11‘Look, a people has come out of Egypt and has spread over the face of the earth; now come, curse them for me; perhaps I shall be able to fight against them and drive them out.’ ”
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Numbers 22:11:
Kupsabiny: “They say that there are people who have come from Egypt who have flooded the whole country. This guy wants me to curse these people so that he might fight then and chase them away.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “‘The people, having come from Egypt, has covered land. Please come and curse them for me. Perhaps if [you] do like this, I will be able to fight with them and drive them out.’"” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “‘There are people who came from Egipto and they are very many. Therefore you (sing.) come here and curse these people for me. For perhaps I can-defeat them and drive (them) far-away.’ ’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “‘A huge group of people has come from Egypt, and they have spread all over this area. Please come immediately to curse them. Then I may be able to defeat them and expel them from this area.’’” (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 to do this is through the usage of lexical honorific forms, i.e., completely different words, as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017.
In these verses, mōsu (申す), the respectful form of iu (言う) or “say / speak” is used. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
And Balaam said to God: Good News Bible renders this quote frame simply as “He answered,” which some languages may find helpful. The verb “answered” renders well the generic verb said, since it introduces Balaam’s answer to God’s question.
Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, has sent to me, saying: For Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, see the comments on verses 2 and 4. New Revised Standard Version renders has sent to me, saying (literally “has sent to me”) as “has sent me this message.” The Hebrew text does not refer explicitly to Balak’s messengers who were mentioned in the question in verse 9 (“these men”), but in many languages it will be natural to do this by saying “has sent them to tell me” (Good News Bible) or “has sent these messengers to tell me.”
Behold, a people has come out of Egypt, and it covers the face of the earth …: Balaam quotes Balak’s message, but the words are not exactly the same as in verses 5b-6 (see the comments there). In some languages indirect speech will be necessary for this embedded quote (so Good News Bible). In other languages the direct speech can be maintained in a natural way to emphasize the urgent message of Balak, as in the Hebrew. New Jerusalem Bible follows the Hebrew for the first sentence of this quote more accurately than Revised Standard Version by saying “Look, the people who have come out of Egypt have covered the whole land” (similarly Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). Revised Standard Version follows the Septuagint and a few other ancient versions here. In the Hebrew text Balak refers to the people of Israel with a definite article; he speaks of them as an already known entity even though he does not refer to them explicitly by name. So the Hebrew differs here slightly from verse 5, but translators should render consistently the words that are the same, especially if the direct speech is kept. For it covers the face of the earth (literally “it covers the eye of the earth/land”), see verse 5. In verse 5 the Hebrew word hinneh (“behold”) introduces this clause, but the Hebrew does not include it here.
Now come: See the comments on “Come now” in verse 6, but here the Hebrew does not include the word meaning “please.”
Curse them for me is literally “curse it [Israel] for me.” See verse 6.
Perhaps I shall be able to fight against them and drive them out is literally “perhaps I will be able to fight against it [Israel] and I will drive it out.” See verse 6.
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 .
And Balaam said to God: Good News Bible renders this quote frame simply as “He answered,” which some languages may find helpful. The verb “answered” renders well the generic verb said, since it introduces Balaam’s answer to God’s question.
Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, has sent to me, saying: For Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, see the comments on verses 2 and 4. New Revised Standard Version renders has sent to me, saying (literally “has sent to me”) as “has sent me this message.” The Hebrew text does not refer explicitly to Balak’s messengers who were mentioned in the question in verse 9 (“these men”), but in many languages it will be natural to do this by saying “has sent them to tell me” (Good News Bible) or “has sent these messengers to tell me.”
Behold, a people has come out of Egypt, and it covers the face of the earth …: Balaam quotes Balak’s message, but the words are not exactly the same as in verses 5b-6 (see the comments there). In some languages indirect speech will be necessary for this embedded quote (so Good News Bible). In other languages the direct speech can be maintained in a natural way to emphasize the urgent message of Balak, as in the Hebrew. New Jerusalem Bible follows the Hebrew for the first sentence of this quote more accurately than Revised Standard Version by saying “Look, the people who have come out of Egypt have covered the whole land” (similarly Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). Revised Standard Version follows the Septuagint and a few other ancient versions here. In the Hebrew text Balak refers to the people of Israel with a definite article; he speaks of them as an already known entity even though he does not refer to them explicitly by name. So the Hebrew differs here slightly from verse 5, but translators should render consistently the words that are the same, especially if the direct speech is kept. For it covers the face of the earth (literally “it covers the eye of the earth/land”), see verse 5. In verse 5 the Hebrew word hinneh (“behold”) introduces this clause, but the Hebrew does not include it here.
Now come: See the comments on “Come now” in verse 6, but here the Hebrew does not include the word meaning “please.”
Curse them for me is literally “curse it [Israel] for me.” See verse 6.
Perhaps I shall be able to fight against them and drive them out is literally “perhaps I will be able to fight against it [Israel] and I will drive it out.” See verse 6.
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 .
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.