Jim_Duyer
6th June 2021, 23:07
Well, it's Sunday again, and time for another "happy" or "helpful" translation from the Old Testament. I'm fairly proud of today's and I hope it makes up somewhat from my last topic post on Egypt.
Sometimes in my work as a translator it makes me sad to learn that portions of the Biblical text contain very exciting and important remarks, but those ideas
have not been provided to us by our traditional Biblical scholars.
It is much more difficult to try to place ourselves in the shoes of these ancient authors of the Old Testament, and shake out the information that is contained
therein, but it's so very important that we do so, and well worth the time and trouble that it entails.
Proverbs 26:16 (King James Version) "The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason."
The English Standard Version is : " The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly." Which is somewhat closer to the original Massoretic Hebrew textual meaning, but far from all that we should gain from this wisdom.
But what does all that mean to us?
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible gives us their comments towards the deeper meanings behind the text:
"The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit. It is a sort of a solecism, a kind of a contradiction in terms for a sluggard to be wise, who is so slothful as to make no use of the means of getting wisdom and knowledge. And it must be a mere conceit in him that he is wise, and especially that he is wiser than seven men that can render a reason."
And they continue with:
" The sluggard is here one who is too idle to think a matter out, and considers his own cursory view as sure to be right. He is one who deems study to be an unnecessary weariness of the flesh, and flatters himself that he is quite able without it to give a satisfactory account of any question presented to him. Than seven men that can render a reason."
And they explain that "Seven is the number of completeness. The idle fool sets more value by his own judgment than by the sense of any number of wise men."
And they point out that in the margin of the Revised Version of the Old Testament chapter it adds "that can answer discreetly, is perhaps nearer the Hebrew, which implies the being able to return a wise and proper answer to anything asked of them."
This all sounds very complete and lovingly comforting. But it's not what they meant at all.
Gill's Exposition and other similar explanations tend to go on and on with examples, and while I salute their efforts, a more informed translation will provide all that we need to know to not only understand this Verse completely, but to locate the associated Chapter and Verse that it alludes to.
As usual, I will furnish word by word definitions, and then place them in the correct Verb-Subject-Object order that ancient Hebrew used (Ate John the apple), rather than
our modern English form of Subject-Verb-Object (John ate the apple), so that we can better understand just who does what to whom.
wise, wise (man), shrewd, crafty, cunning, wily, subtle
sluggish, lazy,
in, at, to, on, among, with, towards; according to, by, because of
eye, as showing mental qualities
+ suffix indicating "his"
from, out of, on account of, off, on the side of, since, above, than, so that not, more than
seven (cardinal number)
to return, turn back, relinquish, give in payment, to bring back to mind
And this last word is properly a taste, that is, (figuratively) perception, judgment, decision, decree. In Hebrew it is Ta`am, "the sense of taste," "perception," from Ta`am, "to taste," "to perceive"). So rather than "render" it actually refers to perception.
Placing that in sentence order we have:
V S O
lying lazily in his cunning mental qualities,
reminds (US) of (the) seven perceptions.
As an FYI, while the KJV defines the subject as Sluggard, which has a meaning of sluggish, lazy, a habitually lazy person, they make this into a noun, and they employ the word wiser as the verb. But in contrast to that, we can easily locate the verbal form of lazy, such as lazied, lazying, or to lie lazily (as I have done).
If we picture a person who lays back, sure of himself and his position, not bothering to get up to solve a problem since he knows that he will be able to do so in the comfort of his sofa, then we can understand their description of a person who is lazily lying about, sure of his cunning mental qualities. Let others do his bidding, let others do his work - he's a thinker, and can find comfort or lie lazily in that understanding of his cunning. He feel superior to everyone, with his cunning.
But what is this mention of something that "reminds us of the seven perceptions"? I don't recall that phrase in the Bible text. But can't we discover it by looking? Yes, we can and will.
Here are three verses (Psalm 135:15-17) in the English Standard Version :
15 The idols of the nations are silver and gold,
the work of human hands.
16 They have mouths, but do not speak;
they have eyes, but do not see;
17 they have ears, but do not hear,
nor is there any breath in their mouths.
One item that we should understand here is that the word "nations" from this translation is actually the Hebrew word Goyim, meaning Gentiles, or non-Jewish people. It's pretty clear that this is what it means, and not "nations",
which comes from "the nations that are not our nations", or foreigners, or the semi-derogatory term for non-Hebrews. Perhaps we should best understand
this as representing a chosen nation of Yahweh (Hebrews) and others that were not specifically chosen by Yahweh as his people.
With that in mind, here's what we have:
Psalms 135: 15-17 1 2 3
The idols of the Goyim are silver and gold; the work of human hands.
[The Gentiles (Goyim) worship silver, gold, and the materialistic inventions of human hands.]
They have MOUTHS, but they do not speak; 4
[They have the ability to call on Yahweh as the sole God, but they call not. ]
they have EYES, but they do not see; 5
[They have the intelligence (eyes) to understand his teachings but do not seem to understand.]
They have EARS, but they do not hear, 6
[They have ears the hear the Holy Commandments but do not listen to (or obey) them.]
and there is no BREATH in their mouths. 7
[The Creative breath, the Word of the Elohim, that we see in Genesis 2:7, "And Yahweh Elohim formed man of the dust and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life."]
They have mouths, but there is no Creative Breath, no spirit of Yahweh in them.
The breath of Creation; Yahweh's power, where the senses have a theological aspect.
So by correctly translating another verse, we are led to an understanding of the concept of the seven
perceptions from the Old Testament, and we can now reflect upon that information as well.
It seems as if it indicates a type of caution, whereby we are told that the Gentiles, or Goyim, are particularly susceptible to the errors of gold, silver, and material creations, and all humans can fall prey to the Mouth that speaks not, the Eyes that see not, the Ears that hear not, and the Breath, the creative spirit of Jehovah.
As always your comments are appreciated.
Sometimes in my work as a translator it makes me sad to learn that portions of the Biblical text contain very exciting and important remarks, but those ideas
have not been provided to us by our traditional Biblical scholars.
It is much more difficult to try to place ourselves in the shoes of these ancient authors of the Old Testament, and shake out the information that is contained
therein, but it's so very important that we do so, and well worth the time and trouble that it entails.
Proverbs 26:16 (King James Version) "The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason."
The English Standard Version is : " The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly." Which is somewhat closer to the original Massoretic Hebrew textual meaning, but far from all that we should gain from this wisdom.
But what does all that mean to us?
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible gives us their comments towards the deeper meanings behind the text:
"The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit. It is a sort of a solecism, a kind of a contradiction in terms for a sluggard to be wise, who is so slothful as to make no use of the means of getting wisdom and knowledge. And it must be a mere conceit in him that he is wise, and especially that he is wiser than seven men that can render a reason."
And they continue with:
" The sluggard is here one who is too idle to think a matter out, and considers his own cursory view as sure to be right. He is one who deems study to be an unnecessary weariness of the flesh, and flatters himself that he is quite able without it to give a satisfactory account of any question presented to him. Than seven men that can render a reason."
And they explain that "Seven is the number of completeness. The idle fool sets more value by his own judgment than by the sense of any number of wise men."
And they point out that in the margin of the Revised Version of the Old Testament chapter it adds "that can answer discreetly, is perhaps nearer the Hebrew, which implies the being able to return a wise and proper answer to anything asked of them."
This all sounds very complete and lovingly comforting. But it's not what they meant at all.
Gill's Exposition and other similar explanations tend to go on and on with examples, and while I salute their efforts, a more informed translation will provide all that we need to know to not only understand this Verse completely, but to locate the associated Chapter and Verse that it alludes to.
As usual, I will furnish word by word definitions, and then place them in the correct Verb-Subject-Object order that ancient Hebrew used (Ate John the apple), rather than
our modern English form of Subject-Verb-Object (John ate the apple), so that we can better understand just who does what to whom.
wise, wise (man), shrewd, crafty, cunning, wily, subtle
sluggish, lazy,
in, at, to, on, among, with, towards; according to, by, because of
eye, as showing mental qualities
+ suffix indicating "his"
from, out of, on account of, off, on the side of, since, above, than, so that not, more than
seven (cardinal number)
to return, turn back, relinquish, give in payment, to bring back to mind
And this last word is properly a taste, that is, (figuratively) perception, judgment, decision, decree. In Hebrew it is Ta`am, "the sense of taste," "perception," from Ta`am, "to taste," "to perceive"). So rather than "render" it actually refers to perception.
Placing that in sentence order we have:
V S O
lying lazily in his cunning mental qualities,
reminds (US) of (the) seven perceptions.
As an FYI, while the KJV defines the subject as Sluggard, which has a meaning of sluggish, lazy, a habitually lazy person, they make this into a noun, and they employ the word wiser as the verb. But in contrast to that, we can easily locate the verbal form of lazy, such as lazied, lazying, or to lie lazily (as I have done).
If we picture a person who lays back, sure of himself and his position, not bothering to get up to solve a problem since he knows that he will be able to do so in the comfort of his sofa, then we can understand their description of a person who is lazily lying about, sure of his cunning mental qualities. Let others do his bidding, let others do his work - he's a thinker, and can find comfort or lie lazily in that understanding of his cunning. He feel superior to everyone, with his cunning.
But what is this mention of something that "reminds us of the seven perceptions"? I don't recall that phrase in the Bible text. But can't we discover it by looking? Yes, we can and will.
Here are three verses (Psalm 135:15-17) in the English Standard Version :
15 The idols of the nations are silver and gold,
the work of human hands.
16 They have mouths, but do not speak;
they have eyes, but do not see;
17 they have ears, but do not hear,
nor is there any breath in their mouths.
One item that we should understand here is that the word "nations" from this translation is actually the Hebrew word Goyim, meaning Gentiles, or non-Jewish people. It's pretty clear that this is what it means, and not "nations",
which comes from "the nations that are not our nations", or foreigners, or the semi-derogatory term for non-Hebrews. Perhaps we should best understand
this as representing a chosen nation of Yahweh (Hebrews) and others that were not specifically chosen by Yahweh as his people.
With that in mind, here's what we have:
Psalms 135: 15-17 1 2 3
The idols of the Goyim are silver and gold; the work of human hands.
[The Gentiles (Goyim) worship silver, gold, and the materialistic inventions of human hands.]
They have MOUTHS, but they do not speak; 4
[They have the ability to call on Yahweh as the sole God, but they call not. ]
they have EYES, but they do not see; 5
[They have the intelligence (eyes) to understand his teachings but do not seem to understand.]
They have EARS, but they do not hear, 6
[They have ears the hear the Holy Commandments but do not listen to (or obey) them.]
and there is no BREATH in their mouths. 7
[The Creative breath, the Word of the Elohim, that we see in Genesis 2:7, "And Yahweh Elohim formed man of the dust and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life."]
They have mouths, but there is no Creative Breath, no spirit of Yahweh in them.
The breath of Creation; Yahweh's power, where the senses have a theological aspect.
So by correctly translating another verse, we are led to an understanding of the concept of the seven
perceptions from the Old Testament, and we can now reflect upon that information as well.
It seems as if it indicates a type of caution, whereby we are told that the Gentiles, or Goyim, are particularly susceptible to the errors of gold, silver, and material creations, and all humans can fall prey to the Mouth that speaks not, the Eyes that see not, the Ears that hear not, and the Breath, the creative spirit of Jehovah.
As always your comments are appreciated.