, and the references to the people between second and third person. As elsewhere, translators may need to be more consistent, as in the Good News Translation model.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2003. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .