“By his knowledge the deeps . . .”: “Knowledge” translates the same word used in 1.4, where it matches “prudence” in the first line. “Deeps” translates a word used mainly in poetic discourse for rivers, seas, and oceans, and in this case refers to the ancient view of the waters beneath the earth.
“Broke forth”: The idea expressed briefly here is developed more extensively in 8.24-28. The language may be taken from Gen 7.11 in which “all the fountains of the great deep burst forth” at the beginning of the flood. On the other hand the reference may be to Gen 1.2. Good News Translation takes it in a general sense: “caused the rivers to flow.” Bible en français courant attempts to keep the ancient picture of the earth by saying “By his knowledge the waters beneath [the earth] gushed forth upon the land.”
“And the clouds drop down the dew”: In the ancient view the sky or heavens had windows through which the water (rain and dew) fell to the earth. Here the “dew”, which probably includes rain as well, is said to fall from the clouds. See Job 28.25-26 and 36.27-28. Good News Translation says “the clouds give rain to the earth.”
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 3:20:
Kupsabiny: “His knowledge caused the rivers to appear and the clouds poured rain.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “From His wisdom rivers flow, rain falls from the clouds.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “By wisdom and knowledge, the LORD created the earth and the heavens, and the springs have-opened-up and clouds gave rain.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “He also caused-to-flow springs and rivers and caused-there-to-be rain that comes-from the clouds.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
God transcends gender, but most languages are limited to grammatical gender expressed in pronouns. In the case of English, this is traditionally confined to “he” (or in the forms “his,” “him,” and “himself”), “she” (and “her,” “hers,” and “herself”), and “it” (and “its” and “itself”).
Modern Mandarin Chinese, however, offers another possibility. Here, the third-person singular pronoun is always pronounced the same (tā), but it is written differently according to its gender (他 is “he,” 她 is “she,” and 它/牠 is “it” and their respective derivative forms). In each of these characters, the first (or upper) part defines the gender (man, woman, or thing/animal), while the second element gives the clue to its pronunciation.
In 1930, after a full century with dozens of Chinese translations, Bible translator Wang Yuande (王元德) coined a new “godly” pronoun: 祂. Chinese readers immediately knew how to pronounce it: tā. But they also recognized that the first part of that character, signifying something spiritual, clarified that each person of the Trinity has no gender aside from being God.
While the most important Protestant and Catholic Chinese versions respectively have opted not to use 祂, some Bible translations do and it is widely used in hymnals and other Christian materials. Among the translations that use 祂 to refer to “God” were early versions of Lü Zhenzhong’s (呂振中) version (New Testament: 1946, complete Bible: 1970). R.P. Kramers (in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 152ff. ) explains why later versions of Lü’s translation did not continue with this practice: “This new way of writing ‘He,’ however, has created a minor problem of its own: must this polite form be used whenever Jesus is referred to? Lü follows the rule that, wherever Jesus is referred to as a human being, the normal tā (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential tā (祂) is used.”
In that system, one kind of pronoun is used for humans (male and female alike) and others for natural elements, non-liquid masses, and some spiritual entities (one other is used for large animals and another one for miscellaneous items). While in these languages the pronoun for spiritual entities used to be employed when referring to God, this has changed into the use of the human pronoun.
Lynell Zogbo (in The Bible Translator 1989, p. 401ff. ) explains: “From informal discussions with young Christians especially, it would appear that, at least for some people, the experience and/or concepts of Christianity are affecting the choice of pronoun for God. Some people explain that God is no longer ‘far away,’ but is somehow tangible and personal. For these speakers God has shifted over into the human category.”
In Kouya, God (the Father) and Jesus are referred to with the human pronoun ɔ, whereas the Holy Spirit is referred to with a non-human pronoun. (Northern Grebo and Western Krahn make a similar distinction.)
Eddie Arthur, a former Kouya Bible translation consultant, says the following: “We tried to insist that this shouldn’t happen, but the Kouya team members were insistent that the human pronoun for the Spirit would not work.”
In Burmese, the pronoun ko taw (ကိုယ်တော်) is used either as 2nd person (you) or 3rd person (he, him, his) reference. “This term clearly has its root in the religious language in Burmese. No ordinary persons are addressed or known by this pronoun because it is reserved for Buddhist monks, famous religious teachers, and in the case of Christianity, the Trinity.” (Source: Gam Seng Shae in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 202ff. )
In Thai, the pronoun phra`ong (พระองค์) is used, a gender-neutral pronoun which must refer to a previously introduced royal or divine being. Similarly, in Northern Khmer, which is spoken in Thailand, “an honorific divine pronoun” is used for the pronoun referring to the persons of the Trinity (source: David Thomas in The Bible Translator 1993, p. 445 ). In Urak Lawoi’, another language spoken in Thailand, the translation often uses tuhat (ตูฮัด) — “God” — ”as a divine pronoun where Thai has phra’ong even though it’s actually a noun.” (Source for Thai and Urak Lawoi’: Stephen Pattemore)
The English “Contemporary Torah” addresses the question of God and gendered pronouns by mostly avoiding pronouns in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (unless God is referred to as “lord,” “father,” “king,” or “warrior”). It does that by either using passive constructs (“He gave us” vs. “we were given”), by using the adjective “divine” or by using “God” rather than a pronoun.
Some Protestant and Orthodox English Bibles use a referential capitalized spelling when referring to the persons of the Trinity with “He,” “His,” “Him,” or “Himself.” This includes for instance the New American Standard Bible or The Orthodox New Testament, but most translations do not. Two other languages where this is also done (in most Bible translations) are Twents as well as Indonesian and Malay. In the latter two languages this follows the language usage according to the Qur’an, which in turn predicts that usage (see Soesilo in The Bible Translator 1991, p. 442ff. and The Bible Translator 1997, p. 433ff. ).
This verse describes how the LORD provided water from sources that were under and above the earth’s surface. Notice the parallel parts that are similar in meaning:
20a By His knowledge the watery depthswere broken open,
20b and the cloudsdripped with dew.
3:20a
By His knowledge: Here knowledge is equivalent to “wisdom” and “understanding” in the previous verse. No distinction is intended. The phrase His knowledge does not refer here to specific information that the LORD knows. In some languages, it may be more natural to leave this phrase implied. For example:
He also caused springs and rivers to flow out.
the watery depths were broken open: This clause refers to when the LORD split open channels in the rock so that springs and rivers could flow from the seas under the earth’s surface. Some other ways to translate this clause are:
the springs of the deep burst forth (Revised English Bible)
-or-
His wisdom caused the rivers to flow (Good News Translation)
3:20b
and the clouds dripped with dew: Several scholars say that “rain” was probably included along with dew. For example:
His wisdom caused…the clouds to give rain to the earth. (Good News Translation)
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