elder (of the community)

The Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that is typically translated as “elders” in English is translated in the Danish Bibelen 2020 as folkets ledere or “leaders of the people.”

Martin Ehrensvärd, one of the translators, explains: “The term ‘elder’ turned out to pose a particularly thorny problem. In traditional bibles, you can find elders all of over the place and they never pose a problem for a translator, they are just always elders. But how to find a contemporary term for this semi-official, complex position? This may have been our longest-standing problem. A couple of times we thought we had the solution, and then implemented it throughout the texts, only to find out that it didn’t work. Like when we used city council or village council, depending on the context. In the end we felt that the texts didn’t work with such official terms, and throughout the years in the desert, these terms didn’t make much sense. Other suggestions were ‘the eldest and wisest’, ‘the respected citizens’, ‘the Israelites with a certain position in society’, ‘the elder council’ –- and let me point out that these terms sound better in Danish than in English (‘de fremtrædende borgere,’ ‘de mest fremtrædende israelitter,’ ‘alle israelitter med en vis position,’ ‘de ældste og de klogeste,’ ‘ældsterådet’). In the end we just said ‘leaders of the people.’ After a lot of hand-wringing, it turned out that we actually found a term that worked well. So, we had to give up conveying the fact that they were old, but the most important point is that they were community leaders.” (Source: Ehrensvärd in HIPHIL Novum 8/2023, p. 81ff. )

The German das Buch translation by Roland Werner (publ. 2009-2022) translates likewise as “leader of the people” (Anführer des Volkes).

Translation commentary on Judges 11:9

Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead: Revised Standard Version and most other versions omit the Hebrew waw conjunction at the beginning of this verse, but there is a sequence here and thus it can be rendered “Then.” Once again the storyteller uses full noun phrases to refer to the participants, as if to underline their foolishness. Some languages will prefer to reduce these phrases to pronouns by rendering this clause as “He said to them.”

Jephthah’s response to the elders is expressed as a conditional sentence. He says he will accept their offer if two conditions are met: (1) they take him home with them, and (2) Yahweh gives him victory. This is the first time that the LORD is mentioned in this episode.

If you bring me home again to fight with the Ammonites is literally “If you allow me to return to fight against the sons/children of Ammon.” Jephthah wants to be accepted by the community before he leads them to war. This seems a very wise move. Bring … home again renders the key Hebrew verb shuv again. For fight with the Ammonites, see verse 11.6.

And the LORD gives them over to me: This is Jephthah’s second condition. Most languages will want to repeat the conditional marker here by saying “and if the LORD….” This is the first hint of some divine activity in this particular episode. Up to this point the situation has been described as a human activity in which weak leaders are confronted by an enemy who is too powerful for them. Instead of turning to the LORD for help, they turn to a known bandit and his gang. Ironically, it is from this outcast’s mouth that we hear the first mention of the LORD. If we take these words at their face value, Jephthah is seen to have some faith, despite his humble background. This clause may be rendered “and if Yahweh gives me victory over them [or, the Ammonites].”

I will be your head is literally “I, I will be for you as head” (see comments on verse 10.18). I renders an independent Hebrew pronoun, so the clause is emphatic. It is crucial that the same word for head be used as in the previous verse. Jephthah begins to look like he will be more than a temporary military leader. This clause seems to be marked as an interrogative one in Hebrew. Revised Standard Version and most other versions render it as a strong affirmation, but some versions render it as a question. For example, New International Version says “will I really be your head?” (similarly Contemporary English Version, New Jerusalem Bible). This interpretation certainly fits the context, as the next verse shows.

Quoted with permission from Zogbo, Lynell and Ogden, Graham S. A Handbook on Judges. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2019. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

formal second person plural pronoun

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 show different degree of politeness is through the choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017.

In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English). (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )