Reproof

Reproof for חסד is gone. I had used it in Psalm 23 and 52. My first decisions after a month off are beginning to happen again. The decision to use reproof a few times instead of the more familiar loving-kindness or mercy was made up to 7 years ago, perhaps more. It is not without some justification, but as a gloss, it leads away from sentiment only to the extent that we are aware it is an exception to the norm. Besides, reproof is an important concept particularly in Job.

חסד covenant mercy(1), covenant-merciful-kindness(1), kindly(3), kindness(22), kindnesses(2), loving-kindness(128), loving-kindnesses(2), mercies(2), mercy(45), show yourself kind(2), there ... loving-kindness(1), xesed(1)
יכח argue(2), arguments(2), correct(11), correction(9), corrections(3), corrects(1), might referee(1), one reproves(1), own correction(1), reasoning prove(1), referee together(1), referee(11), refereed(1), reproof(4), reprove(4), reproved(2), reproves(1)

My holiday finished with a touch of reproof! I found myself locked out of my local database. Some idiosyncrasy of Oracle XE stopped it from allowing a connection. How it fixed itself and how it changed while I was away remain a mystery to me. I did feel that the Invisible was saying: You need to slow down and learn more before continuing. So I read a scholarly article on Proverbs 1:1-7 and I recognized why I don't want to go to such depth. Too many words, too many syllables. But at some point, I should be able to interpret and not just read...

I have other compromises that I am not completely happy with. I used height and heights for two different roots (רום and קום). But height is prosaic and heights poetic so I have left the conflict. And they differ by only one letter in Hebrew. The first is basically arise and place plus a few miscellaneous homonyms, the second exalt and lift high with a homonym contribute. You can see how easily one part of this group could morph into another.

קום arise(123), arisen(9), arises(12), arising(21), arose(73), assignation(2), blurred(1), blurring(1), height(17), hold high(1), make arise(2), one arising(1), own place(5), place where(1), place(289), placed(23), places(14), placing(1), quicken(1), quickly arise(1), quite arisen(1), raise(32), raised(15), raises(2), raising(7), risen corn(3), sneering(1), there arise(1), upheld(5), uphold(12), upholds(1), waking arising(1)
רום ... exalted(1), contribute(5), contribution(35), contributions(2), contributors(1), exalt themselves(1), exalt(19), exaltation(8), exalted(39), exalting(4), exalts(3), heights(11), high(27), higher(1), lift high(5), lifted high(6), lifting high(1), lifts high(1), looked after(1), mightily high(1), one contributes(1), quite full exalted(1), ram(4), ready(1), recover(2), rumah(2), stamp(1), tall(1), taller(1)

I will fight with glosses the whole way and lose. The longer I wait to change something that bothers me, the harder it gets. I know the compromises for the most part and I fix them sometimes immediately when I can. But language is more than glosses and more than words.

Joel Hoffman has a delightfully entitled blog: God Didn't Say That. I appreciated a recent question on translation here. Does language really supply assumed values that you might hate? Clearly it does and we often aren't aware of them.