The Institute for Bible Translation (IBT) has released Genesis and Exodus in the Yakut language.

The Yakuts (endonym: Sakha) are an indigenous people of eastern Siberia and the Far East region of the Russian Federation. The Yakut language belongs to the Turkic group of languages. According to the 2010 All-Russian population census, it is spoken by about 450,000 people.

Both of these books are distinguished by a variety of literary styles: sometimes it is a solemn narrative, at other times, a long genealogical list, or a beautiful blessing in verse. In order to convey the exact meaning of these two books in modern literary Yakut...

In continuation of our Old Testament translation project into Sakha (a.k.a. Yakut), the Institute for Bible Translation has published the books of Ruth and Esther in a single edition. These are the only two books of the Bible named after women, and they are being printed in Sakha for the first time ever.

The books were translated by Dmitri Sivtsev and Raisa Sibiryakova, and edited by Sargylana Leontyeva and Nikolai Efremov. The text was checked by IBT consultant Alexei Somov, and the foreword to the edition was written by Roman, the Orthodox Archbishop of Yakutia. A new set of illustrations was produced for this edition by Yakut artist Maria Adamova, who had earlier produced illustrations for the book of Jonah...

In October 2019, Archbishop Roman presented an award from the Orthodox diocese of Yakutia to Dr. David J. Clark (in absentia) for his many years of service as the translation consultant for the Yakut New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs. The award — the II Degree Medal of the Holy Martyr Yevgeniy Zernov — has now reached England, where David resides, and he has responded with typical humility, saying...

IBT has published the Old Testament book of the prophet Jonah in the Yakut (Sakha) language of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia). The text of the story is presented in three languages – Yakut, Russian, and English – in order to meet the needs of younger generations of Sakha speakers. IBT hopes that this trilingual edition will help Sakha readers to understand the biblical text better and will also aid them in language study.

One more book of the Bible has been published by IBT in the Sakha (Yakut) language, a translation of the Proverbs of Solomon. The main Sakha translator and exegete for this IBT project, Sargylana Leontieva was constantly astonished by the interest expressed in these biblical proverbs by non-religious Sakha people who are not in any way involved in the work of Bible translation. “Apparently, it’s because biblical proverbs remind Yakuts of our own folklore with its many proverbial sayings,” she reflects. “The Proverbs contain the kind of wisdom and advice that is vital for all people.”

The PDF version of this Yakut translation may be found on the Electronic Books page of the IBT website. 

At the request of churches in the Siberian Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), IBT has published a revised and supplemented edition of the Children’s Bible in the Sakha (or Yakut) language of Siberia. Sakha is a Turkic language spoken by about 450,000 people. The previous edition of the full Sakha Children’s Bible was printed in 2013 and was rapidly distributed among the people.

IBT has also completed work on the Sakha translation of Proverbs and plans to publish this by the end of 2016. Translation work into Sakha is also progressing on Ruth, Esther, Jonah, and Song of Songs, as well as on a biblical-theological wordbook.