Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 106:37:
Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
“They gave (as) sacrifice their male children
and their female children to demons.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Newari:
“They sacrificed their sons and daughters
before the idols of the land of Canaan.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon:
“They sacrificed/offered their children to the demons” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Laarim:
“They gave the children
to be the things of sacrifices to gods which are not true.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
“Wakawaua watoto wao vijana wa kiume na wasichana,
kuwa sadaka ya pepo wachafu.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
English:
“Some of the Israelis sacrificed their sons and daughters to the demons that those idols represented.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Sissala: kaŋtɔŋ, which traditionally referred to “either a spirit of natural phenomena such as trees, rivers, stones, etc., or the spirit of a deceased person that has not been taken into the realm of the dead. Kaŋtɔŋ can be good or evil. Evil kaŋtɔŋ can bring much harm to people and are feared accordingly. A kaŋtɔŋ can also dwell in a person living on this earth. A person possessed by kaŋtɔŋ does not behave normally.” (Source: Regina Blass in Holzhausen 1991, p. 48f.)
Umiray Dumaget Agta: hayup or “creature, animal, general term for any non-human creature, whether natural or supernatural.” Thomas Headland (in: Notes on Translation, September 1971, p. 17ff.) explains some more: “There are several types of supernatural creatures, or spirit beings which are designated by the generic term hayup. Just as we have several terms in English for various spirit beings (elves, fairies, goblins, demons, imps, pixies) so have the Dumagats. And just as you will find vast disagreement and vagueness among English informants as to the differences between pixies and imps, etc., so you will find that no two Dumagats will agree as to the form and function of their different spirit beings.” This term can also be used in a verb form: hayupen: “creatured” or “to be killed, made sick, or crazy by a spirit.”
Yala: yapri̍ija ɔdwɔ̄bi̍ or “bad Yaprija.” Yaprijas are traditional spirits that have a range presumed activities including giving or withholding gifts, giving and protecting children, causing death and disease and rewarding good behavior. (Source: Eugene Bunkowske in Notes on Translation 78/1980, p. 36ff.)
Lamnso’: aànyùyi jívirì: “lesser gods who disturb, bother, pester, or confuse a person.” (Source: Fanwong 2013, p. 93)
Paasaal: gyɩŋbɔmɔ, “beings that are in the wild and can only be seen when they choose to reveal themselves to certain people. They can ‘capture’ humans and keep them in hiding while they train the person in herbalism and divination. After the training period, which can range from a week to many years, the ‘captured’ individual is released to go back into society as a healer and a diviner. The gyɩŋbɔmɔ can also be evil, striking humans with mental diseases and causing individuals to get lost in the wild. The Pasaale worldview about demons is like that of others of the language groups in the area, including the Northern Dagara [who use kɔ̃tɔmɛ with a similar meaning].” (Source: Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
In the still widely-used 1908 Tswana (also: Setswana) translation (by Robert Moffat, revised by Alfred Wookey), the term badino or “ancestor spirit” is used for “demon,” even though in the traditional understanding there is nothing inherently negative associated with that term. Musa Dube (in: Journal of Society of New Testament 73, 1999, p. 33ff. ) describes this as an example of “engaging in the colonization of the minds of natives and for advancing European imperial spaces. The death and burial of Setswana culture here was primarily championed through the colonization of their language such that it no longer served the interests of the original speakers. Instead the written form of language had equated their cultural beliefs with evil spirits, demons and wizardry. This colonization of Setswana was in itself the planting of a colonial cultural bomb, meant to clear the ground for the implantation of a worldwide Christian commonwealth and European consciousness. It was a minefield that marked Setswana cultural spaces as dangerous death zones, to be avoided by every intelligent Motswana reader or hearer of the translated text.”
In Kachin, the term Nat (or nat) us used for “demon” (as well as “devil” and “unclean/evil spirit“). Like in Tswana, the meaning of Nat is not inherently negative but can be positive in the traditional Nat worship as well. Naw Din Dumdaw (in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 94ff.) argues that “the demonization of Nat created a social conflict between Kachin Christians and Kachin non-Christians. Kachin converts began to perceive their fellow Kachins who were still worshipping Nats as demonic and they wanted to distance themselves from them. Likewise, the Nat-worshiping Kachin community perceived the Kachin converts as betrayers and enemies of their own cultural heritage. (…) The demonization of the word Nat was not only the demonization of the pre-Christian religion but also the demonization of the cultural heritage of the Kachin people. When the word Nat is perceived as demonic, it creates an existential dilemma for Kachin Christians. It distances them from their cultural traditions.”
In verse 37b the word translated “idols” by Good News Translation is found only here and in Deuteronomy 32.17; it is taken by most to mean demons (so the Septuagint). The reference is still to the pagan deities, whom the psalmist calls demons (as in Deut 32.17). Bible en français courant “false gods” is better than “idols”; New English Bible “foreign demons” is not very satisfactory. Briggs defines the word as meaning the ancient gods of the Canaanites.
Verse 38 is long and wordy in Hebrew (see Revised Standard Version); Good News Translation has expressed the meaning more concisely. Because the Israelites had offered their innocent children as sacrifices, both the land (verse 38b) and they themselves (verse 39a) were made polluted and unclean, that is, unfit to worship Yahweh, to have fellowship with him.
If a translator wishes to reproduce the rather repetitious character of the Hebrew text in verses 37-38, the following may serve as a model:
• 37 They offered their own sons and daughters
as sacrifices to those false gods.
38 They killed those innocent children–
their own sons and daughters–
and offered them as sacrifices
to the idols of the Canaanites;
these killings made the land impure.
Idolatry is compared here, as often elsewhere in the Old Testament, to marital infidelity; Israel was Yahweh’s “wife,” and when she worshiped foreign gods she was being unfaithful to him. Revised Standard Version‘s quaint played the harlot is from King James Version; see New Jerusalem Bible‘s more vigorous “their behavior was that of a harlot.”
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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