Ixcatlán Mazatec: “with your best/biggest thinking” (source: Robert Bascom)
Noongar: dwangka-boola, lit. “ear much” (source: Portions of the Holy Bible in the Nyunga language of Australia, 2018 — see also remember)
Kwere “to know how to live well” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Dobel: “their ear holes are long-lasting” (in Acts 6:3) (source: Jock Hughes)
Gbaya: iŋa-mgbara-mɔ or “knowing-about-things” (note that in comparison to that, “knowledge” is translated as iŋa-mɔ or “knowing things”) (source: Philip Noss in The Bible Translator 2001, p. 114ff. )
Chichewa: nzeru, meaning both “knowledge” and “wisdom” (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Kako: “heart thinking” (source: Reyburn 2002, p. 190)
In Hungarian Sign Language it is translated with a hand gesture referring to God to indicate a human quality to communicate that wisdom does not originate from man but is linked to and connected with the fear of God (source: Jenjelvi Biblia and HSL Bible Translation Group):
The Hebrew, Greek, Ge’ez, and Latin that is translated as “soul” in English is translated in Chol with a term that refers to the invisible aspects of human beings (source: Robert Bascom), in Yagaria with oune or “shadow, reflection” (source: Renck, p. 81), and in Elhomwe as “heart” (source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext).
The Mandarin Chineselínghún (靈魂 / 灵魂), literally “spirit-soul,” is often used for “soul” (along with xīn [心] or “heart”). This is a term that was adopted from Buddhist sources into early Catholic writings and later also by Protestant translators. (Source: Zetzsche 1996, p. 32, see also Clara Ho-yan Chan in this article )
In Chichewa, moyo means both “soul” and “life.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
In the Tzeltal translation for the dialectal variant of Highland Tzeltal (Biblia Tzeltal yu’un Oxchuc soc Tenejapa, 2001) the translation team used three different words to translate the Hebrew term that is translated as “wisdom” or “wise” in English. For the verses referenced here, it uses p’ijil-o’tanil or “heart wisdom.”
For the complete story and more background, please see wisdom (Proverbs).
“Hope is sometimes one of the most difficult terms to translate in the entire Bible. It is not because people do not hope for things, but so often they speak of hoping as simply ‘waiting.’ In fact, even in Spanish, the word esperar means both ‘to wait’ and ‘to hope.’ However, in many instances the purely neutral term meaning ‘to wait’ may be modified in such a way that people will understand something more of its significance. For example, in Tepeuxila Cuicatec hope is called ‘wait-desire.’ Hope is thus a blend of two activities: waiting and desiring. This is substantially the type of expectancy of which hope consists.
In Yucateco the dependence of hope is described by the phrase ‘on what it hangs.’ ‘Our hope in God’ means that ‘we hang onto God.’ The object of hope is the support of one’s expectant waiting. In Ngäbere the phrase “resting the mind” is used. This “implies waiting and confidence, and what is a better definition of hope than ‘confident waiting’.” (Source for this and above: Nida 1952, p. 20, 133)
Enlhet: “waitings of (our) innermost” (“innermost” or valhoc is a term that is frequently used in Enlhet to describe a large variety of emotions or states of mind — for other examples see here) (source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 24ff. )
Kwang: “one’s future is restored to one’s soul like a fresh, cool breeze on a hot day.” (Source: Mark Vanderkooi right here )
Noongar: koort-kwidiny or “heart waiting” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Anjam: “looking through the horizon” (source: Albert Hoffmann in his memoirs from 1948, quoted in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 7)
Ron: kintiɓwi or “put lip” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
Alekano: “wait not hearing two ears” (meaning to “wait without being double-minded” — source: Ellis Deibler in Notes on Translation June 1986, p. 36ff.)
In Mwera “hope” and “faith” are translated with the same word: ngulupai. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
C.M. Doke looks at a number of Bantu languages and their respective translations of “hope” with slightly varying connotations (in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 9ff. ):
Xhosa and Zulu: themba “hope, expect,” also “have faith in, rely upon”
Tswana: tsholofelo “hope, expect, look for confidently”
Southern Sotho: tshepo “trust, rely on, believe in, have confidence in”
“Unlike English, which uses the word hope broadly, the French language uses two words that derive from the word espérer (to hope): espoir and espérance. Both can first refer to something hoped for. In this sense, the word espoir usually refers to an uncertain object; that is, someone who hopes for something in this way does not have the certainty that it will happen (“I hope the weather will be nice tomorrow”). On the other hand, espérance describes what, rightly or wrongly, is hoped for or expected with certainty. It often refers to a philosophical or eschatological object (‘I hope in the goodness of human beings’; ‘I hope for the return of Jesus Christ’).
“When we speak of espoir or espérance, we then have in mind different types of objects hoped for. This difference matters, because both terms also commonly refer to the state of mind that characterizes the hopeful. And this state of mind will be different precisely according to the object hoped for.
“Having espoir for an uncertain yet better future in these difficult times may be a good thing, but it is not enough. Such hope can be disappointed and easily fade away when our wishes and expectations (our hopes) do not materialize.
“The opposite is true with espérance, which is deeper than our desire and wish for an end to a crisis or a future without pain and suffering. To face the trials of life, we need peace and joy in our hearts that come from expecting certain happiness. This is what espérance is: a profound and stable disposition resulting from faith in the coming of what we expect. In this sense, it is similar in meaning to the English word hopefulness.
“If we have believed in the Son of the living God, we have such a hope. It rests on the infallible promises of our God, who knows the plans he has for us, his children — plans of peace and not misfortune, to give us a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). By using the two meanings of the word, we can say that the espérance that the fulfillment of his promises represents (the object hoped for) fills us with espérance (the state of mind).”
“Know that wisdom is such to your soul”: In Hebrew the first word of this line is “so” or “thus,” which marks the saying as a simile and introduces the comparison between honey and wisdom. “Such” or “like this” is the Revised Standard Version equivalent for this word. “Know”, which has unusual vowels in the Hebrew, seems to be more for emphasis than for information; so New Jerusalem Bible renders it “for sure,” and Good News Translation “you may be sure,” while Contemporary English Version omits it altogether. In this context “soul” (nefesh in Hebrew) may refer to the activity of the mind or the inner life of a person. The last part of the line is literally “wisdom to your soul,” which goes with “so” at the beginning. To make the comparison complete we must understand “good” or “sweet” from the description of honey in the previous verse: “wisdom is sweet to your soul” (New International Version) or “wisdom is good for the soul” (Good News Translation). Another way of expressing the comparison is “Wisdom is like honey for your life” (Contemporary English Version).
“If you find it, there will be a future, and your hope will not be cut off”: “If you find it” is a conditional clause; that is, it states what must happen for the following clause to be true. But this clause really states what the saying wants readers to do, so it is a command in disguise: “Get wisdom and. . .” (Good News Translation). For “there will be a future and your hope will not be cut off”, see 23.18 where the Hebrew is identical. In some languages “your hope” will need to be expressed as a verb; for example, “You will be able to look forward to good things in the future, and what you look forward to will not disappoint you.” Note that Good News Translation restructures all this to “you have a bright future,” and Contemporary English Version is similar with “your future is bright.”
In translating the saying as a whole, some restructuring may be desirable to express the comparison between wisdom and honey in a way that is natural in the translator’s language. This may be done without changing the order of clauses by placing the words or markers that introduce comparison earlier in the saying, that is, somewhere in verse 13. Good News Translation is one example of this, putting “just as. . .” at the beginning of the second line of verse 13. Scott places it right at the beginning of the saying: “My son, as you eat honey because it is good, and. . ..” However, the best restructuring in some languages may be to state the two things that are compared at the beginning of the saying; for example: “My son, wisdom is just like honey. Honey is good to eat, and it tastes sweet. And wisdom is like that for your inner life [your soul]. If you get wisdom, you will have hope for the future, hope that will not be disappointed.”
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 24:14:
Kupsabiny: “Wisdom is sweet in your life/soul as honey. If you get that wisdom, then there is something you trust/hope in and that will not be cut off.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “In just the same way, wisdom is also sweet to your heart.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “Child, as the honey is sweet and good for you (sing.), likewise is wisdom. For if you (sing.) are wise, you (sing.) have a good future and what your (sing.) desires for will- not -be-dismayed.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Likewise also wisdom has benefit to your (sing.) mind. If you (sing.) can-gain-it, you (sing.) will have a good/nice expectation in a future day and for-sure it-will-be-fulfilled.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
14a Know therefore that wisdom is sweet to your soul.
14b If you find it, there is a future for you,
14c and your hope will never be cut off.
24:14a
Know therefore that wisdom is sweet to your soul: In Hebrew, this line is literally “Thus know wisdom to/for your soul.” It indicates that the benefits of wisdom for a person’s life or inner being (soul) are similar to the benefits of honey.
Know: In some languages, it is not natural to use this verb as a command. Some other ways to translate the meaning are:
Remember that…
-or-
You should be aware that…
-or-
It is true that…
therefore: In Hebrew, this word is literally “thus/so.” Here it introduces a comparison. Some other ways to introduce this comparison are:
Likewise, know that wisdom… (NET Bible)
-or- In the same way, you need to realize that wisdom…
wisdom is sweet to your soul: In Hebrew, the similarity of wisdom to honey is not explicit. The Berean Standard Bible has made explicit the words is sweet. Some other ways to translate this comparison are:
wisdom is good for the soul (Good News Translation)
-or-
wisdom is like honey for you (New International Version (2011))
-or-
wisdom has similar benefits for your life
24:14b–c
These two lines describe the benefits of finding wisdom. In order to gain these benefits, a person first needs to gain wisdom.
If you find it: Some other ways to translate this clause are:
If you gain/get it
-or-
If you become wise
there is a future for you, and your hope will never be cut off: See the notes on 23:18a and 23:18b, where these identical clauses occur. The only difference is that in Hebrew, verse 23:18a begins with two words that the Berean Standard Bible translates as “For surely.”
General Comment on 24:13–14
In the first verse of this saying, the teacher commands his son to eat honey. He does not talk about wisdom until the second verse. In some languages, it may not be clear that the teacher’s main advice is about gaining wisdom rather than eating honey. One way to make the emphasis on wisdom clearer is to reorder some parts of the comparison. For example:
My child, you need to know that wisdom is like honey. You should eat honey, because it is good ⌊for your health⌋ and it is also delicious. Similarly, ⌊it is important that you become wise.⌋ If are wise, then your hope for ⌊a good life in⌋ the future will certainly be fulfilled.
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