יַמְטֵ֥ר עַל־רְשָׁעִ֗ים פַּ֫חִ֥ים אֵ֣שׁ וְ֭גָפְרִית וְר֥וּחַ זִלְעָפ֗וֹת מְנָ֣ת כּוֹסָֽם׃
6On the wicked he will rain coals of fire and sulfur;
a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.
The Hebrew, Greek, and Latin that is translated as “cup” in English is translated in Sar with “calabash” (see here ) (source: Ngarbolnan Riminan in Le Sycomore 2000, p. 20ff. ) and in Bariai with “coconut shell” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
See also cup (of suffering).
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 11:6:
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 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. ).
See also first person pronoun referring to God.
Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Gender of God .
在现代汉语中，第三人称单数代词的读音都是一样的（tā），但是写法并不一样，取决于性别以及是否有生命，即男性为“他”，女性为“她”，动物、植物和无生命事物为“它”（在香港和台湾的汉语使用，动物则为“牠”）。这些字的部首偏旁表明了性别（男人、女人、动物、无生命事物），而另一偏旁通常旁提示发音。
到1930年为止，基督教新教《圣经》经过整整一百年的翻译已经拥有了十几个译本，当时的一位圣经翻译者王元德新造了一个“神圣的”代词“祂”，偏旁“礻”表示神明。一般汉语读者会立即知道这字的发音是tā，而这个偏旁表示属灵的事物，因此他们明白这个字指出，三位一体的所有位格都没有性别之分，而单单是上帝。
然而，最重要的新教圣经译本（1919年的《和合本》）和天主教圣经译本（1968年的《思高圣经》）都没有采用“祂”；虽然如此，许多其他的圣经译本采用了这个字，另外还广泛出现在赞美诗和其他基督信仰的书刊中。（资料来源：Zetzsche）
《吕振中译本》的几个早期版本也使用“祂”来指称“上帝”；这个译本的《新约》于1946年译成，整部《圣经》于1970年完成。克拉默斯（Kramers）指出：“‘他’的这种新写法（即‘祂’）产生了一个小问题，就是在指称耶稣的时候，是否一律使用这个敬语代词？《吕振中译本》遵循的原则是，在称呼耶稣这个人的时候，用一般的‘他’，而在称呼耶稣神性的时候，特别是升天之后的耶稣，则用尊称‘祂’。”
Translator: Simon Wong
The punishment that Yahweh sends (or, better, “will send,” with Revised Standard Version and others) is described as consisting of coals of fire (that is, live coals), brimstone (“burning sulfur”), and a scorching wind.
He will rain: “he will cause to come down (like rain)” (see also 78.24, 27). This expression may also be rendered “he will cause to fall like rain” or “he will cause the sky to send down.”
The first punishment in the Masoretic text is the plural of the word for “trap” (so Septuagint, Vulgate), which seems to be a scribal error for the plural of the word for “coal” (so Briggs), which is nearly the same in Hebrew. Therefore Briggs, Anderson, and others (Bible de Jérusalem, New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, New English Bible) correct the Hebrew text, following the Greek translation by Symmachus. But some translations like Revised Standard Version take the Masoretic text as though it meant “coals” (New Jerusalem Bible, New International Version). Hebrew Old Testament Text Project says that the Masoretic text means “snares” and has there the wider sense of “misfortunes.” It seems best to stay with Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, “burning coals” or “flaming coals.” It should be remembered that coals refers to charcoal, not mineral coal.
Brimstone (or “burning sulfur”) is associated with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19.24-25). Sulfur is a yellow substance which burns with a great heat and produces an unpleasant smell; it is found in volcanic regions, either as a solid or as a gas. Fire and burning sulfur are used in the biblical descriptions of the destruction which God sends or will send on various nations and peoples (see Isa 30.33; 34.9; Ezek 38.22; Rev 14.10; 19.20; 20.10; 21.8). “Burning sulfur” may sometimes be rendered “flames which smell bad” or “yellow flames with bad odor.”
Scorching wind is a reference to the hot desert wind that kills plants (see 90.5-6; 103.15-16; Isa 40.6-7). People who live near major deserts usually have specific terms to describe hot winds which blow from the desert. Such winds may also be rendered “winds that scorch things,” “winds that dry things up,” or “winds that burn the plants.” The Hebrew word translated wind also means breath, spirit, or (God’s) Spirit, depending on the context. Here wind is meant. Scorching translates a word that is found only here, in 119.53, and in Lamentations 5.10.
The figure the portion of their cup means that which is allotted to a person by God, what that person receives as his or her destiny, or lot, in this life (see 16.5; 23.5; 75.8; Rev 14.10). It is never an impersonal destiny or fate, but God’s doing. It usually, but not always, refers to something unpleasant or painful. The portion of their cup must often be recast as a clause; for example, “that which God gives to them,” or idiomatically in some languages, “the way God cuts their affairs,” meaning God’s evaluation or judgment of their lives. Since the reference is to the destruction which God determines for their wickedness, the notion may sometimes be rendered, for example, “God cuts the affairs of the wicked with a scorching wind” or, in nonfigurative terms, “in the end God gives the wicked a burning wind.”
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 .
The following are presentations by the Psalms: Layer by Layer project, run by Scriptura . The first is an overview, the second an introduction into the poetry, and the third an introduction into the exegesis of Psalm 11.
Copyright © Scriptura
Copyright © Scriptura
Copyright © Scriptura
John Wu Ching-hsiung (1899-1986) was a native of Ningbo, Zhejiang, a renowned jurist who studied in Europe and the United States, and served as a professor of law at Soochow University, as a judge and the Acting President of the Shanghai Provisional Court, and as the Vice President of the Commission for the Drafting of the Constitution of the Republic of China, before becoming the Minister of the Republic of China to the Holy See. Wu has written extensively, not only on law but also on Chinese philosophy, and has also written his autobiography, Beyond East and West, in English. Wu was a devout Catholic and had a personal relationship with Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975). Wu began translating the the Psalms in 1938, and was encouraged by Chiang to translate the entire New Testament, which he corrected in his own handwriting. (…) John Wu Ching-hsiung’s translation of the Psalms (first draft in 1946, revised in 1975) was translated into Literary Chinese in the form of poetic rhyme, with attention paid to the style of writing. According to the content and mood of the different chapters of the original psalm, Wu chose Chinese poetic forms such as tetrameter, pentameter, heptameter [4, 5 or 7 syllables/Chinese characters per stanza], and the [less formal] Sao style, and sometimes more than two poetic forms were used in a single poem. (Source: Simon Wong)
“Nothing could have been farther from my mind than to translate the Bible or any parts of it with a view to publishing it as an authorized version. I had rendered some of the Psalms into Chinese verse, but that was done as a part of my private devotion and as a literary hobby. When I was in Hongkong in 1938, I had come to know Madame H. H. Kung [Soong Ai-ling], and as she was deeply interested in the Bible, I gave her about a dozen pieces of my amateurish work just for her own enjoyment. What was my surprise when, the next time I saw her, she told me, “My sister [Soong Mei-ling] has written to say that the Generalissimo [Chiang Kai-shek] likes your translation of the Psalms very much, especially the first, the fifteenth, and the twenty-third, the Psalm of the Good Shepherd!”
“In the Autumn of 1940, when I was in Chungking, the Generalissimo invited me several times to lunch with him and expressed his appreciation of the few pieces that he had read. So I sent him some more. A few days later I received a letter from Madame Chiang [Soong Mei-ling], dated September 21, 1940, in which she said that they both liked my translation of the few Psalms I had sent them. ‘For many years,’ she wrote, ‘the Generalissimo has been wanting to have a really adequate and readable Wen-li (literary) translation of the Bible. He has never been able to find anyone who could undertake the matter.’ The letter ends up by saying that I should take up the job and that ‘the Generalissimo would gladly finance the undertaking of this work.’
“After some preliminary study of the commentaries, I started my work with the Psalms on January 6, 1943, the Feast of the Epiphany.
“I had three thousand years of Chinese literature to draw upon. The Chinese vocabulary for describing the beauties of nature is so rich that I seldom failed to find a word, a phrase, and sometimes even a whole line to fit the scene. But what makes such Psalms so unique is that they bring an intimate knowledge of the Creator to bear upon a loving observation of things of nature. I think one of the reasons why my translation is so well received by the Chinese scholars is that I have made the Psalms read like native poems written by a Chinese, who happens to be a Christian. Thus to my countrymen they are at once familiar and new — not so familiar as to be jejune, and not so new as to be bizarre. I did not publish it as a literal translation, but only as a paraphrase.
“To my greatest surprise, [my translation of the Psalms] sold like hot dogs. The popularity of that work was beyond my fondest dreams. Numberless papers and periodicals, irrespective of religion, published reviews too good to be true. I was very much tickled when I saw the opening verse of the first Psalm used as a headline on the front page of one of the non-religious dailies.”
A contemporary researcher (Lindblom 2021) mentions this about Wu’s translation: “Wu created a unique and personal work of sacred art that bears the imprint of his own admitted love and devotion, a landmark achievement comparable to Antoni Gaudi’s Basilica of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona, Spain. Although its use is still somewhat limited today, it continues to attract readers for the aforementioned qualities, and continues to be used in prayers and music by those who desire beauty and an authentic Chinese-sounding text that draws from China’s ancient traditions.”
The translation of Psalm 11 from the 1946 edition is in the classical questions-and-answer scheme that is used by many Confucian and Taoist classics (the 1946 edition did not have verse numbers either):
答客難
友人勸我學飛鳥。飛入深山避災殃。 君不見群小彎弓箭在絃。欲於暗中射賢良。 國家根基已崩潰。賢人焉能獨支撐。 我答友人言。此語何荒唐。一生恃主得無恙。何必入山去自藏。 雅瑋坐天廷。雙目炯炯察世人。 賢良蒙鍛鍊。所以玉其成。惟彼兇與暴。乃為主所憎。 為惡嬰天羅。雷霆作杯羹。 為善邀天眷。常得承歡欣。
Transcription into Roman alphabet:
dá kè nán
yǒu rén quàn wǒ xué fēi niǎo 。 fēi rù shēn shān bì zāi yāng 。 jūn bù jiàn qún xiǎo wān gōng jiàn zài xián 。 yù yú àn zhōng shè xián liáng 。 guó jiā gēn jī yǐ bēng kuì 。 xián rén yān néng dú zhī chēng 。 wǒ dá yǒu rén yán 。 cǐ yǔ hé huāng táng 。 yī shēng shì zhǔ dé wú yàng 。 hé bì rù shān qù zì cáng 。 yǎ wěi zuò tiān tíng 。 shuāng mù jiǒng jiǒng chá shì rén 。 xián liáng mēng duàn liàn 。 suǒ yǐ yù qí chéng 。 wéi bǐ xiōng yǔ bào 。 nǎi wéi zhǔ suǒ zēng 。 wéi è yīng tiān luó 。 léi tíng zuò bēi gēng 。 wéi shàn yāo tiān juàn 。 cháng dé chéng huān xīn 。
With thanks to Simon Wong.
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