neighbor

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The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “neighbor” in English is rendered into Babatana as “different man,” i.e. someone who is not one of your relatives. (Source: David Clark)

In North Alaskan Inupiatun, it is rendered as “a person outside of your building,” in Tzeltal as “your back and side” (implying position of the dwellings), in Indonesian and in Tae’ as “your fellow-man,” in Toraja-Sa’dan it is “your fellow earth-dweller,” in Shona (translation of 1966) as “another person like you,” in Kekchí “younger-brother-older-brother” (a compound which means all one’s neighbors in a community) (sources: Bratcher / Nida and Reiling / Swellengrebel), in Mairasi “your people” (source: Enggavoter 2004), in Mezquital Otomi as “fellow being,” in Tzeltal as “companion,” in Isthmus Zapotec as “another,” in Teutila Cuicatec as “all people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), and in most modern German translations as Mitmensch or “fellow human being” (lit. “with + human being”).

In Matt 19:19, Matt 22:39, Mark 12:31, Mark 12:33, Luke 10:27, Luke 10:29 it is translated into Ixcatlán Mazatec with a term that refers to a person who is socially/physically near. Ixcatlán Mazatec also has a another term for “neighbor” that means “fellow humans-outsiders” which was not chosen for these passages. (Source: Robert Bascom)

In Noongar it is translated as moorta-boordak or “people nearby” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).

complete verse (Jeremiah 9:4)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 9:4:

  • Kupsabiny: “Each person should be on guard against his neighbor,
    and no one can even trust his brother,
    because each of them is a liar
    and (he) betrays/backbites his friend.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘You (plur.) beware of your (plur.) fellowmen, and do not trust even to your (plur.) relatives, for each one is a deceiver and makes-up-accusations.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Do not trust your neighbors and even your brothers!
    They all are as deceitful as Jacob was.
    They slander each other and tell lies about each other.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 9:4

In the ancient Hebrew community a person’s neighbor would be defined as a fellow Israelite. This may also be the sense in which brother is used, though translations tend to maintain the term in its more restricted sense of a blood relative. Good News Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, and Revised English Bible have “friend … brother.”

Good News Translation renders Let everyone beware of his neighbor as “Everyone must be on guard against their friends.” Put no trust in any brother can be “and not even trust his brother” or “and even be afraid to trust his brother.”

In Hebrew there is a play on words in the expression is a supplanter. Two words of the original sound like the name “Jacob” (“be deceitful”), and one commentator paraphrases the meaning as “Every brother is a thorough Jacob.” To convey this meaning, Good News Translation translates “for all relatives are as deceitful as Jacob.” Revised English Bible has “Brother supplants brother as Jacob did.” Other translators will say something like “Men [or, Brothers] will trick their brothers out of their positions.” Accompanying the text of Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch is a footnote, indicating a play on words between “Jacob” and “deceive.” There is also a reference to Gen 25.26 in the footnote.

And every neighbor goes about as a slanderer is translated “and everyone slanders their friends” by Good News Translation. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, which uses a second person form throughout (“So be on guard…”), says “and your friends speak only evil of you.”

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 .