worship

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The Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek terms that are often translated as “worship” (also, “kneel down” or “bow down”) are likewise translated in other languages in certain categories, including those based on physical activity, those which incorporate some element of “speaking” or “declaring,” and those which specify some type of mental activity.

Following is a list of (back-) translations (click or tap for details):

  • Javanese: “prostrate oneself before”
  • Malay: “kneel and bow the head”
  • Kaqchikel: “kneel before”
  • Loma (Liberia): “drop oneself beneath God’s foot”
  • Tepeuxila Cuicatec: “wag the tail before God” (using a verb which with an animal subject means “to wag the tail,” but with a human subject)
  • Tzotzil: “join to”
  • Kpelle: “raise up a blessing to God”
  • Kekchí: “praise as your God”
  • Cashibo-Cacataibo: “say one is important”
  • San Blas Kuna: “think of God with the heart”
  • Rincón Zapotec: “have one’s heart go out to God”
  • Tabasco Chontal: “holy-remember” (source of this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Q’anjob’al: “humble oneself before” (source: Newberry and Kittie Cox in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 91ff. )
  • Alur: rwo: “complete submission, adoration, consecration” (source: F. G. Lasse in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 22ff. )
  • Obolo: itọtọbọ ebum: “express reverence and devotion” (source: Enene Enene)
  • Ngäbere: “cut oneself down before” (“This figure of speech comes from the picture of towering mahoganies in the forest which, under the woodman’s ax, quiver, waver, and then in solemn, thunderous crashing bury their lofty heads in the upstretched arms of the surrounding forest. This is the experience of every true worshiper who sees ‘the Lord, high and lifted up.’ Our own unworthiness brings us low. As the Valientes say, ‘we cut ourselves down before’ His presence. Our heads, which have been carried high in self-confidence, sink lower and lower in worship.)
  • Tzeltal: “end oneself before God.” (“Only by coming to the end of oneself can one truly worship. The animist worships his deities in the hope of receiving corresponding benefits, and some pagans in Christendom think that church attendance is a guarantee of success in this life and good luck in the future. But God has never set a price on worship except the price that we must pay, namely, ‘coming to the end of ourselves.'”) (Source of this and the one above: Nida 1952, p. 163)
  • Folopa: “die under God” (“an idiom that roughly back-translates “dying under God” which means lifting up his name and praising him and to acknowledge by everything one does and thanks that God is superior.”) (Source: Anderson / Moore, p. 202)
  • Chokwe: kuivayila — “rub something on” (“When anyone goes into the presence of a king or other superior, according to native law and custom the inferior gets down on the ground, takes a little earth in the fingers of his right hand, rubs it on his own body, and then claps his hands in homage and the greeting of friendship. It is a token of veneration, of homage, of extreme gratitude for some favor received. It is also a recognition of kingship, lordship, and a prostrating of oneself in its presence. Yet it simply is the applicative form of ‘to rub something on oneself’, this form of the verb giving the value of ‘because of.’ Thus in God’s presence as king and Lord we metaphorically rub dirt on ourselves, thus acknowledging Him for what He really is and what He has done for us.”) (Source: D. B. Long in The Bible Translator 1952, p. 87ff. )

In Luang it is translated with different shades of meaning:

Source: Kathy Taber in Notes on Translation 1/1999, p. 9-16.

Translation commentary on Daniel 3:15

The first sentence of this verse in Aramaic is incomplete. Many English versions complete the sense with words similar to well and good, as in Revised Standard Version, or some other phrase meaning “it will be all right for you,” or perhaps even “you will not be punished.” But these are not a part of the original. Two important commentaries in English provide another way of handling this problem. The translation in Anchor Bible has “I hope that now, when you hear…, you will fall down and worship the image I have made.” And Lacocque suggests that it be put in the form of a question: “Are you now ready, at the moment you hear…, to prostrate yourselves and worship the statue I have made?” A similar solution has been adopted by Bible en français courant, but breaking the long discourse down into two separate sentences, the second of which is a question: “You will again hear the trumpet … music. Are you now ready to bow down to worship the statue that I made?”

Horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe: see verses 5 and 7.

If you do not worship: in many languages “the statue,” or the pronoun “it” referring to the statue, will have to be added after the verb worship. But in other cases this may be translated more meaningfully as “if you refuse, ….” Or it may be possible to combine these two suggestions, as in New Jerusalem Bible: “if you refuse to worship it….”

You shall … be cast: again the passive verb form will have to be translated actively in many languages. See verse 6 above.

Burning fiery furnace: see also verse 6.

Who is the god that will deliver you…?: a rhetorical question such as this has the same value as a negative affirmation meaning “there is no god that is able to save you.” It may be translated this way in languages where the rhetorical question may be misunderstood or is felt to be unnatural in this context. Moffatt frames the rhetorical question in a different way that may be a good model for some languages: “Where is the god that can save you from my power?”

Out of my hands: a literal translation may be misleading in some cases. New English Bible/Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, and others have “from my power,” which accurately translates the meaning of the phrase.

Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René & Ellington, John. A Handbook on Daniel. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1994. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .