complete verse (Numbers 32:6)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Numbers 32:6:

  • Kupsabiny: “Moses answered those people, ‘Do you then want to remain here and leave your brothers to go into battle alone” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Moses said to the Gadites and Reubenites, "Your Israelites brothers are going to battle on the other side, and are you saying that you will just stay here at ease?” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Moises said to the tribes of Gad and Ruben, ‘What do you (plur.) mean, you (plur.) will- just -stay/remain here while your (plur.) fellow Israelinhon go to war?” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Moses/I replied to the leaders of the tribes of Gad and Reuben, ‘It is not right for your fellow Israelis to go to fight in wars and you stay here!” (Source: Translation for Translators)

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (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 formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Numbers 32:6

But Moses said to the sons of Gad and to the sons of Reuben: Moses does not agree to the request of the Gadites and Reubenites, but rebukes them for making it. He rejects their request as a breach of Israel’s unity (so Ashley, page 608). This quote frame introduces his rebuke, which extends through verse 15. But renders well the Hebrew waw conjunction here to mark Moses’ negative response. Since there is a change in speakers, it may also be helpful to insert a paragraph break (so Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation).

Shall your brethren go to the war while you sit here?: This question is rhetorical. Moses is not asking for information but is expressing surprise and strong disapproval. In the Hebrew text the disapproval is reinforced by the presence of an independent pronoun for you. The fighting in the region east of the Jordan River (against the Amorites, Moabites, and Midianites) had already been concluded successfully. So any tribes remaining there could sit, that is, “dwell” (another sense of the Hebrew verb here), there in relative safety. Chewa adds the pragmatic implication within this verb by saying “merely sit/dwell.” There could also be an element of sarcasm in Moses’ question. He also must have been especially frustrated by this appeal to stay east of the Jordan, when he himself would have given anything to have crossed that river (so Brown, page 278). Traduction œcuménique de la Bible expresses this rhetorical question well by saying “What! Your brothers will go out to battle and you, you would stay here?”

Cole (page 509) notes a number of verbal parallels between Moses’ speech of verses 6-15 and the words and events recorded in Num 11–14.

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 .