lion

There are no lions in Bawm country, so the Bawm Chin translation uses “a tiger with a mane” where the Greek term for “lion” is used and in Sranan Tongo the “roaring lion” in 1 Peter 5:8 is a krasi tigri, an “aggressive tiger.”

In the Kahua culture, lions are not known either so the Kahua translation used “fierce animal.”

In 1 Peter 5:8, the Uripiv translation uses “a hungry shark” instead of a roaring lion.

Sources: David Clark for Bawm Chin and Kahua, Japini 2015, p. 33, for Sranan Tongo, and Ross McKerras for Uripiv)

lazy person

The Hebrew that is translated as “lazy person” or “sluggard” or similar in English is translated in Low German as Fuulpelz, an idiomatic term that literally means “someone who wants to rest on an animal hide” (translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1937, republ. 2006).

See also lazy.

Translation commentary on Proverbs 22:13

There is an element of humor in the absurd excuse that the lazy person gives for not going out to work. 26.13 is another form of this saying.

“The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside!””: For “sluggard” see 6.6. The words of this whole verse are not difficult to translate literally. But the point of the saying, which is not stated directly, is that the person is too lazy to go to work and wants to stay at home doing nothing. If readers will not get this point, it may be necessary to include it in the translation. Contemporary English Version tries to do this with “Don’t be so lazy that you say, ‘If I go to work, a lion will eat me!'” Good News Translation is even clearer, and is a good model to follow.

In most translations readers will understand “I shall be slain in the streets!” as meaning that the person is afraid of being killed by the lion referred to in the first line. The Septuagint, however, understands this line differently: “there are murderers in the street!” In this case the second line is a second excuse and not a continuation of the excuse in the first line. New International Version follows this understanding and renders the second line as “or, ‘I will be murdered in the streets!'” For cultures that do not have “streets”, the sense of this line may be expressed as “I will be killed if I leave my house.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .