God's anger, wrath of God

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated into English as “the wrath of God” or “God’s anger” has to be referred to in Bengali as judgment, punishment or whatever fits the context. In Bengali culture, anger is by definition bad and can never be predicated of God. (Source: David Clark)

Translations in other languages:

  • Quetzaltepec Mixe: “translated with a term that not only expresses anger, but also punishment” (source: Robert Bascom)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “the coming punishment of God on mankind” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “God’s fearful/terrible future punishing of people” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “the coming anger/hatred of God” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “the punishment which will come” (source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “God’s action of anger comes forth in the open” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Mairasi: “His anger keeps increasing (until it will definitely arrive)” (source: Enggavoter 2004)

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 to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. When the referent is God, the “divine” honorific prefix mi- (御) is used as in mi-ikari (御怒り) or “wrath (of God)” in the referenced verses. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also anger and the coming wrath.

anger

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The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is translated as “anger” or similar in English in this verse is translated with a variety of solutions (Bratcher / Nida says: “Since anger has so many manifestations and seems to affect so many aspects of personality, it is not strange that expressions used to describe this emotional response are so varied”).

  • Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “be warm inside”
  • Mende: “have a cut heart”
  • Mískito: “have a split heart”
  • Tzotzil: “have a hot heart”
  • Mossi: “a swollen heart”
  • Western Kanjobal: “fire of the viscera”
  • San Blas Kuna: “pain in the heart”
  • Chimborazo Highland Quichua: “not with good eye”
  • Chichewa: “have a burning heart” (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation) (see also anger burned in him)
  • Citak: two different terms, one meaning “angry” and one meaning “offended,” both are actually descriptions of facial expressions. The former can be represented by an angry stretching of the eyes or by an angry frown. The latter is similarly expressed by an offended type of frown with one’s head lowered. (Source: Graham Ogden)

In Akan, a number of metaphors are used, most importantly abufuo, lit. “weedy chest” (the chest is seen as a container that contains the heart but can also metaphorically be filled with other fluids etc.), but also abufuhyeε lit. “hot/burning weedy chest” and anibereε, lit. “reddened eyes.” (Source: Gladys Nyarko Ansah in Kövecses / Benczes / Szelid 2024, p. 21ff.)

See also God’s anger and angry.

inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (Ps 90:7)

Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)

The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).

For this verse, the Jarai and the Adamawa Fulfulde translations both use the exclusive pronoun, excluding the Lord.

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 90:7)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 90:7:

  • Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
    “We have been completed with your wrath;
    and we have been threatened with your disdain.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
  • Newari:
    “We are ruined by Your anger,
    we are terrified by Your great anger.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon:
    “Your (sing.) anger against us (excl.) cause-us (excl.) -to-be-afraid and destroys (us).” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Laarim:
    “your anger finishes us,
    and we fear you so much.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
  • Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
    “Tunaangamizwa na hasira yako,
    kuchukia kwako kunatutetemesha.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
  • English:
    “Similarly, because of the sins that we have committed, you become angry with us; you terrify us and then you destroy us.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Psalm 90:7 - 90:8

With verse 7 begins the confession of the community, and again there is cohesion, as the image of the withering grass in verse 6 is carried forward by the terms anger and wrath, which in Hebrew suggest heat and “hot breath of the nostrils.” The translator should note how the confession in verses 7-11 is enclosed in an envelope; that is, 7 opens with “anger/wrath,” and 11 closes with “anger/wrath.” The imagery of verses 7-11 continues the central theme of mankind’s fragile and brief span of life.

In a melancholy mood the psalmist sees life as trouble and sorrow, spent under the attacks of God’s anger and fury. Human life is not only short, it is also a wearisome burden. The relation between verses 7 and 8 seems to be that it is human sin which provokes God’s destructive anger, his terrifying wrath. People cannot hide their sins from God, and so they suffer God’s punishment. For the verb consumed in verse 7a, see 18.37b and comments; and the verb in verse 7b is “terrified, terror-struck” (see its use in 2.5b). Through its parallelism verse 7 emphasizes God’s anger at the people’s sin, and the translator should use the device which will communicate the equivalent function. This need not necessarily be by keeping the two synonymous lines. In some languages it may be necessary to reduce verse 7 to a single line by saying, for example, “we are destroyed and terrified by your anger.” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy translates “Truly your anger consumes us, it leaves us confused.” The more logical order is “terrified and destroyed.” In languages which do not use the passive, the rendering may be “your anger terrifies and destroys us.”

In verse 8b in the light of thy countenance (“your face”) is synonymous with before thee in verse 8a; it is quite appropriate for our secret sins, that is, those that are kept hidden from others. Intensification in parallel lines is not common in Psalm 90. However, in 8b secret sins steps up what is iniquities in line a and can be rendered, for example, “You place our sins before you, even our secret sins you put where you can see them.” In many languages it will not be possible to set … iniquities as if they were physical objects. Therefore it will sometimes be necessary to say, for example, “You not only see us when we sin, you even see us when we commit secret sins” or “… when we try to hide our sins from you.”

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 .