The Hebrew that is translated as “crafty” or similar in some English is translated in Mwera as ugulumba: “mean, crafty or hypocritical.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
I will make of you a great nation
The Hebrew that is translated as “I will make of you a great nation” or similar in English is translated in Makonde as “I will make the people of your clan to be a great nation” to avoid confusion. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
See also great nation.
hovering over the face of the waters
The Hebrew that is translated into English as “moving (or: hovering) over the (sur)face of the waters” is translated into Ebira as “(the spirit of God) stayed above the water doing NANANA [ideophone].” (Source: Rob Koops)
In Bari it is translated with bibirto, “which is used of a bird hovering over its nest or fluttering round a bunch of ripe bananas.” (Source: Source: P. Guillebaud in The Bible Translator 1965, p. 189ff.)
In Kutu it is translated as “spreading over the water” and in Nyamwezi as ku’elela: “to circle around slowly over water, without touching it.” In Kwere it is translated with katanda, which carries the meaning of being ‘spread out’ over the water as one would spread a blanket out over a bed. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
your bone and your flesh
The Hebrew that is translated in English as “I am your bone and your flesh” (or: “my bone and my flesh) is translated into Afar as anu sin qabalaay sin nabsi kinniyo: “I am your blood and body.” (Source: Loren Bliese)
It is translated likewise in Kutu and in Kwere. In Vidunda, it is translated as “family.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
See also become one flesh.
land flowing with milk and honey
The phrase that is rendered in English versions as “land flowing with milk and honey” is translated into Afar as niqmatak tan baaxoy buqre kee lacah meqehiyya: “a blessed land good for fields and cattle.” (Source: Loren Bliese)
In the interconfessional Chichewa translation (publ. 1999) it is translated with the existing proverb dziko lamwanaalirenji or “a land of what (type of food) can the child cry for?” (i.e. there is more than enough to eat). (Source: Ernst Wendland in The Bible Translator 1981, p. 107)
In Kwere it is “good/fertile land.” (Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
clean animals, unclean animals
The phrases that are translated as “clean animals” and “unclean animals” in English: The first draft into Maan had “animals not cursed” and “cursed animals,” which did not express correctly the idea of ritually pure and impure animals. So it was changed to “animals accepted by God for sacrifices” and “animals not accepted by God for sacrifices.”
In Kwere it is translated as animals “which are eaten” vs. “which are not eaten”. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
swear, vow
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “swear (an oath)” or “vow” is translated as “God sees me, I tell the truth to you” (Tzeltal), “loading yourself down” (Huichol), “to speak-stay” (implying permanence of the utterance) (Sayula Popoluca), “to say what he could not take away” (San Blas Kuna), “because of the tight (i.e. “binding”) word which he had said to her face” (Guerrero Amuzgo), “strong promise” (North Alaskan Inupiatun) (source for all above: Bratcher / Nida), “eat an oath” (Nyamwezi — source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext), or sswa nak/”drink an oath” (Jju — source: McKinney 2018, p. 31).
In Bauzi “swear” can be translated in various ways. In Hebrews 6:13, for instance, it is translated with “bones break apart and decisively speak.” (“No bones are literally broken but by saying ‘break bones’ it is like people swear by someone else in this case it is in relation to a rotting corpse’ bones falling apart. If you ‘break bones’ so to speak when you make an utterance, it is a true utterance.”) In other passages, such as in Matthew 26:72, it’s translated with an expression that implies taking ashes (“if a person wants everyone to know that he is telling the truth about a matter, he reaches down into the fireplace, scoops up some ashes and throws them while saying ‘I was not the one who did that.'”). So in Matthew 26:72 the Bauzi text is: “. . . Peter took ashes and defended himself saying, ‘I don’t know that Nazareth person.'” (Source: David Briley)
See also swear (promise) and Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’, or ‘No, No’.
confess (sin)
The Hebrew and Greek that is typically translated as “confess” in English in the context of these verses is translated in a variety of ways. Here are some (back-) translations:
- Highland Puebla Nahuatl, Tzeltal: “say openly”
- San Blas Kuna: “accuse oneself of one’s own evil”
- Kankanaey: “tell the truth about one’s sins”
- Huastec: “to take aim at one’s sin” (“an idiom which is derived from the action of a hunter taking aim at a bird or animal”) (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
- Tabasco Chontal: “say, It is true, I’ve done evil” (source: Larson 1998, p. 204)
- Central Pame: “pull out the heart” (“so that it may be clearly seen — not just by men, but by God”) (source: Nida 1952, p. 155)
- Shipibo-Conibo: “say, It is true I have sinned” (source: Nida 1964, p. 228)
- Obolo: itutumu ijo isibi: “speak out sin” (source: Enene Enene).
- Tagbanwa: “testify that one would now drop/give-up sin” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
- Kutu: “speak sin” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)