inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (Lam 5:8)

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 and the Adamawa Fulfulde translation both use the exclusive pronoun.

complete verse (Lamentations 5:8)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Lamentations 5:8:

  • Kupsabiny: “People who ought to be slaves are now ruling us,
    and there is no one to save us from these people.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Slaves rule over us.
    There is no one to rescue us from their hands.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “We are rule-over by slaves and no one can set- us -free from their hands.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Officials from Babylon who were previously slaves now rule over us,
    and there is no one who can rescue us from their power.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Lamentations 5:8

Slaves rule over us: Slaves most likely refers here to minor Babylonian officials whom the people had to deal with, and who could act insultingly and cruelly. This verse recalls Proverbs 30.21-22, which speaks of the intolerable conditions resulting when a slave becomes a ruler. Good News Translation attempts to add a modifier to the term Slaves with “men who are no better than slaves.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch says “slaves who have become lords over us.”

In some cases the term Slaves in this context would be inappropriate, because it would be difficult for the reader to imagine how slaves could wield such power. Therefore it is preferable to connect these people to the ruling class of the invaders; for example, “The ones who rule over us are the slaves of those who destroyed us” or “The slaves who rule us are the servants of our enemies.”

None to deliver us from their hand is an idiom meaning “no one who can save us from their power” (Good News Translation) or “no one who can free us from them.”

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 .