2“Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites; from each of their ancestral tribes you shall send a man, every one a leader among them.”
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Numbers 13:2:
Kupsabiny: “‘Go around and choose one person from each of the twelve clans of Israel and send (them) to check out the country of Canaan that I am planning to give to the Israelites. Each person that you choose must be a leader in his clan.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “Send some men to explore the land of Canaan. I am giving that land to the Israelites. Send one leader from each of their tribes.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “‘You (sing.) send men to spy Canaan — the land which I will-give to you (plur.) Israelinhon. The men you (sing.) will-send are leaders/[lit. heads] of each tribe of Israel.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “‘Send some men to Canaan land to explore it. That is the land that I will give to you Israelis. Send men who are leaders in their tribes.’” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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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.
The LORD said to Moses: See the comments on 1.1. Here this common quote frame is used to introduce God’s instructions to Moses in verse 2 to select a leader from each tribe to spy out the promised land of Canaan. This verse begins with the Hebrew waw conjunction (literally “And”), but both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation omit it to indicate the beginning of a new discourse unit here. In some languages it may be more natural to begin this verse with “One day” or “After this.”
Send men to spy out the land of Canaan: The Hebrew imperative verb rendered Send (literally “Send for yourself”) is singular, but the verb for spy out is plural. It is the men who should spy out the land, but Moses has to select and send them. Good News Translation makes this clear by saying “Choose … and send them as spies to explore the land of Canaan.” The Hebrew verb translated spy out means “seek out, reconnoiter, explore, search through, check out.” A verb should not be chosen that has negative connotations in the target language. There should be no suggestion that Moses sent these men to do something illegal or immoral. Instead of spy out, the verb “explore” (Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation) or “scout” may be more appropriate. The land of Canaan is the land that God first promised to give to Israel’s ancestors (see, for example, Gen 17.8). The area called Canaan is roughly equivalent to modern Israel (including the occupied Arab territories) and Lebanon.
Which I give to the people of Israel: In this context the Hebrew participle rendered give can be given a future interpretation, so Revised English Bible renders this clause as “which I am going to give to the Israelites.” “Which I am giving to the Israelites” in Good News Translation can be understood in the same way in English, but not necessarily other languages, which may require a definite future reference. However, some interpreters believe this participle expresses a definite certainty, a fact that is already complete, so another possible rendering is “which I have given to the Israelites” (compare Deut 1.20).
From each tribe of their fathers shall you send a man: For the Hebrew word rendered tribe (matteh), see the comments on 1.4. Good News Translation renders from each tribe of their fathers as “from each of the twelve tribes” to clarify how many spies are to be chosen. New Living Translation is better with “from each of the twelve ancestral tribes” (similarly New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), since this rendering keeps the idea of fathers (see the comments on 1.2). Shall you send renders a plural Hebrew verb, which indicates that in the end the entire Israelite community had to commission the spies.
Every one a leader among them: As in 1.16 (see the comments there), the Hebrew word for leader is nasiʾ, which refers to a prominent and distinguished leader, for example, a much respected sheikh of a tribe; thus leader seems a rather flat translation. A better rendering in English is “chief” or “chieftain” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Alter).
Quoted with permission from de Regt, Lénart J. and Wendland, Ernst R. A Handbook on Numbers. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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