gentiles / nations

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The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin that is often translated as “gentiles” (or “nations”) in English is often translated as a “local equivalent of ‘foreigners,'” such as “the people of other lands” (Guerrero Amuzgo), “people of other towns” (Tzeltal), “people of other languages” (San Miguel El Grande Mixtec), “strange peoples” (Navajo (Dinė) (this and above, see Bratcher / Nida), “outsiders” (Ekari), “people of foreign lands” (Kannada), “non-Jews” (North Alaskan Inupiatun), “people being-in-darkness” (a figurative expression for people lacking cultural or religious insight) (Toraja-Sa’dan) (source for this and three above Reiling / Swellengrebel), “from different places all people” (Martu Wangka) (source: Carl Gross).

Tzeltal translates it as “people in all different towns,” Chicahuaxtla Triqui as “the people who live all over the world,” Highland Totonac as “all the outsider people,” Sayula Popoluca as “(people) in every land” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Chichimeca-Jonaz as “foreign people who are not Jews,” Sierra de Juárez Zapotec as “people of other nations” (source of this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), Highland Totonac as “outsider people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Uma as “people who are not the descendants of Israel” (source: Uma Back Translation), “other ethnic groups” (source: Newari Back Translation), and Yakan as “the other tribes” (source: Yakan Back Translation).

In Chichewa, it is translated with mitundu or “races.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

See also nations.

Jerusalem

The name that is transliterated as “Jerusalem” in English is signed in French Sign Language with a sign that depicts worshiping at the Western Wall in Jerusalem:


“Jerusalem” in French Sign Language (source: La Bible en langue des signes française )

While a similar sign is also used in British Sign Language, another, more neutral sign that combines the sign “J” and the signs for “place” is used as well. (Source: Anna Smith)


“Jerusalem” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Jerusalem .

complete verse (Zechariah 14:2)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Zechariah 14:2:

  • Kupsabiny: “God will gather all the communities to come and fight the city of Jerusalem. The city will be taken, houses torn down and your women disgraced. Part/half of the people of the city will be captured and taken away to become prisoners, but the remainder will not be made to move from the city.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “I will gather all the nations to fight against Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be captured, every home will be looted and the women raped. Half of the population of the city will be deported. A remnant of the people will be left in the city.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “For the LORD will-gather all the nations to fight Jerusalem. They will-capture this city, they will-take the belongings in the houses, and they will-rape the women. Half of the residents of the city will-be-taken-away to other place. But the rest-of-them will-be-left in the city.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Before that happens, Yahweh will cause the armies of many nations to attack Jerusalem. They will capture the city and steal all the valuable things from your houses and rape the women. They will take half of the people to other countries, but the other half of the people will be allowed to remain in the city.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

1st person pronoun referring to God (Japanese)

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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 choice of a first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.

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

See also pronoun for “God”.

Translation commentary on Zechariah 14:2

I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle: The Hebrew text has a first person verb, which Revised Standard Version translates I will gather, and it has to be understood that the speaker is the LORD. This is a change of person from the third person references to the LORD in verses 1 and 3, but such changes are common in Hebrew. Some scholars believe the text should be changed to say “the LORD will gather,” but of available English versions, only Jerusalem Bible represents this view, and New Jerusalem Bible has gone back to the traditional text. Good News Translation also has “The LORD” rather than “I,” and Contemporary English Version has “he,” but this is a translational adjustment and not based on a change in the text. Meyers & Meyers suggest that the abruptness of the change of person is reduced if the second half of verse 1 and the first part of verse 2 are taken together as a single unit. They propose “Your spoil will be divided in your midst, (2) for I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem, for war.”

All the nations against Jerusalem to battle is a picture of a multinational army assembling to attack Jerusalem. It probably draws its inspiration from Ezek 38. For all the nations, see 12.9.

The city shall be taken: In contrast with 12.1-9, the picture here is of Jerusalem falling into enemy hands before the LORD finally intervenes on behalf of his people.

The consequences of the capture of the city are the normal ones in ancient warfare (and by no means unknown today): the houses will be plundered and the women ravished (compare Isa 13.16). Other terms for plundered include “looted” (Good News Translation, New Revised Standard Version), “ransacked” (New International Version, Revised English Bible), “rifled” (King James Version, Revised Version, Moffatt), and “robbed” (Contemporary English Version). Ravished is a rather old-fashioned sounding word. The more common modern term is “raped” (New English Bible/ Revised English Bible, New Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, New International Version, Beck, Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation) and the meaning is to compel a woman to have sexual intercourse against her will. In some languages however, such a blunt descriptive term may sound inappropriate and translators may prefer to use a euphemism. The only modern English version to use one is New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, which has “violated.” Other languages may use a term such as “shamed” or “disgraced” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), or an idiom such as “cause them to go bad.” Some translators will need to express the verbs plundered and ravished as active forms, and say, “the enemy will capture the city, plunder the houses and rape the women.”

Half of the city shall go into exile: The city stands of course for its inhabitants, so Good News Translation translates “Half of the people” (also Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente). Exile means compulsory removal to a foreign country, and in some languages it will be necessary to state this; for example, translators could say “Half of the people in the city will be taken away into captivity” (similarly New Living Translation) or “The enemy soldiers will take half of the people away to foreign countries.”

But the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city: The other half of the population will remain. Cut off is a common Hebrew metaphor (usually meaning “kill” or “destroy”; compare 13.8) and a variety of equivalent metaphors is found in English versions, such as “wiped out” (New English Bible), “uprooted” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), and “ejected” (New Jerusalem Bible). Others express the meaning in nonfigurative language, such as “taken away/from” (Good News Translation, New International Version, Revised English Bible). It is better to use a metaphor if a suitable one is available. It is also possible to express the meaning of the clause as a whole from a positive point of view, such as “… will be able to remain in the city” (“… allowed to remain” in Contemporary English Version; similarly Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch) or “… will be left in the city” (Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente).

Quoted with permission from Clark, David J. & Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Zechariah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2002. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .