bless(ed)

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The Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and Aramaic that is translated into English as “(to) bless” or “blessed” is translated into a wide variety of possibilities.

The Hebrew term barak (and the Aramaic term berak) also (and originally) means “kneel” (a meaning which the word has retained — see Gen. 24:11) and can be used for God blessing people (or things), people blessing each other, or people blessing God. While English Bible translators have not seen a stumbling block in always using the same term (“bless” in its various forms), other languages need to make distinctions (see below).

In Bari, spoken in South Sudan, the connection between blessing and knees/legs is still apparent. For Genesis 30:30 (in English: “the Lord has blessed you wherever I turned”), Bari uses a common expression that says (much like the Hebrew), ‘… blessed you to my feet.'” (Source: P. Guillebaud in The Bible Translator 1965, p. 189ff. .)

Other examples for the translation of “bless” when God is the one who blesses include (click or tap here to see the rest of this insight):

  • “think well of” (San Blas Kuna)
  • “speak good to” (Amganad Ifugao)
  • “make happy” (Pohnpeian)
  • “cause-to-live-as-a-chief” (Zulu)
  • “sprinkle with a propitious (lit. cool) face” (a poetic expression occurring in the priests’ language) (Toraja Sa’dan) (source for this and above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • “give good things” (Mairasi) (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • “ask good” (Yakan) (source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • “praise, say good things” (Central Yupik) (source: Robert Bascom)
  • “greatly love” (Candoshi-Shapra) (source: John C. Tuggy)
  • “showing a good heart” (Kutu) (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
  • “good luck — have — good fortune — have” (verbatim) ꓶꓼ ꓙꓳ ꓫꓱꓹ ꓙꓳ — ɯa dzho shes zho (Lisu). This construction follows a traditional four-couplet construct in oral Lisu poetry that is usually in the form ABAC or ABCB. (Source: Arrington 2020, p. 58)

In Tagbanwa a phrase is used for both the blessing done by people and God that back-translates to “caused to be pierced by words causing grace/favor” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation).

Ixcatlán Mazatec had to select a separate term when relating “to people ‘blessing’ God” (or things of God): “praise(d)” or “give thanks for” (in 1 Cor. 10:16) (“as it is humans doing the ‘blessing’ and people do not bless the things of God or God himself the way God blesses people” — source: Robert Bascom). Eastern Bru and Kui also use “praise” for this a God-directed blessing (source: Bru back translation and Helen Evans in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 40ff. ) and Uma uses “appropriate/worthy to be worshipped” (source: Uma back translation).

When related to someone who is blessing someone else, it is translated into Tsou as “speak good hopes for.” In Waiwai it is translated as “may God be good and kind to you now.” (Sources: Peng Kuo-Wei for Tsou and Robert Hawkins in The Bible Translator 1962, pp. 164ff. for Waiwai.)

Some languages associate an expression that originally means “spitting” or “saliva” with blessing. The Bantu language Koonzime, for instance, uses that expression for “blessing” in their translation coming from either God or man. Traditionally, the term was used in an application of blessing by an aged superior upon a younger inferior, often in relation to a desire for fertility, or in a ritualistic, but not actually performed spitting past the back of the hand. The spitting of saliva has the effect of giving that person “tenderness of face,” which can be translated as “blessedness.” (Source: Keith Beavon)

Martin Ehrensvärd, one of the translators for the Danish Bibelen 2020, comments on the translation of this term: “As for ‘blessing’, in the end we in most instances actually kept the word, after initially preferring the expression ‘giving life strength’. The backlash against dropping the word blessing was too hard. But we would often add a few words to help the reader understand what the word means in a given context — people often understand it to refer more to a spiritual connection with God, but in the Hebrew texts, it usually has to do with material things or good health or many children. So when e.g. in Isaiah 19:25 the Hebrew text says ‘God bless them’, we say ‘God bless them’ and we add: ‘and give them strength’. ‘And give them strength’ is not found in the overt Hebrew text, but we are again making explicit what we believe is the meaning so as to avoid misunderstanding.” (Source: Ehrensvärd in HIPHIL Novum 8/2023, p. 81ff. )

See also bless (food and drink), blessed (Christ in Mark 11:9), and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.

See also “Blessed by ‘The Blessing’ in the World’s Indigenous Languages” and Multilingual version of “The Blessing” based on Numbers 6:24-26 .

Translation commentary on Psalm 72:15 - 72:16

The psalm closes with a final petition for the king’s long and prosperous reign (verses 15-17). For a translation of Long may he live, see 22.26.

For Sheba see verse 10. Both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation passive constructions may require shifting to active constructions in translation, in which case the object of May prayer be made for him may be stated as “May the people pray for him continually and ask God to bless him always.” In languages which do not use a passive, may gold of Sheba be given to him may have to be rendered “may the people of Sheba give him gold.”

In verse 15d the Hebrew is “may he be blessed all the day,” which may be a prayer for “God’s blessings” to rest on him (so Good News Translation) or, as Revised Standard Version has it, the people’s blessings, that is, their prayers on his behalf, which is parallel with the preceding line (also New Jerusalem Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, Bible en français courant, New International Version). It seems best to follow Revised Standard Version here.

Verse 16 has some words not occurring elsewhere in the Old Testament, whose meaning is in doubt. In line a the word translated abundance is unknown elsewhere; in line b the word translated wave means elsewhere “to shake” (usually of earthquakes). In line d the verb translated “be filled” by Good News Translation means “to bloom,” used of plants (Revised Standard Version blossom forth). The petition for cities full of people seems a bit odd, and some commentators and translators emend the text to get a reference to crops; so Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “may there be ears of grain like grass in the fields” (similarly New English Bible). But the Masoretic text can be translated; so Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation; New Jerusalem Bible “and let men sprout up in towns like country grass”; New American Bible “the city dwellers shall flourish like verdure of the fields.” (There was no problem of overpopulation at that time.)

If there is no generic term for grain, translators may consider using the dominant plant grown in the area. In areas where farming is possible only in the valleys, never on mountain tops, some adjustment may be necessary to express the thought of grain waving on the tops of the mountains; either as in Good News Translation or, for example, “may the crops grow everywhere, even on the hill tops.” In order to make clear the reference to fruit be like Lebanon, it will often be necessary to say “may the grain grow as well as it does on the mountains called Lebanon.” (Modern readers may only know Lebanon as the name of a Mediterranean country.)

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 .