The Hebrew and Greek What is translated into English as “the wrath of God” (Good News Translation: “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)
In Kikuyu the whole phrase that is translated in English as “storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath” or similar is translated as “you are increasing for yourself God’s wrath.” (Source: Jan Sterk)
In Quetzaltepec Mixe it is translated with a term “that not only expresses anger, but also punishment” (source: Robert Bascom), in Western Bukidnon Manobo as “the coming punishment of God on mankind” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation), in Kankanaey as “God’s fearful/terrible future punishing of people” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation), in Tagbanwa as “the coming anger/hatred of God” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation), and in Tenango Otomi as “the punishment which will come” (source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation).
In Chechen there is no word for the term that is translated with “hate” in English that is appropriate to this context so the sentence has to be restructured to say, “if anyone does not esteem me more than…”.
This is also the case in Kalmyk where the sentence has to be restructured to say, “if anyone does not love me more than…”.
The Greek that is translated in some English versions as “people will faint from fear” in rendered in Kalmyk as “people’s hearts will be in their heels.”
The phrase that is translated into English as “a colt that has never been ridden” can be translated in Kalmyk much more succinctly than even the original Greek text since Kalmyk as arkhlata (архлата) a specific word for an unbroken colt. (source: David Clark)
In the Arhuaco translation of Luke 19:35 (in the English translation: “after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it.”) the co-translator knew how unruly unbroken colts are so they translated “they held the donkey steady so that Jesus could get on it.” (source: Paul Lundquist in The Bible Translator 1992, p. 246.)
The phrase that is translated as “he said to Sarai his wife” into English presented a problem in Falam Chin. Hebrew contains no vocative (a case used in addressing or invoking a person or thing), but Falam requires one for politeness, and its absence is rude. The normal way for a husband to address his wife is “mother of X” but Sarai is childless. The Falam Chin translation ended with a sort of vocative substitute: “Let me tell you what is in my heart.”
The phrase that is translated as “unstable as water” or “turbulent as water” is not a natural Falam Chin comparison and is conveyed as “like a mountain stream rising and falling.”
The Falam Chin term word for the term that is translated as “prophesy” or “prophetic frenzy” here in English implies “murmuring” which is an important part of pagan medium contact in the culture.
The phrase that is translated as “death spread to all men” or “death has come to everyone” in English versions has been rendered in Hakha Chin with an idiom: “death soaked all men.”
