desert, wilderness

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The Greek that is translated as “desert” or “wilderness” in English is translated in a number of ways:

Note that in Luke 15:4, usually a term is used that denotes pastoral land, such as “eating/grazing-place” in Tagbanwa (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation).

See also wilderness and desolate wilderness.

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 Nehemiah 9:21

Forty years indicates the length of time that God cared for his people in the wilderness. In contemporary English it is normal to use a preposition with the time here, for example, “Through forty years” (Good News Translation), “for forty years” (Contemporary English Version, New Jerusalem Bible), or “During forty years” (Revised English Bible). New English Bible says it poetically with “Forty years long.”

Didst thou sustain them means to care for them. The next clause explains the full meaning of God’s sustaining them, that is, the fact that they lacked nothing. All their basic needs were provided. Good News Translation combines the two clauses into one that includes both the fact of God’s providing for them and the fact that all their needs were met, and some translators will find it helpful to follow this example.

Wilderness: See verse 19 above.

Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell: Not only did God provide food and water, but he also cared for their material needs and for their health. They could wear the same clothes for forty years and their feet did not swell with pain or blisters (Deut 8.4). “Their shoes didn’t wear out” in an earlier version of Contemporary English Version was evidently based on the statement in Deut 29.5 that refers to both clothes and shoes, but the Hebrew word used in both this verse and Deut 29.5 refers to garments, so translators should not follow that example. In some languages translators may say that their clothes did not become torn or that the cloth did not become weak because of wear. Translators should observe the parallelism in this verse where the statement in the first part is exemplified in the second part.

Quoted with permission from Noss, Philip A. and Thomas, Kenneth J. A Handbook on Nehemiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2005. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .