being down / on the ground

In Gbaya, the notion of being down or being on the ground is emphasized with mbɔlɔlɔ, an ideophone used to describe the expresses the fact of being down.

Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)

Esau

The name that is transliterated as “Esau” in English means “covered with hair,” “hairy.” (Source: Cornwall / Smith 1997 )

In Finnish Sign Language and American Sign Language it is translated with the signs signifying “hairy forearm” (referring to the story starting at Genesis 27:11). (Source: Tarja Sandholm, Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)


“Esau” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor

For more information on translations of proper names with sign language see Sign Language Bible Translations Have Something to Say to Hearing Christians .

See also hairy (like Esau).

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Esau .

complete verse (Obadiah 1:9)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Obadiah 1:9:

  • Kupsabiny: “The young warriors of Teman will be terrified and every soldier in Edom will be killed.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “All the brave soldiers living in Teman will be greatly afraid,
    And all the inhabitants of the mount of Esau
    will be killed off.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Your (plur.) soldiers who (are) in the city of Teman will-tremble with fear, therefore you (plur.) all who live in the Mountain of Esau will-die.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “The soldiers from Teman town will become terrified;
    all you people who are descendants of Esau will be wiped out/killed.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

2nd person pronoun with low register (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 second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used anata (あなた) is typically used when the speaker is humbly addressing another person.

In these verses, however, omae (おまえ) is used, a cruder second person pronoun, that Jesus for instance chooses when chiding his disciples. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also first person pronoun with low register and third person pronoun with low register.

Translation commentary on Obadiah 1:9

In verse 8 the Lord spoke in the first person, but in this verse the statements are in the third person. Verse 9 is to be understood as the Lord’s description of the result of his action in verse 8.

Teman was one of the main towns of Edom, and here it stands for the whole country. When God punishes Edom, even its soldiers or fighting men … will be terrified. The defeat of Edom will be so disastrous that every soldier … will be killed. As in verse 8, “Mount Esau” (Revised Standard Version) stands for Edom and is so translated in Good News Translation. No known historical event included a disaster of the size portrayed here.

Good News Translation begins the second line with and, but the relationship between the two lines is one of purpose. In Revised Standard Version this relationship is made clearer with the words “so that.” The meaning is that God will make the soldiers so frightened or terrified by what is happening to them that they will not be able to resist, and therefore all of them will be killed.

The last word of this verse in Hebrew, translated “by slaughter” in Revised Standard Version, is taken with verse 10 by several ancient versions. Good News Translation, like Jerusalem Bible and New English Bible, follows the same tradition.

Quoted with permission from Clark, David J. et al. A Handbook on the Book of Obadiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1978, 1982, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .