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)
  • Kako: “heart thinking” (source: Reyburn 2002, p. 190)
  • Isthmus Mixe: “have a lot of mind”
  • Lalana Chinantec: “head is very good”
  • San Mateo Del Mar Huave: “have a great deal of understanding”
  • Morelos Nahuatl: “be alert”
  • Desano: “very intelligent”
  • Highland Popoluca: “understand what God wants” (Source for this and five above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)

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 HSL Bible Translation Group):


“Wisdom” in Hungarian Sign Language (source )

See also wisdom (Proverbs) and knowledge.

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 39:17)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 39:17:

  • Kupsabiny: “I am the one who made it/her to lack understanding
    so that (she) never knows anything.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “For I, God, have not made her to be one who has wisdom,
    and I have not given her insight.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “For I did- not -give her wisdom and understanding.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “That is because I did not allow ostriches to be wise.
    I did not enable them to be intelligent.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Job 39:17

Because God has made her forget wisdom makes it appear that the poet has forgotten that God is supposed to be speaking. In order to retain the first person for God, Good News Translation shifts to “I.” Made her forget translates the causative form of the verb forget. The sense is “to deprive, to prevent from having,” and so “I have not allowed her to have wisdom” or “… her to be wise.” Bible en français courant says “It is because I have not granted wisdom to her.”

Given her no share in understanding translates the Hebrew literally. “She did not get her share of intelligence.” Gordis suggests that God is the subject in both lines, and translates “God forgot her when he allocated (distributed, gave out) wisdom, and he gave her no share in understanding.” This rendering is particularly good for its parallelism. Another possibility is “It was I who kept her from being wise, and it was I who withheld intelligence from her.”

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 .