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Friday 9 February 2024

Birth #Messiah texts Isaiah 9:6 [v. 5 Hebrew]

12. Chorus – For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6 [v. 5 Hebrew]
It's not Handel but the music does some word painting on pla (wonderful), Curious too the appending of the adverb for ever to the noun. I don't recall seeing yd as part of the enclitic forms (along with certain particles and pronouns) in Hebrew. You might notice that we have seen prince as a gloss for nsc and now here for wr. I combed all these out when I translated the text along with hundreds of other overlaps - not because you couldn't justify such careless translation, but because I could not see the Hebrew through the English if I did this -- and I wanted to hear the repetition in sound, particularly in the poetry.

I loosened my grip when I moved from Psalms to other books. Perhaps I should have, perhaps not. But the concordance is transparent. See the domain of Office here where you can distinguish some different officers: lord, master, satrap, captain, etc. See also king, prince, diviner, and aristocrat which are under the domain of Rule. This semantic division was a manual process -- aided only by some programmed displays .It is fraught with difficulty.

כִּי־יֶ֣לֶד יֻלַּד־לָ֗נוּ בֵּ֚ן נִתַּן־לָ֔נוּ וַתְּהִ֥י הַמִּשְׂרָ֖ה עַל־שִׁכְמ֑וֹ
וַיִּקְרָ֨א שְׁמ֜וֹ פֶּ֠לֶא יוֹעֵץ֙ אֵ֣ל גִּבּ֔וֹר אֲבִיעַ֖ד שַׂר־שָׁלֽוֹם
For a newborn is born to us, a child is given to us, and perseverance will be on his backside,
and his name will be called wonderful counselor, valiant God, my father for ever, sultan of peace.
h ci-ild iuld-lnu bn nitn-lnu vthi hmwrh yl-wcmo
viqra wmo pla ioyx al gibor abiyd wr-wlom
19
18
ci ild ild l\nv bn ntn l\nv vt/hi hm/wrh yl wcm\v
vi/qra wm\v pla iv/yx al gbr abiyd wr wlvm

I did a setting of this for a children's choir. Composing is an exercise at which I am not always successful. I even modified my translation in ways I don't normally allow myself. Handel catches a governance trope with the dotted rhythm of And the government shall be upon his shoulder. You can see that I have rendered wrh as perseverance. And the word wcm is more back than shoulder. Both these words are also names, Sarah, and Shechem. I did not use government here. For govern and proverb see mwl. This is not to say that tradition is wrong. It just doesn't follow my rules of translation. Perhaps tradition is as good a guess as to the sense of the passage in this case. 

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