mourn

The Hebrew, Latin, and Greek that is translated as “mourn” or similar in English is translated in Newari as “have one’s heart broken” or “have a bursting heart” (source: Newari Back Translation).

complete verse (Jeremiah 9:17)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 9:17:

  • Kupsabiny: “The God of power said, ‘Tell people:
    Think about it and call the women to mourn.
    Call the women who are skilled in mourning.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “The LORD Almighty continued to say, ‘You (plur.) think-about what are- the -happenings! You (plur.) call for the women who-are-paid-to-cry, especially those who are most skillful in-crying.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “This is also what the Commander of the armies of angels says:
    ‘Think about what is happening,
    then summon those women who mourn when someone has died.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Honorary "are" construct denoting God ("say")

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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 usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme are (され) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, iw-are-ru (言われる) or “say” is used.

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

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 9:17

For Thus says the LORD of hosts, see 2.2, 19. Some commentators omit the LORD of hosts because no oracle from the LORD immediately follows. Of the modern translations, only Jerusalem Bible drops the phrase.

Consider is not found in the Septuagint, and it is also omitted by Revised English Bible and Jerusalem Bible. Since there is no basis in the Hebrew text for its omission, the command is best retained in translation. It can mean either “Take a good look and draw your conclusions” or simply “Keep alert, pay attention.” “Attention!” is the rendering of New American Bible (similarly Luther 1984), while Moffatt has “Listen….” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch uses a contemporary idiom, “Consider what hour has struck,” and Good News Translation translates “Think about what is happening!”

The mourning women are best identified with the skilful women. This is the basis for Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch (“Call the mourning women! Bring all of the women who know what to do at the time of death!”). Women evidently played a more prominent role in mourning for the dead than men did, and among them there seems to have been a professional class trained especially for the occasion.

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 .