sell

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “sell” in English is translated in Noongar as wort-bangal or “away-barter.” Note that “buy” is translated as bangal-barranga or “get-barter.” (Source: Bardip Ruth-Ang 2020)

See also buy and buying / selling.

gentiles / nations

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The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin that is often translated as “gentiles” (or “nations”) in English is often translated as a “local equivalent of ‘foreigners,'” such as “the people of other lands” (Guerrero Amuzgo), “people of other towns” (Tzeltal), “people of other languages” (San Miguel El Grande Mixtec), “strange peoples” (Navajo (Dinė) (this and above, see Bratcher / Nida), “outsiders” (Ekari), “people of foreign lands” (Kannada), “non-Jews” (North Alaskan Inupiatun), “people being-in-darkness” (a figurative expression for people lacking cultural or religious insight) (Toraja-Sa’dan) (source for this and three above Reiling / Swellengrebel), “from different places all people” (Martu Wangka) (source: Carl Gross).

Tzeltal translates it as “people in all different towns,” Chicahuaxtla Triqui as “the people who live all over the world,” Highland Totonac as “all the outsider people,” Sayula Popoluca as “(people) in every land” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Chichimeca-Jonaz as “foreign people who are not Jews,” Sierra de Juárez Zapotec as “people of other nations” (source of this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), Highland Totonac as “outsider people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Uma as “people who are not the descendants of Israel” (source: Uma Back Translation), “other ethnic groups” (source: Newari Back Translation), and Yakan as “the other tribes” (source: Yakan Back Translation).

In Chichewa, it is translated with mitundu or “races.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

See also nations.

inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (Neh 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, excluding the great assembly. The Jarai translation also uses the inclusive pronoun, including everyone when saying the kin must be bought back by, ”us.”

complete verse (Nehemiah 5:8)

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

  • Kupsabiny: “While in the meeting, I said to them, ‘Some of us are trying in every way possible to pay out something in order to bring back/release our fellow Jews who have sold themselves to foreigners who do not know God, and (yet) you are making them to become slaves again? Until when shall we be bringing back/redeeming these people?’ Those people could not say anything to defend themselves.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “I said, ‘We (excl.) are- really -trying in our (excl.) ability to redeem our (excl.) fellow Jews who sold themselves as slave to the non-Jews. But now, because of what you (plur.) are-doing, they are force again to sell themselves. Do we (incl.) always redeem them?’ They just keep-silent for they had nothing to reason-out.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “and I said to their leaders, ‘Some of our Jewish relatives have been forced to sell themselves to become slaves of people who have come from other countries. As much as we have been able to, we have been buying them back out of slavery. But now you are forcing your own relatives to sell themselves to you, their fellow Jews, as slaves!’ When I said that to them, they were silent. There was nothing that they could say because they knew that what I said was true.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

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 Nehemiah 5:8

The accusation brought against the leaders in the assembly was that they sell their own brethren. This would seem to argue in favor of the meaning “taking pledges” in verse 7. This practice was being abused by actually seizing the persons and property when the loans were not repaid.

We, as far as we are able, have bought back our Jewish brethren who have been sold to the nations: Buying back from the nations (see the comments on the next verse) to which Jewish brethren (New Revised Standard Version “Jewish kindred”; Revised English Bible “fellow-Jews”; compare verse 1 above) had been sold may refer to the redemption of exiles from the Persian authorities or from the surrounding nations such as Tyre, Sidon and Philistia (see Joel 3.3-8). Some translations understand who have been sold to the nations to refer to people being forced to sell themselves (so Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible). Nehemiah says that the Jews have redeemed their own people from the nations as much as they were able to do so. As far as we are able does not refer to geographic distance but to capability, so it may be translated “as much as we are able.”

But you even sell your brethren that they may be sold to us: Nehemiah’s accusation is more serious than that their people had been sold to other nations. Now he even accuses the leaders of selling their people to other Jews. Although the rendering in Revised Standard Version is not very natural English, it expresses the most natural sense of the Hebrew text, which is also reflected in the Latin Vulgate. Traduction œcuménique de la Bible renders this “but you, you sell your brothers and it is to us ourselves that they are sold!” Bible en français courant translates similarly: “And now, you yourselves, you sell your own countrymen, and it is to people who are of our own people!” These are models that the translator may follow.

Nehemiah’s whole utterance in this verse is a very dramatic accusation that is heightened in Hebrew by the use of independent pronouns that show strong contrast: “We, we have bought back … but you, you even sell…!” Translators must express this emphatically using appropriate grammar, syntax and punctuation.

They were silent, and could not find a word to say: The response of the leaders contrasts with the victims’ actions that roused Nehemiah’s anger in verse 6. In place of an “outcry,” now there was silence; while the victims found “words” to tell about their suffering, the perpetrators found no word to defend themselves. Nehemiah’s rebuke left them speechless for they had no defense to make against his accusations. In some languages silent may be expressed by an ideophone, in others by an expression such as “their mouths were closed.” An equivalent to the second clause should also be found. Some translations explain the reason for their failure to respond to Nehemiah’s words (so Contemporary English Version “because they knew this was true”). If this is not necessary for comprehension, the explanation should remain implicit.

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 .