prostitute oneself / play the prostitute

The Hebrew that is translated as “prostitute oneself” or “play the prostitute” in English is translated in Vidunda as “(practice) sexual immorality.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

complete verse (Psalm 73:27)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 73:27:

  • Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
    “Those who are far from You will be destroyed;
    You destroy all who are unfaithful before you.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
  • Newari:
    “Those who are far from you will be destroyed.
    You destroy those who abandon you.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon:
    “Very/[emphasis marker] surely those people who turn-away from you (sing.) will-perish;
    you (sing.) will-destroy them who (are) not faithful to you (sing.).” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Laarim:
    “People who leave you will die.
    You will kill all of them who do not obey you.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
  • Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
    “Ambao wako mbali na wewe watangamizwa,
    unamaliza wote ambao wanakukataa.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
  • English:
    “Those who remain far from you will be destroyed;
    you will get rid of those who abandon you.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

addressing God

Translators of different languages have found different ways with what kind of formality God is addressed. The first example is from a language where God is always addressed distinctly formal whereas the second is one where the opposite choice was made.

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Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or 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 Dutch and Western Frisian translations, however, God is always addressed with the formal pronoun.

See also female second person singular pronoun in Psalms.

Honorary "are" construct denoting God (“destroy”)

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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, horobos-are-ru (滅ぼされる) or “destroy” is used.

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

Translation commentary on Psalm 73:27 - 73:28

The psalm ends with a brief statement of the psalmist’s faith. Verse 27 begins For lo, which indicates the psalmist is about to finish his meditation. Something like “I am certain that” or “I know for sure that” can make this clear. The psalmist knows that the wicked shall perish (will be destroyed), the righteous will enjoy God’s presence and protection. The fate of the wicked is not simply death; it is destruction (as in 18.40) at the hands of God.

Are far from (Good News Translation “abandon”) translates the verb “be far away” (see 22.1 and comments), and are false (“unfaithful”) is the word used of women guilty of infidelity or of prostitution; so King James Version “those that go a whoring from thee” (see similar use of the verb in 106.39b). Who are false to thee as Good News Translation‘s “unfaithful” may be rendered in some languages “who do not put their heart on you” or “who do not follow your way.”

Perish in reference to people is somewhat euphemistic and literary in English and suggests death, but with the focus on the violent or destructive manner of death (see comments on the same Hebrew verb, “destroyed,” in 18.40). In some languages it will be necessary to introduce God as the agent of destruction and say, for example, “God will destroy them,” or negatively, “God will not allow them to live.”

Good News Translation makes all three lines of verse 28 coordinate, “to be near … to find … to proclaim,” whereas Revised Standard Version and some more recent versions make the second line the means of the final line, “so that I may tell….” Refuge is the same word used in 14.6. Made the Lord GOD my refuge must often be recast, not as in Good News Translation, where “protection” is a noun, but rather, for example, “the Lord GOD has protected me.”

Lord GOD translates the combination of the title “lord” and the name “Yahweh” (as in 71.16).

In the last line of verse 28, Good News Translation uses the third person, “all that he has done,” for consistency with the first two lines; Hebrew is all thy works.

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 .