brothers

“Brothers” has to be translated into Naro as “younger brothers and older brothers” (Tsáá qõea xu hẽé / naka tsáá kíí). All brothers are included this way, also because of the kind of plural that has been used. (Source: Gerrit van Steenbergen)

This also must be more clearly defined in Yucateco as older or younger (suku’un or Iits’in), but here there are both older and younger brothers. Yucateco does have a more general word for close relative, family member. (Source: Robert Bascom)

complete verse (Genesis 34:11)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Genesis 34:11:

  • Newari: “Then Shechem said to Dinah’s father and elder brothers — ‘Please, you show kindness to me, what you say I will give.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Shekem also asked-for-a-favor from the father and siblings/(brothers) of Dina, ‘If possible [you (pl.)] just have- Dina -marry me/[lit. just have- now Dina -become-wife to me]. Whatever you (pl.) will-ask-for I will-give (it).” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Then Shechem said to Dinah’s father and brothers, ‘If you feel good toward me and do what I am asking for, I will give you whatever you ask for.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Genesis 34:11

Shechem also said: Shechem was not mentioned as accompanying his father to these negotiations in Gen 34.6. However, it is clear in verse 11 that he is a participant, and in some languages it may be necessary to introduce him as a participant in Gen 34.6. It is also possible to make the situation clear at this point by saying, for example, “Shechem had come with his father, and he now said….”

Shechem’s speech makes a break with what Hamor has been proposing. What the son says goes back to verse 8 and picks up the request to marry Dinah. He shows no interest in his father’s plans for intertribal marriages. He is concerned only for himself.

To her father: that is, “to Dinah’s father, Jacob.”

Let me find favor in your [plural] eyes: see 33.10, 15. Since this is a plea for Jacob and his sons to agree to the marriage proposal, some translations make Shechem say something like “If you agree to my request” or “If you are happy to help me in this matter.”

Whatever you say to me I will give: because of the discontinuity between verse 11 and verses 9-10, it may be necessary to make Shechem’s statement refer more clearly to the marriage proposal. If this is not done in the previous clause, we may say here, for example, “whatever you ask for Dinah I will give it to you” or “ask anything you [plural] want for your [singular] daughter and your [plural] sister and I will give it to you [plural].”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .