living water

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated in English as “living water” is translated in Shipibo-Conibo as “water by which to live” and in Tenango Otomi as “water which gives the new life” (source: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125), and in Elhomwe as “water giving life” (source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext).

liquid gushing forth

In Gbaya, the notion of a liquid being released with great force is emphasized in the referenced verses with kput-kput, an ideophone that refers to the gushing forth of a liquid.

Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)

See also fountain.

Jeremiah

The name that is transliterated as “Jeremiah” in English is translated in American Sign Language with the sign signifying “prophet (seeing into the future)” and “crying.” (Source: Phil King in Journal of Translation 16/2 2020, p. 33ff.)


“Jeremiah” in American Sign Language (source )

In Swiss-German Sign Language it is translated with a sign that depicts to lament often.


“Jeremiah” in Swiss-German Sign Language, source: DSGS-Lexikon biblischer Begriffe , © CGG Schweiz

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Jeremiah .

For more information on translations of proper names with sign language see Sign Language Bible Translations Have Something to Say to Hearing Christians .

complete verse (Jeremiah 2:13)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 2:13:

  • Kupsabiny: “(They) have done two sins:
    They have removed themselves from me
    the one who is the spring/source of life.
    and have dug holes that are cracked
    that are unable to receive water.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘My people have-done two sins: They rejected me, the spring that gives life, and they worshipped other gods, as-if like just they have-dug a place-of-storing water that dries-up.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

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 2:13

Verse 13 continues with for; that is, God now gives the reason that the sky should be so horrified. Traduction œcuménique de la Bible conveys the meaning with “Yes, it is twofold, the evil committed….” Other translations such as New International Version drop the transition altogether. Translators should do whatever is most natural in the discourse of their language.

Evils translates the same word used in 1.16, where Revised Standard Version has “wickedness.” It may be used of any kind of evil in general, though in the present context it has the more specialized meaning of “sins” (Good News Translation, Revised English Bible, Luther 1984). The two sins that the people have committed are (1) they have abandoned their worship of the LORD, and (2) they have turned to worship gods that are as useless as a broken cistern.

Forsaken is expressed as “turned away from” by Good News Translation. Other possibilities in English would include “abandoned” or “rejected.”

The fountain of living waters refers to the fresh running water of a spring, and so Good News Translation translates “the spring of fresh water.” For people who live in a desert society, the contrast between a spring of fresh water and broken cisterns would be very evident. In the land of Canaan where fresh springs of water were not readily available, the people had to depend upon water stored in cisterns. The limestone in which the cisterns were cut was of porous nature, so that it was necessary to line them with a non-porous plaster. But if the plaster cracked, then the water would seep out through the crack into the porous limestone. Thus the picture of the Canaanite gods as broken cisterns describes by way of imagery what is stated openly in verses 8 and 11: the gods of the Canaanite people are unable to help the people who worship them.

Some translators will find they need to express fountain of living waters with a comparison, as for example, “who is like a spring of fresh water for them.” The notion of living waters (“fresh water” in Good News Translation) could also be “life-giving water” if translators wanted to retain more of the image of the text.

Hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns, that can hold no water is a figure that means they have put their faith in other gods. One way to translate this image is “they have worshiped other gods that are as useless as broken cisterns.” If cisterns are not known, translators may say something like “storage tanks” or “holes for storing water [that they dig out.]” If broken in a language only meant that the cisterns were broken into pieces, then “cracked” would be better.

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 .