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 32:32

Verses 32-33 are similar to what is found in other parts of Jeremiah, without matching any passage word for word.

It may be helpful to begin a new sentence here; for example, “I will do that [or, I will destroy it] because of all the evil things they did which caused me to be angry….”

Evil; that is, “evil deeds” or “evil [things] they have done.”

Sons of Israel … the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Again, it can be helpful to begin a new sentence; for example, “They all did evil, the people of Israel and Judah, including those from Jerusalem, and their kings and leaders, their priests and prophets.” For princes refer to 1.18; for priests see 1.1 and for prophets 1.5.

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 .