Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 105:25:
Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
“whose hearts he turned to hate his people,
planning a plot against his servants.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Newari:
“God caused the Egyptians’ mind to despise His people,
and to make plans opposing His servants.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon:
“The LORD allowed that those-from-Egipto would-be-against and would-deceive his people who (are) his servants.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Laarim:
“he changed the hearts of their enemies to hate his people,
they plotted bad matter against his servants.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
“Akawafanya Wamisri kuwachukia watu wake,
wakawatendea ya ujanja watumishi wake.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
English:
“So Yahweh caused the rulers of Egypt to turn against/hate the Israeli people,
and they planned ways to get rid of his people.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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 the closely related 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. ).
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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 usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme are (され) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, s-are-ru (される) or “do/make” is used.
For the events referred to in verse 23, see Genesis 46.1-27; the story of the lengthy stay of the Israelites in Egypt (verses 24-25) is found in Exodus 1.7–2.25 (see in Exo 12.40 “430 years”). Since the writer is retelling a series of episodes from Old Testament history, it will often be important for the translator to pay special attention to the marking of transitions, which in many languages requires repeating part of the previous episode; for example, “After Joseph instructed the king’s advisers, Joseph’s father, whose name was Jacob, went….”
In verse 23 Good News Translation has combined the two synonymous lines (see Revised Standard Version) into one; “Jacob” represents both Israel and Jacob, and “that country” translates the land of Ham (see 78.51b). In line b the verb sojourned comes from the same root as the noun used in verse 12b (“sojourners”). Here the idea does not seem to be that of a temporary residence; Traduction œcuménique de la Bible has “emigrated,” New English Bible “came to live,” New Jerusalem Bible “settled.”
The birth rate of the Israelites was greater than that of the Egyptians (see Exo 1.7), and eventually they became more powerful than the Egyptians (verse 24).
The Egyptians’ hatred of the Israelites was God’s doing (verse 25a; literally He turned their hearts to hate his people). But the Hebrew text can be translated “Their hearts turned” (so the Targum; and see New Jerusalem Bible footnote), which Briggs prefers; but all translations consulted have Yahweh as subject. The Israelites are Yahweh’s servants (verse 25b), and the Egyptians treated them deceitfully (see Exo 1.10-14), which included not only making slaves of them but also scheming to have Israelite male babies put to death at birth (Exo 1.15-16; see also Acts 7.19). It is important in verse 25 that the reader understand that his people and his servants refer to the Israelites; for example, “he made the Egyptians hate his people, who served him, so that they treated the Israelites with deceit” or “… deceived the Israelites.”
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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