The Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that is typically translated in English as “joy” or “happiness” is translated in the HausaCommon Language Bible idiomatically as farin ciki or “white stomach.” In some cases, such as in Genesis 29:11, it is also added for emphatic purposes.
Other languages that use the same expression include Southern Birifor (pʋpɛl), Dera (popolok awo), Reshe (ɾipo ɾipuhã). (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 30:1:
Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
“I will lift you up Jehovah,
because you have brought me out of the deep,
and you did not allow my enemies to rejoice over me.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Newari:
“O LORD, I praise You,
for You saved me.
And You made my enemies unable to insult me.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon:
“I praise you (sing.), LORD,
for you (sing.) saved me from danger/disaster
and you (sing.) have-not let my enemies rejoice over my situation.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Eastern Bru:
“I thank you God because you have saved me. So, you work that I am not ashamed at all when my enemies make fun of me.” (Source: Bru Back Translation)
Laarim:
“LORD, I praise you
because you helped me not to die,
and then you did not allow my enemies to laugh at me.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
“Ee BWANA, nitakusifu kwa sababu umeniokoa.
Umewazuia maadui wangu kunisimanga.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
English:
“Yahweh, I praise you because you rescued me. You did not allow me to die,
with the result that my enemies could gloat/ rejoice.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
The Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Ge’ez, and Latin that is translated as “enemy” or “foe” in English is translated in the HausaCommon Language Bible as “friends of front,” i.e., the person standing opposite you in a battle. (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
In North Alaskan Inupiatun it is translated with a term that implies that it’s not just someone who hates you, but one who wants to do you harm (Source: Robert Bascom), in Tarok as ukpa ìkum or “companion in war/fighting,” and in Ikwere as nye irno m or “person who hates me” (source for this and one above: Chuck and Karen Tessaro in this newsletter ).
In Cherokee it is either translated as “the one(s) who reprimand(s) you” or “the one(s) feared.” (Source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 47)
Translators of different languages have found different ways with what kind of formality God is addressed.
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Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or modern English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.
As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator2002, p. 210ff. ), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.
In these verses, in which humans address God, the informal, familiar pronoun is used that communicates closeness.
Voinov notes that “in the Tuvan Bible, God is only addressed with the informal pronoun. No exceptions. An interesting thing about this is that I’ve heard new Tuvan believers praying with the formal form to God until they are corrected by other Christians who tell them that God is close to us so we should address him with the informal pronoun. As a result, the informal pronoun is the only one that is used in praying to God among the Tuvan church.”
In Gbaya, “a superior, whether father, uncle, or older brother, mother, aunt, or older sister, president, governor, or chief, is never addressed in the singular unless the speaker intends a deliberate insult. When addressing the superior face to face, the second person plural pronoun ɛ́nɛ́ or ‘you (pl.)’ is used, similar to the French usage of vous.
Accordingly, the translators of the current version of the Gbaya Bible chose to use the plural ɛ́nɛ́ to address God. There are a few exceptions. In Psalms 86:8, 97:9, and 138:1, God is addressed alongside other “gods,” and here the third person pronoun o is used to avoid confusion about who is being addressed. In several New Testament passages (Matthew 21:23, 26:68, 27:40, Mark 11:28, Luke 20:2, 23:37, as well as in Jesus’ interaction with Pilate and Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well) the less courteous form for Jesus is used to indicate ignorance of his position or mocking.” (Source Philip Noss)
In the most recent Manchu translation of 1835 (a revision of an earlier edition from 1822), God is never addressed with a pronoun but with “father” (ama /ᠠᠮᠠ) instead. Chengcheng Liu (in this post on the Cambridge Centre for Chinese Theology blog ) explains: “In Manchu tradition, as in Chinese etiquette, second-person pronouns could be considered disrespectful when speaking to superiors or spiritual beings. Manchu Shamanist prayers avoided si [‘you’] and sini [‘your’] for this very reason. To use them for God would be, in Lipovzoff’s [one of the two translators] words, ‘the most uncouth and indecent way to speak to the Almighty — as if He were a servant or slave.’ There was also a grammatical problem. In Manchu, si and sini could refer to both singular and plural subjects. For a faith that insisted on the singularity of God, this was potentially confusing. By contrast, repeating ama removed any ambiguity.”
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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.
The opening verb I will extol means not only to praise but to speak highly of (see its use in 12.8b). So the translation can be “I will proclaim your greatness” (Bible en français courant); Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, New English Bible, New International Version have “exalt.” Revised Standard Version uses the future tense, Good News Translation the present tense; either is possible, but the present tense seems to be more fitting. The expression for thou hast drawn me up (from Sheol, or the Pit, in verse 3) may be translated “because you have rescued, delivered, saved me.” It expresses the reason why I will extol thee. In some languages the reason will occur before the result clause.
In these words of thanksgiving (verses 1-3) the psalmist praises God for “drawing him up” (verse 1a), a verb used of drawing water out of a well (see Exo 2.16, 19); in this instance Yahweh drew the psalmist out of Sheol, the pit in the depths of the earth (verse 3; see 28.1). This is poetic language and must not be understood literally that Yahweh had pulled the psalmist bodily from Sheol; it means that Yahweh did not allow the psalmist to die (as seen in verses 2-3).
The gloating of enemies at the psalmist’s distress (Revised Standard Versionrejoice over me) is a frequent theme in Psalms (see 25.2). The expression rejoice over me, with the meaning of gloating or ridiculing, is translated in some languages in idiomatic terms such as “to turn the nose up at someone,” “to wag the head at,” or in nonfigurative language, “to say that he is no one at all.”
In verse 2 the psalmist recounts the event which prompted this prayer: he was sick and prayed for Yahweh to heal him, and Yahweh did heal him.
In verse 3a the psalmist describes his escape from death: “you brought up my nefesh (see 3.2) from Sheol” (see comment at 6.5); the thought is repeated in verse 3b, “you kept me alive from going down to the Pit.” In the graphic description of his narrow escape from death, the psalmist says that he was already in the company of the dead on their way down to Sheol (see similar language in 28.1), but Yahweh restored his life. The language could be read as though it referred to resurrection; it is, however, a vivid expression about being kept alive, about not being allowed to die (see similar language in 16.10; 56.13).
A literal translation of Good News Translation “you kept me from the grave” could mean that the psalmist was prevented from approaching a grave. Brought up my soul from Sheol can be rendered “you kept me from dying,” or stated positively, “you caused me to go on living.” Restored me to life must sometimes be said “you caused me to see life” or “you put new life into me.” Those gone down to the Pit will require considerable adjustment in many languages; for example, “I was already nearly dead” or “I had already given up living.”
Revised Standard Version‘s footnote in verse 3 translates the same Hebrew text as the Good News Translation text. The Revised Standard Version text represents a different Hebrew text, but the difference between the two is only in the Hebrew vowels. It seems better to translate the text followed by Good News Translation.
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 .
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)
John Wu Ching-hsiung himself talks about his celebrated and much-admired (though difficult-to-understand) translation in his aforementioned autobiography: (Click or tap here to see)
“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 30 from the 1946 edition is in tetrameter and the rhyme schemes are -i and -u (the 1946 edition did not have verse numbers either):
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