complete verse (Leviticus 26:16)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Leviticus 26:16:

  • Kupsabiny: “I shall send them suffering, sicknesses that are not curable and things that make you blind and finish you. You shall sow food but you shall get nothing because your enemies shall fight against you, defeat you and eat what you have sown.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “I will also inflict [lit.: send] sudden discipline upon you, I will send dreadful diseases that will harm the eyes and shrink the body. You will sow seed uselessly and in vain. For your enemy will eat your crops.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “this (is) what I will-do to you (plur.): You (plur.) will-be-tremble with fear because I will-send you (plur.) diseases that will- not -be-healed and fever(s) that will-destroy your (plur.) eyes and bodies. You (plur.) will-plant, but you (plur.) will- not -be-able-to-utilize this for your (plur.) enemies will-invade/attack you (plur.) and they will-eat your (plur.) crops.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “these are the things that I will do to you: I will suddenly cause there to be disasters that will ruin you. You will have diseases that cannot be cured, and fevers that will cause you to become blind and will slowly kill you. It will be useless for you to plant seeds, because your enemies will eat the crops that grow.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

enemy / foe

The Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Ge’ez, and Latin that is translated as “enemy” or “foe” in English is translated in the Hausa Common Language Bible as “friends of front,” i.e., the person standing opposite you in a battle. (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)

In North Alaskan Inupiatun it is translated with a term that implies that it’s not just someone who hates you, but one who wants to do you harm (Source: Robert Bascom), in Tarok as ukpa ìkum or “companion in war/fighting,” and in Ikwere as nye irno m or “person who hates me” (source for this and one above: Chuck and Karen Tessaro in this newsletter ).

In Cherokee it is either translated as “the one(s) who reprimand(s) you” or “the one(s) feared.” (Source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 47)

1st person pronoun referring to God (Japanese)

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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 shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also pronoun for “God”.

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

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 shows 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. )

Translation commentary on Leviticus 26:16

I will do this to you: the pronoun this looks forward to what is said in the remainder of this verse. Another way to translate this is to say “I will punish you in the following ways:…” or “Your punishment will be as follows:….”

Appoint over you sudden terror: the use of the word appoint is strange in this context, because it is usually people who are appointed. It is better translated “send” or “cause to happen.” The words sudden terror translate a single Hebrew word meaning “ruin” or “dismay.” In this context it may be translated “catastrophe” or “disaster.” In some languages this whole phrase may be rendered “I will ruin you” or “I will cause you to be devastated.”

Consumption and fever: the words used here are found only in this verse and in similar lists of catastrophes (as in Deut 28.22). The Septuagint has “scurvy and jaundice,” but this is not followed by any modern English version. The exact nature of these ills is uncertain, but they are clearly terrible diseases. While fever (or perhaps “high fever”) is probably the best rendering of the second term, the first may be translated “disease(s) that cause the body to waste away” or “incurable diseases.” Both the Modern Language Bible and Living Bible have “tuberculosis.”

That waste the eyes: some versions take this to mean “cause to be blind” (Good News Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). But others see it as simply “making the eyes weak.” Compare New English Bible “that dim the sight.”

Cause life to pine away: literally “draining the soul.” This has been interpreted in a variety of ways, from “causing shortness of breath” (see Bible de la Pléiade), to “cause the appetite to fail” (New English Bible), to “depressing your spirits” (An American Translation). Probably the best way to understand it is in the sense of “eating away at your life,” or “causing you to waste away,” or “… get more and more ill.”

Sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it: the counterpart of this is in verses 4-5 and 10. The final pronoun, it, refers not to the grain that is sown, but to the crops harvested from that grain. This may be translated “You will sow your seed for nothing, because your enemies will eat what is produced” or “There will be no point in sowing, since your enemies will gather the harvest (and eat it).”

Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René and Ellington, John. A Handbook on Leviticus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1990. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .