complete verse (Numbers 35:11)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Numbers 35:11:

  • Kupsabiny: “select/set aside cities that one can flee to. That is where a person who has killed by mistake can flee to.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Choose cities to give refuge to those who escape and come, having gotten accidentally involved in killing a person.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “they will-choose towns which will-become towns of refuge where can-flee a man who has-killed/murdered which-is not his intention.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “you must choose some cities to which people can run to be safe/protected. If someone kills another person accidentally/without planning to do that, the one who killed that person may run to one of those cities and be safe.” (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 35:11

Then you shall select cities to be cities of refuge for you: La Bible de Jérusalem Nouvelle renders select as “find,” since the Hebrew verb (qarah) here generally points to a chance event. In this context it is better translated “choose” (Good News Translation, La Nouvelle Bible Segond), “designate” (New Living Translation, NET Bible, Reina-Valera Contemporánea), or “Set apart” (La Biblia: Traducción en Lenguaje Actual). For cities of refuge, see verse 6.

That the manslayer who kills any person without intent may flee there: See verse 6. Without intent is literally “by error” or “by unintentional mistake.” The same expression occurs in 15.24-29, where it refers to unintentional offenses. There Revised Standard Version usually renders it “unwittingly,” and Good News Translation has “unintentionally.” Here it may be translated “by accident” (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 .