family / clan / house

The Hebrew terms that are translated as “family” or “clan” or “house” or similar in English are all translated in Kwere as ng’holo or “clan.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

In the English translation by Goldingay (2018) it is translated as “kin-group.”

See also tribe.

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.

complete verse (Numbers 14:12)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Numbers 14:12:

  • Kupsabiny: “I shall send a plague to these people and leave them to it, but I shall make you to become a big community surpassing them.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “I will kill them with a plague. And from you I will make a nation greater and mightier than them."” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “I will-send these Israelinhon with destruction and I will-destroy them, but you (sing.) on-the-other-hand I will-make into a nation which is more powerful and stronger than they.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “So I will cause a plague/widespread sickness to strike them and get rid of them. But I will cause your descendants to become a great nation. They will be a nation that is much greater and stronger than these people are.’” (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 Numbers 14:12

I will strike them with the pestilence: A connector may be needed here after the two rhetorical questions of verse 11; for example, Chewa begins with “So it [is] that I will strike them….” The Hebrew word rendered pestilence is translated “plague” in Exo 9.3 (compare also Lev 26.25). This term refers to a contagious disease that is very deadly and destructive. Pestilence may be rendered “epidemic” (Good News Translation) or “plague” (New Living Translation). The Hebrew definite article for the is attached to this word since some specific epidemic may have been in view. Most translations use an indefinite article here for naturalness (so Good News Translation). A model for this whole clause is “So I will send a terrible sickness to kill them.”

And disinherit them: The Hebrew verb for disinherit means literally “dispossess” or “take away possessions.” In this context it is better rendered “destroy” (Good News Translation).

And I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they: The Hebrew pronoun for you is singular, referring to Moses. The Hebrew word for nation (goy) is also singular. Good News Translation makes it clear that Moses is in view by rendering this clause as “but I will make you the father of a nation that is larger and more powerful than they are.” Compare Exo 32.10, where the LORD proposes to wipe out the Israelites and start all over with Moses after the incident of the golden calf.

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 .