hungry

The Hebrew, Ge’ez, Latin, and Greek that is translated in English as “hungry” (or: “famished”) is translated in a number of ways:

  • Noongar: “without stomach” (koborl-wirt) (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Kölsch translation (Boch 2017): nix zo Käue han or “have nothing to chew on” and singe Mage hät geknottert wie ne Hungk or “his stomach growled like a dog” (source: Jost Zetzsche)
  • German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999): Hunger überfiel ihn or “Hunger overtook (lit.: “attacked”) him” (in Matthew 4:2)
  • Kupsabiny: “hunger ate him” (source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Mairasi: “feeling tuber pains” (tubers are the main staple) (source Enggavoter 2004)
  • Chechen: “blinded by hunger” (Source: David Clark in The Bible Translator 2015, p. 117ff. )

complete verse (Job 18:12)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 18:12:

  • Kupsabiny: “Calamity lies in wait in order to swallow (him)
    and destruction is waiting for (him).” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Hunger will sap his strength,
    and when he falls down destruction will be near.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Calamity is like a hungry man that wants to devour him. Destruction is ready to destroy him.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Job 18:12

His strength is hunger-bitten is literally “His strength is hungry,” but this figure of speech makes little sense in English, and Revised Standard Version hunger-bitten makes even less sense. The word translated strength can also mean “wealth,” and so Good News Translation “He used to be rich.” It may also mean “calamity,” as in New International Version “Calamity is hungry for him.” It is not possible from the Hebrew to tell which is the better meaning here. The subject calamity in the parallel line b makes strength the logical subject in line a. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project prefers to understand the text to be “His strength is famished,” which can be translated “Hunger robs him of his strength” or “He is hungry and so has no strength.”

And calamity is ready for his stumbling: translators are divided between those who derive the word translated stumbling from a root meaning “to limp” and those who relate it to a word for “rib.” Revised Standard Version belongs to the first, and “Disaster stands and waits at his side” in Good News Translation belongs to the second. Good News Translation is preferred because it relates verse 12 more closely to verse 11. In some languages it will not be possible to speak of calamity or “disaster” as if they are persons. In these cases this line must be restructured to say, for example, “He stumbles into dangerous places,” “He can never avoid suffering,” or “Suffering is like his closest friend.”

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 .