καὶ τὸ ἔλεος αὐτοῦ εἰς γενεὰς καὶ γενεὰς
τοῖς φοβουμένοις αὐτόν.
50indeed, his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
Following is a translation of the Magnificat into song in Himba, a dialect of Herero by the Himba Translation Team. The Himba text is translated into English within the video.
From the Voices of Jubilation album, ℗ 2025 Wycliffe Bible Translators South Africa NPC. Used with permission.
See also Magnificat in Busa praise song.
The Hebrew and Greek that are translated as “fear (of God)” (or: “honor,” “worship,” or “respect”) is translated as “to have respect/reverence for” (Southern Subanen, Western Highland Purepecha, Navajo (Dinė), Javanese, Tboli), “to make great before oneself” (Ngäbere), “fear-devotion” (Kannada — currently used as a description of the life of piety), “those-with-whom he-is-holy” (those who fear God) (Western Apache) (source for this and above: Reiling / Swellengrebel), “revere God” (Lalana Chinantec), “worship God” (Palantla Chinantec) (source for this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), “obey” (Chichewa) (source: Ernst Wendland), “having/showing respect (for God)” (Makonde) (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext), or with a term that communicates awe (rather than fear of an evil source) (Chol) (source: Robert Bascom).
Bullard / Hatton (2008, p. 8) say the following about this concept: “As the writer of Proverbs states in 1:7, ‘The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.’ (…) ‘The fear of the Lord,’ that is, human fear of God, is an exceptionally difficult concept to express, at least in English. Other languages may have more appropriate terms. The idea probably is rooted in the most ancient days when people were indeed afraid of any deity. But in Israel the concept of fearing God was transformed by God’s revelation into a much fuller idea. Basically, as used in the Bible, the fear of God refers to the proper attitude of reverence and awe before the Holy One. To fear God is to recognize one’s own place as a mere mortal before the Creator, one’s place as a sinner before the Judge, one’s place as a child before the Father, one’s place as the recipient of God’s love. It thus involves submission, repentance, trust, and grateful love toward the One who is fearsome in holiness, in justice, in power that both protects and punishes, and in love. Using the word “fear” is sometimes as good as we can do, but often we will alternate that word with terms like ‘reverence’ or ‘awe.’”
See also fear of the LORD (Isa 11:2) and complete verse (Genesis 22:12) et al.
The Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) was transferred into the traditional style of Busa praise song by Mallam Salihu Bata, praise singer in Kaiama, Kwara State, Nigeria (and back-translated into English) as this:
I praise the Lord God in my heart
I praise the Lord God in my heart
I praise the Lord God and my liver is pleased
My Lord God saves, he frees my head
My Lord God saves, he frees my head
He has mercy upon me
He has intently remembered all my concerns
He has intently remembered the concerns of his pitiable slave
Today and in the future everybody calls me the blessed one
all tribes call me the blessed one
God the mighty King has done great things for me
God the mighty King has done great things for me
God the mighty King has a bright and supreme name
God the mighty King has mercy
for people who fear him and
for their children and
for their grandchildren
He showed his hand of awful power
He scattered proud people
and their proud plans
He scattered great chiefs
from their positions
He lifted up the pitiable
He filled the hungry with food
He sent off the moneymen with empty hands
He helped his slave Israel
as he had covenanted with their forefathers
He has intently remembered Ibrahim’s matters
and his grandchildren
and his grandchildren’s grandchildren
All, yes, to all of them he showed His mercy.
Source: Klaus Wedekind in The Bible Translator 1975, p. 245ff.
See also Mary’s Song in Himba.
The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Ge’ez, and Latin terms that are typically translated as “mercy” (or “compassion” or “kindness”) in English are translated in various ways. Bratcher / Nida classify them in (1) those based on the quality of heart, or other psychological center, (2) those which introduce the concept of weeping or extreme sorrow, (3) those which involve willingness to look upon and recognize the condition of others, or (4) those which involve a variety of intense feelings.
While the English mercy originates from the Latin merces, originally “price paid,” Romance languages (Italian, Spanish, Corsican, Catalan, Friulian) and other Germanic languages (German, Swedish, Danish — Barmherzigkeit, barmhärtighet and barmhjertighed, respectively) tend to follow the Latin misericordia, lit. “misery-heart.”
Here are some other (back-) translations:
See also steadfast love and Seat of the Mind / Seat of Emotions.
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 1:50:
God transcends gender, but most languages are limited to grammatical gender expressed in pronouns. In the case of English, this is traditionally confined to “he” (or in the forms “his,” “him,” and “himself”), “she” (and “her,” “hers,” and “herself”), and “it” (and “its” and “itself”).
Modern Mandarin Chinese, however, offers another possibility. Here, the third-person singular pronoun is always pronounced the same (tā), but it is written differently according to its gender (他 is “he,” 她 is “she,” and 它/牠 is “it” and their respective derivative forms). In each of these characters, the first (or upper) part defines the gender (man, woman, or thing/animal), while the second element gives the clue to its pronunciation.
In 1930, after a full century with dozens of Chinese translations, Bible translator Wang Yuande (王元德) coined a new “godly” pronoun: 祂. Chinese readers immediately knew how to pronounce it: tā. But they also recognized that the first part of that character, signifying something spiritual, clarified that each person of the Trinity has no gender aside from being God.
While the most important Protestant and Catholic Chinese versions respectively have opted not to use 祂, some Bible translations do and it is widely used in hymnals and other Christian materials. Among the translations that use 祂 to refer to “God” were early versions of Lü Zhenzhong’s (呂振中) version (New Testament: 1946, complete Bible: 1970). R.P. Kramers (in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 152ff. ) explains why later versions of Lü’s translation did not continue with this practice: “This new way of writing ‘He,’ however, has created a minor problem of its own: must this polite form be used whenever Jesus is referred to? Lü follows the rule that, wherever Jesus is referred to as a human being, the normal tā (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential tā (祂) is used.”
In that system, one kind of pronoun is used for humans (male and female alike) and others for natural elements, non-liquid masses, and some spiritual entities (one other is used for large animals and another one for miscellaneous items). While in these languages the pronoun for spiritual entities used to be employed when referring to God, this has changed into the use of the human pronoun.
Lynell Zogbo (in The Bible Translator 1989, p. 401ff. ) explains: “From informal discussions with young Christians especially, it would appear that, at least for some people, the experience and/or concepts of Christianity are affecting the choice of pronoun for God. Some people explain that God is no longer ‘far away,’ but is somehow tangible and personal. For these speakers God has shifted over into the human category.”
In Kouya, God (the Father) and Jesus are referred to with the human pronoun ɔ, whereas the Holy Spirit is referred to with a non-human pronoun. (Northern Grebo and Western Krahn make a similar distinction.)
Eddie Arthur, a former Kouya Bible translation consultant, says the following: “We tried to insist that this shouldn’t happen, but the Kouya team members were insistent that the human pronoun for the Spirit would not work.”
In Burmese, the pronoun ko taw (ကိုယ်တော်) is used either as 2nd person (you) or 3rd person (he, him, his) reference. “This term clearly has its root in the religious language in Burmese. No ordinary persons are addressed or known by this pronoun because it is reserved for Buddhist monks, famous religious teachers, and in the case of Christianity, the Trinity.” (Source: Gam Seng Shae in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 202ff. )
In Thai, the pronoun phra`ong (พระองค์) is used, a gender-neutral pronoun which must refer to a previously introduced royal or divine being. Similarly, in Northern Khmer, which is spoken in Thailand, “an honorific divine pronoun” is used for the pronoun referring to the persons of the Trinity (source: David Thomas in The Bible Translator 1993, p. 445 ). In Urak Lawoi’, another language spoken in Thailand, the translation often uses tuhat (ตูฮัด) — “God” — ”as a divine pronoun where Thai has phra’ong even though it’s actually a noun.” (Source for Thai and Urak Lawoi’: Stephen Pattemore)
The English “Contemporary Torah” addresses the question of God and gendered pronouns by mostly avoiding pronouns in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (unless God is referred to as “lord,” “father,” “king,” or “warrior”). It does that by either using passive constructs (“He gave us” vs. “we were given”), by using the adjective “divine” or by using “God” rather than a pronoun.
Some Protestant and Orthodox English Bibles use a referential capitalized spelling when referring to the persons of the Trinity with “He,” “His,” “Him,” or “Himself.” This includes for instance the New American Standard Bible or The Orthodox New Testament, but most translations do not. Two other languages where this is also done (in most Bible translations) are Twents as well as the closely related Indonesian and Malay. In the latter two languages this follows the language usage according to the Qur’an, which in turn predicts that usage (see Soesilo in The Bible Translator 1991, p. 442ff. and The Bible Translator 1997, p. 433ff. ).
See also first person pronoun referring to God.
Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Gender of God .
在现代汉语中，第三人称单数代词的读音都是一样的（tā），但是写法并不一样，取决于性别以及是否有生命，即男性为“他”，女性为“她”，动物、植物和无生命事物为“它”（在香港和台湾的汉语使用，动物则为“牠”）。这些字的部首偏旁表明了性别（男人、女人、动物、无生命事物），而另一偏旁通常旁提示发音。
到1930年为止，基督教新教《圣经》经过整整一百年的翻译已经拥有了十几个译本，当时的一位圣经翻译者王元德新造了一个“神圣的”代词“祂”，偏旁“礻”表示神明。一般汉语读者会立即知道这字的发音是tā，而这个偏旁表示属灵的事物，因此他们明白这个字指出，三位一体的所有位格都没有性别之分，而单单是上帝。
然而，最重要的新教圣经译本（1919年的《和合本》）和天主教圣经译本（1968年的《思高圣经》）都没有采用“祂”；虽然如此，许多其他的圣经译本采用了这个字，另外还广泛出现在赞美诗和其他基督信仰的书刊中。（资料来源：Zetzsche）
《吕振中译本》的几个早期版本也使用“祂”来指称“上帝”；这个译本的《新约》于1946年译成，整部《圣经》于1970年完成。克拉默斯（Kramers）指出：“‘他’的这种新写法（即‘祂’）产生了一个小问题，就是在指称耶稣的时候，是否一律使用这个敬语代词？《吕振中译本》遵循的原则是，在称呼耶稣这个人的时候，用一般的‘他’，而在称呼耶稣神性的时候，特别是升天之后的耶稣，则用尊称‘祂’。”
Translator: Simon Wong
Exegesis:
The verse is a nominal clause consisting of three phrases: (a) to eleos autou ‘his mercy,’ subject of the clause, (b) eis geneas kai geneas ‘for generations and generations,’ and (c) tois phoboumenois auton ‘for those who fear him.’ Either (b) or (c) may be interpreted as predicate of the clause, preferably the former, since the word order of the verse suggests a closer relationship between (b) and (a) than between (c) and (a).
kai to eleos autou ‘and his mercy.’ The verse is a free quotation of the Septuagint translation of Ps. 103.17.
eleos ‘compassion,’ ‘pity,’ in ch. 1 always of God towards man; the Hebrew word used in Ps. 103.17, which colours the meaning of eleos here, is usually understood as ‘solidarity,’ cf. “steadfast love” (Revised Standard Version).
eis geneas kai geneas ‘for generations and generations’ or ‘for ages and ages,’ a well known time-phrase in the Septuagint, cf. e.g. Ps. 32 (in Hebrew 33).11. The phrase indicates continuation in successive generations or ages; cf. ‘all generation,’ i.e. people in age after age, in v. 48.
tois phoboumenois auton ‘for those who fear Him.’
phobeomai ‘to fear’ is sometimes (18.2, 4; 23.40) used with theos as its object as a translation of the well known ‘fear of the Lord’ in the Old Testament, a comprehensive expression of the relationship of man with God, with the emphasis on the reverence towards God on the side of man.
Translation:
If phrase (b) is taken as the predicate (see Exegesis), the first line of this verse becomes, ‘his mercy is from generation to generation,’ and expresses that God’s mercy is everlasting; the second line, i.e. phrase (c), then serves to qualify that mercy by mentioning its recipients, e.g. ‘(that is,) to those who fear him.’ If one has to shift to a verbal construction, e.g. ‘he shows mercy to (or, mercy-es, i.e. has mercy on),’ and the verb requires an object, one may add ‘people,’ ‘his people,’ ‘us’; then the second line becomes an apposition to that object, or may be rendered as a subordinate clause, ‘whenever they/we fear him.’
The term mercy often implies not only a sympathetic consciousness of another’s situation but also a readiness and/or activity to help him in distress.
Those who fear him. For ‘to fear’ cf. above on v. 12, but in the specific use found here, and in 18.2, 4; 23.4, it is often better to render it by a verb meaning ‘to have respect/reverence for’ (as in Southern Subanen, Western Highland Purepecha, Navajo, Javanese, Tboli), cf. also, ‘to make great before oneself’ (Ngäbere). Kannada can employ a compound, ‘fear-devotion,’ that is in current use as a description of the life of piety; Apache renders the phrase by, ‘those-with-whom he-is-holy.’
From generation to generation, or, ‘from children to children’s children’ (Sranan Tongo), ‘descend-descending’ (a repetitive form, Bahasa Indonesia, Balinese), ‘life one-layer, life one-layer’ (Tae’), ‘from-those-who-have-been-being-born and-on to-those-who-will-be-being-born’ (Navajo); or, ‘forever’ (Vai, Western Highland Purepecha), ‘always’ (Bambara). Cf. also on v. 48.
Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.
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