provoke (to anger)

The Hebrew that is translated as “provoke (to anger)” in English is translated in Newari as “causing one’s anger to come out” (source: Newari Back Translation).

plague

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “plague” in English is translated in Bariai as “killing-off” (source: Bariai Back Translation).

In the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) as Katastrophe or Katastrophenschlag, i.e. “disaster” or “disastrous strike.”

anger

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The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is translated as “anger” or similar in English in this verse is translated with a variety of solutions (Bratcher / Nida says: “Since anger has so many manifestations and seems to affect so many aspects of personality, it is not strange that expressions used to describe this emotional response are so varied”).

  • Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “be warm inside”
  • Mende: “have a cut heart”
  • Mískito: “have a split heart”
  • Tzotzil: “have a hot heart”
  • Mossi: “a swollen heart”
  • Western Kanjobal: “fire of the viscera”
  • San Blas Kuna: “pain in the heart”
  • Chimborazo Highland Quichua: “not with good eye”
  • Chichewa: “have a burning heart” (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation) (see also anger burned in him)
  • Citak: two different terms, one meaning “angry” and one meaning “offended,” both are actually descriptions of facial expressions. The former can be represented by an angry stretching of the eyes or by an angry frown. The latter is similarly expressed by an offended type of frown with one’s head lowered. (Source: Graham Ogden)

In Akan, a number of metaphors are used, most importantly abufuo, lit. “weedy chest” (the chest is seen as a container that contains the heart but can also metaphorically be filled with other fluids etc.), but also abufuhyeε lit. “hot/burning weedy chest” and anibereε, lit. “reddened eyes.” (Source: Gladys Nyarko Ansah in Kövecses / Benczes / Szelid 2024, p. 21ff.)

See also God’s anger and angry.

complete verse (Psalm 106:29)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 106:29:

  • Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
    “they provoked the anger of Jehovah in their evil acts,
    and a plague broke out among them.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
  • Newari:
    “In this way, with their deeds they made Him angry.
    So a plague came to them.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon:
    “They caused- the LORD -to-be-angry because of their wicked deeds,
    therefore destruction came to them.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Laarim:
    “They made the LORD angry, by the sin they did,
    then a certain plague started in the middle of them.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
  • Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
    “Wakamchukiza BWANA kwa matendo yao,
    ugonjwa wa tauni ukazuka katikati yao.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
  • English:
    “Yahweh became very angry because of what they had done,
    so again he sent a terrible disease to attack/ strike them.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Psalm 106:28 - 106:31

These verses report the events narrated in Numbers 25.1-13. Peor was a mountain in Moab, on the east side of the Jordan. The name Baal means “lord, master,” and is the name often given in the Old Testament to the gods of other nations. The Hebrew verb translated attached themselves to (Good News Translation “joined in the worship of”) is the one used in Numbers 25.3. Something like “committed themselves to” or “pledged their allegiance (or, loyalty) to” may be better. In verse 28b the dead are the idols, the pagan gods themselves, which the psalmist considers to have no real existence (see the description in 115.4-8). New Jerusalem Bible and New International Version translate “lifeless gods.” Dahood, however, takes the meaning here to be funeral sacrifices, offerings for the dead (so Oesterley, Weiser). A translator may choose to follow this interpretation. Baal may require some identification; for example, “the god called Baal” or “the god the other nations worshiped, called Baal.”

In verse 29b the plague (same word used in Num 25.8-9) is unspecified; it is a disease or epidemic of some sort. It should be clear that this happened as a result of Yahweh’s anger.

In verse 30a Good News Translation “punished the guilty” translates a verb which means “sit in judgment” or “arbitrate, intervene.” So Revised Standard Version interposed; New Jerusalem Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, and New International Version have “intervened.” Phinehas killed an Israelite man and the Midianite woman he had taken into his tent; this “intervention” caused God to stop the plague (which had killed 24,000 people). Instead of “intervened” the Septuagint has here “made atonement,” the same word used in Numbers 25.13. The use of the passive in the plague was stayed will have to become active in many languages, in which case the subject supplied will be God; that is, “God stopped the plague” or “God stopped the sickness that was killing them.”

In verse 31 the Hebrew is “this is accounted to him as righteousness” (tsedaqah); Traduction œcuménique de la Bible translates “This was reckoned as a righteous deed.” The text can be understood to refer to divine approval (so Bible en français courant); the same phrase is used of Abraham in Genesis 15.6. Or it can mean the high regard in which Phinehas was held by the people of Israel ever since the original event, and which will continue for all time to come. In translation this may be stated “people have always remembered this good act and will go on remembering it always.”

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 .