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. )

drink

In Telugu different verbs for humans drinking (tāgu / తాగు) and animals drinking (cēḍu / చేడు) are required.

complete verse (Job 22:7)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 22:7:

  • Kupsabiny: “You refused people who were tired water
    and you did not give food to those who are hungry.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “To people who were exhausted you gave no water,
    and to people who were hungry you refused to give food.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “You (sing.) do- not -give water to the ones-who-are-thristy, and you (sing.) also do- not -give food to the ones-who-are-hungry.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “You must not have given water to those who were thirsty,
    and you must have refused to give food to those who were hungry.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Job 22:7

The sins Eliphaz now mentions are contrary to the teaching of the prophets in such passages as Isaiah 58.7, 10; Ezekiel 18.7.

You have given no water to the weary to drink: the weary or “tired” describes the condition associated with thirst in Isaiah 29.8; Jeremiah 31.25; Proverbs 25.25. The same is often said of the ground that is not watered.

And you have withheld bread from the hungry: verse 7 may be rendered, for example, “You never gave a drink of water to the thirsty nor a bite of food to the hungry” or “When you saw a thirsty person you never gave him a drink, and when you met a hungry person you never gave him something to eat.”

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 .