complete verse (Jeremiah 43:1)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 43:1:

  • Kupsabiny: “When I had finished telling those people all the words as how God had told me,” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “After Jeremias spoke to all the people of what the LORD their God has said concerning them,” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “So I finished telling to the people that message from Yahweh our God.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 43:1

The structure of the Hebrew sentence is such that all these words of the LORD their God is repeated in a slightly different form by the equivalent expression which the LORD their God had sent. The use of with is simply an English device to avoid the use of dashes, such as in New International Version “all the words of the LORD their God—everything the LORD had sent him to tell them….” Good News Translation translates the entire verse as “I finished telling the people everything that the LORD their God had sent me to tell them.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch is similar: “When Jeremiah had told the crowd what the Lord had commanded him….”

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 .