inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (Jeremiah 6:24)

Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)

The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).

For this verse, the Jarai and the Adamawa Fulfulde translation both use the exclusive pronoun.

complete verse (Jeremiah 6:24)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 6:24:

  • Kupsabiny: “The people of Jerusalem are saying,
    ‘We have heard news about these people
    but we felt paralyzed.
    Those matters pained us
    like the pain of a woman in childbirth.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “We (incl.) have heard news/reports about those soldiers and our (incl.) hands became-weak. Fear and pain what we (incl.) felt like the pain of the woman who is about-to-give-birth.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “The people of Jerusalem say,
    ‘We have heard reports about the enemy;
    so we are very frightened, with the result that we feel weak.
    We are very afraid, and worried,
    like women who are about to give birth to babies.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 6:24

In translation it is important to identify the persons who are speaking: “The inhabitants of Jerusalem say…” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).

The report of it is translated “the news” by Good News Translation and “what threatens us” by Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch.

The expression our hands fall helpless contrasts with the firm grip on their weapons that the enemy has in the previous verse. “Our hands become weak” or “Our hands hang helpless at our sides” may give the picture.

Anguish and pain are two different ways of describing the same experience. It may not be possible in some languages to say anguish has taken hold of us, and so we may need to translate the last two lines as follows: “we are in great pain, like a woman in labor” or “we hurt as much as a woman who is about to give birth to a child.” See 4.31, where the same image of a woman in childbirth is used along with the word anguish.

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 .