naked

The Greek, Latin and Hebrew that is translated as “naked” in English is translated in Enlhet with a figure of speech: “(one’s) smoothness.” (Source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 24ff. )

In Elhomwe the word for “naked” is “shameful to use, and would never be used by a preacher in church.” Therefore “without clothes” is used. (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

In Cherokee it is translated as “being in a bodily state.” (source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 30)

In the Catholic Mandarin Chinese Sigao version and the Protestant Union Version, historical Chinese idioms are used: chìshēn lòutǐ (赤身露體 / 赤身露体) or chìshēn luǒtǐ (赤身裸體 / 赤身裸体): “bare and uncovered body.” (Source: Toshikazu S. Foley in Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies, 2011, p. 45ff.)

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)

complete verse (Job 24:10)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 24:10:

  • Kupsabiny: “Those orphans are struggling being clothed in rags,
    while carrying bundles of wheat for the rich without being fed.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Since they have no clothes, they will go about naked.
    They will bring sheaves of grain, yet they are hungry.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “The poor-ones walk lack of clothes; they are-cause-to-carry the harvested grains but they are hungry.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

3rd person pronoun with high register (Japanese)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

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 third person singular and plural pronoun (“he,” “she,” “it” and their various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. While it’s not uncommon to avoid pronouns altogether in Japanese, there are is a range of third person pronouns that can be used. In these verses a number of them are used that pay particularly much respect to the referred person (or, in fact, God, as in Exodus 15:2), including kono kata (この方), sono kata (その方), and ano kata (あの方), meaning “this person,” “that person,” and “that person over there.”

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also third person pronoun with exalted register.

Translation commentary on Job 24:10

They go about naked, without clothing: the subject is again the poor, and so Good News Translation makes this clear “But the poor….” This line closely resembles verse 7a, differing only in the verb go about. Good News Translation “go out” seems to imply leaving a dwelling, which they do not have. The sense is as in Revised Standard Version, which suggests “wander here and there.” Without clothing may be taken as an explanation for why they are naked. “They wander about naked because they have no clothes to wear.”

Hungry, they carry the sheaves: this line emphasizes their misery as they carry sheaves (bundles of grain in the stalks), probably to the threshing floor where they will beat out the grain. The paradox is that the people who harvest the grain do so for the owners’ benefit while the workers go hungry. Good News Translation generalizes the picture with “while harvesting wheat.” The line may also be expressed “they go hungry while they thresh out the grain,” “while their backs are loaded with grain their stomachs pain from hunger,” or “they carry another’s grain on their backs and emptiness in their stomachs.”

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 .