LORD God / Lord God

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated in English as “Lord God” or “Lord God” encountered an issue in Tok Pisin. Norm Mundhenk explains why (in The Bible Translator 1985, p. 442ff. ):

“I am not aware of any serious objections to either the word God [for “God”] or Bikpela [for YHWH] alone. However, when trying to translate the expression ‘the Lord God,’ the translators first tried to use Bikpela God. But Bikpela is also an adjective meaning ‘big’ and in the expression Bikpela God, it would usually be understood as “Big God,’ as though there were other smaller gods around also.

“In the Old Testament, as the recent articles have clearly pointed out, the English word ‘Lord‘ often stands for the Hebrew name of God, YHWH, which is usually spelled these days as Yahweh. With this in mind, the name Yawe was tried in Tok Pisin, but it was felt that most readers did not connect this strange name with God. Eventually, we decided to keep Bikpela, but to translate ‘Lord God’ as God, Bikpela, literally ‘God, the Lord.’

“The reason for this decision was really only that the words could be used naturally in this order, without the problem of giving a wrong meaning which we had when putting Bikpela first. It was not until some people asked if it was right to ‘turn around’ the name and the title in this way that we realized that there was really a deeper reason for doing what we did. In fact, for most speakers of Tok Pisin, God is the only God they know, and it seems likely that God is understood as the personal name of God, rather than as a class name. Bikpela, on the other hand, is a class name — there can be more than one Bikpela, though it is recognized that God is the greatest of them and there is no confusion when he is referred to simply as Bikpela. Thus, in Hebrew an expression like ‘YHWH, the God of Israel,’ has the personal name first, followed by the class name explaining who he is. And we have exactly the same situation in Tok Pisin when we say God, Bikpela bilong Isrel. I suspect that in many other languages which have borrowed the word ‘God,’ we might find that it has been borrowed basically as a personal name, rather than as a class name.”

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 2:22

This verse introduces new imagery, in which the people of Israel are compared to a person who has a terrible stain that neither lye nor much soap will remove. The lye referred to here was probably potassium carbonate, a strongly alkaline solution made from wood ashes or other vegetable matter. The noun translated soap is used only here (of washing the body) and in Mal 3.2 (of washing clothes). Lye would have been the stronger of the two cleansing agents. Soap will be known by translators almost everywhere, and even though the word for it in their language may be borrowed, it can be used. Lye may not be known, however, and translators can either substitute something used as a strong cleansing agent in their culture or use an expression like “strong cleaning agent.” Both Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch reduce lye … much soap to “the strongest soap.”

The stain of your guilt means “the stain caused by your guilt.” The noun translated guilt is found in many other places in Jeremiah. In Revised Standard Version it is consistently translated as either “guilt” or “iniquity,” except for the rendering “punishment” in 51.6. See further at 3.13.

[Something] is still before me is a Hebrew way of saying: “I still see [something],” which is the basis for Good News Translation “I would still see the stain of your guilt.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “the stain of your guilt always remains before my eyes.”

Says the Lord GOD is similar to “says the LORD” (1.8), but with the addition of GOD. See 1.6 for Lord GOD. “The Lord who is God” or “God who is our/the Lord” are common translations.

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 .