enemy / foe

The Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Ge’ez, and Latin that is translated as “enemy” or “foe” in English is translated in the Hausa Common Language Bible as “friends of front,” i.e., the person standing opposite you in a battle. (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)

In North Alaskan Inupiatun it is translated with a term that implies that it’s not just someone who hates you, but one who wants to do you harm (Source: Robert Bascom), in Tarok as ukpa ìkum or “companion in war/fighting,” and in Ikwere as nye irno m or “person who hates me” (source for this and one above: Chuck and Karen Tessaro in this newsletter ).

In Cherokee it is either translated as “the one(s) who reprimand(s) you” or “the one(s) feared.” (Source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 47)

complete verse (Jeremiah 6:25)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 6:25:

  • Kupsabiny: “We cannot go to the hilltops.
    not walk on the road,
    because the enemies have fierce weapons
    and death/calamity is all around us.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “You (plur.) do not go to the farm(s) or walk on the road(s), for there are enemies ready to kill you (plur.). Everywhere in our (incl.) surrounding is dreadful.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “So one person says to another,
    ‘Do not go out into the fields! Do not go on the roads,
    because the enemy soldiers have swords and they are everywhere;
    they are coming from all directions, and we are extremely afraid.’ ’” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 6:25

Go not forth … on the road is best understood of advice given by one person in the city to another: “ ‘Don’t go into the field!’ one person shouts to another. ‘Stay away from the streets!’ ” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). A less dramatic expression of this is “People tell each other, ‘Don’t go out into the fields. Don’t go out on the roads.’ ”

The enemy has a sword is a typical Hebrew construction in which a single noun (sword) may be used in a collective sense. In most languages it would be more natural to say “our enemies have swords” or “our enemies are armed.”

It may be more effective if terror on every side is made into a separate sentence: “Terror is everywhere!” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). If terror cannot be used in an abstract sense, we may say “Enemies are coming to terrorize us from every side.”

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 .