wild animal

The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is translated in English as “wild animal” or similar is translated in Newari as “animal that lives in the jungle.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)

birds of the air

The Greek and Hebrew phrases that are often translated as “birds of the air” in English “refer to the undomesticated song birds or wild birds, to be distinguished in a number of languages from domesticated fowl. In Tzeltal these former are ‘field birds’.” (source: Bratcher / Nida)

Q’anjob’al also uses an established term for non-domesticated birds. Newberry and Kittie Cox (in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 91ff. ) explain: “Qʼanjobʼal has two distinct terms, one to identify domesticated birds and the other non-domesticated birds. The additional descriptive phrase ‘of the air’ seemed entirely misleading, for Qʼanjobʼal speakers had never heard of such creatures. Actually, of course, all that was necessary was the term for non-domesticated birds, for that is precisely the meaning of the Biblical expression.”

See also birds of the air / fish of the sea and birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 16:4

Deadly diseases is more literally “deaths of diseases.” Elsewhere in Jeremiah the noun diseases is found only in 14.18, where it occurs in the construction “diseases of famine.”

They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried may require restructuring as an active expression: “no one will mourn for them or bury them” (Good News Translation). The restructuring of Good News Translation may suggest that people were unwilling to do these things, which is not the intention of the verse. The meaning is “There will be no one there to conduct the mourning rituals for them or to bury them” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch) or “There will be no one left alive to….”

They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground: See the comment at 8.2. They is more accurately expressed as “Their bodies” (Good News Translation) or “their corpses” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). Good News Translation is vivid: “Their bodies will lie like piles of manure on the ground.”

Sword … famine: See the comment at 5.12.

Their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth: An active construction may be preferable, as in Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch (“vultures and jackals will eat them”). If translators do not want to identify particular birds and animals by name, they can say “Birds and wild animals will eat them.” For birds of the air, see the comment at 4.25. For beasts of the earth, see 7.33.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2003. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .