How much value is there in reading these texts in translation? This question is from Christopher Page in our blogging dialogue, currently in its 9th week. Here's the first post from April 17th.
My answer must be that there is much value in many ways. I responded quickly in a comment. I have been thinking about the question continuously since he raised it.
It is clear that no one has Biblical Hebrew as a mother tongue. No one ever coins a word or absorbs new words into Biblical Hebrew. Effectively, we can read only in translation. Even a native Hebrew speaker today does not think like an ancient Hebrew. Words change both their sense and their usage over time - and here we are not talking centuries but millennia.
Many people have given this advice, that where possible, we should consult alternate translations. Today that is more easily done than it was in the past. Of course, we may find it threatening to question our traditional words and phrases, and it is more difficult to remember what is unfamiliar, and the music would change - and there is such a long tradition of music from the psalms.
I remember loving the psalms as I gradually learned to sing them. We memorized Psalms 84 and 85 for a choir trip to Kingston, Ontario in the 1950's when I couldn't have been more than 12.
O how amiable are thy dwellings *thou Lord of hosts!
My soul hath a desire and longing to enter into the courts of the Lord *
my heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God.
Yea, the sparrow hath found her an house, and the swallow a nest where she may lay her young *
even thy altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.
Blessed are they that dwell in thy house *
they will be alway praising thee. ...
righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
Truth shall flourish out of the earth *
and righteousness hath looked down from heaven.
Yea, the Lord shall shew loving-kindness *
and our land shall give her increase.
Righteousness shall go before him *
and he shall direct his going in the way.
xdq vwlom nwqu.
vxdq mwmiim nwqf.
varxnu titn ibulh.
viwm ldrç pymiv.
But what did I know of these 5 books even after a lifetime of singing them? Selah... the stories of David (book 1+), the exile, the poems of the children of Korah, and Asaph, Ethan the Ezrahite, Jeduthun, (books 2 and 3), the massive laments, the response of what has been called the book of Moses (book 4) to the two books from the exile, the 8 acrostics and the two oracles (books 1 and 5), the patterns of worship in the Temple, the movement from exile to praise, (book 5+).
The complexity is overwhelming. As I think of school and how much we memorized, I ask myself why we didn't memorize in French and Latin as well. Imagine what we might have learned with a tri-lingual reading.
Today, we can scan many different translations on the web at one go. As we begin Psalms 10, I thought to look at the first verse. Psalms 10 is the continuation of the acrostic of Psalms 9.
King James Version |
Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble? |
Coverdale |
Why standest thou so far off, O Lord * and hidest thy face in the needful time of trouble? |
Jerusalem Bible |
Yahweh, why do you stand aside, why hide from us now the times are hard? |
Revised English Bible |
Why stand far off, Lord? Why hide away in times of trouble? |
Hebrew, the Square text, pointed, from the Leningrad Codex | לָמָ֣ה יְ֭הוָה תַּעֲמֹ֣ד בְּרָח֑וֹק תַּ֝עְלִ֗ים לְעִתּ֥וֹת בַּצָּרֽ͏ָה׃ |
SimHebrew, a partially vocalized text one for one with the unpointed text. | lmh ihvh tymod brkoq, tylim lyitot bxrh? |
Greek |
ἵνα τί κύριε ἀφέστηκας μακρόθεν ὑπερορᾷς ἐν εὐκαιρίαις ἐν θλίψει |
New English Translation of the Septuagint |
Why, O Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you overlook, at the right moment, in affliction? |
Latin |
Ut quid, Domine, recessisti longe; despicis in opportunitatibus, in tribulatione? |
French |
Pourquoi, ô Éternel, te tiens-tu loin, et te caches-tu au temps de la détresse? |
English | Other renderings. |
My translation for this 'L' verse is:
LORD why do you stand in the distance,
obscure in times of trouble?
I used Lord for the initial 'L' where I would normally let the letters of the divine name i-h-v-h stand alone or write Yahweh, a pattern I copied from the Jerusalem Bible, partly because the name can be sung. Note that I don't repeat the 'Why', because that rhetorical flourish is not there in the Hebrew.
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