29your dead bodies shall fall in this very wilderness, and of all your number included in the census from twenty years old and up who have complained against me,
In Aekyom, years are counted as “turtles” (ambum).
Norm Mundhenk tells this story:
“Recently I was checking some New Testament material in the Aekyom language of western Papua New Guinea. It seemed relatively clear until suddenly we came to a passage that started, ‘When Jesus had 12 turtles, …’ Surely I had misunderstood what they said.
“‘Did you say that Jesus had 12 turtles?’
“‘Let us explain! Around here there is a certain time every year when river turtles come up on the banks and lay their eggs. Because this is so regular, it can be used as a way of counting years. Someone’s age is said to be how many turtles that person has. So when we say that Jesus had 12 turtles, we mean that Jesus was 12 years old.’
“It was of course the familiar story of Jesus’ trip with his parents to Jerusalem. And certainly, as we all know, Jesus did indeed have 12 turtles at that time!”
In Tok Pisin, krismas (derived from “christmas”) is taken as the fixed annual marker, so Jesus had 12 “christmases” (Jisas i gat 12-pela krismas pinis) or Abram (in Gen. 12:4) had 75 (Abram i gat 75 krismas) (source: Norm Mundhenk). In Noongar it is biroka kadak or “summers had” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).
Low German translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006: “steppe”
Yakan: “the lonely place” (source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “a land where no people lived” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “the place with no inhabitants” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Cherokee: inage or “far away downstream” (source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 16)
Matumbi uses various term: lubele (desert, sandy place without water) — used in John 11:54, lupu’ngu’ti (a place where no people live, can be a scrub land, a forest, or a savanna) — used in Mark 1:3 et al.), and mwitu (a forest, a place where wild animals live) — used in Mark 1:13 et al.) (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
Chichewa Contemporary translation (2002/2016): chipululu: a place uninhabited by people with thick forest and bush (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Adioukrou: loj or “savannah” — “land that is not village, nor forest, nor field (source: Hill 2006)
Note that in Luke 15:4, usually a term is used that denotes pastoral land, such as “eating/grazing-place,” in Tagbanwa (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation).
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Numbers 14:29:
Kupsabiny: “Every person who has grumbled against me shall die in this wilderness. Every person who is twenty years old and above shall die. There is not a single person among you who shall enter that country that I promised that you would live in. But Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun are the only ones who shall enter that land.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “When counted, all the people who are 20 years old or older, who have complained against me, their dead bodies will fall in this wilderness.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “You (plur.) will-die here in the desert/desolate-place. Because you (plur.) have-complained against me, no one among you (plur.) who are- 20 years -of-age above” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “I will cause all of you to die here in this desert! Because you grumbled about me, none of you who are more than 20 years old and who were counted when Moses counted everyone” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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 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.
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 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. )
The sentence covering verses 29-30 in Revised Standard Version will be too long in many languages. Good News Translation provides one model for dividing it into several sentences.
Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness means the Israelites will die in the desert. Good News Translation indicates that they will die periodically and individually, not all at once, by saying “You will die and your corpses will be scattered across this wilderness.” Some languages distinguish between human and other types of animate corpses; obviously, dead bodies refers to human corpses. For the Hebrew word rendered wilderness (midbar), see 1.1.
And of all your number, numbered from twenty years old and upward …: The census originally had a military purpose in view of the conquest of the land. Now it becomes a list of those condemned to perish in the wilderness (so Sherwood, page 162). For the Hebrew verb rendered numbered (paqad), see 1.3. It is better translated “recorded” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), “registered” (New American Bible), or “enrolled.” For from twenty years old and upward, see 1.3.
Who have murmured against me: See verse 2.
Not one shall come into the land: God will not allow anyone twenty years and older to enter Canaan. The Hebrew construction here emphasizes that there will be no exception. Good News Translation expresses it well by saying “none of you … will enter that land.”
Where I swore that I would make you dwell: The Hebrew expression for I swore is literally “I lifted my hand,” which means “I solemnly promised” (Contemporary English Version; similarly Good News Translation, New Century Version), not that God used bad language. Some translations reflect the Hebrew idiom of raising the right hand while swearing an oath, as happens in many law courts today; for example, Revised English Bible says “I swore with uplifted hand.” It is best not to try to retain the Hebrew gesture, but rather to give the meaning or use an equivalent local gesture for swearing an oath or making a promise. However, translators may retain the gesture and give the meaning by saying “I lifted up my hand to signify the promise I made.” In its reorganization of Revised Standard Version‘s sentence structure, Good News Translation begins a new sentence here, saying “I promised to let you live there.” It would be better to say “I made a solemn promise to let you live there.”
Except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun: The only adults that God will allow to enter Canaan are Caleb the son of Jephunneh (see 13.6) and Joshua the son of Nun (see 11.28 and 13.8).
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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