Core Glossary
Core Glossary — Jonah (English → Spanish)
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing term identified in analysis/07_semantic_analysis.md, across all four chapters of Jonah. Terms marked BASELINE REUSE are already fixed in the Romans translation_memory.json and are reused here without modification, per the hard rule that established renderings must not be altered. All other terms are new to this curriculum and require entry into translation memory before Phase 2 processing, per the Language Package’s term-addition protocol.
Risk Tier Legend
(Identical to baseline doctrine_risk_registry.json definitions)
- Critical — Mistranslation destroys essential doctrine. Human theologian review required for every occurrence.
- High — Mistranslation creates significant theological confusion or syncretism risk. Human theologian review required.
- Medium — Mistranslation reduces clarity but preserves essential meaning. Native speaker review recommended.
- Low — Mistranslation causes minor misunderstanding. Automated review sufficient.
Chapter 1 Terms
| Term | Original | Transliteration | Literal Meaning | Spanish Rendering | Doctrine | Risk | Baseline Status | Notes / Rejected Alternatives |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| word of the LORD | דְּבַר־יְהוָה | devar-YHWH | the LORD’s spoken message | ”palabra de Jehová” | Fulfillment of Prophecy / Divine Calling | Medium | New | Fixed prophetic formula; do not paraphrase as “mensaje de Dios,” which loses the technical prophetic-commissioning sense. |
| YHWH (LORD) | יְהוָה | YHWH | the covenant name of God | ”Jehová” | God / Sovereignty of God over Creation | Critical | New | RV1960/RVA2015 register anchor requires “Jehová.” Rejected: unqualified “Señor” (would collide visually/theologically with the baseline’s fixed NT rendering of kyrios as “Señor” for Christ); “SEÑOR” versalitas is a valid ecumenical alternative but must be chosen once and applied with total consistency, never mixed with “Jehová” within one document. |
| God / a god | אֱלֹהִים | Elohim | God (true) or a god (pagan), context-dependent | ”Dios” (true God) / “su dios” (pagan god, lowercase) | Sovereignty of God over Creation | High | Partial BASELINE REUSE (“Dios” = baseline god term) | Same Hebrew lexeme serves both referents (1:5 vs. 1:6, 1:9); disambiguate by capitalization and context, never capitalize a pagan referent. |
| arise | קוּם | qum | to stand up, get moving | ”levántate” | Divine Calling / Human Reluctance | Low | New | Reused verbatim in 3:2 as a deliberate narrative echo of Jonah’s first, refused commission. |
| flee | בָּרַח | barach | to run away | ”huyó” | Human Reluctance vs. God’s Universal Love | Medium | New | Teaching must supply the motive (avoiding Gentile mercy) that the bare verb does not convey. |
| from the presence of the LORD | מִלִּפְנֵי יְהוָה | millifnei YHWH | from before YHWH’s face | ”de la presencia de Jehová” | Sovereignty of God / Providence | Medium | New | Relational/vocational flight, not a claim of successful geographic escape from omnipresence. |
| Nineveh | נִינְוֵה | Nineveh (LXX Νινευή) | Assyrian capital city | ”Nínive” | Compassion for the Nations | Low (lexical) / Medium (doctrinal) | New | Standard Spanish form; teaching must generalize beyond the single historical city to “the nations” broadly. |
| Tarshish | תַּרְשִׁישׁ | Tarshish | proper noun, distant western port | ”Tarsis” | (supporting; Human Reluctance) | Low | New | Standard proper name. |
| storm / wind | סַעַר / רוּח | sa’ar / ruach | tempest / wind | ”tempestad” / “viento” | Sovereignty of God over Creation | Medium | New | Preserve active divine causation (“Jehová envió/hizo levantar”); do not passivize into “hubo una tempestad.” |
| lot(s) | גּוֹרָל | goral | lot (for casting) | “suertes” (echar suertes) | Providence / Sovereignty of God | Medium | New | God sovereignly overrules a pagan divinatory practice; not a general endorsement of lot-casting. |
| great fish | דָּג גָּדוֹל | dag gadol (LXX κῆτος μέγα) | large fish / sea creature (NOT specified as a whale) | “un gran pez” | Jonah as a Sign Foreshadowing Christ’s Resurrection | High | New | REJECTED: “una ballena” — the pervasive popular-culture rendering (“Jonás y la ballena”) has no basis in the Hebrew or Greek text and must be explicitly corrected in teaching notes. |
| three days and three nights | שְׁלֹשָׁה יָמִים וּשְׁלֹשָׁה לֵילוֹת | sheloshah yamim ushloshah leilot | a three-day, three-night span | ”tres días y tres noches” | Sign Foreshadowing Christ’s Resurrection | Critical | New | Direct textual basis for Matthew 12:40; must be rendered with total consistency and flagged for theologian review at every occurrence (1:17, cross-referenced in Matthew 12:40). |
Chapter 2 Terms
| Term | Original | Transliteration | Literal Meaning | Spanish Rendering | Doctrine | Risk | Baseline Status | Notes / Rejected Alternatives |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| prayer | תְּפִלָּה | tephillah | prayer, petition | ”oración” | Repentance and Divine Mercy | Low | New | Standard term. |
| Sheol | שְׁאוֹל | Sheol | OT realm of the dead | ”el Seol” | Sign Foreshadowing Christ’s Resurrection | Medium | New | REJECTED: “el infierno” — imports later NT/systematic categories foreign to this OT term. |
| salvation / deliverance | יְשׁוּעָה | yeshu’ah | salvation, deliverance | ”salvación” | Salvation | Critical | BASELINE REUSE | Must match baseline translation_memory.json salvation entry exactly; reinforces (does not contradict) the baseline’s warning against a merit-and-mediation framework. |
| covenant mercy / lovingkindness | חֶסֶד | chesed | steadfast covenant love/mercy | ”misericordia” | Compassion for the Nations | Medium | New | Referent in 2:8 is interpretively ambiguous (own loyalty vs. God’s mercy); record as alternatives_considered and flag for native speaker review. |
| worthless idols | הַבְלֵי־שָׁוְא | havlei-shav | vain/empty vanities | ”ídolos vanos” | Compassion for the Nations (contrast) | Low | New | Standard polemical OT idiom against false gods. |
Core Passage / Chapter 3 Terms (Jonah 3:1-10)
| Term | Original | Transliteration | Literal Meaning | Spanish Rendering | Doctrine | Risk | Baseline Status | Notes / Rejected Alternatives |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| great city | עִיר הַגְּדוֹלָה | ha’ir hagedolah | the great city | ”la gran ciudad” | Compassion for the Nations | Low | New | Standard descriptive phrase. |
| proclaim / call out | קָרָא | qara | to call, cry out, proclaim | ”proclama” / “pregona” | Compassion for the Nations / Evangelism (parallel) | Medium | New | REJECTED: baseline’s “evangelio” — Jonah’s message is judgment-proclamation, not the gospel proper, though its repentance-result foreshadows gospel dynamics. |
| forty days | אַרְבָּעִים יוֹם | arba’im yom | forty days | ”cuarenta días” | Repentance and Divine Mercy | Low | New | Standard biblical probation-period number; do not paraphrase into a vague time reference. |
| overthrown / overturned | נֶהְפָּכֶת | nehpakhet | to be overturned/destroyed | ”será destruida” / “será derribada” | Repentance and Divine Mercy (judgment threatened) | Medium | New | Same root as Sodom’s destruction (Gen 19:25); preserve catastrophic-judgment weight, avoid weak “tendrá problemas.” |
| believed | הֶאֱמִינוּ | he’eminu | trusted, put faith in | ”creyeron” | Human Reluctance vs. God’s Universal Love / Faith (parallel) | High | New (conceptually parallel to BASELINE fe) | Gentile trust-response to bare judgment proclamation; teach alongside baseline’s fe doctrine note distinguishing trust-that-acts from mere acknowledgment. |
| fast | צוֹם | tsom | ritual abstention from food | ”ayuno” | Repentance and Divine Mercy | Medium | New | Outward sign of inward turning already seen by God (3:10), not a merit-earning act; parallels baseline’s caution on grace vs. merit-cooperation. |
| sackcloth | שַׂק | saq | coarse mourning garment | ”cilicio” / “tela de saco” | Repentance and Divine Mercy | Medium | New | Standard term. |
| ashes | אֵפֶר | epher | ashes (mourning sign) | “cenizas” | Repentance and Divine Mercy | Low | New | May evoke Ash Wednesday associations; useful bridge if clarified as one-time crisis-repentance, not liturgical calendar practice. |
| turn / repent (human) | שׁוּב | shuv | to turn, return | ”se vuelva” / “se arrepienta” | Repentance and Divine Mercy | High | New | Human moral turning; keep lexically distinct in teaching notes from divine “relenting” (נָחַם) below, even though popular Spanish usage may blur the two under “arrepentirse.” |
| violence | חָמָס | chamas | violent injustice, oppression | ”violencia” | Repentance and Divine Mercy (concrete ethics) | Low | New | Standard term; names the specific sin repented of. |
| relent / change course (divine) | נָחַם (Niphal) | nacham | to be moved to compassion, alter one’s course | ”se arrepintió” (of God) — with mandatory clarifying note | Repentance and Divine Mercy | CRITICAL | New | Established RV1960 rendering, but requires an explicit teaching note at every occurrence (3:9, 3:10, 4:2) that this is anthropopathic — a compassion-driven change in announced action, NOT repentance from sin. This is the single highest-risk term in the book. |
| fierce anger / burning wrath | חֲרוֹן אַף | charon aph | burning of the nostrils; intense anger | ”su ardiente ira” / “el furor de su ira” | Repentance and Divine Mercy (judgment side) | Medium | New | Avoid understating to “disgusto”/“descontento”; preserves judicial seriousness. |
| evil / disaster (wordplay) | רָעָה | ra’ah | badness; spans moral evil AND calamity/disaster | ”maldad” / “mal camino” (moral) vs. “el desastre” / “la calamidad” (judgment) | Repentance and Divine Mercy | CRITICAL | New | One Hebrew word, two required Spanish glosses depending on sense within the same verse (3:10); mistranslating either sense, or losing the deliberate wordplay connecting them, requires theologian review. |
| perish | אָבַד | avad | to perish, be destroyed | ”perecer” | Repentance and Divine Mercy | Low | New | Standard term. |
Chapter 4 Terms
| Term | Original | Transliteration | Literal Meaning | Spanish Rendering | Doctrine | Risk | Baseline Status | Notes / Rejected Alternatives |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| be angry / displeased | חָרָה | charah | to burn, be angry | ”se enojó grandemente” / “se disgustó” | Human Reluctance vs. God’s Universal Love | Medium | New | Intensity must not be softened; the rhetorical shock depends on disproportionate anger. |
| gracious and compassionate | אֵל חַנּוּן וְרַחוּם | El channun verachum | God gracious and merciful | ”Dios clemente y misericordioso” | Compassion for the Nations / Grace (parallel) | High | Conceptually parallel to BASELINE grace (gracia) | Match Reina-Valera’s Exodus 34:6 phrasing for cross-passage OT consistency; this is the book’s thesis statement of divine character. |
| slow to anger | אֶרֶך אַפַּיִם | erekh apayim | long of nostril; patient | ”tardo para la ira” | Compassion for the Nations | Low | New | Standard Reina-Valera OT idiom; retain for consistency. |
| appoint / ordain (God’s governance of creation) | מנה (Piel) | manah | to assign, appoint, ordain | ”dispuso” / “preparó” | Sovereignty of God over Creation | High | New | Repeated 4x across the book (fish 1:17, plant 4:6, worm 4:7, wind 4:8); render with ONE consistent verb across all four occurrences to preserve the deliberate structural refrain. |
| plant (species uncertain) | קִיקָיוֹן | qiqayon | uncertain gourd/vine species; hapax legomenon | ”una planta” (+ translator’s note on species uncertainty) | Sovereignty of God over Creation | Medium | New | No single correct botanical Spanish term exists; do not commit to “calabacera”/“ricino”/“hiedra” as if settled. |
| worm | תּוֹלַעַת | tola’at | worm | ”gusano” | Sovereignty of God over Creation | Low | New | Paired with manah; same divine governance at smallest scale as at largest. |
| east wind (scorching) | רוּח קָדִים | ruach qadim | hot east wind | ”viento del oriente” / “viento abrasador” | Sovereignty of God over Creation | Low | New | Bookends the great storm of chapter 1. |
| pity / compassion | חוּס | chus | to pity, spare, have compassion | ”compadecerse de” / “tener lástima de” | Compassion for the Nations | High | New | Used of both Jonah (toward the plant) and God (toward Nineveh) in the same rhetorical argument (4:10-11); MUST use the identical Spanish verb for both occurrences to preserve the parallel that forms the book’s closing argument. |
Summary Risk Counts (Jonah, this glossary)
| Risk Tier | Count | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 5 | Human theologian (every occurrence) |
| High | 7 | Human theologian |
| Medium | 11 | Native speaker review |
| Low | 12 | Automated review |
Critical-risk terms requiring theologian review at every occurrence: YHWH (Jehová), three days and three nights, salvación (baseline reuse), נָחַם/“se arrepintió” (divine relenting), רָעָה wordplay (evil/disaster).
Highest cross-cutting doctrinal risk in the book: the divine “relenting” term (נָחַם) rendered “se arrepintió,” because the established Reina-Valera lexical choice, if left unglossed, directly risks implying God sinned and repented as humans do — the OT counterpart in severity to the baseline’s Critical handling of “justicia imputada” vs. “justicia infundida.”
Cross-reference: analysis/07_semantic_analysis.md for full verse-by-verse and chapter-by-chapter argumentation behind each entry. All BASELINE REUSE terms must be verified against the current version of translation_memory.json before Phase 2 processing begins.
Critical Risk Terms
Salvation
Approved rendering: salvación
Transliteration: sōtēria
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: salvarse por buenas obras, merecer el cielo mediante sacramentos y penitencia
CRITICAL: Latin American folk Catholic piety commonly treats salvación as a lifelong, uncertain outcome secured through sacraments, penance, and intercession of saints and the Virgin. Romans presents salvation as a decisive reconciliation received by faith. JONAH CROSS-REFERENCE: BASELINE REUSE — Jonah 2:9’s confession ‘la salvación es de Jehová’ must use this exact term. Jonah, a disobedient prophet who contributed nothing to his own rescue, is a vivid Old Testament case study reinforcing this Critical doctrine.
God
Approved rendering: Dios
Transliteration: theos / Elohim / YHWH
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Universally standard; unlike some languages there is no rival deity-name confusion in mainstream Hispanic Christian usage. JONAH CROSS-REFERENCE: see elohim entry — the Hebrew Elohim covers both the true God and pagan gods (Jonah 1:5 vs. 1:6, 1:9); disambiguate by capitalization (‘Dios’ vs. lowercase ‘su dios’), never capitalizing a pagan referent.
Lord
Approved rendering: Señor
Transliteration: kyrios
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: Señor mío (devotional-only, without lordship claim over the whole of life)
CRITICAL: Romans 10:9, ‘Jesús es el Señor,’ is the salvation confession. Must convey exclusive, supreme lordship. JONAH CROSS-REFERENCE: must remain visually and lexically distinct from Jonah’s covenant-name rendering ‘Jehová’ (see yhwh entry) so learners do not casually conflate the Old Testament covenant name YHWH with the New Testament kyrios-confession applied to Christ, even though Christian theology ultimately identifies the two. Never mix ‘Jehová’ and ‘Señor’/‘SEÑOR’ within the same document.
Yhwh
Approved rendering: Jehová
Transliteration: YHWH
Doctrine: God / Sovereignty of God over Creation
Rejected alternatives: el SEÑOR (versalitas) — a valid ecumenical alternative but must never be mixed with ‘Jehová’ within the same document, Señor (would collide visually/theologically with the baseline’s fixed rendering of kyrios applied to Christ)
Original: יְהוָה
Category: God
CRITICAL: this Language Package’s RV1960/RVA2015 register anchor renders יהוה as ‘Jehová.’ Must be applied with total consistency throughout all Jonah materials and kept visually/lexically distinguishable from the baseline’s already-fixed ‘Señor,’ so learners do not casually conflate the Old Testament covenant name with the New Testament confession of Jesus’ lordship.
Three Days And Three Nights
Approved rendering: tres días y tres noches
Transliteration: sheloshah yamim ushloshah leilot
Doctrine: Jonah as a Sign Foreshadowing Christ’s Resurrection
Rejected alternatives: varios días / un tiempo (vague softening that severs Matthew 12:40’s typological argument)
Original: שְׁלֹשָׁה יָמִים וּשְׁלֹשָׁה לֵילוֹת
Category: Christology/Typology
Direct textual basis for Matthew 12:40, Christ’s own citation of Jonah as a type of his burial and resurrection. Must be rendered with total consistency; requires human theologian review at every occurrence.
Nacham Relent
Approved rendering: se arrepintió (con nota aclaratoria obligatoria)
Transliteration: nacham (Niphal)
Doctrine: Divine Relenting (God’s Nacham, Not Repentance from Sin)
Rejected alternatives: no viable lexical alternative exists — the Reina-Valera rendering is fixed by tradition; the required intervention is a mandatory teaching note, not a different word choice
Original: נִחַם (Niphal)
Category: Repentance and Divine Mercy
CRITICAL: applied to God in 3:9, 3:10, and 4:2. Ordinary Spanish ‘arrepentirse’ means to repent of one’s own sin; every occurrence applied to God requires an explicit clarifying note that this is anthropopathic — a gracious, compassion-driven change in God’s announced course of action, not repentance from sin (God has none). Analogous in severity to the baseline’s Critical handling of justicia imputada vs. justicia infundida.
Raah Evil Disaster
Approved rendering: maldad / mal camino (sentido moral) — el desastre / la calamidad (sentido de juicio)
Transliteration: ra’ah
Doctrine: Repentance and Divine Mercy
Rejected alternatives: rendering both senses identically as ‘el mal’ without a clarifying note (obscures the deliberate wordplay), rendering the two senses so divergently that the causal link between sin and judgment is lost
Original: רָעָה
Category: Repentance and Divine Mercy
CRITICAL: one Hebrew word spans moral evil (Nineveh’s sin, 3:8, 3:10a) and calamity/judgment (God’s threatened disaster, 3:10b; cf. 1:2) as deliberate wordplay. Spanish requires two distinct glosses within the same verse (3:10); requires human theologian review at every occurrence.
High Risk Terms
Gospel
Approved rendering: evangelio
Transliteration: euangelion
Doctrine: Gospel
Rejected alternatives: buenas nuevas (only as a descriptive gloss, never the standalone technical term)
Evangelio is the universal Spanish Christian term shared by Protestant and Catholic Bibles alike. No syncretism risk from a rival word, but must be taught as the specific proclamation of salvation through the crucified and risen Christ, not a generic inspirational message. JONAH CROSS-REFERENCE: must be kept lexically distinct from qara_proclaim (Jonah’s judgment-proclamation to Nineveh, 3:2-4); Jonah’s message is not the evangelio, though its repentance-result foreshadows gospel dynamics.
Grace
Approved rendering: gracia
Transliteration: charis
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: favor merecido, recompensa por buenas obras
Gracia is standard across all Spanish Bible traditions, but Catholic catechesis historically frames grace as infused and increased through sacramental cooperation and merit, while Reina-Valera (Reformation-descended) usage stresses unmerited favor received by faith alone. JONAH CROSS-REFERENCE: conceptually parallel to el_channun_verachum (‘Dios clemente y misericordioso,’ 4:2) — the same unmerited-favor doctrine, here extended programmatically to a Gentile nation rather than covenant Israel alone.
Faith
Approved rendering: fe
Transliteration: pistis
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: devoción religiosa general, creencia cultural heredada
Personal trust in Christ specifically, not the inherited cultural religiosity (‘soy católico/cristiano de nacimiento’) common in nominally Christian Spanish-speaking contexts, and not devotional loyalty to a saint or the Virgin. JONAH CROSS-REFERENCE: heeminu_believed (‘creyeron a Dios,’ 3:5) is the Old Testament’s clearest anticipation of this doctrine applied to Gentiles apart from covenant history; teach the two terms together.
Called
Approved rendering: llamado
Transliteration: klētos
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: convocado (bureaucratic/legal register)
Context-sensitive across at least three distinct senses in Romans. JONAH CROSS-REFERENCE: Jonah’s own prophetic commission (word_of_the_lord, qum_arise) parallels this doctrine, with the added complication that Jonah’s calling explicitly targets a Gentile city — the universal scope of the summons, not merely a task-call, is the load-bearing point.
Calling
Approved rendering: llamado
Transliteration: klēsis
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: vocación (in the narrow sense of a call to priesthood or religious life)
CAUTION: ‘vocación’ in Catholic-majority Spanish-speaking culture is strongly associated with a call to priesthood or consecrated religious life, not the general call of every believer. JONAH CROSS-REFERENCE: never render Jonah’s prophetic commission with unqualified ‘vocación’; use ‘llamado’ consistently with the repeated commission formula (1:1-2, 3:1-2).
Covenant
Approved rendering: pacto
Transliteration: diathēkē
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Rejected alternatives: contrato legal
Reina-Valera tradition favors ‘pacto’; never reduce to a mere legal contract. JONAH CROSS-REFERENCE: not directly textual within Jonah, but retained for consistency in case teaching materials cross-reference Old Testament covenant background (e.g., contrasting God’s covenant faithfulness to Israel with his compassion extended to non-covenant Nineveh).
Elohim
Approved rendering: Dios / su dios
Transliteration: Elohim / Elohav
Doctrine: God / Sovereignty of God over Creation
Rejected alternatives: capitalizing every occurrence regardless of referent (implies the narrator regards pagan gods as equally real), lowercasing God’s own name (the opposite theological error)
Original: אֱלֹהִים / אֱלֹהָיו
Category: God
The same Hebrew lexeme covers both the true God (1:6, 1:9) and the pagan sailors’ gods (1:5). Disambiguate strictly by capitalization and context.
Great Fish
Approved rendering: un gran pez
Transliteration: dag gadol / kētos mega
Doctrine: Jonah as a Sign Foreshadowing Christ’s Resurrection
Rejected alternatives: una ballena (pervasive popular-culture rendering — ‘Jonás y la ballena’ — with no basis in the Hebrew or Greek text)
Original: דָּג גָּדוֹל (LXX κῆτος μέγα)
Category: Christology/Typology
Neither the Hebrew nor the Septuagint names a whale. Must explicitly correct the popular ‘ballena’ tradition in every teaching note touching 1:17, or learners will import unwarranted specificity with no exegetical basis.
Heeminu Believed
Approved rendering: creyeron a Dios
Transliteration: he’eminu
Doctrine: Faith Response of the Nations
Rejected alternatives: se impresionaron, tuvieron miedo (both reduce genuine faith to mere emotional reaction)
Original: הֶאֱמִינוּ
Category: Faith
The Old Testament’s clearest anticipation of Gentiles responding in genuine trust apart from covenant history; teach alongside the baseline’s fe doctrine note distinguishing trust-that-produces-repentant-action from mere acknowledgment that God exists.
Shuv Turn Repent
Approved rendering: se vuelva / se arrepienta
Transliteration: shuv
Doctrine: Repentance and Divine Mercy
Original: שׁוּב
Category: Repentance and Divine Mercy
The human side of repentance — decisive moral turning evidenced by abandoning violence (chamas). Must be kept lexically distinguishable in teaching notes from nacham_relent (the divine term), even though Spanish surface usage may blur both under ‘arrepentirse.‘
El Channun Verachum
Approved rendering: Dios clemente y misericordioso
Transliteration: El channun v’rachum
Doctrine: The Character of God: Gracious, Compassionate, Slow to Anger
Rejected alternatives: bueno y amable (generic; loses the formulaic, covenantal weight of the Exodus 34:6 self-revelation)
Original: אֵל חַנּוּן וְרַחוּם
Category: God
Matches Reina-Valera’s Exodus 34:6 phrasing for cross-passage Old Testament consistency. The theological center of the book, quoted by Jonah in 4:2 as the very reason for his anger.
Manah Appoint
Approved rendering: dispuso / preparó
Transliteration: manah (Piel) / vayeman
Doctrine: The Sovereignty of God over Creation
Rejected alternatives: hizo venir, mandó, causó, envió (stylistic variation across occurrences that erases the deliberate fourfold structural refrain)
Original: מנה (Piel)
Category: Sovereignty over Creation
Used four times across the book — the fish (1:17), the plant (4:6), the worm (4:7), and the scorching east wind (4:8). Render with exactly ONE consistent Spanish verb across all four occurrences to preserve the refrain that is the book’s clearest lexical signal of God’s sovereignty over all scales of creation.
Chus Pity
Approved rendering: compadecerse de / tener lástima de
Transliteration: chus
Doctrine: God’s Compassion for the Nations
Rejected alternatives: using two different Spanish verbs for Jonah’s pity toward the plant and God’s compassion toward Nineveh (destroys the deliberate rhetorical parallel of 4:10-11)
Original: חוּס
Category: Compassion for the Nations
Used of both Jonah’s pity for the plant and God’s compassion for Nineveh in the book’s climactic, unresolved rhetorical question. MUST render both occurrences with the identical Spanish verb.
Medium Risk Terms
Sin
Approved rendering: pecado
Transliteration: hamartia
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Rejected alternatives: falta (minimizing euphemism common in pastoral speech)
Moral transgression before a personal God; avoid the softening euphemism ‘falta.’ JONAH CROSS-REFERENCE: Nineveh’s specific sin is named concretely as chamas_violence (‘violencia’), not vague impiety — the same caution against softening pecado into a euphemism applies directly here.
Providence
Approved rendering: providencia
Transliteration: pronoia
Doctrine: Providence
Rejected alternatives: destino, la suerte
God’s personal, purposive governance; avoid fatalistic ‘destino/suerte’ framing. JONAH CROSS-REFERENCE: directly extended by manah_appoint (Jonah’s fourfold ‘dispuso/preparó’ refrain, 1:17, 4:6-8) and storm_wind (1:4) — the same caution against passivizing divine action into impersonal weather or fate applies with full force in Jonah.
Word Of The Lord
Approved rendering: palabra de Jehová
Transliteration: devar-YHWH
Doctrine: Divine Calling and Prophetic Commission
Rejected alternatives: mensaje de Dios (generic, loses the technical prophetic-commissioning formula)
Original: דְּבַר־יְהוָה
Category: Prophecy
Fixed prophetic formula introducing Jonah’s commission (1:1, 3:1). The repetition ‘la segunda vez’ (3:1) must be retained to preserve the sub-theme of God’s patience with his reluctant prophet before mercy is even shown to Nineveh.
Barach Flee
Approved rendering: huyó
Transliteration: barach
Doctrine: Human Reluctance versus God’s Universal Love
Original: בָּרַח
Category: Human Reluctance
The bare verb does not convey motive. Teaching notes must supply why Jonah fled — reluctance to see God’s mercy extended to Israel’s Gentile enemies, made explicit only later in 4:2.
From Presence Of The Lord
Approved rendering: de la presencia de Jehová
Transliteration: millifnei YHWH
Doctrine: Sovereignty of God over Creation / Human Reluctance
Rejected alternatives: se fue lejos de Jehová (flattens to mere geography, losing the ‘face/presence’ nuance)
Original: מִלִּפְנֵי יְהוָה
Category: God
A relational and vocational idiom, not a claim of successful geographic escape from an omnipresent God — the storm and the sailors’ lots quickly disprove that reading.
Nineveh
Approved rendering: Nínive
Transliteration: Nineveh (LXX Νινευή)
Doctrine: God’s Compassion for the Nations
Original: נִינְוֵה
Category: Compassion for the Nations
Standard Spanish Bible form; no lexical ambiguity. Teaching must generalize the city as representative of all Gentile nations, not merely a historical curiosity.
Storm Wind
Approved rendering: tempestad / viento
Transliteration: sa’ar / ruach
Doctrine: The Sovereignty of God over Creation
Rejected alternatives: hubo una tempestad (passive construction that erases the divine subject)
Original: סַעַר / רוּח
Category: Sovereignty over Creation
Preserve active divine causation (‘Jehová envió/hizo levantar un gran viento’); do not passivize, which would obscure God’s active, personal governance of creation.
Lot Goral
Approved rendering: echaron suertes
Transliteration: goral
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty over Pagan Practices
Original: גּוֹרָל
Category: Sovereignty over Creation
God sovereignly overrules the pagan sailors’ lot-casting to expose Jonah; a one-time narrated instance, not an endorsement of divinatory practice, given active lot-casting/omen practices in some Latin American folk-religious contexts.
Sheol
Approved rendering: el Seol
Transliteration: Sheol
Doctrine: Jonah as a Sign Foreshadowing Christ’s Resurrection
Rejected alternatives: el infierno (imports later NT/systematic-theology categories foreign to this Old Testament term)
Original: שְׁאוֹל
Category: Christology/Typology
Retain the transliteration rather than translating; Jonah’s death-and-deliverance language reinforces the resurrection typology developed via chapter 1:17 and Matthew 12:40.
Chesed
Approved rendering: misericordia
Transliteration: chesed
Doctrine: God’s Compassion for the Nations
Original: חֶסֶד
Category: Compassion for the Nations
Referent in 2:8 is genuinely debated among interpreters (own covenant loyalty vs. God’s mercy); record as alternatives_considered and flag for native speaker review. Anchor grammatically to God as subject to avoid crowding by Marian/saint-devotional usage of ‘misericordia’ in popular piety.
Qara Proclaim
Approved rendering: proclama / pregona
Transliteration: qara
Doctrine: God’s Compassion for the Nations / Divine Calling and Prophetic Commission
Rejected alternatives: evangelio (Jonah’s message is judgment-proclamation, a distinct Hebrew lexeme from the Romans curriculum’s Greek euangelion), anuncia / avisa (too soft; understates the authoritative, non-negotiable nature of the message)
Original: קָרָא
Category: Compassion for the Nations
Jonah relays a fixed divine message, not personal opinion; parallels but is lexically distinct from the New Testament kērygma pattern.
Nehpakhet Overthrown
Approved rendering: será destruida / será derribada
Transliteration: nehpakhet
Doctrine: Repentance and Divine Mercy / Divine Judgment and Wrath
Rejected alternatives: sufrirá / tendrá problemas (flattens the Sodom-level judgment resonance)
Original: נֶהְפָּכֶת
Category: Repentance and Divine Mercy
Identical root to Sodom and Gomorrah’s destruction (Genesis 19:25); signals total covenantal-style judgment, making the subsequent mercy in 3:10 all the more dramatic.
Tsom Fast
Approved rendering: ayuno
Transliteration: tsom
Doctrine: Repentance and Divine Mercy
Original: צוֹם
Category: Repentance and Divine Mercy
Outward expression of an inward turning God already sees (3:10), not a payment that earns divine relenting. Caution: Latin American Catholic-influenced culture can read penitential fasting as meritorious (cf. promesas, Lenten penance); teach against that reading explicitly.
Saq Sackcloth
Approved rendering: cilicio / tela de saco
Transliteration: saq
Doctrine: Repentance and Divine Mercy
Original: שַׂק
Category: Repentance and Divine Mercy
Same merit-cooperation caution as tsom_fast; public, physical, citywide enactment of repentance ‘from the greatest to the least.‘
Charon Aph
Approved rendering: su ardiente ira / el furor de su ira
Transliteration: charon aph
Doctrine: Divine Judgment and Wrath
Rejected alternatives: su disgusto / su descontento (understates the judicial seriousness of divine wrath)
Original: חֲרוֹן אַף
Category: Judgment
Idiom literally ‘burning of the nostrils’; names the real, personal, judicial wrath Nineveh’s sin provoked, so repentance is escape from genuinely deserved judgment, not mere prudence.
Charah Angry
Approved rendering: se enojó grandemente / se disgustó
Transliteration: charah
Doctrine: Human Reluctance versus God’s Universal Love
Original: חָרָה
Category: Human Reluctance
Intensity must not be softened; the book’s rhetorical power depends on Jonah’s anger being disproportionate and shocking — more upset at Gentile mercy than relieved by his own rescue.
Qiqayon Plant
Approved rendering: una planta
Transliteration: qiqayon
Doctrine: The Sovereignty of God over Creation
Rejected alternatives: calabacera / ricino / hiedra (false botanical precision; no single correct Spanish equivalent exists across translation traditions)
Original: קִיקָיוֹן
Category: Sovereignty over Creation
A hapax legomenon of uncertain species. Render generically with a translator’s note on species uncertainty; the object lesson does not depend on botanical identity.
Low Risk Terms
Gentiles
Approved rendering: gentiles
Transliteration: ethnē
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: paganos (pejorative in modern Spanish)
Standard term; avoid ‘paganos,’ which carries a derogatory charge in contemporary usage. JONAH CROSS-REFERENCE: Nineveh is the book’s central Gentile test case; teaching must generalize the city as representative of all Gentile nations, not a historical curiosity.
Prophet
Approved rendering: profeta
Transliteration: prophētēs
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture
Rejected alternatives: vidente, adivino
God’s spokesperson; distinguish from a fortune-teller or new-age ‘vidente.’ JONAH CROSS-REFERENCE: Jonah himself is explicitly a profeta (cf. 2 Kings 14:25); this baseline term applies directly to his identity and role throughout the book.
Prophecy
Approved rendering: profecía
Transliteration: prophēteia
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: horóscopo, predicción esotérica
God-inspired declaration, not astrology or esoteric prediction. JONAH CROSS-REFERENCE: Jonah’s proclamation against Nineveh (qara_proclaim) functions as a prophetic judgment-declaration, doctrinally related though a distinct Hebrew lexeme.
Thanksgiving
Approved rendering: acción de gracias
Transliteration: eucharistia
Doctrine: Thanksgiving
Standard term. JONAH CROSS-REFERENCE: Jonah’s prayer from the fish (prayer_tephillah, chapter 2) carries thanksgiving overtones though the Hebrew term itself is distinct (tephillah); reuse this baseline term only for explicit cross-curriculum teaching connections, not as a rendering of tephillah itself.
Qum Arise
Approved rendering: levántate
Transliteration: qum
Doctrine: Divine Calling and Prophetic Commission
Original: קוּם
Category: Prophecy
Repeated verbatim in 1:2 and 3:2 as a deliberate narrative echo of the commission Jonah first refused, then received again. Standard, unambiguous rendering.
Tarshish
Approved rendering: Tarsis
Transliteration: Tarshish
Doctrine: Human Reluctance versus God’s Universal Love
Original: תַּרְשִׁישׁ
Category: Human Reluctance
Standard proper name; a destination in the opposite direction from Nineveh, dramatizing the extremity of Jonah’s resistance.
Prayer Tephillah
Approved rendering: oración
Transliteration: tephillah
Doctrine: Prayer and Deliverance from the Depths
Original: תְּפִלָּה
Category: Faith
Jonah’s psalm-like prayer from inside the fish models crisis-repentance and trust even from the depths.
Worthless Idols
Approved rendering: ídolos vanos
Transliteration: havlei-shav
Doctrine: God’s Compassion for the Nations (contrast)
Original: הַבְלֵי־שָׁוְא
Category: Compassion for the Nations
Standard Old Testament polemical idiom for false gods; contrasts empty idols with the true God alone as source of covenant mercy.
Great City
Approved rendering: la gran ciudad
Transliteration: ha’ir hagedolah
Doctrine: God’s Compassion for the Nations
Original: עִיר הַגְּדוֹלָה
Category: Compassion for the Nations
Recurring descriptive title for Nineveh throughout the book.
Forty Days
Approved rendering: cuarenta días
Transliteration: arba’im yom
Doctrine: Repentance and Divine Mercy
Rejected alternatives: un tiempo (vague, loses the specific grace-period number)
Original: אַרְבָּעִים יוֹם
Category: Repentance and Divine Mercy
The recurring biblical number of testing/probation before judgment; a fixed but gracious window for repentance.
Epher Ashes
Approved rendering: cenizas
Transliteration: epher
Doctrine: Repentance and Divine Mercy
Original: אֵפֶר
Category: Repentance and Divine Mercy
May evoke Ash Wednesday (miércoles de ceniza) associations; a useful bridge if teaching clarifies this is a one-time act of national crisis-repentance, not a liturgical calendar observance.
Chamas Violence
Approved rendering: violencia
Transliteration: chamas
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability for Sin
Rejected alternatives: falta (softening euphemism, parallel to the baseline’s rejection of this word for pecado)
Original: חָמָס
Category: Repentance and Divine Mercy
Nineveh’s specific named sin is concrete social violence/oppression, not vague impiety; repentance is measured by real ethical change.
Avad Perish
Approved rendering: perecer
Transliteration: avad
Doctrine: Repentance and Divine Mercy
Original: אָבַד
Category: Repentance and Divine Mercy
Standard term; the outcome the Ninevites hope to avert (3:9).
Erekh Apayim
Approved rendering: tardo para la ira
Transliteration: erekh apayim
Doctrine: The Character of God: Gracious, Compassionate, Slow to Anger
Original: אֶרֶך אַפַּיִם
Category: God
Standard Reina-Valera idiom continuing the Exodus 34:6 formula; retain for cross-passage consistency.
Tolaat Worm
Approved rendering: gusano
Transliteration: tola’at
Doctrine: The Sovereignty of God over Creation
Original: תּוֹלַעַת
Category: Sovereignty over Creation
Paired with manah_appoint; shows the same divine governance operating at the smallest scale of creation as at the largest.
Ruach Qadim
Approved rendering: viento del oriente / viento abrasador
Transliteration: ruach qadim
Doctrine: The Sovereignty of God over Creation
Original: רוּח קָדִים
Category: Sovereignty over Creation
Bookends the great storm of chapter 1 — the same sovereign hand governs both the sea-storm and the scorching wind.
Referenced passages