Word density

I'm sure this is somewhat old hat, but it is interesting to see if some words are more densely used in some books than others. Word density would be the number of occurrences of a stem over the total number of words in the passages being compared. I came across one significant one when doing the 7 different intros to my now 9 volume work on the Hebrew Bible. That is the word for nation, גוי, (goy).

It is more densely used in the latter prophets than in the former by a factor of 8.

This stem גוי, goi, occurs in the Hebrew text 561 times in 23 distinct word forms. In my reading it is always rendered as nation, a word derived from the idea of native, i.e. where you were born. There are 49 occurrences (0. 07% of the words) in the former prophets (just under one fifth of the Bible).  And in the later ones (just over one fifth of the Bible), there are 319 occurrences (0.55% of the words).

What would happen if we looked at other stems? Here's the density of דרך way. Malachi sticks out as do Ezekiel and Job. Leviticus and Qohelet hardly use it at all. There are 769 instances in the Bible in 83 differing word forms (i.e with appendages of articles, prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns, and as both verb and noun).

Usage density of דרך in the books of the Hebrew canon

A closer look at Malachi is not very helpful. The word only occurs 3 times in the book, but the book is so short that it distorts its own measure. Also my translation is inconsistent in its use of the gloss way. I use it for במה in what way. And I don't gloss דרך as way in one of the three cases but as journey. O bother, said Winnie the Pooh. I should probably not make much of single words in a text. (Let that be a lesson!)

In Job I am more consistent but it is a very flexible word. Here is usage in verse 19.

Job 40:15-19 Behemoth

Of knights, camels, polemics, and beauty

Prepared for battle

I was just rereading the chapter on polemical language in my book, The Song in the Night. It's a good description. So many people who need to be right arguing about what they do not know. Curious. How much better is a good piece of music.

Behind this image of the castle is a small portion of my library of scholarly books trying to search out what their authors were discovering (why else does one write?) and variously succeeding or not. Where is the power? Why should we seek it?  You can see that it is a magnificently sunny day in castle land. The forces approaching the castle are led by a knight on a camel. Surely not - what knight rode a camel!

I too am preparing for a beta discovery of the errors and incongruities in my reading of the Scripture. How can I reconcile this with my faith. How does the NT fit with my musical appreciation for the OT? Based on my upbringing in the faith, it is clear that the conversation has to change. Polemics - being right - cannot be prophetic. Let's rather be beautiful. There must be a theology that will not pit us against each other.

There was a lovely service this morning at St Barnabas, with Palestrina's motet Sicut Cervus sung by the choir. It is nice to hear a choir sing well. This performance from the Sistine chapel is lovely.

Introduction to a translation for the music

I have added a few more examples of my rationale for my concordant reading of the Hebrew Bible for the sake of the music. If you are a reader, please have a look and let me know what you think.

Jerome's introduction to the Vulgate

A fascinating read here:

A sampler

The present translation follows no ancient translator, but will be found to reproduce now the exact words, now the meaning, now both together of the original Hebrew, Arabic, and occasionally the Syriac. For an indirectness and a slipperiness attaches to the whole book, even in the Hebrew; and, as orators say in Greek, it is tricked out with figures of speech, and while it says one thing, it does another; just as if you close your hand to hold an eel or a little muræna, the more you squeeze it, the sooner it escapes. I remember that in order to understand this volume, I paid a not inconsiderable sum for the services of a teacher, a native of Lydda, who was amongst the Hebrews reckoned to be in the front rank; whether I profited at all by his teaching, I do not know; of this one thing I am sure, that I could translate only that which I previously understood.

Good for Jerome. I translated in order to seek what I could understand. I am suspicious of understanding in case I turn it into something else over which I think I have power. 

Re the Psalms:

"Jerome had, while at Rome, made a translation of the Psalms from the LXX., which he had afterwards corrected by collation with the Hebrew text." ...His friend Sophronius, in quoting the Psalms to the Jews, was constantly met with the reply, “It does not so stand in the Hebrew.”

and later on some detail,

Long ago, when I was living at Rome, I revised the Psalter, and corrected it in a great measure, though but cursorily, in accordance with the Septuagint version. You now find it, Paula and Eustochium, again corrupted through the fault of copyists, and realise the fact that ancient error is more powerful than modern correction; and you therefore urge me, as it were, to cross-plough the land which has already been broken up, and, by means of the transverse furrows, to root out the thorns which are beginning to spring again; it is only right, you say, that rank and noxious growths should be cut down as often as they appear. And so I issue my customary admonition by way of preface both to you, for whom it happens that I am undertaking the labour, and to those persons who desire to have copies such as I describe.  

ancient error is more powerful than modern correction

Well well - I don't think I am correcting, but I am challenging all the condensed theology I was taught in my early days.

In case you were wondering about the rivers

Continuing the prior post. (I was mildly suprised that this query from the database actually worked.)
יאר is also rendered as canal in Daniel.

Where to find the rivers of the Old Testament
פישׁון is Pishon	Gen 2:11 ✍,
גיחון is Gihon	Gen 2:13 ✍,
חדקל Hidkel	Gen 2:14 ✍,
פרת Euphrates	Gen 2:14 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Gen 13:10 ✍, Gen 13:11 ✍,
פרת Euphrates	Gen 15:18 ✍,
הירדן Jordan	Gen 32:11 ✍,
יבק Jabboq	Gen 32:23 ✍,
היאר the Nile	Gen 41:1 ✍, Gen 41:2 ✍, Gen 41:3 ✍, Gen 41:17 ✍, Gen 41:18 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Gen 50:10 ✍, Gen 50:11 ✍,
היאר the Nile	Exo 2:3 ✍, Exo 2:5 ✍, Exo 4:9 ✍, Exo 7:15 ✍,
ביאר are in the Nile	Exo 7:17 ✍,
ביאר in the Nile	Exo 7:18 ✍,
היאר the Nile	Exo 7:18 ✍,
ביאר were in the Nile	Exo 7:20 ✍,
ביאר in the Nile	Exo 7:21 ✍,
היאר the Nile	Exo 7:21 ✍, Exo 7:24 ✍, Exo 7:25 ✍, Exo 7:28 ✍,
ביאר in the Nile	Exo 8:5 ✍, Exo 8:7 ✍,
היאר the Nile	Exo 17:5 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Num 13:29 ✍,
זרד Zered	Num 21:12 ✍, Num 21:13 ✍,
ארנון Arnon	Num 21:14 ✍,
מארנן from Arnon	Num 21:24 ✍,
יבק Jabboq	Num 21:24 ✍,
ארנן Arnon	Num 21:26 ✍, Num 21:28 ✍,
לירדן Jordan	Num 22:1 ✍,
ארנן Arnon	Num 22:36 ✍,
ירדן the Jordan	Num 26:3 ✍, Num 26:63 ✍, Num 31:12 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Num 32:5 ✍, Num 32:19 ✍,
לירדן the Jordan	Num 32:19 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Num 32:21 ✍, Num 32:29 ✍,
לירדן the Jordan	Num 32:32 ✍,
ירדן the Jordan	Num 33:48 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Num 33:49 ✍,
ירדן the Jordan	Num 33:50 ✍,
הירדן Jordan	Num 33:51 ✍,
הירדנה the Jordan	Num 34:12 ✍,
לירדן Jordan	Num 34:15 ✍,
ירדן the Jordan	Num 35:1 ✍,
הירדן Jordan	Num 35:10 ✍,
לירדן Jordan	Num 35:14 ✍,
ירדן the Jordan	Num 36:13 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Deu 1:1 ✍, Deu 1:5 ✍,
פרת Euphrates	Deu 1:7 ✍, Deu 2:13 ✍, Deu 2:14 ✍,
ארנן Arnon	Deu 2:24 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Deu 2:29 ✍,
ארנן Arnon	Deu 2:36 ✍,
יבק Jabboq	Deu 2:37 ✍,
ארנן Arnon	Deu 3:8 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Deu 3:8 ✍,
ארנן Arnon	Deu 3:12 ✍, Deu 3:16 ✍,
יבק Jabboq	Deu 3:16 ✍,
והירדן and the Jordan	Deu 3:17 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Deu 3:20 ✍, Deu 3:25 ✍,
הירדן Jordan	Deu 3:27 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Deu 4:21 ✍, Deu 4:22 ✍, Deu 4:26 ✍, Deu 4:41 ✍, Deu 4:46 ✍, Deu 4:47 ✍,
ארנן Arnon	Deu 4:48 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Deu 4:49 ✍, Deu 9:1 ✍,
פרת Euphrates	Deu 11:24 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Deu 11:30 ✍, Deu 11:31 ✍, Deu 12:10 ✍, Deu 27:2 ✍, Deu 27:4 ✍, Deu 27:12 ✍, Deu 30:18 ✍,
הירדן Jordan	Deu 31:2 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Deu 31:13 ✍, Deu 32:47 ✍,
הירדן Jordan	Jos 1:2 ✍,
פרת Euphrates	Jos 1:4 ✍,
הירדן Jordan	Jos 1:11 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Jos 1:14 ✍, Jos 1:15 ✍, Jos 2:7 ✍, Jos 2:10 ✍, Jos 3:1 ✍,
בירדן in the Jordan	Jos 3:8 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Jos 3:8 ✍,
בירדן in the Jordan	Jos 3:11 ✍, Jos 3:13 ✍, Jos 3:14 ✍, Jos 3:15 ✍,
והירדן and the Jordan	Jos 3:15 ✍, Jos 3:17 ✍, Jos 4:1 ✍, Jos 4:3 ✍, Jos 4:5 ✍,
בירדן the Jordan	Jos 4:7 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Jos 4:7 ✍, Jos 4:8 ✍, Jos 4:9 ✍, Jos 4:10 ✍, Jos 4:16 ✍, Jos 4:17 ✍, Jos 4:18 ✍, Jos 4:19 ✍, Jos 4:20 ✍,
הירדן Jordan	Jos 4:22 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Jos 4:23 ✍, Jos 5:1 ✍, Jos 7:7 ✍, Jos 9:1 ✍, Jos 9:10 ✍,
ארנון the Arnon	Jos 12:1 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Jos 12:1 ✍,
ארנון the Arnon	Jos 12:2 ✍,
יבק Jabboq	Jos 12:2 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Jos 12:7 ✍, Jos 13:8 ✍,
ארנון the Arnon	Jos 13:9 ✍, Jos 13:16 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Jos 13:23 ✍, Jos 13:27 ✍,
לירדן Jordan	Jos 13:32 ✍, Jos 14:3 ✍, Jos 15:5 ✍,
מירדן from Jordan by	Jos 16:1 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Jos 16:7 ✍,
לירדן Jordan	Jos 17:5 ✍, Jos 18:7 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Jos 18:12 ✍, Jos 18:19 ✍,
והירדן and the Jordan	Jos 18:20 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Jos 19:22 ✍, Jos 19:33 ✍, Jos 19:34 ✍,
לירדן Jordan	Jos 20:8 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Jos 22:4 ✍, Jos 22:7 ✍, Jos 22:10 ✍, Jos 22:11 ✍, Jos 22:25 ✍, Jos 23:4 ✍, Jos 24:8 ✍, Jos 24:11 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Judges 3:28 ✍,
קישׁון Kishon	Judges 4:7 ✍, Judges 4:13 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Judges 5:17 ✍, Judges 5:21 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Judges 7:24 ✍,
לירדן Jordan	Judges 7:25 ✍,
הירדנה to the Jordan	Judges 8:4 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Judges 10:8 ✍,
הירדן Jordan	Judges 10:9 ✍,
מארנון from the Arnon	Judges 11:13 ✍,
היבק the Jabboq	Judges 11:13 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Judges 11:13 ✍, Judges 11:18 ✍,
מארנון from the Arnon	Judges 11:22 ✍,
היבק the Jabboq	Judges 11:22 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Judges 11:22 ✍,
ארנון the Arnon	Judges 11:26 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Judges 12:5 ✍, Judges 12:6 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	1Sa 13:7 ✍, 1Sa 31:7 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	2Sa 2:29 ✍,
פרת Euphrates	2Sa 8:3 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	2Sa 10:17 ✍,
קדרון Kidron	2Sa 15:23 ✍,
הירדן Jordan	2Sa 17:22 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	2Sa 17:22 ✍,
הירדן Jordan	2Sa 17:24 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	2Sa 19:16 ✍, 2Sa 19:18 ✍,
בירדן the Jordan	2Sa 19:19 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	2Sa 19:32 ✍,
הירדן Jordan	2Sa 19:37 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	2Sa 19:40 ✍, 2Sa 19:42 ✍, 2Sa 20:2 ✍, 2Sa 24:5 ✍,
גחון Gihon	1Kings 1:33 ✍, 1Kings 1:38 ✍,
בגחון in Gihon	1Kings 1:45 ✍,
הירדן at the Jordan	1Kings 2:8 ✍,
קדרון the Kidron	1Kings 2:37 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	1Kings 7:46 ✍,
קדרון Kidron	1Kings 15:13 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	1Kings 17:3 ✍, 1Kings 17:5 ✍,
קישׁון Kishon	1Kings 18:40 ✍,
הירדנה to the Jordan	2Kings 2:6 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	2Kings 2:7 ✍, 2Kings 2:13 ✍,
בירדן in the Jordan	2Kings 5:10 ✍,
אמנה Amana	2Kings 5:12 ✍,
ופרפר and Pharpar	2Kings 5:12 ✍,
בירדן in the Jordan	2Kings 5:14 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	2Kings 6:2 ✍,
הירדנה to the Jordan	2Kings 6:4 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	2Kings 7:15 ✍,
ארנן Arnon	2Kings 10:33 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	2Kings 10:33 ✍,
קדרון Kidron	2Kings 23:4 ✍, 2Kings 23:6 ✍,
קדרון the Kidron	2Kings 23:6 ✍, 2Kings 23:12 ✍,
פרת Euphrates	2Kings 23:29 ✍, 2Kings 24:7 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Isa 8:23 ✍,
לארנון of the Arnon	Isa 16:2 ✍, Isa 19:7 ✍,
ביאור into the Nile	Isa 19:8 ✍,
יאור the Nile	Isa 23:3 ✍,
כיאר as the Nile	Isa 23:10 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Jer 12:5 ✍,
פרתה the Euphrates	Jer 13:4 ✍,
בפרת at the Euphrates	Jer 13:5 ✍,
פרתה the Euphrates	Jer 13:6 ✍, Jer 13:7 ✍,
קדרון the Kidron	Jer 31:40 ✍,
פרת Euphrates	Jer 46:2 ✍, Jer 46:6 ✍,
כיאר as the Nile	Jer 46:7 ✍, Jer 46:8 ✍,
פרת Euphrates	Jer 46:10 ✍,
בארנון in Arnon	Jer 48:20 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Jer 49:19 ✍, Jer 50:44 ✍,
פרת the Euphrates	Jer 51:63 ✍,
כבר Kebar	Eze 1:1 ✍, Eze 1:3 ✍, Eze 3:15 ✍, Eze 3:23 ✍, Eze 10:15 ✍, Eze 10:20 ✍, Eze 10:22 ✍,
יארי Nile	Eze 29:3 ✍,
יאריו his Nile	Eze 29:3 ✍,
יאריך your Nile	Eze 29:4 ✍, Eze 29:5 ✍,
יאר the Nile	Eze 29:9 ✍,
יאריך your Nile	Eze 29:10 ✍,
יארים the Nile	Eze 30:12 ✍,
כבר Kebar	Eze 43:3 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Eze 47:18 ✍,
כאר as the Nile	Amo 8:8 ✍,
כיאור as the Nile of	Amo 8:8 ✍,
כיאר as the Nile	Amo 9:5 ✍,
כיאר as the Nile of	Amo 9:5 ✍,
יאר the Nile	Zec 10:11 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	Zec 11:3 ✍,
ירדן Jordan	Psa 42:7 ,
קישׁון Kishon	Psa 83:10 ,
הירדן the Jordan	Psa 114:3 ✍,
הירדן Jordan	Psa 114:5 ✍,
ירדן Jordan	Job 40:23 ✍,
אמנה Amana	Song 4:8 ✍,
אולי Ulai	Dan 8:2 ✍, Dan 8:16 ✍,
חדקל Hidkel	Dan 10:4 ✍,
אהוא Ahava	Ezr 8:15 ✍, Ezr 8:21 ✍, Ezr 8:31 ✍,
פרת Euphrates	1Ch 5:9 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	1Ch 6:63 ✍,
לירדן Jordan	1Ch 6:63 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	1Ch 12:16 ✍,
לירדן Jordan	1Ch 12:38 ✍,
פרת Euphrates	1Ch 18:3 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	1Ch 19:17 ✍,
לירדן Jordan	1Ch 26:30 ✍,
הירדן the Jordan	2Ch 4:17 ✍,
קדרון Kidron	2Ch 15:16 ✍, 2Ch 29:16 ✍, 2Ch 30:14 ✍,
גיחון Gihon	2Ch 32:30 ✍,
לגיחון to the Gihon	2Ch 33:14 ✍,
פרת the Euphrates	2Ch 35:20 ✍,

Translation of Names

25% of the words in the Bible I have classified as names. Names of peoples, locations, persons, God, rivers, feasts, stars, species, signs, mountains, months, and even sticks.

Sticks? Only in Zechariah 11:7 and 10. And I will tend the flock of the slain indeed, O poor of the flock,and I will take to me two sticks, the one I called Pleasure and the other I called Pledges, and I will tend the flock.

Stars: Orion, the Pleiades, and the Great Bear - all mentioned in Job. Sign: only the writing on the wall. Rivers: which of these can you identify?

Eden is a word of interest. It is used 20 times as a named location, 13 times as the Aramaic for time, twice as a time based adverb yet. (Qohelet 4:2, 3), twice for a specialty food (Gen 49:20, Lam 4:5), and 9 times for enthrall.

They will be saturated from the fatness of your house,
and the torrents of your enthrallment they will drink. (Psalms 36:9)

Names require a lifetime of study and touch on the primal use of our languages. We are the Adam whose job it is to name things.

Naming is a mandatory component of science. What geometry would we know without the named parts of a right angled triangle? What arithmetic without named numerals? What medicine without named parts of the body? And what cures for cancer without named structures within the cellular crowds of our internals? So in a sense, every word is a name!

But to come back to the names of peoples, persons, and locations, Some are opaque to us, and some may be made easier to hear if we translate rather than transcribe them. My work is somewhat capricious in this area. With 1,577 distinct personal names used 16,279 times, a translation of every name would be as tedious to the reader as a consistent transcription. So the somewhat random variations may keep us on our toes.

Stems that refuse to be bound by my rules

There are (besides prepositions and conjunctions) several common words that refused to allow me a 1 to 1 or 1 to many mapping from Hebrew to English.

I rendered Psalm 95:1 this way.

Walk! Let us shout aloud to Yahweh.

Isn't that a bit odd? I left it that way to illustrate the problem of common verbs describing motion, go, come, walk, bring and variations. I have allowed some overlap between English glosses and Hebrew stems for this class of common words. Otherwise everything would tend to a little too much foreignness in the English reading. (I do think some foreignness is necessary to avoid the problem of too much familiarity.)

One such pair is שׁית set (51) impose (15) put (9) and a few others and שׂום set (238) set up (119) put (106) set place (38) render (30) define (26) and so on. You can see the overlap in set and put and imagine the lack of English synonyms to get around this.

Another much more extensive set of these is the words related to going and coming. Some of them are distinguishable with a preposition (come or go or bring out of יצא, up עלה, down ירד, before קדם, through or across עבר). One I noted I had distinguished with an active rather than a passive helping verb like let go רפה.

As I looked at these, I wondered if some of them like רפה couldn't be tightened up. Every time I do this exercise, I see other possibilities. So I changed רפה and replaced the weak let go everywhere with slacken or desist.

Occasionally for literary reasons (I should have some of these), I have let English glosses map to multiple Hebrew stems, especially when I was imitating the childhood game of alphabetic acrostics.

More to come still on some specific difficult to translate words.