Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 16:17:
Kupsabiny: “I see everything that they do. All their sins are easily seen.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “I saw all their ways. There is nothing hidden from me. I saw their sins.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “I am watching them carefully. I see every sin that they commit. They will not be able to hide from me.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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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.
As a quick reading of this verse in Revised Standard Version will indicate, there is significant repetition in the Hebrew text of this verse.
The idiomatic expression For my eyes are upon all their ways is rendered “I see everything they do” by Good News Translation and “For I see exactly what they do” by Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch.
They are not hid from me is parallel in meaning to the previous sentence. Translators usually understand they to refer to the people, as in “They are not hidden from me,” but the meaning is not significantly changed if they is made to refer to their actions, as in Good News Translation “Nothing is hidden from me.”
The term iniquity is first used in 2.22. Revised English Bible translates this as “wrongdoing” and Good News Translation has “sins.” Nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes may be transformed into a positive statement: “I see all the evil things that they are doing.”
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 .
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