thunder

The Greek, Hebrew, Ge’ez, and Latin that is translated in English as “thunder” is translated in Q’anjob’al with the existing idiom “the sun trembles.” (Source: Newberry and Kittie Cox in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 91ff. )

In Matumbi njai means “thunder” and/or “lightning.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)

Translation commentary on Sirach 32:10

Lightning speeds before the thunder, and approval precedes a modest man: This means that everywhere a modest person goes, he will be received with goodwill. The difficulty here is with the comparison. Part of the problem is that Lightning and thunder seem strange things to compare a modest person with. An alternative model for the verse is:

• When you see lightning, you can be sure you will hear thunder; wherever a modest person goes, you can be sure that people will welcome him.

This verse sums up the last few verses. Good News Translation does well to make it the closing sentence of a paragraph, with a new paragraph beginning with verse 11.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Sirach. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.