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<article xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:ali="http://www.niso.org/schemas/ali/1.0/" article-type="research-article" dtd-version="1.2" xml:lang="en"><front><journal-meta><journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">Russian Journal of Linguistics</journal-id><journal-title-group><journal-title xml:lang="en">Russian Journal of Linguistics</journal-title><trans-title-group xml:lang="ru"><trans-title>Russian Journal of Linguistics</trans-title></trans-title-group></journal-title-group><issn publication-format="print">2687-0088</issn><issn publication-format="electronic">2686-8024</issn><publisher><publisher-name xml:lang="en">Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia named after Patrice Lumumba (RUDN University)</publisher-name></publisher></journal-meta><article-meta><article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">46247</article-id><article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.22363/2687-0088-42740</article-id><article-id pub-id-type="edn">BTOMGP</article-id><article-categories><subj-group subj-group-type="toc-heading" xml:lang="en"><subject>Articles</subject></subj-group><subj-group subj-group-type="toc-heading" xml:lang="ru"><subject>Статьи</subject></subj-group><subj-group subj-group-type="toc-heading" xml:lang="zh"><subject>Articles</subject></subj-group><subj-group subj-group-type="article-type"><subject>Research Article</subject></subj-group></article-categories><title-group><article-title xml:lang="en">Translating the biblical key word ḥeseḏ into Arabic and Japanese: A theological and comparative semantic study</article-title><trans-title-group xml:lang="ru"><trans-title>Перевод библейского ключевого слова ḥeseḏ на арабский и японский языки: теологическое и сравнительно-семантическое исследование</trans-title></trans-title-group><trans-title-group xml:lang="zh"><trans-title/></trans-title-group></title-group><contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author"><contrib-id contrib-id-type="orcid">https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8450-5361</contrib-id><name-alternatives><name xml:lang="en"><surname>Habib</surname><given-names>Sandy</given-names></name><name xml:lang="ru"><surname>Хабиб</surname><given-names>Сэнди</given-names></name><name xml:lang="zh"><surname></surname><given-names></given-names></name></name-alternatives><bio xml:lang="ru"><p>преподает лингвистику в Академическом колледже Тель-Хай, Израиль. Он также является католическим священником, служащим в приходе Святого Маруна в Джише. Его научные интересы включают культурную семантику, религиозную семантику, взаимосвязь между языком и культурой и лингвопрагматику.</p></bio><email>havivsan@m.telhai.ac.il</email><xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1"/></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author"><contrib-id contrib-id-type="orcid">https://orcid.org/0009-0005-9859-009X</contrib-id><name-alternatives><name xml:lang="en"><surname>Sakaba</surname><given-names>Hiromichi</given-names></name><name xml:lang="ru"><surname>Сакаба</surname><given-names>Хиромити</given-names></name><name xml:lang="zh"><surname></surname><given-names></given-names></name></name-alternatives><bio xml:lang="ru"><p>доцент кафедры лингвистики в Университете Дошиша, Япония. Имеет степень PhD в области языка и культуры Осакского университета, был приглашенным исследователем в Австралийском национальном университете. Его научные интересы включают семантику, когнитивную лингвистику, взаимосвязь между языком и культурой, межкультурную коммуникацию. Занимается исследованиями терминов, обозначающих эмоции, на основе подхода Естественного Семантического Метаязыка</p></bio><email>hsakaba@mail.doshisha.ac.jp</email><xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2"/></contrib></contrib-group><aff-alternatives id="aff1"><aff><institution xml:lang="en">Tel-Hai College</institution></aff><aff><institution xml:lang="ru">Колледж Тель-Хай</institution></aff><aff><institution xml:lang="zh"></institution></aff></aff-alternatives><aff-alternatives id="aff2"><aff><institution xml:lang="en">Doshisha University</institution></aff><aff><institution xml:lang="ru">Университет Дошиша</institution></aff><aff><institution xml:lang="zh"></institution></aff></aff-alternatives><pub-date date-type="pub" iso-8601-date="2025-10-02" publication-format="electronic"><day>02</day><month>10</month><year>2025</year></pub-date><volume>29</volume><issue>3</issue><issue-title xml:lang="en"/><issue-title xml:lang="ru"/><fpage>607</fpage><lpage>630</lpage><history><date date-type="received" iso-8601-date="2025-10-02"><day>02</day><month>10</month><year>2025</year></date></history><permissions><copyright-statement xml:lang="en">Copyright ©; 2025, Habib S., Sakaba H.</copyright-statement><copyright-statement xml:lang="ru">Copyright ©; 2025, Хабиб С., Сакаба Х.</copyright-statement><copyright-statement xml:lang="zh">Copyright ©; 2025, Habib S., Sakaba H.</copyright-statement><copyright-year>2025</copyright-year><copyright-holder xml:lang="en">Habib S., Sakaba H.</copyright-holder><copyright-holder xml:lang="ru">Хабиб С., Сакаба Х.</copyright-holder><copyright-holder xml:lang="zh">Habib S., Sakaba H.</copyright-holder><ali:free_to_read xmlns:ali="http://www.niso.org/schemas/ali/1.0/"/><license><ali:license_ref xmlns:ali="http://www.niso.org/schemas/ali/1.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0</ali:license_ref></license></permissions><self-uri xlink:href="https://journals.rudn.ru/linguistics/article/view/46247">https://journals.rudn.ru/linguistics/article/view/46247</self-uri><abstract xml:lang="en"><p>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.</p></abstract><trans-abstract xml:lang="ru"><p>Перевод слов, имеющих культурную и религиозную окраску, представляет собой сложную задачу для переводчиков. Нюансы значения этих слов могут быть утрачены или искажены в языке перевода. Одним из таких слов является ḥeseḏ (דסֶ חֶ֕ ) - ключевое слово библейского иврита, которое не поддается переводу. Цель данной статьи - исследовать, как библейское слово ḥeseḏ (דֶסחֶ֕ ) переводится на арабский и японский языки. Это слово часто переводится на английский как ‘mercy’ или ‘lovingkindness’, но исследования показывают, что оно не означает ни того, ни другого и не имеет эквивалента в английском языке. Исследовав два арабских и два японских перевода Библии с применением корпусного анализа и Естественного Семантического Метаязыка, авторы данной работы обнаружили, что в арабском языке есть слово, близкое по значению к исходному. Однако оно не используется в одном из двух исследуемых арабских переводов, а в другом встречается лишь в нескольких стихах. Что касается японского языка, то в нем нет близкого эквивалента ḥeseḏ. Полученные результаты вносят вклад в лингвистику и теологию в целом, а также в перевод Библии в частности. Они могут помочь переводчикам Библии лучше понять значение этого слова, выбрать наиболее близкий вариант его перевода на арабский и японский языки и определить, есть ли в языках, на которые они переводят Библию, точные или близкие эквиваленты этого ключевого библейского слова.</p></trans-abstract><trans-abstract xml:lang="zh"/><kwd-group xml:lang="en"><kwd>translation equivalents</kwd><kwd>Bible translation</kwd><kwd>ḥeseḏ</kwd><kwd>Natural Semantic Metalanguage</kwd><kwd>Arabic</kwd><kwd>Japanese</kwd><kwd>ḥeseḏ</kwd></kwd-group><kwd-group xml:lang="ru"><kwd>переводные эквиваленты</kwd><kwd>перевод Библии</kwd><kwd>Естественный Семантический Метаязык</kwd><kwd>арабский язык</kwd><kwd>японский язык</kwd></kwd-group><funding-group/></article-meta><fn-group/></front><body></body><back><ref-list><ref id="B1"><label>1.</label><mixed-citation>Amberber, Mengistu. 2008. Semantic primes in Amharic. In Cliff Goddard (ed.), Cross-linguistic semantics, 83–119. 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