A snippet of Isaiah dissected

I have said, as have others, that Isaiah seems to have more uniqueness about his language than other parts of the Hebrew components in the canon. Yet in English, partly because of the libretto of Handel's Messiah, we know the lilt of the language like no other book. According to my notes from the Oxford conference on the Psalms in 2010, Isaiah is the third most popular book among the DSS. So this work is and was loved by many. What then do we do with the translation of its 'purple passages'?

You know I was raised within Christendom. And I am still on speaking terms with my invisible Lord. I am supposed to be secure and I have no reason to doubt it. But - there is always a but - Christendom is not a good example of purity of religious policy. Violence and fear and suppression abound in this history. I have noted that much of it seems to come from the translations we read. Whether violence from our own need for self-defense, or the violence against each other through 'punishment'. This word in English has no dominant stem in Hebrew. You can read punishment into Hebrew stems, but it is never the only possible gloss for that stem. I never use it in my reading (among many words I never use). I never required it. Particularly, God's visitation פקד does not need to be read as punishment. Humans punish each other for perceived violations of rules or codes of honour. Not so with God. Thieves and prostitutes get into the kingdom of Heaven faster than the righteous. How come?

By the way, Christendom is not the only religious tradition with examples of terrible religious policy. (I won't go on. If you are of some different religious tradition, just look around you. And stop being violent, fearful, suppressing or exploiting others, or self-protective).

There is no shortage of violence (חמס) in the world or in the Scriptures. But it is not good to imitate it.

Aviva Kushner begins her review of Alter's 'one-man translation' of the Hebrew Bible with Isaiah 2:2. First the music.

Isaiah 2:2 with English underlay (adjusted from the textual order)

She quotes Ginsberg, one of Alter's mentors, who seems to take every accent as an excuse for a new line.

In the days to come,	Hebrew וְהָיָ֣ה ׀ בְּאַחֲרִ֣ית הַיָּמִ֗ים, first 3 words, the sense of word 1 is included in to come
The Mount of the Lord’s House	Hebrew הַ֤ר בֵּית־יְהוָה֙ words 6 to 8
Shall stand firm above the mountains	נָכ֨וֹן יִֽהְיֶ֜ה ... הֶהָרִ֔ים words 4, 5, 10
And tower above the hills;	וְנִשָּׂ֖א מִגְּבָע֑וֹת words 9 and 10 (repeated)
And all the nations	כָּל־הַגּוֹיִֽם words 13 and 14
Shall gaze on it with joy.	וְנָהֲר֥וּ אֵלָ֖יו words 11 and 12

He has to be happy with having some of the lines out of Hebrew word order (as must all translators in many places. But this is far from true in all places in the text). Ginsberg uses a phrase 'gaze with joy' for נהר. This is a curiously passive sense for an action verb that takes its motion from a river. I think he does as many do, interprets as he reads. His next reading will be a different aspect of the same stem. Language works that way and so do readers. But translations need to take care to let the reader interpret.

Kushner explains that 'Ginsberg follows the medieval grammarian Ibn Janah and Ginsberg’s academic colleague Baruch Schwartz in deriving it from the term for “light” in biblical Aramaic, and thus he has the nations gazing toward Jerusalem.'

Obviously then, it is not a translation of the Hebrew. The stem is not אור. There is only one word-form of light in the Hebrew of the Bible that begins with nun. That is in Psalm 76:5 נאור. I have never seen this stem morph into נהר.

Alter:
And it shall happen in future days
that the mount of the Lord’s house shall be firm-founded
at the top of the mountains and lifted over the hills.
And all the nations shall flow to it . . .

KJV: And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.

Bob:
And it will be, in the aftermath of the days, established will be the hill of the house of Yahweh as the first of the hills, and it will be lifted up among the hillocks,
and all the nations will flow together to it.

This is my word for word with stem visible through the hover function of the mouse.

והיה and it will beהיה באחרית in the aftermath ofאחר הימים the daysיום נכון establishedכון יהיה will beהיה הר the hill ofהר בית the house ofבית יהוה Yahwehיהוה בראשׁ as the first ofראשׁ ההרים the hillsהר ונשׂא and it will be lifted upנשׂא מגבעות among the hillocksגבע ונהרו and will flow togetherנהר אליו to itאל כל allכל הגוים the nationsגוי

Translation is a lot to take in. I can only just get away with the word order I have chosen. Slow down and it will make sense. I look at every jot and tittle (and some I choose not to include in the English). KJV has left out an explicit definite article. 

I have chosen hill and hillock rather than mountain and hill as contrasts. I do use mount and mountain and hill - all for הר. Hillock is גבע.

I seem to have added together to the stem for flow. I did this 5 times - Here and in the parallel in Micah. Also Isaiah 60:5, Jeremiah 31:12, 51:44. Don't read too much into it. KJV does this in those three places but not here or the parallel in Micah. My use of it may have happened through my automated translation which I ran frequently when doing my work to save me typing. (Yes you would call this translation the lazy-one's translation too.)

I never use the word future. The Bible is concrete as Alter says, and future is not yet concrete. There may not be 'punishment' but there are consequences. The Bible is not fatalistic. Yahweh is the one who is, who was, and who is to come. This is immanence, becoming itself, with us, establishing us. Are we up to it?

I don't see that firm-founded is an improvement on established. My glosses for this are prepare, establish, base, reliable, for the most part. God prepares, establishes and is a reliable base. The stem occurs 284 times. We should get used to the idea.

Here's a verse at random that includes establish.

DEUTERONOMY

32

6

הֲ־לַיְהוָה֙ תִּגְמְלוּ־זֹ֔את עַ֥ם נָבָ֖ל וְלֹ֣א חָכָ֑ם הֲלוֹא־הוּא֙ אָבִ֣יךָ קָּנֶ֔ךָ ה֥וּא עָֽשְׂךָ֖ וַֽיְכֹנְנֶֽךָ

Do you reward this to Yahweh, senseless people and unwise? Is he not your father? He purchased you himself. He made you, and he established you.

ויכננך and he established you

My work has a very high degree of consistency. Perhaps you can begin to see my motivation also. It is not primarily literature, not primarily religious, but it is a consequence of my faith in God, the discipline he established in me for programming, and the love he placed in me for language and music.