complete verse (Jeremiah 17:18)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 17:18:

  • Kupsabiny: “You should put to shame those who persecute me,
    but do not let me be put to shame.
    Let those people stay in fear
    but guard me so that I do not receive any shame.
    Bring a great calamity to those people
    crush those people beyond description.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Put-to-shame and cause-to-become-afraid the ones who persecute/pursue me, but I on-the-other-hand not. Send them destruction so-that they will-be-destroyed completely.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “So now, cause those who persecute me/cause me to suffer to be ashamed and dismayed,
    but do not do things to me that will cause me to be ashamed and dismayed.
    Cause them to be terrified!
    Do to them many things that will completely destroy them!” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Japanese benefactives (uchiyabutte)

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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 benefactive construction as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017.

Here, uchiyabutte (打ち破って) or “destroy” is used in combination with kudasaru (くださる), a respectful form of the benefactive kureru (くれる). A benefactive reflects the good will of the giver or the gratitude of a recipient of the favor. To convey this connotation, English translation needs to employ a phrase such as “for me (my sake)” or “for you (your sake).” (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Japanese benefactives (yō ni shite)

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 benefactive construction as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. Here, yō ni shite (ようにして) or “do so (so that) / make it like” is used in combination with kudasaru (くださる), a respectful form of the benefactive kureru (くれる). A benefactive reflects the good will of the giver or the gratitude of a recipient of the favor. To convey this connotation, English translation needs to employ a phrase such as “for me (my sake)” or “for you (your sake).”

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 17:18

The verb put to shame is used numerous times in Jeremiah; its first occurrence is in 2.26. The text has Let those be put to shame, which is a wish directed to the LORD, asking him to either bring on the disgrace or cause it to happen. Hence Good News Translation has “Bring disgrace.”

For those … who persecute, see “persecutors” in 15.15.

Be dismayed translates the verb first used in 1.17.

In this verse the pronoun me is emphatic in its second and third occurrences, while them is emphatic in its first occurrence. One way to translate this in the first four lines is to say “LORD, bring disgrace on those who are causing me to suffer, not on me [or, don’t disgrace me]. Make them the ones who are filled with terror, not me.”

The day of evil: See verse 17.

Double destruction is best taken as a means of making emphasis: “destroy them, destroy them utterly” (Revised English Bible) and “break them to pieces” (Good News Translation).

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 .