{"id":11630,"date":"2020-04-17T13:42:53","date_gmt":"2020-04-17T13:42:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=11630"},"modified":"2020-04-17T13:42:53","modified_gmt":"2020-04-17T13:42:53","slug":"untranslatable-words-die-hiobsbotschaft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/untranslatable-words-die-hiobsbotschaft\/","title":{"rendered":"Untranslatable Words: Die Hiobsbotschaft"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you get very bad news, how would you say that in English? Germans have a word for it, and it has quite the interesting origin story. It is the\u00a0Hiobsbotschaft<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em>\u00a0Let’s have a look!<\/p>\n

What does Hiobsbotschaft<\/em> mean?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A\u00a0Hiobsbotschaft<\/em>, sometimes\u00a0Hiobsnachricht\u00a0<\/em>and historically\u00a0Hiobspost<\/em>, is a\u00a0Botschaft\u00a0<\/em>(message) with very bad news for the\u00a0Empf\u00e4nger\u00a0<\/em>(recipient)<\/strong>. In other words, an Ungl\u00fccksnachricht <\/em>(message of disaster). It comes from the character of Hiob\u00a0<\/em>(Job), who is mentioned in Islam, Christianity and Judaism. But what makes his Botschaft\u00a0<\/em>so niederschmetternd\u00a0<\/em>(devastating)?<\/p>\n

The story of\u00a0Hiob <\/em>starts with a clash between Gott\u00a0<\/em>(God) and the\u00a0Teufel\u00a0<\/em>(Devil).\u00a0Hiob\u00a0<\/em>was a very\u00a0fromm\u00a0<\/em>(pious) man, who was also very wealthy. He had a lot of Vieh <\/em>(livestock), Knechte <\/em>(servants), Kinder <\/em>(children), possessions. The Teufel\u00a0<\/em>suggested to\u00a0Gott\u00a0<\/em>that\u00a0Hiob <\/em>will only be so\u00a0fromm\u00a0<\/em>as long as he is doing well. That, if bad things happened to him, he would\u00a0verfluchen\u00a0<\/em>(curse) the Gott\u00a0<\/em>that would allow horrible things to happen to him. To prove him wrong,\u00a0Gott <\/em>allowed the\u00a0Teufel\u00a0<\/em>to do terrible things to\u00a0Hiob<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Hiob<\/em>‘s Vieh <\/i>and Knechte <\/i>were killed, as well as his ten Kinder<\/em>. He fell ill with a horrible Krankheit <\/em>(disease). And yet, he did not verfluchen <\/em>his Gott<\/em>, saying: “Nehmen wir das Gute an von Gott, sollen wir dann nicht auch das B\u00f6se annehmen?<\/em>” (Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?)<\/p>\n

According to the story, these horrible things were brought to his attention by a\u00a0Knecht\u00a0<\/em>with a\u00a0Botschaft<\/em>. And therein lies the origin of the word\u00a0Hiobsbotschaft<\/em>.<\/p>\n

What would be a literal translation of <\/strong>Hiobsbotschaft<\/em><\/strong>?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The literal translation of\u00a0Hiobsbotschaft\u00a0<\/em>would be “Job’s message”<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

How would you use <\/strong>Hiobsbotschaft<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0in a sentence?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Das Budget reicht nicht aus, um das Theater weiter finanzieren zu k\u00f6nnen. F\u00fcr die Theatertruppe wird das eine wahre Hiobsbotschaft sein.<\/em><\/p>\n

The budget is not enough to keep financing the theater. It will be a real Job’s message for the theater troupe.<\/p>\n

What is the nearest English equivalent of <\/strong>Hiobsbotschaft<\/em><\/strong>?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Real bad news! (Image by kalhh at Pixabay.com, edited by author)<\/p><\/div>\n

Translating\u00a0Hiobsbotschaft\u00a0<\/em>to Job’s message would have a different meaning in English. In English, the meaning would be more related to staying true to God, even in adverse circumstances. And while that may be the takeaway from the story of\u00a0Hiob<\/em>, that is not a\u00a0Hiobsbotschaft\u00a0<\/em>in German.<\/p>\n

The closest English equivalent, as far as I can tell, is simply “bad news”<\/strong> or “bad tidings”<\/strong>. However, neither of these two reflects the severity of a\u00a0Hiobsbotschaft<\/em>. A\u00a0schlechte Nachricht\u00a0<\/em>(bad news) also exists in German, but a\u00a0Hiobsbotschaft\u00a0<\/em>means that it is a lot worse than that.<\/p>\n

Have you heard of the <\/strong>Hiobsbotschaft<\/em><\/strong>? Does your language have an equivalent or similar term? Do you know a fitting English equivalent? Let me know in the comments below!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

If you get very bad news, how would you say that in English? Germans have a word for it, and it has quite the interesting origin story. It is the\u00a0Hiobsbotschaft.\u00a0Let’s have a look! What does Hiobsbotschaft mean? A\u00a0Hiobsbotschaft, sometimes\u00a0Hiobsnachricht\u00a0and historically\u00a0Hiobspost, is a\u00a0Botschaft\u00a0(message) with very bad news for the\u00a0Empf\u00e4nger\u00a0(recipient). In other words, an Ungl\u00fccksnachricht (message of…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":11636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[3879,445003,337679],"class_list":["post-11630","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-language","tag-religion","tag-untranslatable","tag-untranslatable-german"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t