wisdom

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The Hebrew, Aramaic, Ge’ez, Latin, and Greek that is translated as “wisdom” in English is rendered in various ways:

  • Amganad Ifugao / Tabasco Chontal: “(big) mind”
  • Bulu / Yamba: “heart-thinking”
  • Tae’: “cleverness of heart” (source for this and all above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • Palauan: “bright spirit (innermost)” (source: Bratcher / Hatton)
  • Ixcatlán Mazatec: “with your best/biggest thinking” (source: Robert Bascom)
  • Noongar: dwangka-boola, lit. “ear much” (source: Portions of the Holy Bible in the Nyunga language of Australia, 2018 — see also remember)
  • Kwere “to know how to live well” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
  • Dobel: “their ear holes are long-lasting” (in Acts 6:3) (source: Jock Hughes)
  • Gbaya: iŋa-mgbara-mɔ or “knowing-about-things” (note that in comparison to that, “knowledge” is translated as iŋa-mɔ or “knowing things”) (source: Philip Noss in The Bible Translator 2001, p. 114ff. )
  • Chichewa: nzeru, meaning both “knowledge” and “wisdom” (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
  • Uma: “clearness” (source: Uma Back Translation)

In Hungarian Sign Language it is translated with a hand gesture referring to God to indicate a human quality to communicate that wisdom does not originate from man but is linked to and connected with the fear of God (source: Jenjelvi Biblia and Andrea Bokros):


“Wisdom” in Hungarian Sign Language (source )

See also wisdom (Proverbs) and knowledge.

complete verse (Job 38:37)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 38:37:

  • Kupsabiny: “Who knows how many clouds there are,
    or who is able to make the water pots in the sky to pour out water,” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Who is clever [enough] to be able to count the clouds?
    Who is clever [enough] to be able to empty the water storage places that are in the sky,” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Who is wise that can-count the clouds? Who can-pour-out the water from heaven” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Job 38:37 - 38:38

These two verses are linked by when, referring to the time of the action in verse 37.

Who can number the clouds by wisdom? asks if anyone has the wisdom to get an accurate count of the vast number of clouds in the sky. This may refer to the fact that their number changes constantly, and so before anyone could reach a total, the counting would have to begin again, and again. Wisdom here has more to do with skill than knowledge, and so Bible en français courant “Who is sufficiently skilled to count the clouds?”

Tilt the waterskins of the heavens depicts the clouds as water containers, as in 26.8a. Tilt translates the causative form of a verb meaning “to lay something down,” that is, “to turn on its side,” or more specifically of a water-filled container, “to pour out.” This line may be rendered, for example, as “and to pour out the rain from the water jars in the sky” or “turn over the clouds and pour out the rain.”

When the dust runs into a mass depicts a situation that exists at the time of the pouring out of the rain in verse 37. It is the action of the rain that hardens the dust. A literal rendering can be “when the dust hardens into a mass.”

The clods cleave fast together says something similar to the statement in line a, but clods, lumps of soil, replaces dust. As in line a, the action of the rain is to cause clods of earth to stick together and thus make larger clods. Good News Translation reduces the two lines to one and places verse 38 in apposition to “rain” in verse 37. However, the rain is performing two distinct actions on the ground, one on the dust and the other on the clods. New English Bible expresses both lines well: “… when the dusty soil sets hard as iron, and the clods of earth cling together?” This may also be expressed, for example, “… when the dusty ground forms hard clumps, and the clods of earth stick together?”

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 .