“I love those who love me”: The text of Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia has “those who love her,” but Revised Standard Version, like most commentaries and translations, follows the variant footnote “loves me.” We may translate, for example, “I love everyone who loves me.”
“Those who seek me diligently find me”: “Seek . . . diligently” is the Revised Standard Version translation of the intensive form of the verb to seek. Bible en français courant says “Those who love me, I love them in return. Those who look for me are sure to find me.”
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 .
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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 first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.
Notice the parallel parts that are similar in meaning. They form a chiasm in the Berean Standard Bible but not in Hebrew.
17a I lovethose who love me,
17b and those who seek me earlyshall find me.
In this verse, Wisdom gives two promises. She promises to love those who love her, and she promises that those who seek her will find her.
8:17a
I love those who love me: If the idea that Wisdom “loves” people is not clear or natural in your language, another way to translate this line is:
I reward those who love me.
8:17b
those who seek me early shall find me: In Hebrew, the verb seek…early is an intensive form of the verb, so a more accurate translation is:
seek me diligently (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
searches eagerly for me (New Jerusalem Bible)
In many languages, it will be possible to maintain the figurative idea of searching for wisdom and finding her. If it is not possible, the nonfigurative meaning may be expressed as:
those who earnestly desire to become wise will indeed become wise
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