Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 7:26:
Kupsabiny: “But there was no one who heard what I am saying or listened. You continued to do bad things, going astray more than your forefathers.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “But you (plur.) did- not -listen or pay-attention to them. Your (plur.) head are more harder and what you (plur.) did was more wicked than your (plur.) ancestors.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “But you, my people, have not listened to me or paid attention to what I said; you have been stubborn, and you have done more sinful things than your ancestors did.’” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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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.
Listen is parallel in meaning to incline their ear; see verse 24.
Stiffened their neck translates a biblical idiom meaning “became stubborn” (Good News Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), “obstinate” (New English Bible), or “deliberately resisted” (New Jerusalem Bible). Bassa in Liberia has “hardened their heads.” But stiffened their neck. They did worse than your fathers is translated “you became more stubborn and rebellious than your ancestors” by Good News Translation. The shift is made in Good News Translation to a second person (“you … your”) because of the demands of the discourse structure.
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 .
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