The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “love” in English is typically translated in Hakka Chinese as thung-siak / 痛惜 or “pain-love” when it refers to God’s love.
The same term is used for a variety of Hebrew terms that cover a range of English translations that refer to God as the agent, including “love,” “compassion,” and “mercy.”
Paul McLean explains: “[Thung-siak / 痛惜] has been used for many years in a popular Hakka-Christian mountain song based on John 3:16. The translation team decided that for this and other reasons it would be a good rendering here. It helps point to the fact that God’s ‘love’ is a compassionate (cum passio, with suffering) love.”
The Greek and Hebrew term that is translated into English as “yoke,” the Afar translation uses koyta (poles of camel pack) which refers to two poles in front of the hump and two behind; elsewhere in agricultural Ethiopia the yoke is only in front of the hump.
In Chol it is translated with tajbal, a term for “headband” (for carrying) (source: Ronald D. Olson in Notes on Translation January, 1968, p. 15ff.). Likewise, in Kele, it is translated with njɛmbɛ, “a carrying strap worn around the head and across the chest or shoulders to support a burden of firewood, garden produce or even a child carried by this on the back or hip” (source: William Ford in The Bible Translator 1957, p. 203ff. ).
In Kwasio it is translated with a term that refers to a “bulky piece of wood attached to the neck of a goat, preventing it from roaming freely in the brushy undergrowth.”
Joshua Ham explains: “When checking this verse in Kwasio, I was surprised to find that the Kwasio had a word for yoke. You see, none of the language groups we have worked with have a tradition of using animals to pull carts or plows. Since yokes don’t exist in the culture, there’s no need for a word for that concept in these languages.
“When I asked the Kwasio team about their word for yoke, they said that they don’t use yokes to help animals pull plows; rather, their word for yoke refers to a bulky piece of wood attached to the neck of a goat, preventing it from roaming freely in the brushy undergrowth. So while the exact use of a Kwasio yoke is not the same as a biblical yoke, there are a lot of similarities: in both cases, it’s a piece of wood around an animal’s neck that serves to keep the animal under control. While the overlap isn’t perfect, it’s pretty good — and almost certainly better than trying to squeeze in a distracting explanation of how yokes function in the biblical cultures.”
Adam Boyd (in The PNG Experience) tells this story about finding the right term in Enga: “Jesus’s words in Matthew 11:29-30 are some of the most difficult to translate into the Enga language. From the time that I became a Christian, I was taught that a yoke is a wooden crosspiece that is fastened over the neck of two animals and attached to a plough or cart that they are to pull. This is an easy enough concept to understand for people who come from societies that make use of beasts of burden, but in Papua New Guinea, there are no beasts of burden. Consequently the concept of a yoke placed on animals is completely foreign. Thus, we have struggled greatly in our attempt to translate Matthew 11:29-30.
“Recently, however, I came to learn that a yoke can also refer to a wooden frame that a person places on his neck or shoulders to make it easier to carry a heavy load. Indeed, the Bible often makes figurative use of the word ‘yoke’ as it refers to people and not to beasts of burden (see 1 Kings 12:4-14). As I was pondering that idea, I began to notice that when Engan men carry heavy logs on one shoulder, they often balance the load by supporting it with a small stick placed across the other shoulder. A few weeks ago, it clicked in my mind that the small stick they use to make it easier to carry a heavy log is like a yoke.
“Excited by this realization, I quickly asked my friend Benjamin if the stick that men use to make it easier to carry a heavy log has a name in Enga. Sure enough it does. It is called a pyakende. With great anticipation, I asked the translation team if we could use the word pyakende to translate the word ‘yoke’. After wrestling with the phrasing for a little while, we came up with the following translation: ‘In order to remove the heaviness from your shoulders, take my pyakende. When you have taken it, you will receive rest. As my pyakende helps you, what I give you to carry is not heavy and you will carry it without struggling.’”
“Yoke” is illustrated for use in Bible translations in East Africa by Pioneer Bible Translators like this:
Image owned by PBT and Jonathan McDaniel and licensed with the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Click or tap here to see a short video clip showing how yokes were used in biblical times (source: Bible Lands 2012)
The Good News Translation footnote warns us that there are serious problems for understanding the Hebrew text of this verse. The Hebrew text may be presenting images from farming that are used poetically to describe Yahweh watching over Israel from childhood. But alternative interpretations are possible. In this verse translators must decide whether the figures compare Israel to a child, as in the preceding verses, or to a cow, as in 4.16 and 10.11. Since the text is using farm images, the cow image is more likely. But at the same time, these images describe poetically how one brings up a child. In a country where loving care was applied both to cattle and to raising children, the same idioms may have developed for both.
I led them with cords of compassion, with the bands of love: Instead of cords of compassion, the Hebrew text reads “cords of a man” (King James Version) or “ropes of humankind” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). These two lines fit with the figure of Israel as a cow that is guided by cords and bands. To strengthen this image the word “reins” can also be used in English. The receptor language may have similar terminology to make the imagery more readily understood. Good News Translation takes the literal “cords of a man” to be a figure for human “affection” as something that binds one person to another. Bands of love is then simply a figure for “love.” So Good News Translation‘s translation of these two lines fits with the figure of Israel as a child, but of course the original image of comparison with a cow is lost. The ability to keep the cattle imagery largely depends on the receptor culture. In societies where cattle play a central role, the imagery may be easily understood. If so, we recommend keeping the imagery of cords and bands. It makes the translation more vivid than Good News Translation‘s nonfigurative rendering.
And I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them: This imagery is consistent with the cattle metaphors that are employed in this verse. The picture here seems to be as follows: When it is time to feed the cow, the yoke is removed so the cow can be fed. Yahweh claims to both lift the yoke and feed Israel.
Who eases the yoke on their jaws follows the standard Hebrew text. But a yoke is not on the jaws of an animal, but on its neck and shoulders. The Hebrew word for yoke resembles the word for “baby” or “child.” This word has the same consonants, but a different vowel mark. Good News Translation, New English Bible, Jerusalem Bible, and New American Bible follow this reading of “baby” or “child.” It is supported by some recent commentators and fits with the figure of Israel as a child. This figure has the advantage of continuing the figure of a child, as used in the preceding verses. But again, this may have been a play on words by which God uses the word yoke, which resembles the Hebrew word for “child,” so that people will think about caring for a child. The original readers or hearers would have had no problem understanding this play on words. But a wordplay is usually very difficult to express in another language. In any case, Hebrew Old Testament Text Project recommends the Hebrew text by reading “yoke” (a {B} decision). Hebrew Old Testament Text Project understands that farmers lift up the yoke in order to let the cattle chew easily, because then the jaws are free to move. If translators follow the other reading, a possible model for lines three and four is “I showed them the same tenderness as a person who picks up a child and holds it to his cheek.” Here “cheek” has been substituted for the jaw of the animal.
I bent down to them and fed them shows the action of a taller person bending over to feed those who are shorter or smaller. Fed them follows the Septuagint and makes good sense. Instead of a word meaning them, the Hebrew text has a word meaning “not,” which is the first word in the next verse, where some scholars believe it does not seem to make sense. Therefore they believe the word belongs at the end of this verse and change it to read “them,” which sounds like the Hebrew word for “not.” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project retains the Hebrew word meaning “not” in verse 5 (a {B} decision). After all, in this context of the verb fed, the pronoun them can be implied in Hebrew.
The following literal translation of this verse retains the text decisions of Hebrew Old Testament Text Project:
• With harness-cords for a human I led them,
with ties of love.
And I was to them as those lifting the yoke [from] upon their jaws.
And I bent down to him and fed [him].
A more natural model in English is:
• I guided them with reins of compassion,
with cords of love.
As someone lifting their yoke allowing them to eat,
I even stooped down to feed them.
Quoted with permission from Dorn, Louis & van Steenbergen, Gerrit. A Handbook on Hosea. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2020. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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