complete verse (Numbers 32:24)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Numbers 32:24:

  • Kupsabiny: “So, you may build for your children/families cities, and build stables for your sheep/goats, but do what you have promised.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “You can build sheds for your cattle and cities for your women and children, but [you] must fulfill your promise."” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Okay, you (plur.) build-up towns for your (plur.) women and children, and make pens for your (plur.) animals, but you (plur.) should fulfill what you (plur.) had- promised.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Now you can build cities for your families and pens for your animals, but after doing that, you must do what you have promised.’” (Source: Translation for Translators)

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

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 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 32:24

Build cities for your little ones, and folds for your sheep: See verse 16. Here Moses permits the Gadites and Reubenites to do what they requested. Some languages may require a transitional expression to introduce this official expression of permission, for example, “So” (Good News Translation) or “Go ahead and” (Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation). Milgrom (page xxii) notes that the phrases cities for you little ones and folds for your sheep are in reverse order with that in verse 16, thus forming a chiasmus. According to Rashi, this is how Moses corrected the priorities the two tribes had expressed: the fortified cities for their dependents should be built before the pens for their livestock.

And do what you have promised is literally “and what goes out from your mouth you shall do” (see 30.2). This idiom is used for oaths, which cannot be retracted once they are pronounced (so Alter, page 849). Instead of and, a more natural conjunction may be “but” (Good News Translation, New Living Translation, NET Bible). In some languages this climactic utterance may require a little extra emphasis for the sake of naturalness; for example, Contemporary English Version has “Just be sure to do what you have promised” (similarly Chewa).

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 .