Translation commentary on Jeremiah 6:19

The earth is now introduced as a witness to God’s case against his people. Some translations have “You, earth, listen to this.”

Behold: See the comment at 1.6.

I am bringing evil: In Hebrew the pronoun I is placed in the emphatic position. Evil (see 1.14) is translated “misfortune” by Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch and “ruin” by Good News Translation and Revised English Bible; “disaster” is the rendering of New Jerusalem Bible.

Although the word translated devices may in other contexts have a positive meaning, it is here definitely negative. Good News Translation, New International Version, and New American Bible have “schemes” and Revised English Bible “scheming.” Jerusalem Bible (with a footnote) and Moffatt (without a footnote) follow the Septuagint, which has “apostasy.” In Hebrew the two words are similar, but the Septuagint reading has no support in Hebrew manuscripts.

The fruit of their devices is translated “As punishment for all their schemes” by Good News Translation and “it is the consequence of their own plans” by Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch. As in many other places in the Old Testament, the noun fruit is used of the results or consequences of what someone has done.

The last two clauses of this verse (because … rejected it) say essentially the same thing, though in slightly different words. The second of these clauses is a somewhat worse charge than the first one, as reflected in the following rendering: “They haven’t paid any attention to the instructions I’ve given them; even the law I gave them they have rejected.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch restructures quite dramatically: “They have thrown my instructions and warnings into the wind.”

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 .

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”.