justice

The Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic and Latin that is translated as “justice” in English is translated in American Sign Language with a sign that describes the quality or principle of fairness, righteousness, and impartiality in treating other people. A literal back-translation of the signs are “FOLLOW(God is implied) ACTIONS, DECISIONS JUST-RIGHT”. A more idiomatic back-translation would be: “actions and decisions are right/fitting/just in accordance to God’s will.” The movement in the signs itself helps to indicate that this is a noun, not a verb. (Source: RuthAnna Spooner, Ron Lawer)


“Justice” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor

righteous, righteousness

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The Greek, Hebrew, and Latin terms that are translated in English mostly as “righteous” as an adjective or personified noun or “righteousness” (also as “justice”) are most commonly expressed with concept of “straightness,” though this may be expressed in a number of ways. (Click or tap here to see the details)

Following is a list of (back-) translations of various languages:

  • Bambara, Southern Bobo Madaré, Chokwe (ululi), Amganad Ifugao, Chol, Eastern Maninkakan, Toraja-Sa’dan, Pamona, Batak Toba, Bilua, Tiv: “be straight”
  • Laka: “follow the straight way” or “to straight-straight” (a reduplicated form for emphasis)
  • Highland Puebla Nahuatl, Kekchí, Muna: “have a straight heart”
  • Kipsigis: “do the truth”
  • Mezquital Otomi: “do according to the truth”
  • Huautla Mazatec: “have truth”
  • Yine: “fulfill what one should do”
  • Indonesian: “be true”
  • Navajo: “do just so”
  • Anuak: “do as it should be”
  • Mossi: “have a white stomach” (see also happiness / joy)
  • Paasaal: “white heart” (source: Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
  • Nuer: “way of right” (“there is a complex concept of “right” vs. ‘left’ in Nuer where ‘right’ indicates that which is masculine, strong, good, and moral, and ‘left’ denotes what is feminine, weak, and sinful (a strictly masculine viewpoint!) The ‘way of right’ is therefore righteousness, but of course women may also attain this way, for the opposition is more classificatory than descriptive.”) (This and all above from Bratcher / Nida except for Bilua: Carl Gross; Tiv: Rob Koops; Muna: René van den Berg)
  • Central Subanen: “wise-good” (source: Robert Brichoux in OPTAT 1988/2, p. 80ff. )
  • Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac: “live well”
  • Mezquital Otomi: “goodness before the face of God” (source for this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
  • Eastern Huasteca Nahuatl: “the result of heart-straightening” (source: Nida 1947, p. 224)
  • Eastern Highland Otomi: “entirely good” (when referred to God), “do good” or “not be a debtor as God sees one” (when referred to people)
  • Carib: “level”
  • Tzotzil: “straight-hearted”
  • Ojitlán Chinantec: “right and straight”
  • Yatzachi Zapotec: “walk straight” (source for this and four previous: John Beekman in Notes on Translation November 1964, p. 1-22)
  • Aari: The Pauline word for “righteous” is generally rendered by “makes one without sin” in the Aari, sometimes “before God” is added for clarity. (Source: Loren Bliese)
  • North Alaskan Inupiatun: “having sin taken away” (Source: Nida 1952, p. 144)
  • Nyamwezi: wa lole: “just” or “someone who follows the law of God” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
  • Venda: “nothing wrong, OK” (Source: J.A. van Roy in The Bible Translator 1972, p. 418ff. )
  • Ekari: maakodo bokouto or “enormous truth” (the same word that is also used for “truth“; bokouto — “enormous” — is being used as an attribute for abstract nouns to denote that they are of God [see also here]; source: Marion Doble in The Bible Translator 1963, p. 37ff. ).
  • Guhu-Samane: pobi or “right” (also: “right (side),” “(legal) right,” “straightness,” “correction,” “south,” “possession,” “pertinence,” “kingdom,” “fame,” “information,” or “speech” — “According to [Guhu-Samane] thinking there is a common core of meaning among all these glosses. Even from an English point of view the first five can be seen to be closely related, simply because of their similarity in English. However, from that point the nuances of meaning are not so apparent. They relate in some such a fashion as this: As one faces the morning sun, south lies to the right hand (as north lies to the left); then at one’s right hand are his possessions and whatever pertains to him; thus, a rich man’s many possessions and scope of power and influence is his kingdom; so, the rich and other important people encounter fame; and all of this spreads as information and forms most of the framework of the people’s speech.”) (Source: Ernest Richert in Notes on Translation 1964, p. 11ff.)

See also respectable, righteous, righteous (person), and She is more in the right(eous) than I.

Translation commentary on Amos 6:12

Amos continues as the speaker here. The verse is composed of two questions to which the answer is “no” (verse 12a) and two statements (verse 12b). The first part of the verse asks if the impossible could happen, the latter part says that the impossible is happening, that the leaders of Israel are doing it, and that this is a terrible evil. The effect is very powerful. One should look for a good way of creating the same effect in the receptor language even if questions cannot be used in this way. Keep in mind the discussion on 3.3-8.

Do horses run upon rocks?/Do horses gallop on rocks? The answer to the first question is “Of course not.” Horses do not run on cliffs or rocks because of their hoofs. The word used for rocks should not mean small stones, but great boulders or expanses of rock. Besides, in those days horses were used only for pulling war chariots in the lowlands. One may have to translate “Horses cannot run on rocks/cliffs, can they?” or “Horses cannot run on rocks/cliffs.”

Horses. See 2.15.

Does one plow the sea with oxen?/Do men plow the sea with oxen? The Hebrew is “does one plow with oxen?” but that does not fit, because the answer to that would be “Of course one does!” Most scholars and nearly all translators solve the problem by dividing the consonants of the last Hebrew word in such a way that they mean “with oxen the sea.” If oxen are unknown, or plowing with oxen is unknown, the translator may have to use the name of another, somewhat related animal or even an entirely different animal, but one which can be used for plowing, or he may say simply “Do you plow the sea?” In other cases, he may be obliged to use a borrowed word, showing that it is the name of an animal, and then explain something about the animal in a footnote, such as: “An ox is an animal about (so many times) the size of (another animal of the receptor culture). It is taken care of by men and is used to pull heavy loads and plows.”

Where animals are not used for agricultural work and plows are unknown, a possible translation would be: “People do not make a garden in the sea/water/river (do they?)” or “Animals do not work for men in the sea.” A short explanation of Hebrew farming custom may then be put in a footnote if necessary.

But you have turned justice into poison/Yet you have turned justice into poison. See the similar statement in 5.7 However, there justice was turned to wormwood and here wormwood comes at the end of the next statement. Here it is not fully clear from the Hebrew just what justice is turned into. The Hebrew word occurs elsewhere as the name of a plant which people thought was, and may have been, poisonous. It is also used with the meaning “snake poison.” Poison, therefore, is the meaning which should be translated.

And the fruit of righteousness into wormwood/and right into wrong. Wormwood. See 5.7. A parallel solution may be found here. There is a slight difference, however, since in 6.12 there are two pictures, fruit and wormwood: “Righteousness, which is like a pleasant tasting fruit, is changed into bitter wormwood.” It may sometimes be possible to give a rather literal translation of the Hebrew in which a particular bitter plant known to the readers is used for wormwood. However, in that case the meaning of the picture must still be clear. In other cases it will be necessary to translate the meaning directly. Good News Translation understands fruit as a metaphor for “result” and translates and right into wrong.

Quoted with permission from de Waard, Jan & Smalley, William A. A Handbook on Amos. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1979. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .