The Hebrew that is translated as “soften it with showers” or similar in English is emphasized in Sar with the ideophone (a word that expresses what is perceived by the five senses) sow sow (“You make it rain rain sow sow“). Sow sow “means long (size), extends, disperses (movement, noise…). Examples: he has long legs, a long pole, the children ran away from all sides when they see me, you make too much noise (screaming or chattering), the falling rain makes a noise that can be heard far away.” (Source: Ngarbolnan Riminan in Le Sycomore 2000, p. 20ff. )
bless(ed)
The Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Ge’ez, and Aramaic that is translated into English as “(to) bless” or “blessed” is translated into a wide variety of possibilities.
The Hebrew term barak (and the Aramaic term berak) also (and originally) means “kneel” (a meaning which the word has retained — see Gen. 24:11) and can be used for God blessing people (or things), people blessing each other, or people blessing God. While English Bible translators have not seen a stumbling block in always using the same term (“bless” in its various forms), other languages need to make distinctions (see below).
In Bari, spoken in South Sudan, the connection between blessing and knees/legs is still apparent. For Genesis 30:30 (in English: “the Lord has blessed you wherever I turned”), Bari uses a common expression that says (much like the Hebrew), ‘… blessed you to my feet.'” (Source: P. Guillebaud in The Bible Translator 1965, p. 189ff. .)
Other examples for the translation of “bless” when God is the one who blesses include (click or tap here to see the rest of this insight):
- “think well of” (San Blas Kuna)
- “speak good to” (Amganad Ifugao)
- “make happy” (Pohnpeian)
- “cause-to-live-as-a-chief” (Zulu)
- “sprinkle with a propitious (lit. cool) face” (a poetic expression occurring in the priests’ language) (Toraja Sa’dan) (source for this and above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
- “give good things” (Mairasi) (source: Enggavoter 2004)
- “ask good” (Yakan) (source: Yakan Back Translation)
- “praise, say good things” (Central Yupik) (source: Robert Bascom)
- “greatly love” (Candoshi-Shapra) (source: John C. Tuggy)
- “showing a good heart” (Kutu) (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
- “good luck — have — good fortune — have” (verbatim) ꓶꓼ ꓙꓳ ꓫꓱꓹ ꓙꓳ — ɯa dzho shes zho (Lisu). This construction follows a traditional four-couplet construct in oral Lisu poetry that is usually in the form ABAC or ABCB. (Source: Arrington 2020, p. 58)
- wodala — denoting a person who is considered fortunate because he/she has something good that the majority of people do not have. It also acknowledges someone as a causative agent behind “being blessed.” (Chichewa) (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
In Tagbanwa a phrase is used for both the blessing done by people and God that back-translates to “caused to be pierced by words causing grace/favor” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation) and in Benabena a term denoted “good spell” or “good magic” (source: Renck 1990, p. 112).
Ixcatlán Mazatec had to select a separate term when relating “to people ‘blessing’ God” (or things of God): “praise(d)” or “give thanks for” (in 1 Cor. 10:16) (“as it is humans doing the ‘blessing’ and people do not bless the things of God or God himself the way God blesses people” — source: Robert Bascom). Eastern Bru and Kui also use “praise” for this a God-directed blessing (source: Bru back translation and Helen Evans in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 40ff. ) and Uma uses “appropriate/worthy to be worshipped” (source: Uma back translation).
When related to someone who is blessing someone else, it is translated into Tsou as “speak good hopes for.” In Waiwai it is translated as “may God be good and kind to you now.” (Sources: Peng Kuo-Wei for Tsou and Robert Hawkins in The Bible Translator 1962, pp. 164ff. for Waiwai.)
Some languages associate an expression that originally means “spitting” or “saliva” with blessing. The Bantu language Koonzime, for instance, uses that expression for “blessing” in their translation coming from either God or man. Traditionally, the term was used in an application of blessing by an aged superior upon a younger inferior, often in relation to a desire for fertility, or in a ritualistic, but not actually performed spitting past the back of the hand. The spitting of saliva has the effect of giving that person “tenderness of face,” which can be translated as “blessedness.” (Source: Keith Beavon)
Martin Ehrensvärd, one of the translators for the Danish Bibelen 2020, comments on the translation of this term: “As for ‘blessing’, in the end we in most instances actually kept the word, after initially preferring the expression ‘giving life strength’. The backlash against dropping the word blessing was too hard. But we would often add a few words to help the reader understand what the word means in a given context — people often understand it to refer more to a spiritual connection with God, but in the Hebrew texts, it usually has to do with material things or good health or many children. So when e.g. in Isaiah 19:25 the Hebrew text says ‘God bless them’, we say ‘God bless them’ and we add: ‘and give them strength’. ‘And give them strength’ is not found in the overt Hebrew text, but we are again making explicit what we believe is the meaning so as to avoid misunderstanding.” (Source: Ehrensvärd in HIPHIL Novum 8/2023, p. 81ff. )
See also bless (food and drink), blessed (Christ in Mark 11:9), and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.
See also “Blessed by ‘The Blessing’ in the World’s Indigenous Languages” and Multilingual version of “The Blessing” based on Numbers 6:24-26 .
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 65:10)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 65:10:
- Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
“You have filled its soil with water and smoothen its banks,
you have soften them with light rains blessing its crops.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation) - Newari:
“You drench the ploughed fields with sufficient water,
bringing the rain [You] dissolve [the clods of] earth
and [You] cause grain to bear.” (Source: Newari Back Translation) - Hiligaynon:
“You (sing.) send- a good -rain to the plowed ground/land until this becomes-soft,
and you (sing.) bless the plants that grow.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation) - Laarim:
“You poured garden with water
and you prepare soil well.
You sent rain to sook soil
then you bless grain to grow.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation) - Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
“Mashamba unayanyeshea mvua nyingi,
unalowanisha nchi na mvua ambayo inanyesha kidogo kidogo,
unavibariki vyote ambavyo vimepandwa vinaota.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation) - English:
“You send plenty of rain on the fields that have been plowed,
and you fill the furrows with water.
With showers you soften the hard clods/lumps of soil,
and you bless the soil by causing young plants to grow.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Honorary "are" construct denoting God ("bless")
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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, shukufukus-are-ru (祝福される) or “bless” is used.
(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
Translation commentary on Psalm 65:9 - 65:10
The care and providence of God are shown by his sending the rain to make the earth produce abundant crops. In verse 9a Good News Translation “You show your care” translates the Hebrew verb “to visit” (as in 8.4b, where Revised Standard Version has “care for”; see comments there). To translate literally Thou visitest (Revised Standard Version; also New English Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible) gives the wrong idea of God descending from heaven to do the things listed in verses 9-10. It is better, like New Jerusalem Bible, to translate “You take care of the earth….” It is possible that in the same line the Hebrew ʾerets means “land” of Israel (An American Translation, New American Bible) instead of earth (Revised Standard Version and others; Good News Translation “land” is probably ambiguous); the majority of translations have “earth.”
Some languages do not speak of fertile soil as being “rich,” but rather as “dark, deep, good,” or “like riverside soil.” Thou greatly enrichest it may be rendered, for example, “you make the soil good for growing crops” or “you give the soil life and it grows things.”
In verse 9c the river of God is the heavenly source of the rain which God sends down to earth (see Gen 1.6-7; see similar language in Psa 46.4); New English Bible translates “the waters of heaven.” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy understands “of God” here to be a superlative, and translates “roaring streams.” Good News Translation has represented the Hebrew by “You fill the streams with water.” It would be better, however, to stay closer to the Hebrew form, as follows: “Your river, O God, is full of water, to provide the land with crops.” The point is that there is a never-failing supply of water for God to send in order to “provide the earth with crops (or, grain).” Their grain in line d means “grain for the inhabitants of the earth (or, of the land).” The expression thou providest their grain can be rendered in some languages, for example, “you cause the earth to grow crops.”
The last line of verse 9 may point backward (so Revised Standard Version, New Jerusalem Bible, New International Version) or forward (Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, Bible en français courant). Biblia Dios Habla Hoy makes of it a complete sentence, without necessarily pointing backward or forward: “Thus you prepare the field.” The context of the translator’s own language will determine the best way to render the line.
In verse 10 the effect of the rain on the fields is described. The furrows and ridges describe a field that has been plowed and sown. In Palestine the rainy season lasted from October to May; the early rains were in the fall, the later rains in the springtime. Settling its ridges in line b describes the effects of constant rain, which levels the ridges of the grooves dug in the field by the plow. Softening it with showers must sometimes be recast to say, for example, “and sending rain which turns hard clods to soft soil.” In the last line, blessing its growth means that God blesses the soil by making the plants grow; so a translation can say “you bless the soil by making the plants sprout and grow.”
Throughout the whole process it is God who is at work, sending the rain, making the soil rich and fertile, and providing abundant harvests for his 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 .
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