widow

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “widow” in English is translated in West Kewa as ona wasa or “woman shadow” (source: Karl J. Franklin in Notes on Translation 70/1978, pp. 13ff.) and in Newari as “husband already died ones” or “ones who have no husband” (source: Newari Back Translation).

In Cherokee the term is gender neutral and translates to “one who has lost someone.” (Source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 100)

The etymological meaning of the Hebrew almanah (אַלְמָנָה) is likely “pain, ache,” the Greek chéra (χήρα) is likely “to leave behind,” “abandon,” and the English widow (as well as related terms in languages such as Dutch, German, Sanskrit, Welsh, or Persian) is “to separate,” “divide” (source: Wiktionary).

See also widows.

complete verse (Jeremiah 18:21)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 18:21:

  • Kupsabiny: “So, oh God, send famine to their children
    and (they) be speared with a sword to die in battle.
    Let the children die from their wives
    and they become widows.
    Let sicknesses kill the elders/old men
    and the young men be speared in battle.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “But now, let their children die in famine and in war. Let their females become-widow and lose their children. Let their males die of disease and their young-(men) in war.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “So now, allow their children to die from hunger!
    Or cause them to be killed by their enemies’ swords!
    Cause their wives to become widows, whose children are all dead!
    Cause their old men to die in a plague,
    and cause their young men to be killed in battles!” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Japanese benefactives (koroshite)

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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, koroshite (殺して) or “kill” 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 18:21

The verse begins with the transition Therefore. Jeremiah says that despite the fact that he did good for them, they are plotting against him, and therefore he now asks the LORD to punish them.

Deliver up their children to famine is expressed clearly by Good News Translation: “let their children starve to death.”

Give them over to the power of the sword: Give … over translates a verb that means “pour out” (Bright “Spill them out”; Moffatt “throw them”). One scholar sees here the picture of vegetables dumped out on a table to be chopped up by the cook. But attempting to retain this imagery in translation would surely be saying more than the text says. Simply “Let…” or “Cause…” will do. Sword is best taken as referring to war (see 5.12), so Good News Translation translates this line “let them be killed in war.”

Good News Translation expresses let their wives become childless and widowed as “Let the women lose their husbands and children.”

May their men meet death by pestilence: Pestilence translates a Hebrew word that more often means “death” (see 15.2). Meet death by pestilence is more literally “become the slaughtered of death/pestilence.” New English Bible has “let death carry off their men.”

Youths translates the same word rendered “young men” in 6.11. Elsewhere it appears in 9.21; 11.22; 15.8; 31.13; 48.15; 49.26; 50.30; 51.3, 22.

The last two lines wishing death on the men and youths can be tied to the previous line: “May death and warfare take away the men and youths, leaving the women without husbands or children.”

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 .