Translation commentary on Proverbs 4:4

“He taught me, and said to me”: This line is introductory to the quoted material that begins in the second line. Some translate it as “This is what he would say” or “Here is what he used to teach me.”

“Let your heart hold fast my words” is literally “Let your heart keep my words.” “Heart” is used to represent the mind and intellect. In the Hebrew it is the “heart” that keeps things in mind. Refer to 2.2. We may also say, for example, “Keep my words in your thoughts,” “Keep my words in your memory,” or “Remember the teachings you learn from me.”

“Keep my commandments, and live”: This line is identical to one in 7.2. It expresses the same thought as the previous line, with “my commandments” replacing “my words”. “Commandments” is the same word as used in 2.1 and 3.1, where it refers to the instruction, orders, or teaching given by the person who is wise. The result of keeping these lessons is life, which here, as in 3.2, refers to a long and happy life. In some languages the command to “live” addressed to someone who is already alive is nonsense. In such cases it is better to say, for example, “and live a long life” or “and live a happy life.”

In some languages “my commandments” must be expressed in the same way as “my words”. In such cases the two lines are often combined to say, for example, “Put my words well in your thinking and follow them, and you will live well.”

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 .

second person pronoun with low register

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 show 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.