complete verse (Jeremiah 41:6)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 41:6:

  • Kupsabiny: “Then, Ishmael welcomed the people pretending to be crying. But when they met, he said, ‘You (plur.) come and see Gedaliah.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Ishmael who was crying from Mizpa met them. Ishmael said to them, ‘You (plur.) come, look at what happened to Gedalia.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Ishmael went out of the city to meet them, crying as he went. When he reached them, he said, ‘Come and see what has happened to Gedaliah!’” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 41:6

Came out … came: In many languages “went out … went” will be more natural.

Come in to Gedaliah may be rendered “Come in to Gedaliah’s place” or “Please come in to see Gedaliah” (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 .

respectful form of "come" (oide ni naru)

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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 to do this is through the usage of lexical honorific forms, i.e., completely different words, as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, oide ni naru (おいでになる), a respectful form of kuru (来る) or “come” is used.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )