complete verse (Nehemiah 6:8)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Nehemiah 6:8:

  • Kupsabiny: “This is what I replied to him: ‘There is nothing like that. You are the one who is forging/creating these words.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “This is my reply to him: ‘There is no truth in what you (sing.) are-talking. You (sing.) just invented that.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “I sent-via (someone) my answer and I said, ‘All that you (sing.) are saying, there-is-no truth-to-it, because you (sing.) are the very one who is the source (lit. thought owner) of that (near-addressee).’” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • English: “When I read that message, I sent the messenger back to Sanballat to say, ‘None of what you are saying is true. You have made this up/concocted this in your own head/mind.’” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Nehemiah 6:8

Then I sent to him, saying: Because this follows a message from Sanballat, it is a “reply” as Good News Translation makes explicit. Saying introduces the contents of Nehemiah’s reply. Nehemiah answered Sanballat in brief and strong terms. He accused him of making up these things.

No such things as you say have been done: In this first clause Nehemiah categorically denies that anything that Sanballat accuses him of has been done, as Revised Standard Version translates. Good News Translation interprets this denial in terms of truth. Other versions render the same meaning using idiomatic expressions, for example, “As regards what you say, nothing of the sort has occurred” (New Jerusalem Bible), “Nothing corresponds to what you say” (Traduction œcuménique de la Bible), and “There is nothing exact in what you say” (Bible en français courant). Contemporary English Version says it with an exclamation: “None of this is true!” All these translations reflect the Hebrew direct quotation, which begins with the Hebrew negative marker.

For you are inventing them out of your own mind: In this second clause Nehemiah states his own counteraccusation. Sanballat has “made it all up” himself (Good News Translation). Inventing translates a verb that is used only one other time in the Old Testament (1 Kgs 12.33, where Revised Standard Version has “devised”). It is a word with the unpleasant connotation of “devising” or “fabricating.” Mind in Hebrew is literally “heart” (see Neh 4.6). Here it stands not for emotion but for intellectual activity. Each language must use its own idiom for expressing this idea. Some will use a picture such as the English “out of your own head” (similarly New International Version). New Jerusalem Bible renders the whole clause idiomatically with “it is a figment of your own imagination,” and Bible en français courant has “It is nothing but pure invention on your part.” The translator should try to express the emphatic and dramatic nature of Nehemiah’s response.

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 .