fear (of God)

The Hebrew and Greek that are translated as “fear (of God)” (or: “honor,” “worship,” or “respect”) is translated as “to have respect/reverence for” (Southern Subanen, Western Highland Purepecha, Navajo (Dinė), Javanese, Tboli), “to make great before oneself” (Ngäbere), “fear-devotion” (Kannada — currently used as a description of the life of piety), “those-with-whom he-is-holy” (those who fear God) (Western Apache) (source for this and above: Reiling / Swellengrebel), “revere God” (Lalana Chinantec), “worship God” (Palantla Chinantec) (source for this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), “obey” (Chichewa) (source: Ernst Wendland), “having/showing respect (for God)” (Makonde) (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext), or with a term that communicates awe (rather than fear of an evil source) (Chol) (source: Robert Bascom).

Bullard / Hatton (2008, p. 8) say the following about this concept: “As the writer of Proverbs states in 1:7, ‘The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.’ (…) ‘The fear of the Lord,’ that is, human fear of God, is an exceptionally difficult concept to express, at least in English. Other languages may have more appropriate terms. The idea probably is rooted in the most ancient days when people were indeed afraid of any deity. But in Israel the concept of fearing God was transformed by God’s revelation into a much fuller idea. Basically, as used in the Bible, the fear of God refers to the proper attitude of reverence and awe before the Holy One. To fear God is to recognize one’s own place as a mere mortal before the Creator, one’s place as a sinner before the Judge, one’s place as a child before the Father, one’s place as the recipient of God’s love. It thus involves submission, repentance, trust, and grateful love toward the One who is fearsome in holiness, in justice, in power that both protects and punishes, and in love. Using the word “fear” is sometimes as good as we can do, but often we will alternate that word with terms like ‘reverence’ or ‘awe.’”

See also fear of the LORD (Isa 11:2) and complete verse (Genesis 22:12) et al.

banner

The Hebrew in Psalm 60:4 that is typically translated as “banner” in English is translated in Natügu as nc nqngq: “rooster tail.”

Brenda Boerger (in Beerle-Moor / Voinov, p. 164) tells the story of that translation:

“Both bushes and trees use nc ‘tree’ as the first part of their compound forms. The nc nqngq or ‘rooster tail’ is a waist-high bush having long, narrow reddish leaves. While translating a battle text from the Psalms, we needed to find a translation equivalent to ‘banner’ or ‘standard’. Mr. Simon [the native language translator] told me that, previously, a war leader would cut rooster tail branches and put them in the back waistband of his loincloth to identify himself as the nqrlrvea ‘war leader’ during battle. The red color of the leaves made it easy for his warriors to find and follow him during battle. The war leader could also remove the leaves from his waistband and wave them in the air to rally his men to him. Alternatively, he could tie the branches to a stick to be flown as a battle standard. These two latter actions were what gave the secondary meaning of ‘banner’ or ‘standard’. Therefore, we used this concept to translate Psalm 60:4, which reads: Kxetu, nim ngrlrvea ngrgr. Glalzm nc nqngq bagr. ‘Bigman, you are our war leader. Lift up the ‘rooster tail banner’ for us.’

“As it turns out, even though inter-clan warfare is no longer practiced on Santa Cruz, younger people are still able to understand the practice today because the nc nqngq is integrally related to Santa Cruz’s most culturally significant dance, the nelc dance. Those who lead the dance wear nc nqngq branches just like the war leaders did previously. The senior translator’s testing of the passage in several villages confirmed that the meaning is accessible to younger speakers who can derive the accurate meaning from context based on their knowledge of the use of the leafy branches in the nelc dance.

“Turning to another tree metaphor, the sea trumpet or beach cordi is called nc niglq in Natügu. It grows close to the sea and can become quite tall, with thick, spreading branches. It has light orange trumpet-shaped flowers, which are favored by the small, red-colored mzngra bird. This habitat is significant because the feathers of this bird species are used to make either Irdq red feather money coils or nceapu red feather money sticks.

“To Santa Cruz people, a man who has a niglq tree where the mzngra birds are found has a good chance of acquiring wealth. As a result, the tree name is associated with wealth and prestige and has acquired four metonymic meanings in which the name of the tree is substituted for other nouns. The four metonymies are: important person, important person’s house, treasure, and throne. So, someone having this tree near his home is an important person, and he can be said to come and go to the tree, rather than to the house. Further, he has access to treasure since the tree is a means to wealth. And finally, nc niglq can also mean ‘throne’ or ‘seat of power’, in that an important man who has a niglq tree on his property might sit at its base to converse with others, and by association, the place where the important one sits is his throne.”

“In addition to the red feather money coils which were previously used for paying bride price, the red feathers also come in a stick form, called nceapu, where they are glued to a stick about 10-12 inches long. The red feather money stick itself also has the metaphorical meaning of ‘rich, wise man,’ which was used to describe King Solomon in the Natügu scriptures.”

addressing God

Translators of different languages have found different ways with what kind of formality God is addressed.

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 Translator 2002, 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.”

In Dutch, Afrikaans, Gronings, and Western Frisian translations, God is always addressed with the formal pronoun.

See also formal pronoun: disciples addressing Jesus, female second person singular pronoun in Psalms.

complete verse (Psalm 60:4)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 60:4:

  • Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
    “But for those who fear You, You have lifted flags
    that we gather their when fleeing the bow.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
  • Newari:
    “By giving a warning to those who fear You
    You saved them from destruction.
    Sela” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon:
    “But you (sing.) also warned us (excl.) who respect you (sing.) so-that we (excl.) can-keep-away-from/avoid the bows-and-arrows of enemies.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Laarim:
    “You gave people sign who fear you,
    so that they will missed death from the arrows of enemies.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
  • Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
    “Uwape ishara ambao wanakutii wewe,
    ili mishale ya maadui isiwachome.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
  • English:
    “But you have raised a battle flag for those who revere you
    in order that they can gather around it and not be killed by the enemies’ arrows.
    (Think about that!)” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Honorary "rare" construct denoting God ("bestow")

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

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 rare (られ) 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, sazuke-rare-ru (授けられる) or “bestow” is used.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Psalm 60:4 - 60:5

The form and meaning of verse 4 are disputed. The banner that God had set up could be either a sign for the Israelite forces to rally and fight back at the enemy, or else a sign for them to flee from the enemy (as in Jer 4.6). The verb which Revised Standard Version translates rally occurs only here in this sense; some derive the Masoretic text form from a verb that means “to flee” (see Briggs); others “so that they may flee” (so New English Bible, New American Bible).

Instead of the indicative mood, some read the first line of verse 4 as an imperative, a command to God “to raise the banner” (see Dahood, New Jerusalem Bible, Bible de Jérusalem). In many languages the idea of raising a flag during a battle will be unknown. Therefore the translator normally has three choices: He can keep the flag raising and clarify its meaning with an additional statement; for example, “You have raised a flag to warn those who follow you.” Or he can simply state the meaning without reference to a flag, as in Good News Translation. Verse 4a may also be rendered, for example, “You have sent a clear signal to those who worship you….” Finally, the translator may use a substitute for flag and translate, for example, “Your drumbeats have warned those who follow you.” Those who fear thee is expressed in many languages as “those who worship you” or “those who follow you.”

The next two words in verse 4b in Hebrew seem to mean “from before the bow.” So the translations that understand the preceding verbal form to mean “to flee” translate “to let them escape out of the range of the bow” (New Jerusalem Bible); Traduction œcuménique de la Bible “to flee from the bowman.” Revised Standard Version to rally to it from the bow makes no sense in English. But the meaning of the Hebrew word translated bow (spelled this way only here in the Hebrew Bible) is also disputed, and some take it to mean “the truth” (see Revised Standard Version footnote); so New Jerusalem Bible translates the verse “Give those who fear You because of Your truth a banner for rallying.” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy has “Now give a signal to those who honor you so that they may escape from the arrows”; Good News Translation, similarly, “they might escape destruction.” Good News Translation would have done better by translating “… from defeat.”

In face of such variety of interpretations, the translator can only choose one that seems best suited to the context. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project says the meaning “bow” is to be preferred.

For Selah see 3.2.

The two lines in verse 5 have been reversed by Good News Translation for a more orderly progression of thought. Thy beloved translates “your beloved ones”; this means the people as a whole (Bible en français courant “we, your friends”). Delivered in line a translates the verb rendered “save” in 6.4a.

The verb in line b may mean give victory; it is the verb which is often translated “save” (see comments on “Help” in 12.1). And thy right hand means “your power” (see 18.35; 20.6; 21.8). The final request answer us means “answer our prayer.” One form of the Masoretic text (ketiv) has the plural “us”; the other form (qere) has the singular “me,” which is preferred by Kirkpatrick and New Jerusalem Bible. The expression answer us must not be translated normally by the term which is used for answering a question. Many languages make a distinction between answering a question and responding to a request. In some languages it will be necessary to say, for example, “hear us and help us.”

In some languages it will be necessary to introduce the first person plural pronoun into line b, if one follows the reordering suggested by Good News Translation; for example, “so that you may rescue us who are your people.”

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 .