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The Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin that is translated as a form of “save” in English is translated in Shipibo-Conibo with a phrase that means literally “make to live,” which combines the meaning of “to rescue” and “to deliver from danger,” but also the concept of “to heal” or “restore to health.”

Other translations include:

  • San Blas Kuna: “help the heart”
  • Laka: “take by the hand” in the meaning of “rescue” or “deliver”
  • Huautla Mazatec: “lift out on behalf of”
  • Anuak: “have life because of”
  • Central Mazahua: “be healed in the heart”
  • Baoulé: “save one’s head”
  • Guerrero Amuzgo: “come out well”
  • Northwestern Dinka: “be helped as to his breath” (or “life”) (source for all above: Bratcher / Nida),
  • Matumbi: “rescue (from danger)” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
  • Noongar: barrang-ngandabat or “hold life” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • South Bolivian Quechua: “make to escape”
  • Highland Puebla Nahuatl: “cause people to come out with the aid of the hand” (source for this and one above: Nida 1947, p. 222)
  • Bariai: “retrieve one back” (source: Bariai Back Translation)

See also salvation and save (Japanese honorifics).

complete verse (Jeremiah 51:6)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 51:6:

  • Kupsabiny: “Flee from Babylon!
    Flee with your lives!
    Do not be killed for the sin of Babylon.
    I am repaying (them) for what they have done,
    I will do to Babylon what they deserve.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘[You (plur.)] flee/get-out from Babilonia! [You (plur.)] save your lives! Do- not -let- yourselves -be-killed because of the sin of Babilonia. It-is now time that I will-take-vengeance on her according to what is-fitting to what she has-done.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “You people of Israel and Judah, flee from Babylon!
    Run away from there!
    Do not stay there and be killed when I punish the people of Babylon!
    It will be the time when I will get revenge;
    I will do to them what they deserve.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

respectful form of "do" (nasaru)

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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, nasaru (なさる), the respectful form of suru (する) or “do,” is used.

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

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 51:6

Flee from the midst of Babylon: The persons addressed are not identified, though it is assumed that they are the Jewish residents of Babylonia. Verses 10 and 45 would seem to support this conclusion. Translators may say, for example, “Flee from Babylonia, you people of Israel and Judah” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).

Let every man save his life!: Every man probably refers to everyone, not just males. Life translates the Hebrew word often rendered “soul” (see 4.10). The command may be simply rendered “Save your lives!”

Be not cut off translates a verb rendered “perish” by Revised Standard Version in 8.14 and “are devastated” in 25.37. The same verb is rendered “be brought to silence” in 48.2. The problem is that there are apparently two verbs of the same spelling, one of which means “be motionless” and the other “be destroyed,” and the difficulty lies in determining which of the two verbs is used in any given context. In the present passage the meaning of “be destroyed” is clearly marked.

The sentence Be not cut off in her punishment is a warning for the LORD’s people to get out of Babylon before he punishes that city and land—otherwise they will be killed too. The word rendered punishment may also mean “guilt” (New American Bible) or “sin” (Revised English Bible). New Jerusalem Bible renders “do not perish for her guilt,” and New English Bible has “you will be struck down for her sin.” Translators can also say something like “Don’t you be killed when I punish them.”

This is the time of the LORD’s vengeance may need restructuring; for example, “this is the time when the LORD will take revenge.”

The requital he is rendering her is more literally “a retribution he [emphatic] the one paying to her.” A similar expression is found in verse 56, where another word for “retribution” (Revised Standard Version “recompense”) is used. The translation can be “Now he is the one to punish them.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates the last two lines of this verse as “The time of revenge is here; now the Lord will pay back the Babylonians for what they have done!”

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 .