complete verse (Jeremiah 24:10)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 24:10:

  • Kupsabiny: “I will send to them war, famine and sicknesses to destroy (them) until not even one is left in this land that I gave to them and their forefathers.’ ’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “I will-send them war, famine, and diseases until they will-be-destroyed in the land that I gave to them and to their ancestors.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “And I will cause them to experience wars and famines and diseases, until they have disappeared from this land which I gave to them and to their ancestors.’’” (Source: Translation for Translators)

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 24:10

For sword, famine, and pestilence, see 14.12.

Be utterly destroyed translates the same verb rendered “shall be consumed” in 14.15. Good News Translation is clear: “until there is not one of them left.”

As in 2.5, fathers refers to “ancestors” (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 .