The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “winnowing fork” or similar in English is translated in Matumbi as “sifter” since that’s the tool that is used to separate chaff from grain. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
In the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) with Schaufel or “shovel,” in other German translations as Worfschaufel , an outdated term for the kind of shovel that is traditionally used in German-speaking areas to separate chaff from wheat.
The Greek, Ge’ez, Latin and Hebrew that is often translated as “repent” or “repentance” is (back-) translated in various ways (click or tap here to see the rest of this insight):
Embu: “change heart” (“2 Cor. 7:10 says ‘For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death.’ In ordinary speech the terms ‘repent’ and ‘regret’ are used interchangeably in Embu, so that this verse comes out as: ‘godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no repentance,’ which is contradictory. The problem was solved by using ‘changing heart’ in the first, and ‘sadness’ in the second.”) (source: Jan Sterk)
Muna: dofetompa’ao dhosa bhe dodoli ne Lahata’ala: “radically-end sin and to turn to God” (source: René van den Berg)
Bacama: por-njiya: “fetch sand” (“Before the coming of Christianity 100 years ago, when the elders went to pray to the gods, they would take sand and throw it over each shoulder and down their backs while confessing their sins. Covering themselves with sand was a ritual to show that they were sorry for what they had done wrong, sort of like covering oneself with sackcloth and ashes. Now idol worship for the most part is abandoned in Bacama culture, but the Christian church has retained the phrase por-njiya to mean ‘repent, doing something to show sorrow for one’s sins’” — source: David Frank in this blog post .)
Enlhet “exchange innermosts.” “Innermost” or valhoc is a term that is frequently used in Enlhet to describe a large variety of emotions or states of mind (for other examples see here). (Source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 24ff. )
Isthmus Zapotec: “heart becomes soft” (source for this and above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
Cherokee: “change one’s thinking” (source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 23)
Sabaot: “give one’s neck” — relating to traditional legal proceedings where someone who is convicted of a crime kneels before the aggrieved person who can either behead the accused or completely forgive (source Danny Foster in this recording )
Kâte: maŋ bârisiezo or “turn the insides around” (source: Renck 1990, p. 108)
Merina Malagasy: fifonana, deriving from mifona “meaning ‘to completely uproot so that something new can grow’ (a term also used for the loss of a baby tooth)” (source: Brigitte Rabarijaona)
“In Tzotzil two reflexive verbs to communicate the biblical concept of repentance are used. Xca’i jba means to know or to reflect inwardly on one’s self. This self inquiry or self examination is similar to the attitude of the prodigal son where Luke 15:17 records that ‘he came to his senses.’ Broke, starving, and slopping hogs, the prodigal admitted to himself that he was in the wrong place. The second reflexive verb ‘jsutes jba’ means turning away from what one is and turning to something else. In a sense, it is deciding against one’s self and toward someone else. It is similar to the attitude of the prodigal son when he said, ‘I will get up and go to my father’ (Luke 15:18).” (source: Aeilts 2009, p. 118)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 15:7:
Kupsabiny: “I have sifted you there at the gate of every city of this land. I have crushed you my people, killed all your children because you did not abandon your bad ways.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “I will-punish you (plur.) as-if-like chaff that is winnowed at the gates/entrance of the city. I will-destroy you (plur.) and your (plur.) children, because you (plur.) did- not -turn-away from your (plur.) wicked ways.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “At the gates of your cities, I will scatter you like a farmer scatters the chaff from his grain by winnowing it/throwing it up to allow the wind to blow the chaff away. You, my people, have refused to turn away from your evil behavior. So, I will get rid of you, and I will even cause your children to be killed.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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.
Winnowed … winnowing fork: See the comment at 4.11. Many translators represent the figure with a comparison such as “As a farmer scatters chaff with a winnowing fork, I have scattered them.” Good News Translation drops the image of the winnowing fork altogether, but retains the basis of the comparison: “I threw you to the wind like straw.”
Gates is here used as the equivalent of “cities” (New English Bible); New American Bible has “every city gate.” For the use of gates in this sense, see 14.2.
I have bereaved them, I have destroyed my people: Bereaved translates a verb that has as its primary meaning “make childless,” which is the basis for “I killed your children” of Good News Translation. New American Bible has “I destroyed my people through bereavement,” while Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch combines the meaning contained in the two verbs bereaved and destroyed: “I destroyed them completely.” Another possible way to translate this line is seen in Traduction œcuménique de la Bible and Bible en français courant, which have essentially “I destroyed my people by taking away their children.”
Ways are definitely to be understood as “evil ways” (New American Bible, Good News Translation).
Good News Translation has made clear the relation of the last line to the previous one with “because you did not stop your evil ways.”
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 .
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.