suspended

In Gbaya, the notion of the light and suspended fringe in Numbers 15:38 is emphasized with mbɛlɛ-mbɛlɛ, an ideophone used to describe something light that is suspended, such as a tassel.

Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)

See also fringe / tzitzvit and their fringes long.

fringe, tzitzvit

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “fringe” or “tzitzit” in many English translations is translated in Uma as “the decorations [lit.: “fruit”] of clothes” (source: Uma Back Translation), in Tenango Otomi as “clothing that reaches the ground” (source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation) and in Mairasi as “wings of the garments” (source: Enggavoter 2004).

In Bura-Pabir a term is used that is traditionally used for the tassels worn on clothes by hunters. (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)

In Paasaal it is translated as “cloth mouth.” (Source: Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)

See also suspended and their fringes long.

Click or tap here to see a short video clip about tzitzvits (source: Bible Lands 2012)

from generation to generation

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as some form of “from generation to generation” or “throughout generations” in these verses in English is translated in the widely-used Mandarin Chinese Union Version with a historical Chinese idiom: shìshì dàidài (世世代代) or “from generation to generation and from age to age.”

complete verse (Numbers 15:38)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Numbers 15:38:

  • Kupsabiny: “to tell the people of Israel, ‘Make tassels on the corners of your clothes and sew bluish threads to intertwine those tassels. you must do like that through all age-sets.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Speak to the Israelites, ‘Also from now on up to later generations you must put tassels of blue thread on the four corners of the sides of your shawls. ” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “to say this to the Israelinhon: ‘You (plur.) make some tassels on the corner/edge of your (plur.) garments/clothes and you (plur.) put in them blue cord. You (plur.) must follow/obey it forever/[lit. until whenever].” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “‘Tell this to the Israeli people: You and all your descendants must twist threads together to make tassels, and then attach them with blue cords to the bottom edges of your clothes.” (Source: Translation for Translators)