complete verse (Micah 5:13)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Micah 5:13:

  • Kupsabiny: “I shall crush your idols
    and the stones you have raised to be worshipping (them).
    You shall not again worship
    those idols that you shaped with your hands.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “I will destroy the idols you have made
    and also the sacred stones.
    And you will never again bow down
    before the idols you have made.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “You (plur.) no-longer can-worship the images and the remembrance stones which you (plur.) made, for I will-destroy them” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “I will destroy all your idols and sacred stone pillars,
    and then you will no longer bow down and worship things that you yourselves have made.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

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”.

Translation commentary on Micah 5:13 - 5:14

In verses 13 and 14 the Lord condemns the objects used in pagan worship. Three specific types of object are mentioned, idols and sacred stone pillars in verse 13, and images of the goddess Asherah in verse 14. Idols were images carved out of wood or stone. Their use was forbidden in the Ten Commandments (Exo 20.4). Sacred stone pillars were frequently used in Canaanite fertility religion to represent the male deity, and images of the goddess Asherah were wooden poles that represented the female deity.

The people of Israel had been told to break down the pillars (Exo 23.24) and to cut down the images of Asherah (Exo 34.13), but they had never destroyed all of them. These objects were not only symbols used in pagan worship, but they also showed that the people of Israel had rejected their own God. In order to make the nation pure again it was necessary to remove all such evil things. Since the people had not done so, the Lord says that he himself will do it. It is unlikely, of course that many languages will have terms that exactly fit all of these different kinds of idols, but translators should at least be able to describe them as images, stone pillars, and wooden poles that the pagan peoples worshiped.

Sacred is merely a word that shows that the people considered their idols to have spiritual significance or power. The fact that the pagan people worshiped these idols shows why God was angry about them.

These items are only things that you yourselves have made (“the work of your hands” Revised Standard Version). It is therefore ridiculous for the people to worship such things. Accordingly the Lord will no longer permit the people to worship them. Worship can be translated by such expressions as “to pray to,” “to bow down to,” “to serve,” “to honor,” or “to respect as someone very great.”

At the end of verse 14 the Lord says again that he will destroy your cities (Good News Translation and Revised Standard Version). The repetition of cities, which was already mentioned in verse 11, may be a way of rounding off the list. However, some translations such as Jerusalem Bible, Moffatt, and Phillips translate as “images” or “idols.” This meaning is obtained either by making a change of one letter in the Hebrew text from ʿareka to tsireka (as suggested by, for instance, Deissler), or else by supposing that Hebrew had a word identical in form with the word for city, but bearing the meaning “idol” (Allen). This meaning fits better with the rest of verses 13 and 14.

Quoted with permission from Clark, David J. et al. A Handbook on Micah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1978, 1982, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .