inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (Lam 5:22)

Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)

The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).

For this verse, the Jarai and the Adamawa Fulfulde translation both use the exclusive pronoun.

addressing God

Translators of different languages have found different ways with what kind of formality God is addressed. The first example is from a language where God is always addressed distinctly formal whereas the second is one where the opposite choice was made.

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Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.

As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator 2002, p. 210ff.), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.

In these verses, in which humans address God, the informal, familiar pronoun is used that communicates closeness.

Voinov notes that “in the Tuvan Bible, God is only addressed with the informal pronoun. No exceptions. An interesting thing about this is that I’ve heard new Tuvan believers praying with the formal form to God until they are corrected by other Christians who tell them that God is close to us so we should address him with the informal pronoun. As a result, the informal pronoun is the only one that is used in praying to God among the Tuvan church.”

In Gbaya, “a superior, whether father, uncle, or older brother, mother, aunt, or older sister, president, governor, or chief, is never addressed in the singular unless the speaker intends a deliberate insult. When addressing the superior face to face, the second person plural pronoun ɛ́nɛ́ or ‘you (pl.)’ is used, similar to the French usage of vous.

Accordingly, the translators of the current version of the Gbaya Bible chose to use the plural ɛ́nɛ́ to address God. There are a few exceptions. In Psalms 86:8, 97:9, and 138:1, God is addressed alongside other “gods,” and here the third person pronoun o is used to avoid confusion about who is being addressed. In several New Testament passages (Matthew 21:23, 26:68, 27:40, Mark 11:28, Luke 20:2, 23:37, as well as in Jesus’ interaction with Pilate and Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well) the less courteous form for Jesus is used to indicate ignorance of his position or mocking (source Philip Noss).

In Dutch and Western Frisian translations, however, God is always addressed with the formal pronoun.

See also female second person singular pronoun in Psalms.

Translation commentary on Lamentations 5:22

The final verse of the book appears to question God’s relation to his people. If this is not despair, it certainly is not hope. The verse is difficult to interpret, and translations tend to be divided between those like Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, which make questions of each half-line, and those like New English Bible, New International Version, and AB, which translate as statements of some kind.

The basis for the difficulty is the interpretation of the first two Hebrew words ki ʿim, which Revised Standard Version translates as Or. Literally these words, if taken separately, mean “for if,” which is expected to be followed by a condition leading to a consequence. An example is New English Bible, “For if thou hast utterly rejected us, then great indeed has been thy anger against us.” For a similar handling of these introductory words, see Exodus 8.21. This rendering suggests that the poet cannot really accept that God has rejected his people.

Another wording which likewise implies unwillingness to believe that God has abandoned his people is expressed by New Jerusalem Bible, “Unless you have utterly rejected us, in an anger which knows no limit.” Those who defend this wording claim support in Genesis 32.26, in which Jacob says to his adversary “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.”

AB, which argues against translating as a question (as in Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation), as well as a condition followed by a consequence (as in New English Bible), and against “unless” (New Jerusalem Bible), favors translating as a statement which contrasts or opposes the thought of verse 21: “But instead you have completely rejected us; you have been very angry with us.” This is also a traditional interpretation which is followed by the Vulgate, Luther, and King James Version.

Gordis translates the opening words of the verse as “even though” and refers to Isaiah 10.22 and Amos 5.22 as further examples of the same construction. So he translates verses 21 and 22 as “Turn us to yourself, O LORD, and we shall return; renew our days as of old, even though you had despised us greatly and were very angry with us.” It may be noted that in the other examples of this construction the “even though” clause comes before the main clause and so differs from this example, where it follows the main clause.

That verse 22 ends on a pessimistic note is confirmed, at least in the Jewish liturgical reading of this book, by the habit of repeating verse 21 after verse 22. New Jerusalem Bible follows this tradition in its text. There is a similar tradition concerning the conclusion of Isaiah, Malachi, and Ecclesiastes.

Many translators will come to their own conclusion regarding the best way to handle this verse. However, the Handbook has attempted to evaluate the choices and accordingly recommends that translators give serious consideration to the interpretation proposed by AB.

We must now consider how best to make this contrastive statement clear in translation. For example, “But instead” (AB) suggests here that God has not done what was requested of him in verse 21; rather he has done something different. Therefore the contrast may have to be made clearer than with “But instead.” For example, we may say “Instead of doing what we have asked, you have completely rejected us…,” or “You have not done what we asked, you have rejected us completely,” or “You have not brought us back to you, instead you have rejected us completely.”

Another solution which may be particularly suitable for some languages is to switch the order of verses 21 and 22, so that the sense is “22 is true, but in spite of 22, 21 is also true.” In this case we are following the order of the Jewish liturgical reading, not for theological reasons but rather for translational reasons. Accordingly we may join these final two verses and number them as 21-22: “Have you rejected us forever, and is there no limit to your anger? In spite of your rejecting us, LORD, we pray that you will take us back again and we will return to you. We pray that you will make us as great as we were in former times.”

In the final half-line exceedingly matches utterly in the first half-line. It may be necessary to supply “and” to create a coordinate thought, “and you have been so very angry with us,” or, as an exclamation, “and how great your anger toward us has been!” In some languages the final half-line will be rendered idiomatically; for example, “and your heart has been hot against us.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on Lamentations. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .