The Hebrew and Greek that is translated into English as “the wrath of God” or “God’s anger” has to be referred to in Bengali as judgment, punishment or whatever fits the context. In Bengali culture, anger is by definition bad and can never be predicated of God. (Source: David Clark)
Translations in other languages:
Quetzaltepec Mixe: “translated with a term that not only expresses anger, but also punishment” (source: Robert Bascom)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “the coming punishment of God on mankind” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “God’s fearful/terrible future punishing of people” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “the coming anger/hatred of God” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “the punishment which will come” (source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Bariai: “God’s action of anger comes forth in the open” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
Mairasi: “His anger keeps increasing (until it will definitely arrive)” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
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 to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. When the referent is God, the “divine” honorific prefix mi- (御) is used as in mi-ikari (御怒り) or “wrath (of God)” in the referenced verses. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is translated as “anger” or similar in English in this verse is translated with a variety of solutions (Bratcher / Nida says: “Since anger has so many manifestations and seems to affect so many aspects of personality, it is not strange that expressions used to describe this emotional response are so varied”).
Chichewa: “have a burning heart” (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation) (see also anger burned in him)
Citak: two different terms, one meaning “angry” and one meaning “offended,” both are actually descriptions of facial expressions. The former can be represented by an angry stretching of the eyes or by an angry frown. The latter is similarly expressed by an offended type of frown with one’s head lowered. (Source: Graham Ogden)
In Akan, a number of metaphors are used, most importantly abufuo, lit. “weedy chest” (the chest is seen as a container that contains the heart but can also metaphorically be filled with other fluids etc.), but also abufuhyeε lit. “hot/burning weedy chest” and anibereε, lit. “reddened eyes.” (Source: Gladys Nyarko Ansah in Kövecses / Benczes / Szelid 2024, p. 21ff.)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 18:4:
Kupsabiny: “Anger has speared you. Should the world be abandoned/migrated from because of you or a rock cause people to migrate so that you can see that you are being heard?” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “You who tear yourself to pieces in your anger, will the earth be abandoned for your sake? Or will big rocks be removed from their places?” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “You (sing.) are- only -harming yourself with your (sing.) anger. Do- you (sing.) -think that just because of you (sing.), God will-abandon the earth or he will-move/transfer the stones from their place/position?” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
You who tear yourself in your anger: this line translates the Hebrew “O tearer of himself in his anger.” In 16.9 Job said God “has torn me in his wrath.” However, Bildad says Job tears himself in his own anger. This line is the opening address of the two parallel lines which will follow. Here Bildad addresses Job in the third person singular in the Hebrew, but Revised Standard Version and others translate with the second singular You who … your anger. According to Bildad it is Job’s passion that carries him away and causes him injury. Although the line is translated in many ways, it is probably best to treat it as an address for the remainder of the chapter; for example, “Job, you injure yourself in your anger” or “Job, you get angry, and it is your anger that wounds you.”
Shall the earth be forsaken for you…?: according to Bildad, Job thinks the very course of nature should be altered to suit him. Bildad has in mind that Job’s complaints to God are like asking that the world be remade just to fit Job. According to the three friends the moral principle on which the world rests is that sin results in suffering. Earth … forsaken implies an earth whose inhabitants have abandoned it, gone away, all for Job’s sake. This would be extreme chaos. This line and the next may be treated as sarcastic rhetorical questions; for example, “Do you think everyone must abandon the earth to prove you are right?” or “Do you believe the earth must become like a desert to show you are in the right?”
Or the rock be removed out of its place?: in 14.18b Job laments that a man dies and disappears under the grinding force of God: “The rock is removed from its place.” Bildad now picks up from this line to tell Job that such a thing does not take place just to satisfy Job. This line may also be translated, for example, “Do you think God must push over mountains to satisfy you?” or “Do you believe God must knock down the hills to make you happy?”
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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