swear / vow

Click here to view graphically

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “swear (an oath)” or “vow” in English is otherwise translated as:

  • “God sees me, I tell the truth to you” (Tzeltal)
  • “loading yourself down” (Huichol)
  • “speak-stay” (implying permanence of the utterance) (Sayula Popoluca)
  • “say what could not be taken away” (San Blas Kuna)
  • “because of the tight (i.e. ‘binding’) word said to a face” (Guerrero Amuzgo)
  • “strong promise” (North Alaskan Inupiatun) (source for all above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • “eat an oath” (Nyamwezi) (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
  • “drink an oath” (Jju) (source: McKinney 2018, p. 31).
  • “cut taboos” (Mairasi (source: Enggavoter 2004)

In Bauzi “swear” can be translated in various ways. In Hebrews 6:13, for instance, it is translated with “bones break apart and decisively speak.” (“No bones are literally broken but by saying ‘break bones’ it is like people swear by someone else in this case it is in relation to a rotting corpse’ bones falling apart. If you ‘break bones’ so to speak when you make an utterance, it is a true utterance.”) In other passages, such as in Matthew 26:72, it’s translated with an expression that implies taking ashes (“if a person wants everyone to know that he is telling the truth about a matter, he reaches down into the fireplace, scoops up some ashes and throws them while saying ‘I was not the one who did that.'”). So in Matthew 26:72 the Bauzi text is: “. . . Peter took ashes and defended himself saying, ‘I don’t know that Nazareth person.'” (Source: David Briley)

See also swear (promise) and Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’, or ‘No, No’.

inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (Num 21:2)

Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)

The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).

For this verse, the Jarai and the Adamawa Fulfulde translation both use the exclusive pronoun, excluding God.

complete verse (Numbers 21:2)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Numbers 21:2:

  • Kupsabiny: “Then the Israelites vowed to God, ‘If you make us defeat these people, we shall destroy their cities completely but we shall not take any plunder for ourselves.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “The Israelites made a vow to the LORD and prayed, "If you actually give these people into our hands, we will unconditionally dedicate them and their cities to you and will destroy them."” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Then the Israelinhon swore to the LORD, ‘If you (sing.) will-hand-over these people to our (excl.) hands, we (excl.) will- totally -destroy their towns.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Then the Israelis solemnly vowed: ‘Yahweh, if you will help us to defeat these people, we will completely destroy all their towns.’” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Numbers 21:2

And Israel vowed a vow to the LORD, and said: As mentioned in the previous verse, in some languages Israel is better rendered “the Israelites” (Good News Translation). The Hebrew verb for vowed and the noun for vow come from the same root. Vowed a vow means they made a strong promise (see 6.2).

If thou wilt indeed give this people into my hand …: The archaic language thou wilt should not be imitated in other languages since it reflects nothing in the Hebrew (see the comments on 11.11). New Revised Standard Version does not use it here. The people of Israel refer to themselves in the singular with the pronouns my and I. Some languages may require plural pronouns for naturalness (so Good News Translation). Thou wilt indeed give renders an emphatic Hebrew expression, which is literally “to give you will give.” It uses an infinitive absolute and finite form of the same verb. The adverb indeed expresses well the emphasis here. Give this people into my hand is an idiomatic expression meaning “let us conquer these people” (Good News Translation). In some languages translators may be able to use this idiom or a similar one, such as “give these people into our power” or “hand these people over to us” (New Living Translation). If this is not possible, Good News Translation may be used as a model here.

Then I will utterly destroy their cities: The Hebrew verb rendered utterly destroy (charam) does not refer to mindless slaughter or ethnic cleansing, which Revised Standard Version‘s literal rendering might imply. Rather, this verb refers to a religious act of destroying completely what had been dedicated exclusively and irrevocably to the LORD. These dedicated things could not be taken as war booty or used for any other self-centered purpose (see A Handbook on the Book of Joshua at Josh 8.25-26). Good News Translation conveys well the sense of this verb by rendering this clause as “we will unconditionally dedicate them and their cities to you and will destroy them.” Other possible models are “we will execute the ban upon their cities” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), “I will put its towns under the ban” (Alter), and “we will execute the ban of destruction upon their cities.” An explanatory footnote like the one in Good News Translation might also be helpful at this point. As translators, we do not have to like everything we find in the Bible, but we do have a duty to translate it as faithfully and accurately as we are able.

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 .