untranslatable verses

The Swedish Bibel 2000 declared the 69 Old Testament verses referenced herein as “untranslatable.” Typically, other Bible translations translate those verses and mention in footnotes that the translation is uncertain or give alternate readings. Christer Åsberg, the Translation Secretary with the Swedish Bible Society at that time, explains why the Swedish Bible Society decided to not translate these verses at all (in The Bible Translator 2007, p. 1ff. ):

“In the new Swedish translation (SB) of 2000, [some verses are] not translated at all; [they are] indicated with three hyphens inside square brackets [- - -] [with a] reference to the appendix, where in the article ‘Text’ one will find a paragraph with roughly the following content:

In some cases the text is unintelligible and the variant readings differing to such an extent, that it is quite impossible to attain a reasonable certainty of what is meant, although some isolated word may occur, whose meaning it is possible to understand.

“If Bible translators find the Hebrew text untranslatable, what kind of text is it that they have produced in the translation into their own language? When a footnote says ‘The Hebrew is not understandable,’ what then is the printed text a translation of? And if the translators prefer to do without footnotes, are they then really released from the responsibility of informing their readers that the text they read is just mere guesswork?

“To leave a blank space in a Bible text seems to be an offensive act for many. (. . . ) To admit that a piece of Holy Scripture makes no sense at all may have been unimaginable in times past. In our enlightened era, an overprotective concern for the readers’ trust in the word of God is apparently a decisive factor when a translator tries to translate against all odds. The verdict ‘untranslatable’ is much more frequent in scholarly commentaries on different Bible books written by and for experts than in the translations or footnotes of the same books designed for common readers.

“Another reason (. . .) is a professional, and very human, reluctance to admit a failure. Also, many Bible translators lack translational experience of other literary genres and other classical texts where this kind of capitulation is a part of the daily run of things. They may have an innate or subconscious feeling that the Bible has unique qualities not only as a religious document but also as a linguistic and literary artifact. Completeness is felt to be proof of perfection. Some translators, and not so few of their clients, are unfamiliar with a scholarly approach to philological and exegetical matters. In some cases their background have made them immune to a kind of interpretative approximation common in older translations, confessional commentaries, and sermons. Therefore, their tolerance towards lexical, grammatical, and syntactical anomalies tends to be comparatively great.

“It is very hard to discern and to define the boundary between something that is extremely difficult and something that is quite impossible. I am convinced that all Bible translators in their heart of hearts will admit that there actually are some definitely untranslatable passages in the Bible, but are there a dozen of them or a score? Are there fifty or a hundred? Not even a group of recognized experts would probably pick out the same ten most obvious cases. (. . .)

“Conclusions:

  1. There are untranslatable passages in the Bible.
  2. How many they are is impossible to say—except for the translation team that decides which passages are untranslatable.
  3. An untranslatable passage cannot and should therefore not be translated.
  4. The lacuna should be marked in a consistent way.
  5. The translating team should stipulate their criteria for untranslatability as early as possible.
  6. It is an ethical imperative that the readers be comprehensively informed.
  7. Untranslatability has been and can be displayed in many different ways.
  8. An explanatory note should not confuse linguistic untranslatability with other kinds of textual or translational difficulties.
  9. The information given should make it clear that the translators’ recognition of untranslatability is a token of respect for the Bible, not a proof of depreciation.
  10. You shall not fear the void, but the fear of the void.”

With thanks to Mikael Winninge, Director of Translation, Swedish Bible Society

forget

The Hebrew, Latin, Ge’ez, and Greek that is translated as “forget” in English is translated in Noongar as dwangka-anbangbat, lit. “ear-lose.” (Source: Portions of the Holy Bible in the Nyunga language of Australia, 2018).

See also remember and forget (Japanese honorifics).

complete verse (Job 28:4)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 28:4:

  • Kupsabiny: “(They) go far to where a person has not reached
    and go to dig out those stones from deep clefts,
    dangling in ropes inside there.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Very far away from the places where people are living,
    or in places where people have not [yet] put their feet, he digs a hole that goes deep down into a mine.
    Far away from men he hangs and swings from one side to the other.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “They dig-up a path in the mines, in the place that no one dwells or (no) man passes-by. They go-down by ropes that swing.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “They dig shafts/narrow holes very deep down into the ground in places that are far from where people live,
    where travelers do not go.
    They work far away from other people,
    swinging back and forth on ropes as they descend into the mine shafts.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Job 28:4

They open shafts in a valley away from where men live: verse 4, like verse 3, has three lines. However, verse 4 is unclear. The translator need only compare King James Version‘s rendering with Good News Translation to see how two translations based on the Hebrew text as it stands can differ. King James Version has “The flood breaketh out from the inhabitant; (even the waters) forgotten of the foot: they are dried up, they are gone away from men.” Some scholars have found this verse to be almost meaningless, and New American Bible omits it. The literal Hebrew of line a is approximately “One opens a valley from with a sojourner.” The Hebrew for “valley” probably refers here to a mine shaft, tunnel, or, as Hebrew Old Testament Text Project suggests, “gorge.” Revised Standard Version seems to translate this word as both shaft and valley. Dhorme and others change the expression translated away from where men live to get “a foreign people,” which is then used as the subject: “A foreign people has pierced shafts.” Good News Translation does not make any change in the text, but expresses away from where men live as an adverbial clause placed at the beginning: “Far from where anyone lives….” It is possible to keep the Hebrew as it stands and translate “They dig mine tunnels far away from where people live,” or “Miners dig mine shafts in remote places,” or “In isolated places people dig for precious metals.”

They are forgotten by travelers is literally “they are forgotten by the foot.” This line is usually taken to mean that the people who pass by above these mine tunnels or shafts are unaware of what lies beneath their path, but it may also mean “people never pass by there” due to the extreme isolation. It is in this sense that Good News Translation translates its second line, “Or human feet ever travel”; this may also be expressed as “No one ever travels that way” or “Travelers don’t even know what is there.”

They hang afar from men, they swing to and fro: this line is commonly interpreted as referring to clinging to a rope while being lowered into the mine. Good News Translation has placed part of line a at this point, making it the first verb phrase, “Men dig the shafts of mines,” and has made two lines of line c so that it ends up with five lines. Afar from men repeats the thought away from where men live in line a. They hang … they swing … may be misunderstood if deep shaft mining is unknown to the reader. One restructuring which may be useful is shown in Bible en français courant, “They open tunnels beyond the inhabited places. Far from humans, in inaccessible places, the miners swing back and forth, suspended by ropes.” Another sense suggested by Hebrew Old Testament Text Project is that the word translated “valley” refers to a “gorge,” and the two verbs in line c depict a miner suspended by a rope, high above the bottom of the gorge, against one of the rocky walls in which the galleries are cut. Good News Translation has made this clearer with “clinging to ropes in the pits.” Without doubt verse 4 will require some restructuring in many languages. Translators may follow the model of Good News Translation or, if Bible en français courant is followed, they must be careful not to give the impression that the miners have been executed by hanging from a rope. Accordingly it should be made clear that these miners are either lowered by ropes into the mine or are suspended by ropes while they dig into the walls of the mine shaft. For example, “They dig out the ore while suspended by ropes that swing back and forth.”

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 .

textual location of Job 28:1-28

According to the Job translation by Greenstein (2019), Job 28:1-28 should be located following Job 37:24. He explains:

“In the preceding passage (37:14-24), Elihu describes the uncanny marvels of the created world in the upper realm, in the sky. In the present passage (chapter 28), Elihu continues to describe a world that is beyond human comprehension, now focusing on the lower realm, the earth and, more particularly, the subterranean, which includes both the netherworld—the domain of the dead—and the sea that was believed to lie beneath the land. The passage is structured by two questions that ask, Where can (divine) wisdom be found? The question turns out to be a riddle, for the answer is not about where, but when (see verses 25-27).

“Modern commentators tend to regard chapter 28, which does not comport with Job’s perspectives, as an independent poem that cannot be attributed to any of the known speakers. The assumption that the poem is autonomous is highly problematic. Biblical poems do not begin with the conjunction ki, ‘for, because,’ as this passage does. There is no antecedent to the pronoun ‘he’ in verse 3. But more important, the motif of esoteric wisdom lying beyond human reach typically includes both the above and the below (see for example Job 11:7-8; Deuteronomy 30:11-13; Jeremiah 31:36; as well the Babylonian hymn to the sun god Shamash). The conclusion of this passage (28:28) echoes the conclusion of the survey of the heavenly wonders in 37:24, and it is following that passage that this one belongs.”