Ixcatlán Mazatec: “with your best/biggest thinking” (source: Robert Bascom)
Noongar: dwangka-boola, lit. “ear much” (source: Portions of the Holy Bible in the Nyunga language of Australia, 2018 — see also remember)
Kwere “to know how to live well” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Dobel: “their ear holes are long-lasting” (in Acts 6:3) (source: Jock Hughes)
Gbaya: iŋa-mgbara-mɔ or “knowing-about-things” (note that in comparison to that, “knowledge” is translated as iŋa-mɔ or “knowing things”) (source: Philip Noss in The Bible Translator 2001, p. 114ff. )
Chichewa: nzeru, meaning both “knowledge” and “wisdom” (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Kako: “heart thinking” (source: Reyburn 2002, p. 190)
In Hungarian Sign Language it is translated with a hand gesture referring to God to indicate a human quality to communicate that wisdom does not originate from man but is linked to and connected with the fear of God (source: Jenjelvi Biblia and HSL Bible Translation Group):
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 formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 12:2:
Kupsabiny: “‘It is good because you are the ones who speak for people, you know that this wisdom/knowledge will finish when you die.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “Surely you are the people. Even wisdom will die with you. ” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “You (plur.) think that you (plur.) alone are wise and no more wise-one(s) will-be-left when you (plur.) die.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “‘You talk as though/You think that you are the people whom everyone should listen to, and that when you die, there will be no more wise people.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
No doubt you are the people: No doubt translates a word meaning “truly,” which, when followed as it is by the Hebrew conjunction ki, has the meaning “It is true that, doubtless, certainly.” The word translated people has no article in the Hebrew, as it normally would have to give the Revised Standard Version meaning. However, in poetry articles are not always found as they are in prose, and so the Revised Standard Version meaning can still be obtained. Many different changes to the text have been proposed by scholars, but none are convincing. Job is saying in a sarcastic way “You are the important people, the ones who count, the people everyone listens to.” Good News Translation “the voice of the people” means “You are the ones who speak for the people.” In some languages this expression is rendered, for example, “You are the mouths of the village,” “Out of your mouths the people speak,” or “Your tongues speak for everyone.”
And wisdom will die with you: this line is not parallel with the first line but is a separate thought in the form of a relative clause describing the people in that line. “you are the people with whom wisdom will die out” or “after you die there will be no more wise people alive.”
Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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