The Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic and Latin that is translated as “justice” in English is translated in American Sign Language with a sign that describes the quality or principle of fairness, righteousness, and impartiality in treating other people. A literal back-translation of the signs are “FOLLOW(God is implied) ACTIONS, DECISIONS JUST-RIGHT”. A more idiomatic back-translation would be: “actions and decisions are right/fitting/just in accordance to God’s will.” The movement in the signs itself helps to indicate that this is a noun, not a verb. (Source: Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)
“Justice” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor
“know something is true because of seeing it” in Teutila Cuicatec (source for this and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
“ones who will confirm that these-things that you have seen are true” in Kankanaey (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
“ones who are to testify about these things, because it all happened before your eyes” in Tagbanwa (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
“A worthless witness mocks at justice”: For “worthless” see 6.12 and 16.27. “Witness” is as in 6.19. For “mocks” see 1.26. The “worthless witness” in a trial makes fun or scorns justice, that is, “mocks” the rights of others to a fair trial. He does this by not telling the truth as a witness. We may translate, for example, “A worthless witness lies and mocks the rights of others.”
“And the mouth of the wicked devours iniquity”: The figurative language of this line appears to represent the wicked person as enjoying or getting pleasure from being evil. See Good News Translation “Wicked people love the taste of evil.” Here Good News Translation has kept the figurative expression through “taste of evil.” Contemporary English Version has “and criminals think crime is really delicious.” In some languages it is necessary to adjust the figure into a simile by saying, for example, “and bad people swallow evil like they swallow their food.”
Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Proverbs 19:28:
Kupsabiny: “A wicked person despises words of truth and people who are sinners are happy with iniquity.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “A lying witness ridicules justice, And the mouth of the wicked swallows evil.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “A lying witness does-make-the justice -worthless, and a wicked man is very pleased to do wickedness.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “The witness who tells-lies mocks/belittles the law. Like delicious food is how- the sinful-person -counts/considers what is evil.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
English: “Worthless witnesses in court make fun of judges who try to make fair decisions, and wicked people enjoy doing evil like they enjoy eating good food.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
These two proverbs are closely related by two sets of similar words:
(a) the words “mocks” and “mockers”
(b) the words “justice” and “judgments.” In Hebrew, these nouns are slightly different forms of the same root word.
19:28
Notice the parallelism. The word “wicked” in the second line refers to the same person as the “corrupt witness” in the first line.
28a A corrupt witnessmocks justice,
28b and a wicked mouthswallows iniquity.
This wicked person is described as using his mouth in two ways. He uses his mouth (implied) to tell lies in court. He also figuratively uses his mouth to gulp down evil.
19:28a
A corrupt witness: This phrase describes a witness who is both wicked and worthless. It is clearly implied that this kind of witness tells lies in court. See the note on 16:27a. In that verse, the Hebrew word for corrupt was translated as “worthless man” due to the different context.
mocks justice: By giving false testimony, this witness shows that he considers the rights of other people to be of no value. He treats with scorn and contempt the idea of justice and the legal system by which it is carried out.
Some other ways to translate 19:28a are:
A lying witness makes a mockery of justice (Revised English Bible)
-or-
A worthless witness mocks justice (God’s Word)
In some languages, there may be a figure of speech that effectively expresses the meaning of mocking justice. Two figures of speech that would be appropriate in English are:
treats the legal system like dirt
-or-
tramples justice under his feet
19:28b
and a wicked mouth swallows iniquity: This clause is a metaphor. In this metaphor, the reaction of a wicked person to evil deeds is compared to the way that people react to food. The similarity is enjoyment. A wicked person enjoys seeing or doing evil as much as people enjoy eating.
In some languages, a literal translation of this metaphor may be difficult to understand. Some other ways to translate it are:
• Use a metaphor and make the similarity explicit. For example:
Wicked people love the taste of evil. (Good News Translation)
-or-
and criminals think crime is really delicious (Contemporary English Version)
• Change the metaphor to a simile. For example:
and a wicked person enjoys evil as much as people enjoy eating
• If a figure of speech is not clear or natural, translate the meaning without using figurative language. For example:
and wicked people love what is evil (New Century Version)
Figures of speech help to make a proverb more vivid or easy to remember. So this option should be used only if the other options are not effective.
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