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’.

witness

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “witness” in English is translated as “truly have seen” in Highland Popoluca, as “telling the truth regarding something” (Eastern Highland Otomi), as “know something” in Lalana Chinantec, as “verily know something to be the truth” in San Mateo del Mar Huave, as “we ourselves saw this,” in Desano, as “tell the truth about something” in Eastern Highland Otomi, as “know something is true because of seeing it” in Teutila Cuicatec. (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 31:21

Many evils and troubles have come upon them: see verse 17.

This song shall confront them as a witness: this is a court setting; the Israelites are being judged and the song is a hostile witness (see verse 18). In many languages it will be possible to retain the vivid imagery of a song standing “as evidence” (Good News Translation). But in some languages it will be difficult to talk about a song confronting someone as a witness. In such cases translators may follow Contemporary English Version: “I will remind them that they know the words of this song”; but even better may be “they will remember the words of this song and will realize that I am punishing them.”

(For it will live unforgotten in the mouths of their descendants): this means that the song will have been taught to the descendants of the generation that will occupy the land, and they will know why God is punishing his people.

I know the purposes which they are already forming: the noun translated purposes is often used of an instinct, mostly evil, which leads people to do evil things (see Gen 6.5; 8.21). This is expressed in New International Version as “I know what they are disposed to do”; New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “I know what plans they are devising even now,” and Revised English Bible “I know which way their thoughts incline.” Something like “I know what their [evil] impulses are” will be satisfactory in some languages.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .