justice

The Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic and Latin that is translated as “justice” in English is translated in American Sign Language with a sign that describes the quality or principle of fairness, righteousness, and impartiality in treating other people. A literal back-translation of the signs are “FOLLOW(God is implied) ACTIONS, DECISIONS JUST-RIGHT”. A more idiomatic back-translation would be: “actions and decisions are right/fitting/just in accordance to God’s will.” The movement in the signs itself helps to indicate that this is a noun, not a verb. (Source: RuthAnna Spooner, Ron Lawer)


“Justice” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor

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 72:1 - 72:2

The opening prayer for justice and righteousness for the king uses the two nouns as synonyms. For justice (verses 1a, 2b) and the related verb in verse 4a, see 7.6 and comments on “judgment”; for righteousness (verses 1b, 2a, 3b) see comments on 4.1 (“right”); 5.8. It should be noted that in verse 1a the Hebrew text has the plural form, which some take to mean “your judgments” (New Jerusalem Bible), “your statutes” (Weiser); the Septuagint and Syriac have the singular form, which makes for a better parallel with the singular in line b.

In verse 1 the verb Give is used in the sense of “endow” (New English Bible, New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible), that is, to confer on the king the qualities mentioned; Good News Translation has used “Teach … to judge” and “share” to express the idea of the Hebrew verb. Good News Translation has thereby restructured Give the king thy justice, so that justice is the event of judging and righteousness is the manner of judging. This model may be followed in many languages. Often judge is expressed idiomatically as “cut the words,” meaning “to give a decision.” In some languages “judge” as a verb combines the notions of “investigation” and “judgment.” Righteousness is often rendered as “true” or “straightness,” or by figurative expressions.

The Hebrew form is “to the king,” “to the son of the king,” and represents poetic word-pairing in which the noun of line a is paralleled in line b by “son of” plus the word from line a. (For further examples see Amos 1.4; Judges 5.12; 2 Sam 20.2; Num 23.18.) Good News Translation has not attempted to keep the word pair but has replaced “son of the king” in line b with “him.” Translators should be able to retain the Hebrew order of the lines but should avoid giving the impression that two royal persons are involved. In some languages it will be necessary to say “our king” instead of the king; for example, “O God, show our king how you judge matters fairly, and teach our king your goodness.”

For the poor (verse 2b) see 9.12; the psalmist calls them thy poor in parallel with thy people in line a. This does not necessarily imply that all the people were poor and oppressed; it recognizes that the oppressed among the people have special need of justice. This psalm stresses what is now called a preferential treatment of the poor. The translator will note that Revised Standard Version, following the Hebrew, has thy people and thy poor, whereas Good News Translation has “your people” and “the oppressed.” This may be for stylistic reasons in English; however, in some languages it will be clearer to employ the possessive pronoun, or its equivalent, with both. Otherwise it may appear that “the oppressed” are not God’s people. Verses 1 and 2 form a chiastic pattern with the sequence A-B-B-A: justice, righteousness; righteousness, justice. This is a poetic device used at the opening of the psalm and calls the reader’s attention to the major theme running through the psalm. Translators may feel that lines a and b of verse 2 are so similar in content that they should be reduced to one. This is possible. However, if that is done, the translator is obliged to compensate for the loss in emphasis given to the theme, by providing an equivalent device in the receptor language. Since Psalm 72 is a prayer, English “May…” is repeated in many stanzas and must be recast in some languages; for example, “I pray that…” or “I ask that….”

For the verb judge (Good News Translation “rule”) in verse 2, see 7.8a; it is synonymous with the more frequently used verb in verse 4a (see 7.8b). The traditional translation judge may be too limited; the verb applies to all aspects of the king’s rule and not just to his function as judge; so Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “govern.”

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 .