as the LORD lives

The Hebrew and Greek that is often translated as “As the Lord lives, (I swear)” in English is translated in Dan as “I swear before the true living God” to “not to imply that God could die, contrasting with the dead false gods.” (Source: Don Slager)

Similarly, In Elhomwe it is translated as “before the Lord.” (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

See also in the name of / on the account of his (or: my) name and The LORD lives.

says the LORD / says the Lord GOD

The English that is translated as “says the Lord” or “says the Lord God” is translated in some influential French translations as oracle de Yahvé (La Bible de Jérusalem) oracle du Seigneur (Traduction œcuménique de la Bible), and oracle de l’Éternel (Nouvelle Version Segond Révisée 1978) or “oracle (authoritative statement) of YHWH (or: the Lord).”

Timothy Lloyd Wilt (in The Bible Translator 1999, p. 301ff. ) describes the Hebrew ne’um (adonay) YHWH (quoting S. Meier, 1992) as “a highly marked expression (…) Hebrew does not characteristically repunctuate quoted discourse with reminders of the quote’s source, making this particle’s function quite distinctive and certainly unique in its frequency and distribution.”

The French translations above are emulating this with their distinct wording containing the French oracle.

Similarly, the French translation by Chouraqui uses harangue de or “harangue (or: ‘sermon’) of YHWH” and the English translation by Fox uses Utterance of YHWH. Both of these translations are Jewish translations that attempt to emulate the Hebraic nature of the original text. (Source: Drew Maust) Likewise, the translation by Goldingay (2018) has Yahweh’s declaration, typically set in parentheses: (Yahweh’s declaration).

The translation into Kera marks this by using the equivalent of “the words of me, YHWH” (source: Jackie Hainaut) and a language in West Africa, belonging to the Mande language family, uses a honorific form of “say,” that is only used for speech from God or his prophets. Both of these languages are spoken in francophone Africa.

See also Thus says the LORD, “By this you shall know that I am the LORD.” and tetragrammaton (YHWH).

complete verse (Jeremiah 23:7)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 23:7:

  • Kupsabiny: “So I God am saying that days are coming when people shall no longer say, ‘I swear by the God who brought the people of Israel out from the land of Egypt,’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘And at that time also the people will- no longer -swear saying, ‘I swear to the living LORD who caused- the Israelinhon -to-come-out of Egipto.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Yahweh also says that at that time, people who are solemnly promising to do something will no longer say, ‘I will do it as surely as Yahweh lives, who rescued the Israeli people from Egypt.’” (Source: Translation for Translators)