inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (Ps 44:13)

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, excluding the Lord.

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 Psalm 44:13 - 44:14

The psalmist uses various synonymous terms to describe how neighboring peoples (our neighbors) deride and taunt the Israelites for their shameful defeat: taunt, derision, scorn (verse 13). In verse 13a the Hebrew is literally “You made us the scorn of our neighbors” (see Revised Standard Version), which means that the attitude of Israel’s pagan neighbors is the result of what God has done to Israel (verses 9-12)–which Good News Translation has represented by “Our neighbors see what you did to us, and they mock us….”

Our neighbors should not be translated in a way as to refer to the people who live next door, nor as mankind in general, but to the people of the other tribes, namely, the Gentiles. Hence one can often say “the other tribes that live around us.”

Verse 13 in Hebrew is a case of gender-matched parallelism, in that line a has taunt (feminine) and neighbors (masculine), while line b has derision and scorn (masculine) and “neighborhood” (feminine). Cross gender is used in this manner to make the statement emphatic. Translators should use the poetic devices that are normal for emphasis in the receptor language.

A byword (verse 14a) translates the Hebrew word for “proverb, saying”; in this context it means that Israel is used as a joke, a term of contempt and mockery (see 1 Kgs 9.7; Jer 24.9). Thou hast made us a byword can in some languages be translated as “you have made of us two small words” or “you have made us a story to laugh at.”

In verse 14b, as the Revised Standard Version footnote shows, the Israelites have become “a shaking of the head” to their Gentile neighbors. This is a gesture of scorn. All these words are indicative of the attitude of Israel’s Gentile neighbors.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .