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 88:3 - 88:5

The psalmist graphically describes himself as practically a dead man, one whose life has been crushed out by the LORD’s punishment. In verses 3-4 he uses a variety of words and phrases to describe his condition: his nefesh (see 3.2) is full of troubles, and his life draws near to Sheol (see description of Sheol in 6.5). In some languages troubles are grammatically considered to be active agents which perform events; for example, “troubles have taken hold of me” or “troubles hang about my head.” Good News Translation‘s “close to death” is often expressed as “I am … about to die,” as in Good News Translation verse 4a.

The psalmist is regarded as being among those who go down to the Pit (see comments on 28.1; 30.3). The verb translated reckoned means “to count, to number”; that is, others include him among people who are about to die. So Bible en français courant “Everybody considers me as a man who has reached the end (of his life).” The Pit (verses 4a, 6a) is a synonym for Sheol, the world of the dead. In the first line of verse 4, Revised Standard Version employs the passive voice I am reckoned, which must be expressed in the active voice in many languages, as Bible en français courant has done; for example, “people look upon me like a corpse” or “people think of me as a dead man.”

In verse 4b the Hebrew word translated strength occurs only here in the Old Testament; it may mean “help” (so McCullough, Good News Translation footnote; New Jerusalem Bible “helpless”; Bible en français courant “one for whom nothing more can be done”). It is recommended that the word be translated strength.

The psalmist compares himself to a lifeless corpse left unburied (verse 5a); he is like a dead man already buried (verse 5b). In line a the word translated forsaken (a noun in Hebrew) means in other contexts “free, released” (so King James Version here “free among the dead”). Anderson suggests “unclean among the dead”; Oesterley thinks that the similarity of this word to the word for a leper’s house in 2 Kings 15.5 (which Revised Standard Version translates “a separate house”) implies that the psalmist was a leper. It may be that the psalmist meant that the dead are “freed” from God, no longer obliged to serve and worship him. The meaning “abandoned,” that is, like a corpse that is not buried, seems to fit the context better.3-5 Hebrew Old Testament Text Project says the word means “freed, exempted,” and seems to refer to the total “freedom” that death brings “from the bonds and obligations of life, society, bondage, and labor.”

In verse 5b the word grave in Hebrew is singular, and some think the picture is that of a number of dead bodies on the battlefield being buried in one grave. If the translator follows the suggestion of like the slain referring to the bodies of slain soldiers, one may say, for example, “I am like one of the dead warriors in a common grave.”

In verse 5c-d the psalmist strikes the first note of the mournful theme that he has been rejected by God: the dead are “forgotten completely” (Good News Translation) by God (see in verse 12b where Sheol is called “the land of oblivion,” that is, the land whose inhabitants are forgotten by God); here “forgotten” means ignored, disregarded, overlooked. Bible en français courant translates “you no longer have any regard for them.” The dead are beyond his help (literally cut off from thy hand); Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “they have lost your protection”; New Jerusalem Bible “cut off from Your care.” Cut off from thy hand may be rendered, for example, “you do nothing more for them” or “you help them no more.”

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 .