several people crying and/or shouting

In Gbaya, the notion of several people crying and/or shouting in the associated verses is emphasized with the ideophone ŋgúr-ŋgúr, which refers to several people crying and shouting at the same time.

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

complete verse (Jeremiah 48:4)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 48:4:

  • Kupsabiny: “Moab will be destroyed,
    and children will scream painfully.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Moab will- surely be-destroyed, and children will-weep.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “All of Moab will be ruined;
    even the little children will cry loudly.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 48:4

Moab is destroyed: This can be expressed as “The enemy has destroyed Moab.”

Zoar: As the Revised Standard Version note indicates, this represents the Greek text; the standard Hebrew text has “her little ones.” It is quite likely that the name Zoar was brought in under the influence of Isa 15.5. The Hebrew text may be translated by assuming that “her little ones” is either a reference to the children of Moab (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh “Her young ones cry aloud”; Good News Translation “listen to the children crying”) or to the people of the city in general. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project suggests the rendering “her little ones,” and we recommend this interpretation. Good News Translation is therefore a good model for the verse, or translators can say something like the following:

• They [or, Enemies] have destroyed Moab. Her children are crying loudly.

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 .