save

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The Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin that is translated as a form of “save” in English is translated in Shipibo-Conibo with a phrase that means literally “make to live,” which combines the meaning of “to rescue” and “to deliver from danger,” but also the concept of “to heal” or “restore to health.”

Other translations include:

  • San Blas Kuna: “help the heart”
  • Laka: “take by the hand” in the meaning of “rescue” or “deliver”
  • Huautla Mazatec: “lift out on behalf of”
  • Anuak: “have life because of”
  • Central Mazahua: “be healed in the heart”
  • Baoulé: “save one’s head”
  • Guerrero Amuzgo: “come out well”
  • Northwestern Dinka: “be helped as to his breath” (or “life”) (source for all above: Bratcher / Nida),
  • Matumbi: “rescue (from danger)” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
  • Noongar: barrang-ngandabat or “hold life” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • South Bolivian Quechua: “make to escape”
  • Highland Puebla Nahuatl: “cause people to come out with the aid of the hand” (source for this and one above: Nida 1947, p. 222)
  • Bariai: “retrieve one back” (source: Bariai Back Translation)

See also salvation and save (Japanese honorifics).

gentiles / nations

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The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin that is often translated as “gentiles” (or “nations”) in English is often translated as a “local equivalent of ‘foreigners,'” such as “the people of other lands” (Guerrero Amuzgo), “people of other towns” (Tzeltal), “people of other languages” (San Miguel El Grande Mixtec), “strange peoples” (Navajo (Dinė)) (this and above, see Bratcher / Nida), “outsiders” (Ekari), “people of foreign lands” (Kannada), “non-Jews” (North Alaskan Inupiatun), “people being-in-darkness” (a figurative expression for people lacking cultural or religious insight) (Toraja-Sa’dan) (source for this and three above Reiling / Swellengrebel), “from different places all people” (Martu Wangka) (source: Carl Gross).

Tzeltal translates it as “people in all different towns,” Chicahuaxtla Triqui as “the people who live all over the world,” Highland Totonac as “all the outsider people,” Sayula Popoluca as “(people) in every land” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Chichimeca-Jonaz as “foreign people who are not Jews,” Sierra de Juárez Zapotec as “people of other nations” (source of this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), Highland Totonac as “outsider people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Uma as “people who are not the descendants of Israel” (source: Uma Back Translation), “other ethnic groups” (source: Newari Back Translation), and Yakan as “the other tribes” (source: Yakan Back Translation).

In Chichewa, it is translated with mitundu or “races.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

See also nations.

inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (Lam 4:17)

Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)

The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).

For this verse, the Jarai translation uses the exclusive pronoun. The Adamawa Fulfulde translation uses the inclusive pronoun.

complete verse (Lamentations 4:17)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Lamentations 4:17:

  • Kupsabiny: “We looked/stared until our eyes got tired
    waiting for one who would save us but it was in vain.
    We looked out from where it was high/raised,
    waiting for any community to come to our aid but no one came.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Looking in vain for help
    our eyes have become dim.
    We were on the lookout for a nation to protect us.
    But they were unable save us.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Our (excl.) sight is-becoming-dark now in waiting for help from our allied nations, but they never helped us. We watched in our towers for the arrival of a nation that cannot save us at-all.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “We continued to look for someone to help us,
    but it was useless.
    We continued to watch to see if one of our allies would save us,
    but none of the nations that we were waiting for could help us.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Lamentations 4:17

With verse 17 the tone of the poem changes. The poet now identifies himself with the people who have been the subject of the verbs, switching to the first person plural. He and his companions, who may have included the king himself, judging from verse 20, are living through the days immediately before and after the fall of Jerusalem. In this verse the sense of the two Hebrew lines or units of the verse is again closely parallel.

Some editions of Good News Translation reverse the order of the first line, as follows: “We looked until we could look no longer for help that never came.” Translators who consider using Good News Translation as a model should use whichever word order is most appropriate in the receptor language.

The first Hebrew word in verse 17 has variants whose meanings are not certain. One probably means “we still are,” and the other “they (feminine) still are.” Most translations take Our eyes as the subject and “still are” as meaning “continually, ever, still,” or some other expression of continuous activity. New English Bible says “We strain our eyes, looking.” Good News Translation has “we looked until we could look no longer.”

Watching vainly for help: help is literally “our help,” which in this case probably refers to help from the Egyptians, who might come and defend Jerusalem from the Babylonian invaders. This half-line may also be expressed “looking for someone to help us who never came” or “watching for help that never came.”

In our watching: the Revised Standard Version footnote shows that watching is uncertain in Hebrew. Good News Translation interprets it as a means of intensifying the verb itself, as does New English Bible “We have watched and watched.” The form of the word suggests that it is a noun, so the translation of New Jerusalem Bible and New International Version “from our towers” gives a possible meaning.

A nation which could not save: the Hebrew text does not state that the nation (Egypt) was powerless to help, only that it did not help. A better rendering is “for the arrival of a nation that did not come to save us” (Bible en français courant). This may have to be expressed in some languages as “… save us from our enemies” or “prevent our enemies from destroying us.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on Lamentations. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .