Translating the biblical key word ḥeseḏ into Arabic and Japanese: A theological and comparative semantic study

Translating culturally and religiously loaded words presents a challenge for translators. The nuanced meanings of these words risk being lost or distorted in the target language. One such word is ḥeseḏ (דסֶ חֶ֕ ), a key Biblical Hebrew word that appears to defy translation. The aim of this paper is to investigate how the biblical word ḥeseḏ (דֶסחֶ֕ ) is rendered in Arabic and Japanese. This word is often glossed in English as ‘mercy’ or ‘lovingkindness,’ but research shows that it means neither and that it does not have an equivalent in English. By examining two Arabic and two Japanese translations of the Bible and applying corpus analysis and the Natural Semantic Metalanguage, this study has found that Arabic has a near equivalent to the target word. This equivalent, however, is not utilized in one of the two Arabic translations and appears in only a few verses in the other. As for Japanese, it does not have a near equivalent to ḥeseḏ . The findings contribute to the field of linguistics and theology in general, as well as to Bible translation in particular. It is hoped that they will help Bible translators to pick the best rendering of ḥeseḏ in Arabic and Japanese. It is also hoped that the discussion of the meaning of ḥeseḏ will help Bible translators gain insights into the meaning of this word and determine whether the languages into which they are translating the Bible have exact or near equivalents of this word.