19But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they mocked and ridiculed us, saying, “What is this that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”
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, excluding Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab.
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Nehemiah 2:19:
Kupsabiny: “When Sanballat together with Tobiah and Geshem who was an Arab heard what we were doing, they laughed at us and said, ‘Hey, what are you doing? Do you want to oppose the king?’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “But when Sanbalat who comes-from-Horon, Tobias an Ammonhon officer, and Geshem the Arabo heard this, they mocked and laughed at us (excl.). They said, ‘What is that you (plur.) are-doing? Are- you (plur.) -planning to rebel against the king?’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “But when Sanballat from-Bet Horon, Tobia an Ammonita official and Gesem the Arabo heard-about-it, they laughed-at and mocked/belittled us (excl.). They said, ‘What is this that you are doing/making? Are you perhaps opposing the king?’” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
English: “But when Sanballat, Tobiah, and Gershom the Arab king of the Kedar region heard about what we planned to do, they made fun of us and ridiculed us. They said, ‘What is this work that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king again?’” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Some languages do not have a concept of kingship and therefore no immediate equivalent for the Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin that is translated as “king” in English. Here are some (back-) translations:
Ninia Yali: “big brother with the uplifted name” (source: Daud Soesilio in Noss 2007, p. 175)
Nyamwezi: mutemi: generic word for ruler, by specifying the city or nation it becomes clear what kind of ruler (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Ghomála’: Fo (“The word Fo refers to the paramount ruler in the kingdoms of West Cameroon. He holds administrative, political, and religious power over his own people, who are divided into two categories: princes (descendants of royalty) and servants (everyone else).” (Source: Michel Kenmogne in Theologizing in Context: An Example from the Study of a Ghomala’ Christian Hymn))
Faye Edgerton retells how the term in Navajo (Dinė) was determined:
“[This term was] easily expressed in the language of Biblical culture, which had kings and noblemen with their brilliant trappings and their position of honor and praise. But leadership among the Navajos is not accompanied by any such titles or distinctions of dress. Those most respected, especially in earlier days, were their headmen, who were the leaders in raids, and the shaman, who was able to serve the people by appealing for them to the gods, or by exorcising evil spirits. Neither of these made any outward show. Neither held his position by political intrigue or heredity. If the headman failed consistently in raids, he was superceded by a better warrior. If the shaman failed many times in his healing ceremonies, it was considered that he was making mistakes in the chants, or had lost favor with the gods, and another was sought. The term Navajos use for headman is derived from a verb meaning ‘to move the head from side to side as in making an oration.’ The headman must be a good orator, able to move the people to go to war, or to follow him in any important decision. This word is naat’áanii which now means ‘one who rules or bosses.’ It is employed now for a foreman or boss of any kind of labor, as well as for the chairman of the tribal council. So in order to show that the king is not just a common boss but the highest ruler, the word ‘aláahgo, which expresses the superlative degree, was put before naat’áanii, and so ‘aláahgo naat’áanii ‘anyone-more-than-being around-he-moves-his-head-the-one-who’ means ‘the highest ruler.’ Naat’áanii was used for governor as the context usually shows that the person was a ruler of a country or associated with kings.”
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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 second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used anata (あなた) is typically used when the speaker is humbly addressing another person.
In these verses, however, omae (おまえ) is used, a cruder second person pronoun, that Jesus for instance chooses when chiding his disciples. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
Sanballat and Tobiah appeared as opponents to Nehemiah and the Jews in verse 10 above. Here Geshem the Arab is introduced as a third opponent. Geshem is a Hebrew variant spelling of Gashmu (see Neh 6.6). From sources outside the biblical writings, it is known that he was the king of Kedar, which was under nominal Persian control. Kedar was a region in the north of Arabia east of Transjordan (see Gen 25.13). Geshem had united the Arabian tribes into a vast confederation from the Syrian desert to the Nile delta in Egypt.
Heard of it: The Hebrew text does not specify what it refers to. In some languages it is possible to use an equally open-ended expression, such as “heard of that thing” or “heard that news.” Others will be more explicit like Good News Translation “what we were planning to do” and Contemporary English Version “heard about our plans.”
The opponents of Nehemiah derided us and despised us. Here derided and despised are used together to create a strong expression of scorn. Some versions do as Revised Standard Version does and retain two verbs in translation. Contemporary English Version combines the two Hebrew verbs into a single clause: “they started insulting us.” Translators are advised to use two expressions for a forceful statement rather than combining them.
The opponents asked two questions: What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king? The first question was the conventional way of making an accusation. Good News Translation interprets this question as belittling or making fun of the work that the Jews were planning to do. Their second question was an accusation about the Jews’ real intention. The opponents’ charge that the Jews were rebelling against the king was to remind them that this claim had previously caused Artaxerxes to stop the rebuilding of Jerusalem (Ezra 4.12).
Many languages will use a question like the first one to challenge or accuse someone. They may then change the second question into a statement with a question, such as “You are rebelling against the king, aren’t you?” Or they may change it into a statement that ends with an emphatic particle, such as “You are rebelling against the king, eh!”
Quoted with permission from Noss, Philip A. and Thomas, Kenneth J. A Handbook on Nehemiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2005. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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