|
| Isaiah 40:4 |
3. Air (Tenor) – Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill made low: the crooked straight and the rough places plain.
|
כָּל־גֶּיא֙ יִנָּשֵׂ֔א וְכָל־הַ֥ר וְגִבְעָ֖ה יִשְׁפָּ֑לוּ וְהָיָ֤ה הֶֽעָקֹב֙ לְמִישׁ֔וֹר וְהָרְכָסִ֖ים לְבִקְעָֽה | 4 Every gorge will be lifted up, and
every hill and hillock will be abased, and will be the footstep for the level place and the cliques for the crevasse. | |
| d cl-gia iinwa vcl-hr vgbyh iwplu vhih hyqob lmiwor vhrcsim lbqyh | 14 16 | cl gia i/nwa v/cl hr v/gby\h i/wpl\v v/hih h/yqb lm/iwr vh/rcs\im l/bqy\h |
I did not use valley (ymq) to avoid what I consider a problem, having a single English gloss being used for different Hebrew roots. This was a rule I applied when I was translating except where it was impossible - such
as verbs like
hlc, (walk, come, go, etc) bva (come, go, enter, bring, etc) and prepositions and other small particles of language. This root ymq for valley does have multiple glosses in my translation though, and it is used metaphorically in the text. (See the usage at the link). Gorge, on the other hand, though in the same domain as valley, is gia. And exalted (rvm) is not the same as nwa lifted up.
When it comes to the constructed parallel -- cliques in the crevasse (eh, what did you say?), the stem
rcs
is of dubious meaning. As you can see from the link, it is used twice in the building of the tabernacle, and
uniquely here and in Psalm 31:20(21). Wouldn't it be nice if we spoke ancient
Hebrew fluently - then we wouldn't need any translation. How much of
translation is forgettable guesswork. (Rather more than you might think).
In this verse the music of the second half is similar in shape to the music of the first. This is relatively rare: 25 verses in total and 10 that begin with the shape of the first bar above. These 10 are: Joshua 7:11, 1 Samuel 25:24, 2 Samuel 4:4, Isaiah 40:4, Jeremiah 9:15, 30:15, 32:9. Ezekiel 27:6, 32:13, and 2 Chronicles 29:22. I wonder if there is a thread here.
No comments:
Post a Comment