Core Glossary
Ezra — Core Glossary (Hmong Language Package)
Register, script (RPA), and risk-tier definitions inherited unchanged from the baseline bible_term_registry.json. Entries marked [TM-REUSE] copy the exact fixed Hmong string from assets/translation_memory.json and may never receive an alternate rendering. Entries marked [NEW] are proposed additions surfaced by full-book coverage of Ezra, pending formal TM-revision review before becoming permanent, per 12_ai_translation_requirements.md §2.4 and §9. Entries marked [REVIEW] are flagged [TRANSLATOR REVIEW NEEDED] and must not be finalized without human theologian input.
| # | English Term | Hebrew/Aramaic Original | Transliteration | Hmong Rendering | Risk Level | Doctrine(s) | Chapters | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | God | אֱלֹהִים | Elohim | Vajtswv | Low | Sovereignty over Pagan Nations | all | [TM-REUSE] | Exact reuse of Romans baseline entry #1. |
| 2 | LORD (YHWH) | יהוה | YHWH | tus Tswv | Low | all doctrines | all | [TM-REUSE] | Exact reuse of Romans baseline entry #2; never substitute a divine-name transliteration (e.g. “Yehauvas”) per baseline forbidden-substitution rule. |
| 3 | ”the LORD God of heaven” (title) | יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵי הַשָּׁמַיִם / אֱלָהּ שְׁמַיָּא | YHWH elohei hashamayim / elah shemaya | tus Tswv, Vajtswv uas kav saum ntuj ceeb tsheej | Critical | Sovereignty over Pagan Nations | 1, 5, 6, 7 | [NEW] | Never render with bare “Ntuj” as God’s name (permanently forbidden per baseline). Requires teaching note distinguishing Cyrus’s functional acknowledgment from covenant faith. |
| 4 | Stirred up (the spirit/will of a king) | הֵעִיר…רוּחַ | he’ir…ruach | Vajtswv txhawb … lub siab | Critical | Sovereignty over Pagan Nations | 1 | [NEW] | Must use siab (will/heart), never ntsuj plig, to avoid implying spirit-possession of a pagan king (parallel to baseline’s forbidden nkag/possession rendering for Rom. 5:12). |
| 5 | Temple / House (of the LORD) | בַּיִת / בֵּית־יְהוָה | bayit / beit-YHWH | lub Tuam Tsev (ntawm tus Tswv) | Medium | Restoration of Temple Worship | 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 | [NEW] | Keep structurally distinct from thaj xwm kab (ancestor-spirit household altar shelf). |
| 6 | Freewill offering | נְדָבָה | nedavah | khoom pub ntawm lub siab nyiam pub | Medium | Restoration of Temple Worship | 1, 2, 3 | [NEW] | Kept distinct from the sacrificial fij domain; a building-fund gift, not a sacrifice. |
| 7 | Temple vessels/implements | כְּלִים | kelim | tej twj siv hauv lub Tuam Tsev | Medium | Restoration of Temple Worship | 1, 2, 6, 8 | [NEW] | Comprehension gap; must not be glossed with shamanic ritual-implement vocabulary. |
| 8 | Exile community / returnees | גּוֹלָה | golah | cov uas raug ntes coj mus poob teb chaws / cov rov qab los | Medium | Sovereignty over Pagan Nations; Rebuilding and Covenant Renewal | 1, 2, 8 | [NEW] | Corporate covenant-body sense; must be used consistently, not as mere “travelers.” |
| 9 | Assembly / congregation | קָהָל | qahal | cov neeg sib sau ua ib pawg | Medium | Rebuilding and Covenant Renewal; Confession and Corporate Repentance | 2, 10 | [NEW] | Must not be confused with NT-derived pawg ntseeg (church). |
| 10 | Temple servants (Nethinim) | נְתִינִים | netinim | cov raug muab pub ua haujlwm hauv lub Tuam Tsev | Medium | Restoration of Temple Worship | 2 | [NEW] | Deliberately not rendered with qhev [TM-REUSE]; closer to the baseline’s deacon_servant pattern. |
| 11 | Genealogical registers | כָּתוּב / כַּתָּב הַיָּחַשׂ | katuv / ketav hayachas | cov npe raws caj ceg | Low | Rebuilding and Covenant Renewal | 2 | [NEW] | Positive cultural bridge (Hmong keeb kwm caj ceg); purpose (priestly legitimacy) must be distinguished from ancestor-veneration purpose. |
| 12 | Altar | מִזְבֵּחַ | mizbeach | lub thaj fij (rau tus Tswv) | Critical | Restoration of Temple Worship | 3 | [NEW] | Direct lexical overlap with the ancestor-spirit altar shelf (thaj xwm kab); mandatory “rau tus Tswv” qualifier at every occurrence. |
| 13 | Burnt offering | עוֹלָה | olah | khoom fij kub hlawv | Critical | Restoration of Temple Worship | 3 | [NEW] | Reuses baseline flagged fij [TM-REUSE] domain; same disambiguation strategy as Rom. 3:25, 12:1. |
| 14 | Steadfast love / lovingkindness (chesed) | חֶסֶד | chesed | txoj kev hlub ruaj khov (mus ib txhis) | Medium | Restoration of Temple Worship; Rebuilding and Covenant Renewal | 3 | [REVIEW] | [TRANSLATOR REVIEW NEEDED: chesed vs. eleos] — richer covenant-loyalty nuance than the baseline’s Romans-era “mercy” (txoj kev khuv leej); not to be silently merged. |
| 15 | Adversaries | צָרִים | tsarim | cov tawm tsam | Low | Separation from Syncretism | 4 | [NEW] | Stable descriptive term. |
| 16 | Peoples of the land (syncretistic locals) | עַם־הָאָרֶץ | am ha’aretz | cov neeg nyob hauv thaj av | High | Separation from Syncretism | 4, 9, 10 | [NEW] | Must be kept distinct from baseline’s nations_gentiles (lwm Haiv Neeg), a positive missional category; here a negative syncretism-warning category. |
| 17 | ”Eye of God” (providence idiom) | עֵין אֱלָהֲהֹם | ein elahahom | lawv tus Vajtswv qhov muag saib ntsoov lawv | Medium | Sovereignty over Pagan Nations; Rebuilding and Covenant Renewal | 5 | [NEW] | Distinguish from folk-belief in ritually-maintained ancestral/spirit “watching.” |
| 18 | Dedication (of the Temple) | חֲנֻכָּה | chanukah | kev muab lub Tuam Tsev pub rau tus Tswv siv | High | Restoration of Temple Worship | 6 | [NEW] | Collides with Hmong house-inauguration spirit-appeasement ritual; mandatory contrast teaching. |
| 19 | Purified / consecrated | טהר (dawb huv equivalent) | taher | ua kom dawb huv | High | Restoration of Temple Worship; Separation from Syncretism | 6, 8 | [TM-REUSE] | Reuses baseline’s existing Critical/High “sanctification” flag on dawb huv exactly; ritual-purity collision inherited directly. |
| 20 | Passover | פֶּסַח | pesach | Kevcai Hla Dhau | Low | Restoration of Temple Worship | 6 | [NEW] | Already stable in existing Hmong Christian usage. |
| 21 | Separation from uncleanness of the nations | נִבְדָּל מִטֻּמְאַת גּוֹיֵ הָאָרֶץ | nivdal mitum’at goyei-ha’aretz | cais tawm ntawm tej kev qias tsis huv ntawm cov neeg tsis hwm Vajtswv | High | Separation from Syncretism | 6, 9, 10 | [NEW] | Must be taught as separation from idolatrous practice, not ethnic contempt. |
| 22 | Scribe | סֹפֵר | sofer | tus kws ntawv txawj Txoj Kevcai | Medium | Role of Scripture in Community Renewal | 7 | [NEW] | Office-bridging term, no exact Hmong analogue; must never draw on txiv neeb shamanic vocabulary. |
| 23 | Law (Mosaic/Divine) | תּוֹרָה | torah | Txoj Kevcai (ntawm Vajtswv / Mauxes) | Critical | Role of Scripture in Community Renewal; Restoration of Temple Worship | 3, 6, 7, 9, 10 | [TM-REUSE] | Exact reuse of Romans baseline entry #27; mandatory qualifier never dropped. |
| 24 | Seek — do — teach [the Law] | דָּרַשׁ / עָשָׂה / לִמֵּד | darash / asah / lamed | nrhiav / coj raws / qhia Txoj Kevcai | Medium | Role of Scripture in Community Renewal | 7 | [NEW] | Three-part structure must be preserved intact; collapsing it loses the community-renewal/transmission emphasis. |
| 25 | Hand of the LORD (providence idiom) | יַד־יְהוָה | yad-YHWH | Vajtswv txhais tes zoo nyob saum (nws) | High | Sovereignty over Pagan Nations | 7, 8 | [NEW] | Collides with shamanic “spirit-hand” empowerment ritual; must be taught as providential blessing, not ritual mediation. |
| 26 | Favor (court favor, chen) | חֵן | chen | kev tau txais kev hlub/kev pom zoo ntawm vaj ntxwv | Medium | Sovereignty over Pagan Nations | 7 | [NEW] | Deliberately NOT rendered with txiaj ntsim [TM-REUSE] (reserved for salvific grace, Critical). |
| 27 | Fasting | צוֹם | tsom | yoo mov thov Vajtswv pab tsom kwm | High | Confession and Corporate Repentance | 8 | [NEW] | Collides with shamanic ascetic power-generation fasting; must be taught as humble petition, not power-technique. |
| 28 | Trespass / covenant unfaithfulness | מַעַל | ma’al | kev tsis ncaj rau tus Tswv (thiab txhaum tsis tuav rawv Txoj Kevcai) | High | Confession and Corporate Repentance | 9 | [NEW] | Intensified variant of, but distinct from, baseline’s sin_act_and_condition (txhaum); denotes covenant treachery, not ordinary fault. |
| 29 | Guilt | אַשְׁמָה | ashmah | kev muaj txim | Medium | Confession and Corporate Repentance | 9 | [NEW] | Comprehension-level; parallels ma’al above. |
| 30 | Holy seed | זֶרַע הַקֹּדֶשׁ | zera haqodesh | noob dawb huv ntawm Vajtswv | Critical | Separation from Syncretism | 9 | [NEW] | Double collision: dawb huv ritual-purity risk plus Hmong clan-lineage-purity/exogamy custom; mandatory teaching against ethnic-purity misreading. |
| 31 | Abomination | תּוֹעֵבָה | to’evah | tej kev qias vuab tsuab uas Vajtswv ntxub | High | Separation from Syncretism | 9 | [NEW] | Parallels register of baseline’s idol entry (dab mlom). |
| 32 | Confession (corporate) | הִתְוַדּוּ (root ידה) | hitvadu / yadah | lees paub tej kev txhaum rau tus Tswv | High | Confession and Corporate Repentance | 10 | [NEW] | Must be distinguished from Hmong clan-reparation/spirit-appeasement models of resolving communal wrongdoing. |
| 33 | Covenant | בְּרִית | berit | kev cog lus (ua kev sib raug zoo nrog Vajtswv) | High | Rebuilding and Covenant Renewal | 10 | [REVIEW] | [TRANSLATOR REVIEW NEEDED: berit vs. epangelia] — related to but distinct from baseline’s promise (lus cog tseg); formal TM-revision review recommended. |
| 34 | Guilt/reparation offering | אָשָׁם | asham | khoom fij theej kev txhaum | Critical | Confession and Corporate Repentance | 10 | [TM-REUSE pattern] | Reuses baseline’s Critical fij/hilastērion disambiguation strategy exactly. |
| 35 | Remnant | שְׁאֵרִית (cf. Rom. leimma) | she’erit | cov seem | Low | Sovereignty over Pagan Nations | 9 | [TM-REUSE] | Exact reuse of Romans baseline entry (remnant). |
| 36 | Scripture | (כָּתוּב, generic) | katuv | Vaj Lug Kub | Low | Role of Scripture in Community Renewal | 6, 7 | [TM-REUSE] | Exact reuse of Romans baseline entry #79. |
| 37 | Prophet | (generic; cf. נָבִיא) | navi | tus cev Vajtswv lus | Low | Sovereignty over Pagan Nations | 5 | [NEW] | Stable existing Hmong Christian term. |
| 38 | Kingdom(s) (of pagan rulers) | מַלְכוּת | malkhut | tej Nceeg Vaj hauv ntiajteb | Low | Sovereignty over Pagan Nations | 1 | [NEW] | Distinguish from kingdom_of_god [TM-REUSE] (lub Nceeg Vaj ntawm Vajtswv), which denotes God’s own reign. |
Coverage Note
Every chapter of Ezra (1–10) contributes at least one entry above except where a chapter is explicitly logged in 07_semantic_analysis.md §C as reusing prior chapters’ vocabulary without introducing new load-bearing terms (chapter 8’s “hand of God” and golah vocabulary is reused from chs. 1 and 7; chapter 10’s “peoples of the land,” “holy seed,” and “assembly” vocabulary is reused from chs. 2, 4, and 9). No chapter is silently omitted.
Critical Risk Terms
Law Mosaic Divine
Approved rendering: Txoj Kevcai (ntawm Vajtswv / Mauxes)
Transliteration: torah
Doctrine: The Role of Scripture in Community Renewal
Rejected alternatives: bare ‘Txoj Kevcai’ without qualifier — rejected, collapses into kev cai dab qhuas (ancestral spirit-worship customs), imported loanword for ‘law’ — rejected, doctrinally inert
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Qualifier mandatory at every occurrence without exception (Ezra 3:2, 6:18, 7:6, 9:10-12, 10:3).
Grace
Approved rendering: txiaj ntsim
Transliteration: charis (NT parallel concept)
Doctrine: Grace and Salvation by Faith Alone (cross-book reference)
Rejected alternatives: koob hmoov (fortune/blessing tied to fate and ritual correctness) — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN for salvific sense
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Retained in the Ezra TM specifically to fence Ezra 7:28’s court-favor (chen) from this Critical entry — chen must never be rendered with txiaj ntsim.
Election Choose
Approved rendering: kev xaiv (Vajtswv xaiv raws li nws lub siab nyiam)
Transliteration: eklogē / eklegomai (NT parallel concept)
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty over Pagan Nations and History
Rejected alternatives: hmoov (impersonal fate/fortune) vocabulary — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN, collapses personal divine choice into fatalism
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Directly relevant to Ezra’s sovereignty doctrine: the same hmoov-collision risk documented for Cyrus’s ‘stirred up spirit’ (see stirred_up_spirit_of_king) is fenced by this entry’s existing prohibition.
Propitiation Atoning Sacrifice
Approved rendering: qhov theej txhoj kev txhaum
Transliteration: hilastērion (NT parallel concept)
Doctrine: Confession and Corporate Repentance
Rejected alternatives: transliterated loanword — rejected, opaque, bare ‘qhov theej’ without sufficiency qualifier — rejected
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Establishes the disambiguation strategy reused exactly for Ezra’s burnt_offering and guilt_reparation_offering entries: every ‘fij’-domain term must be explicitly marked as OT covenantal worship, never left ambiguous with shamanic appeasement.
Lord God Of Heaven
Approved rendering: tus Tswv, Vajtswv uas kav saum ntuj ceeb tsheej
Transliteration: YHWH elohei hashamayim / elah shemaya v’ar’a
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty over Pagan Nations and History
Rejected alternatives: bare ‘Ntuj’ as a divine title — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN, collapses YHWH into the impersonal Hmong high-sky concept with no personal-deity sense (same prohibition as the baseline ‘god’ entry), treating Cyrus’s/Darius’s/Artaxerxes’s use of this title as evidence of genuine covenant conversion — rejected, this is functional/political court-diplomatic acknowledgment, not saving faith
NEW ENTRY. Highest-risk phrase in Ezra; appears in the mouths of pagan rulers (Cyrus 1:2; Darius 6:10; Artaxerxes 7:12,21,23). Must always be built from the fixed ‘Vajtswv’ root plus the descriptive genitive; mandatory teaching note distinguishing pagan functional acknowledgment from Ezra’s own covenant relationship to tus Tswv. Occurs in chs. 1, 5, 6, 7.
Stirred Up Spirit Of King
Approved rendering: Vajtswv txhawb … lub siab
Transliteration: he’ir…et-ruach
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty over Pagan Nations and History
Rejected alternatives: rendering with ‘ntsuj plig’ (spirit/soul) instead of ‘siab’ (will/heart) — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN, would imply the pagan king was entered/possessed by a spirit (dab nkag), the same shamanic-possession collision the Romans baseline forbids for ‘sin entered the world’ (Rom. 5:12)
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 1:1). God acts upon the king’s will/disposition (siab); He does not indwell or possess him. Must never use ntsuj plig-based phrasing at any occurrence. Core passage thesis term.
Altar
Approved rendering: lub thaj fij rau tus Tswv
Transliteration: mizbeach
Doctrine: Restoration of Temple Worship
Rejected alternatives: bare ‘thaj’ with no qualifier — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN, this is the exact word for the household/clan ancestor-spirit altar shelf (thaj xwm kab) central to Hmong traditional religion
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 3:2-3). Mandatory ‘rau tus Tswv’ qualifier at every single occurrence, with no exception, mirroring the baseline’s hwjchim/Txoj Kevcai qualifier-enforcement pattern.
Burnt Offering
Approved rendering: khoom fij kub hlawv
Transliteration: olah
Doctrine: Restoration of Temple Worship
Rejected alternatives: unqualified ‘fij’ left ambiguous with spirit-appeasement offerings (fij dab) — rejected, reuses the baseline’s existing Critical fij/hilastērion disambiguation strategy
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 3:3-6). Must always be explicitly marked as OT covenantal worship distinct from shamanic appeasement, per the baseline’s existing fij disambiguation rule (cf. Rom 3:25, 12:1).
Guilt Reparation Offering
Approved rendering: khoom fij theej kev txhaum
Transliteration: asham
Doctrine: Confession and Corporate Repentance
Rejected alternatives: leaving ‘fij’ ambiguous with a repeatable shamanic appeasement payment — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN, reuses the baseline’s Critical fij/hilastērion disambiguation strategy exactly
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 10:19). Must always be marked as an OT ritual-legal reparation category, distinct from Christ’s atonement and from shamanic appeasement.
Holy Seed
Approved rendering: noob dawb huv ntawm Vajtswv
Transliteration: zera haqodesh
Doctrine: Separation from Syncretism
Rejected alternatives: reading as an endorsement of Hmong-style clan-lineage-purity/exogamy nationalism — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN, this concerns covenant loyalty and worship purity, never ethnic superiority or bloodline purity
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 9:2). Double collision risk: (1) dawb huv ritual-purity baggage; (2) Hmong clan-lineage-purity/exogamy custom. Single highest-risk phrase in the book; mandatory teaching note referencing 6:21’s convert-inclusive counterexample.
High Risk Terms
Power
Approved rendering: hwjchim
Transliteration: dynamis (NT parallel concept)
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty over Pagan Nations and History
Rejected alternatives: bare, unqualified hwjchim — FORBIDDEN, identical to a shaman’s (txiv neeb) ritual power
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Relevant wherever Ezra’s narrative touches on divine or imperial power; always qualify as ‘Vajtswv hwjchim’ when denoting God’s power.
Governing Authority
Approved rendering: cov muaj hwjchim kav teb chaws
Transliteration: exousia (NT parallel concept)
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty over Pagan Nations and History
Rejected alternatives: unmarked hwjchim framing rulers’ authority as shamanic spiritual power — rejected
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Applicable to the Persian imperial administration throughout Ezra 1, 4-7.
Idol
Approved rendering: dab mlom
Transliteration: eidōlon (NT parallel concept)
Doctrine: Separation from Syncretism
Rejected alternatives: generic ‘statue’ softening — rejected, must not soften since the text condemns exactly this category
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Relevant background term for Ezra 9-10’s abomination/idolatry warnings; parallels the register expected for to’evah (abomination).
Sin Act And Condition
Approved rendering: txhaum / kev txhaum
Transliteration: hamartia (NT parallel concept)
Doctrine: Confession and Corporate Repentance
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Retained specifically to fence against collapsing ma’al (trespass_covenant_unfaithfulness, Ezra 9) into ordinary txhaum; ma’al denotes covenant treachery, a stronger, more specific category than baseline sin.
Worship Serve Cultic
Approved rendering: pehawm / pab teev
Transliteration: latreuō (NT parallel concept)
Doctrine: Restoration of Temple Worship
Rejected alternatives: bare, unanchored pehawm — FORBIDDEN, identical verb used for pehawm dab (ancestor/spirit veneration)
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Object of pehawm must always be stated (‘pehawm Vajtswv’) wherever Ezra’s restored worship is described.
Servant Slave Doulos
Approved rendering: qhev
Transliteration: doulos (NT parallel concept)
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Rejected alternatives: koom tes (co-worker/partner) — rejected softening
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Retained specifically to fence against applying qhev to the Nethinim (temple_servants_nethinim, Ezra 2:43-58), a dedicated ritual-service class, not chattel slaves or bondservants-to-Christ.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: kev raug ua kom dawb huv
Transliteration: hagiasmos (NT parallel concept); taher
Doctrine: Restoration of Temple Worship
Rejected alternatives: treating dawb huv as a repeatable ritual-cleansing state — rejected
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. The fixed ‘dawb huv’ string is reused exactly for Ezra 6:20, 8:15-30’s priestly/Levitical purification (see purified_consecrated_priests) and for holy_seed’s ‘noob dawb huv’ compound; must be taught as consecration for covenant service, never folk ritual-contamination removal.
Living Sacrifice
Approved rendering: khoom fij uas muaj txoj sia nyob
Transliteration: thysia zōsa (NT parallel concept)
Doctrine: Restoration of Temple Worship
Rejected alternatives: unqualified ‘fij’ identical to offering language for ancestors/spirits (fij dab, fij xwm kab) — rejected
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Establishes precedent for the ‘fij’ domain’s ethical-devotion sense; Ezra’s altar and burnt_offering entries instead occupy the domain’s literal-cultic sense and must be kept distinguished from this NT ethical-devotion sense in any cross-book teaching material.
Hand Of The Lord
Approved rendering: Vajtswv txhais tes zoo nyob saum (nws)
Transliteration: yad-YHWH
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty over Pagan Nations and History
Rejected alternatives: unmarked ritual-mediation framing echoing a txiv neeb’s spirit-hand empowerment of a medium — rejected, must always be taught as direct providential enablement, not ritual channel
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 7:6,9,28; 8:18,22,31). Recurring providence idiom describing God’s favorable, enabling presence upon a person.
Temple Dedication
Approved rendering: kev muab lub Tuam Tsev pub rau tus Tswv siv
Transliteration: chanukat / chanukah
Doctrine: Restoration of Temple Worship
Rejected alternatives: framing modeled on the Hmong house-inauguration/blessing ceremony that installs and appeases protective household spirits in a new dwelling — rejected without explicit contrast teaching
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 6:16-18). Must be taught as unique, once-for-all consecration of a place for exclusive covenant worship, never a repeatable spirit-installation rite.
Purified Consecrated Priests
Approved rendering: ua kom dawb huv
Transliteration: taher
Doctrine: Restoration of Temple Worship
Rejected alternatives: treating this as repeatable folk ritual-contamination removal — rejected, inherits the Romans baseline’s existing Critical/High sanctification flag on dawb huv exactly
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 6:20, 8:15-30 priestly/Levitical purification before Passover and the return journey). Reuses the fixed Hmong string from the baseline’s sanctification entry exactly; must be taught as consecration for covenant service, not folk ritual-cleansing.
Covenant Human Response
Approved rendering: kev cog lus (ua kev sib raug zoo nrog Vajtswv)
Transliteration: berit
Doctrine: Rebuilding and Covenant Renewal
Rejected alternatives: silently merging with the baseline’s ‘promise’ entry (lus cog tseg, epangelia) — rejected, reverses covenantal direction: berit here is the people’s pledge to God, not God’s unilateral pledge to the people
NEW ENTRY — [TRANSLATOR REVIEW NEEDED: berit vs. epangelia] (Ezra 10:3). Flagged pending formal TM-revision review; must not be finalized as a permanent cross-book OT covenant entry without human theologian input. Kept lexically related to but distinguishable from lus cog tseg.
Trespass Covenant Unfaithfulness
Approved rendering: kev tsis ncaj rau tus Tswv (thiab txhaum tsis tuav rawv Txoj Kevcai)
Transliteration: ma’al
Doctrine: Confession and Corporate Repentance
Rejected alternatives: treating this as equivalent to the baseline’s ordinary sin_act_and_condition (txhaum) — rejected, ma’al denotes covenant treachery/sacrilegious betrayal of trust, stronger and more specific than ordinary wrongdoing
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 9:1-15). Hmong customary wrongdoing-repair provides no ready category for covenant treachery against God; requires explicit contrast teaching.
Confession Corporate
Approved rendering: lees paub tej kev txhaum rau tus Tswv
Transliteration: hitvadu (root yadah)
Doctrine: Confession and Corporate Repentance
Rejected alternatives: assimilation into Hmong clan/elder-negotiated reparation or ritual spirit-appeasement models for resolving communal wrongdoing — rejected, Ezra’s confession is verbal and directed to God as the wronged covenant party, not to an aggrieved clan or spirit
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 10:1-11). Public, corporate, verbal, God-ward acknowledgment of covenant failure; mandatory contrast teaching required.
Fasting Tsom
Approved rendering: yoo mov thov Vajtswv pab tsom kwm
Transliteration: tsom
Doctrine: Confession and Corporate Repentance
Rejected alternatives: framing as an ascetic power-generation technique paralleling a txiv neeb’s ritual fasting to accumulate spiritual power — rejected, must be taught as humble petition to the sovereign God
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 8:21-23). Voluntary abstention as an act of humble petition for God’s protection.
Peoples Of The Land
Approved rendering: cov neeg nyob hauv thaj av
Transliteration: am ha’aretz
Doctrine: Separation from Syncretism
Rejected alternatives: conflating with the baseline’s ‘nations_gentiles’ (lwm Haiv Neeg) positive missional category — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN, this phrase denotes specifically idol-entangled local populations whose religious mixture is the very danger the text warns against, not the legitimate mission-field of the gospel
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 4, 9, 10). Must be kept lexically and conceptually distinct from lwm Haiv Neeg.
Separation From Uncleanness
Approved rendering: cais tawm ntawm tej kev qias tsis huv ntawm cov neeg tsis hwm Vajtswv nyob hauv thaj av
Transliteration: hanivdal mitum’at goyei-ha’aretz
Doctrine: Separation from Syncretism
Rejected alternatives: rendering that implies ethnic contempt for persons as such — rejected, the separation is from idolatrous religious practice, not from persons
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 6:21, 9:1-2, 10:11). Mandatory teaching-note requirement to prevent an ethnic-exclusion misreading.
Abomination
Approved rendering: tej kev qias vuab tsuab uas Vajtswv ntxub
Transliteration: to’evah
Doctrine: Separation from Syncretism
Rejected alternatives: softening to a generic ‘wrongdoing’ — rejected, the term’s force is precisely the point of the intermarriage-with-idolaters warning
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 9:1,11,14). Parallels the register of the baseline’s idol entry (dab mlom, High risk).
Medium Risk Terms
Mercy
Approved rendering: txoj kev khuv leej
Transliteration: eleos (NT parallel concept)
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty over Pagan Nations and History
Rejected alternatives: txiaj ntsim (grace) used interchangeably — rejected, mercy and grace are theologically distinct emphases
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Retained specifically to fence against collapsing chesed (steadfast_love_chesed, Ezra 3:11) into this entry; chesed’s covenant-loyalty nuance is richer than eleos-style compassion and must not be silently merged with it.
Will Of God
Approved rendering: Vajtswv lub siab nyiam
Transliteration: thelēma theou (NT parallel concept)
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty over Pagan Nations and History
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. The ‘siab’ (will/heart) vocabulary underlying this entry is the required lexical basis for stirred_up_spirit_of_king (Ezra 1:1) — never ntsuj plig.
Deacon Servant
Approved rendering: tus pab tu pawg ntseeg
Transliteration: diakonos (NT parallel concept)
Doctrine: Restoration of Temple Worship
Rejected alternatives: qhev — rejected, would confuse a recognized office of service with the total-ownership bondservant metaphor
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Cited as the closer structural pattern-analogue for the Nethinim’s office-of-service, though a dedicated new Ezra entry (temple_servants_nethinim) is used for the actual rendering.
Eye Of God Providence
Approved rendering: lawv tus Vajtswv qhov muag saib ntsoov lawv
Transliteration: ein elahahom
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty over Pagan Nations and History
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 5:5). Positive providence idiom; must be distinguished from folk-belief in ritually-maintained ancestral/spirit watching that lapses without appeasement — God’s watchfulness here is unconditional covenant faithfulness.
Temple House Of The Lord
Approved rendering: lub Tuam Tsev (ntawm tus Tswv)
Transliteration: bayit / beit-YHWH
Doctrine: Restoration of Temple Worship
Rejected alternatives: shrine-descriptive vocabulary shared with thaj xwm kab household altar shelf — rejected, must remain structurally distinct
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 1, 3, 4, 5, 6). Comprehension gap only; keep lexically and structurally distinct from the household/clan ancestor-spirit altar shelf.
Freewill Offering
Approved rendering: khoom pub ntawm lub siab nyiam pub
Transliteration: nedavah
Doctrine: Restoration of Temple Worship
Rejected alternatives: assimilation into coercive ancestral gift-giving customs performed at a thaj xwm kab to secure ancestral goodwill — rejected, this is a voluntary building-fund gift, not a transactional appeasement gift
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 1:4, 2:68-69, 3:5). Kept lexically distinct from the fij sacrificial domain.
Temple Vessels
Approved rendering: tej twj siv hauv lub Tuam Tsev ntawm tus Tswv
Transliteration: kelim / kelei veit-YHWH
Doctrine: Restoration of Temple Worship
Rejected alternatives: glossing with shamanic ritual-implement vocabulary (a txiv neeb’s ritual tools) — rejected, these are worship implements consecrated to God, not ritual power-objects
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 1:7-11, 6:5, 8:25-34). Comprehension gap; no native Hmong category for a dedicated sacred ritual vessel outside the shamanic domain.
Feast Of Tabernacles
Approved rendering: Kevcai Nyob Tsev Pheeb Suab
Transliteration: chag hasukkot
Doctrine: Restoration of Temple Worship
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 3:4). Comprehension gap only; no traditional-religion collision; requires an explanatory note distinguishing it from ordinary seasonal shelter-building.
Urim And Thummim
Approved rendering: Ulis thiab Tumis
Transliteration: Urim veTummim
Doctrine: Restoration of Temple Worship
Rejected alternatives: glossing with txiv neeb divinatory vocabulary (bone-casting, omen-reading) — rejected, would wrongly imply a shamanic divinatory parallel
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 2:63). Retained as a transliterated loanword with mandatory first-use footnote.
Exile Community Returnees
Approved rendering: cov uas raug ntes coj mus poob teb chaws / cov rov qab los
Transliteration: hagolah
Doctrine: Rebuilding and Covenant Renewal
Rejected alternatives: reading golah as merely ‘travelers’ with no corporate-covenant sense — rejected, must be used consistently to preserve golah’s corporate, covenantal referent
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 1, 2, 8). No single Hmong noun captures ‘exile-community-as-covenant-body’; the descriptive phrase must be used with total consistency across every occurrence in the book.
Assembly Congregation
Approved rendering: cov neeg sib sau ua ib pawg
Transliteration: haqahal
Doctrine: Rebuilding and Covenant Renewal
Rejected alternatives: NT-derived ‘pawg ntseeg’ (church) — rejected, would anachronistically import New Testament ekklēsia-vocabulary into this OT covenant-census context
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 2, 10). Corporate worshiping/covenant body of Israel gathered by census or corporate action.
Temple Servants Nethinim
Approved rendering: cov raug muab pub ua haujlwm hauv lub Tuam Tsev
Transliteration: hanetinim
Doctrine: Restoration of Temple Worship
Rejected alternatives: baseline’s ‘qhev’ (servant_slave_doulos) — rejected, reserved for the bondservant-to-Christ metaphor and literal chattel slavery, not this dedicated ritual-service class, shamanic ritual-servant framing — rejected
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 2:43-58). Closer in kind to the baseline’s deacon_servant office-pattern than to qhev.
Scribe
Approved rendering: tus kws ntawv txawj Txoj Kevcai
Transliteration: sofer
Doctrine: The Role of Scripture in Community Renewal
Rejected alternatives: txiv neeb (shaman)-adjacent vocabulary for Scripture-teaching authority — FORBIDDEN, would wrongly cast Scripture-based teaching authority as functionally equivalent to shamanic ritual-specialist knowledge
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 7:6). Office-bridging term, no exact Hmong social role for an authoritative Scripture scholar; requires a teaching note, not a lexical fix.
Seek Do Teach
Approved rendering: nrhiav / coj raws / qhia Txoj Kevcai
Transliteration: darash / asah / lamed
Doctrine: The Role of Scripture in Community Renewal
Rejected alternatives: collapsing the three-part structure into a single verb such as ‘obey the law’ — rejected, loses the community-renewal emphasis on disciplined study and active transmission
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 7:10). Three-part structure must be preserved intact in every teaching paraphrase.
Favor Court Chen
Approved rendering: kev tau txais kev hlub / kev pom zoo ntawm vaj ntxwv
Transliteration: chen
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty over Pagan Nations and History
Rejected alternatives: baseline’s ‘txiaj ntsim’ (grace, Critical) — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN for this referent, reserved exclusively for salvific grace; court-favor and salvific grace must remain lexically distinct
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 7:28). Royal court-relational favor, not salvific.
Guilt Ashmah
Approved rendering: kev muaj txim
Transliteration: ashmah
Doctrine: Confession and Corporate Repentance
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 9:6-7,13,15). Comprehension-level term paralleling ma’al; must be taught in the same God-ward covenantal frame, not as ordinary social culpability.
Steadfast Love Chesed
Approved rendering: txoj kev hlub ruaj khov mus ib txhis
Transliteration: chesed
Doctrine: Restoration of Temple Worship
Rejected alternatives: silently merging with the baseline’s ‘mercy’ entry (txoj kev khuv leej, eleos) — rejected, chesed’s covenant-loyalty nuance is richer and more relationally binding than compassion-toward-the-miserable; collapsing the two would flatten the Old Testament’s covenant-fidelity emphasis
NEW ENTRY — [TRANSLATOR REVIEW NEEDED: chesed vs. eleos] (Ezra 3:11). Pending formal TM-revision review.
Ascent Pilgrimage Aliyah
Approved rendering: nce mus
Transliteration: alah / ya’al
Doctrine: Rebuilding and Covenant Renewal
Rejected alternatives: bare travel vocabulary with no pilgrimage nuance used without a teaching note — rejected, no natural Hmong lexical equivalent carries the covenantal-ascent nuance on its own
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 1:3, 1:11, 7:6, 8:1). The standing OT root for pilgrimage ascent to Jerusalem/the Temple mount; comprehension gap requiring a teaching note so return-from-exile reads as covenantal ascent, not bare migration.
Low Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: Vajtswv
Transliteration: Elohim
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Rejected alternatives: Ntuj (impersonal sky/heaven) — rejected, lacks personal deity sense, dab (spirit) — rejected, denotes false/lesser spirit
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Exact reuse; foundational to Ezra’s ‘LORD God of heaven’ compound title.
Lord
Approved rendering: tus Tswv
Transliteration: YHWH
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Rejected alternatives: divine-name transliteration (e.g. ‘Yehauvas’) — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN, sectarian NWT-style substitution pattern
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Exact reuse for YHWH throughout Ezra; the single most frequent divine reference in the book.
Promise
Approved rendering: lus cog tseg
Transliteration: epangelia (NT parallel concept)
Doctrine: Rebuilding and Covenant Renewal
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Retained specifically to fence against collapsing berit (covenant_human_response, Ezra 10:3) into this entry; lus cog tseg denotes God’s unilateral pledge, while berit here is the people’s pledge to God — opposite covenantal direction.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: lub Nceeg Vaj ntawm Vajtswv
Transliteration: basileia tou theou (NT parallel concept)
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Retained specifically to fence against conflation with kingdoms_of_pagan_rulers (malkhut, Ezra 1:1-2), a merely human political category.
Remnant
Approved rendering: cov seem
Transliteration: hypoleimma / leimma (NT parallel concept); she’erit
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty over Pagan Nations and History
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Exact reuse for Ezra 9:8,13,15’s she’erit (surviving covenant people).
Scripture
Approved rendering: Vaj Lug Kub
Transliteration: graphē (NT parallel concept)
Doctrine: The Role of Scripture in Community Renewal
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Exact reuse for Ezra 6:18, 7:6, 7:10’s references to the written Law/Scripture.
Passover
Approved rendering: Kevcai Hla Dhau
Transliteration: pesach
Doctrine: Restoration of Temple Worship
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 6:19-22). Already stable, established term in existing Hmong Christian usage; no collision.
Genealogical Registers
Approved rendering: cov npe raws caj ceg
Transliteration: katuv / ketav hayachas
Doctrine: Rebuilding and Covenant Renewal
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 2:59-63). Strong positive cultural bridge with Hmong clan-genealogy record-keeping (keeb kwm caj ceg); the purpose here (verifying priestly legitimacy) must be distinguished in teaching from ancestor-veneration/clan-honor purposes.
Prophet
Approved rendering: tus cev Vajtswv lus
Transliteration: navi
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty over Pagan Nations and History
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 5:1-2). Stable, existing Hmong Christian term; no collision.
Kingdoms Of Pagan Rulers
Approved rendering: tej Nceeg Vaj hauv ntiajteb
Transliteration: malkhut
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty over Pagan Nations and History
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 1:1-2). Must be kept distinct from the baseline’s kingdom_of_god (lub Nceeg Vaj ntawm Vajtswv), which denotes God’s own reign; this term denotes human political kingdoms operating under, and instrumentally serving, God’s sovereign plan.
Adversaries Tsarim
Approved rendering: cov tawm tsam
Transliteration: tsarim
Doctrine: Separation from Syncretism
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 4:1). Stable descriptive term; no collision.
Proclamation Royal Decree
Approved rendering: tsab lus tshaj tawm
Transliteration: qol
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty over Pagan Nations and History
NEW ENTRY (Ezra 1:1). Comprehension-level administrative term; no collision.