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The Brick
Testament has been updated today with six more new illustrated stories from the
saga of David vs
Saul.
(click to view the new stories)
(NOTE: For anyone unfamiliar with The Brick Testament or the Bible, please take
note of the content warnings for the stories before viewing.)
Enjoy,
-The Rev. Brendan Powell Smith
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Interesting that Saul traveled all the way to Endor to speak to a necromancer.
Is that an ewok pelt I see in the background?
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I’m curious; which trabslation did you get
this verse from?
David
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In lugnet.build.ancient, David Gregory wrote:
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I’m curious; which trabslation
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I have clumsy fingers today...I meant translation.
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Hi, David.
In lugnet.build.ancient, David Gregory wrote:
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I’m curious; which trabslation did you get
this verse from?
David
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First of all, thanks for bringing this verse to my attention because I
apparently mislabeled it as 1 Samuel 25:21 when it is actually 1 Samuel 25:22.
Here’s how other English Bibles have rendered it:
King James Version:
So and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all that
pertain to him by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.
Young’s Literal Translation:
Thus doth God do to the enemies of David, and thus He doth add, if I leave of
all that he hath till the light of the morning -- of those sitting on the wall.
World English Bible:
God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, if I leave of all that belongs
to him by the morning light so much as one who urinates on a wall.
Darby Translation:
So and more also do God to the enemies of David, if I leave of all that is his
by the morning light any male.
New American Standard Bible:
May God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, if by morning I leave as
much as one male of any who belong to him.
New Revised Standard Version:
God do so to David and more also, if by morning I leave as much as one male of
all who belong to him.
Amplified Bible:
May God do so, and more also, to David if I leave of all who belong to him one
male alive by morning.
English Standard Version:
God do so to the enemies of David and more also, if by morning I leave so much
as one male of all who belong to him.
New International Version:
May God deal with David, be it ever so severely, if by morning I leave alive one
male of all who belong to him!
Holman Christian Standard Bible:
May God punish me, and even more if I let any of his men survive until morning.
NET Bible:
God will severely punish David, if I leave alive until morning even one male
from all those who belong to him!
New Living Translation:
May God strike me and kill me if even one man of his household is still alive
tomorrow morning!
Contemporary English Version:
I swear that by morning, there won’t be a man or boy left from his family or his
servants’ families. I pray that God will punish me if I don’t do it!
New Jerusalem Bible:
May God bring unnameable ills on David and worse one, too, if by morning I leave
a single manjack alive of all who belong to him!
The Message:
May God do his worst to me if Nabal and every cur in his misbegotten brood
aren’t dead meat by morning!
The Holman Christian Standard Bible has a textual note informing the reader that
the literal translation is “of those of his who are urinating against the wall”.
And the NET Bible similarly remarks that the Hebrew words literally translate to
“one who urinates against a wall”.
When choosing my own phrasing for this verse, it seemed that changing David’s
colorful idiom about “one who urinates against the wall” to simply “male” really
loses something. I can only imagine that what’s motivating many of the above
translators to do this is some sense of decorum. But I strongly believe that a
modern sense of decorum should not motivate how one translates the Bible.
So I wanted to keep in the “urination” part. Using the word “piss” is obviously
inspired by the King James word choice (pisseth), and seems to capture the
coarse word choice David uses during this angry, murderous outburst.
The start of the verse which I translate as “May God curse me and worse if...”
is another turn of phrase which is difficult to put into English in a way that
sounds natural. You can see the various ways other translators have had at it.
It’s a phrase that is used numerous times in Hebrew Bible, and I’ve tried to be
fairly consistent in using this phrasing of it in English as it seems to strike
a good balance between being faithful to the literal wording and being
readable/understandable in English.
Hope that answers your question. :)
-Brendan
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Ahhh...OK. I thought that that sounded King James-ish, but when I was looking
in 25:21, I just couldn’t find it. I haven’t gotten myself a Holman yet. I
usually read from the NASB, which is supposed to be a very accurate
word-for-word translation, but even that version didn’t have any footnote about
pee.
Thanks,
David
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Trying to catch up, very slowly.
David Collects a Third Wife - Great face on Nabal. I also like the pattern on
his walls with the 1x2 brick with axel hole and 2x2 tiles rotated 45 degrees.
I’m not a fan of the studs on the back of Abigail’s legs
here, perhaps if instead you used something like
this brick. In
this scene I like the bed design. Is that a Fabuland headboard? The 1x1 tall
round brick is nice along the bottom of the bed. Good blood trail in the “God
struck him down” scene. In the last scene, what is that torso on Paltiel? It’s
really nice.
David Spares Saul Again - In the second pic, are those real tents? I had
assumed they were just black double slopes until I reallized that Saul’s blue
and white tent was in the mix. Good use of the double sided face on Abishai.
Why does Saul sometimes wear a Slytherin badge and other times not? (Also, is
the non-badge torso a modified version of the badge version, or is there another
torso with a similar pattern?) In
this pic, is David’s arm and spear just leaning there? How many times did that
fall down in photographing the scene? :)
David Joins the Philistines - David looks good in a Philistine hat. The
repeated references to David and Saul’s reconciliation are funny.
David Massacres Women and Men - Lots of effective mayhem scenes here. In 27:8,
the guy carrying a sheep over his head is funny. Great new camel design. In
the very last scene, I think Achish is trying to hyptonize me through the
screen.
Saul and the Necromancer - In 28:5-6 I’m curious as to what pieces make up he
out-of-focus Philstine army. The necromancer’s home is cool with a jumble of
all sorts of objects. I’m not thrilled with the necromancer herself made of all
those mismatched bits. The use of the Pooh hunny pot is inspired.
Philistines Reject David - Not a lot here to comment on. In the last pic,
David’s men do look fairly depressed. Good head choices.
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In lugnet.build.ancient, Bruce Hietbrink wrote:
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Trying to catch up, very slowly.
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Hi, Bruce. Thanks for taking out some time from the holidays to comment.
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David Collects a Third Wife - Great face on Nabal. I also like the pattern • snip
I’m not a fan of the studs on the back of Abigail’s legs
here, perhaps if instead you used something like
this brick.
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I forced myself into a corner on that one. It’s the chance you take using a
relatively rare color like dark blue for a minifig’s outfit. I would probably
have avoided the studs using a dark blue 2x2 or 1x2 tile if I had any, but I
don’t. The piece you suggested seems like it would work well, but alas it is
one of many, many elements not currently available in dark blue.
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In
this scene I like the bed design. Is that a Fabuland headboard?
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I believe it is.
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The 1x1
tall round brick is nice along the bottom of the bed. Good blood trail in
the “God struck him down” scene. In the last scene, what is that torso on
Paltiel? It’s really nice.
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That’s the torso of Keiken from the Exo-Force. I’d been wanting to get my hands on that fig since
it first came out, and finally shelled out the money to get him on Bricklink. I
was very happy to have such a distinctive “old man” face, plus the “old man in a
rage” face on the back. The torso is nice too, as you noted.
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David Spares Saul Again - In the second pic, are those real tents? I had
assumed they were just black double slopes until I reallized that Saul’s blue
and white tent was in the mix.
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Your first impression was correct; those are black slope micro-tents. That’s
also a micro version of Saul’s tent just made with alternating blue and white
plates. Glad the illusion works.
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Good use of the double sided face on Abishai.
Why does Saul sometimes wear a Slytherin badge and other times not? (Also,
is the non-badge torso a modified version of the badge version, or is there
another torso with a similar pattern?)
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Whoa, you caught a slip-up. I really like that Harry Potter torso (there’s
another like it in crimson with a gold band) except for the badge. For most of
the photos I resorted to photoshopping out the badge and covering it up with
another “wrinkle” or two to match the ones already there. But it looks like
this one slipped past me. I suppose I could come up with an ad-hoc
justification (perhaps its only his sleeping robe that has the badge?), but
that’s weak. I messed up. Perhaps one day I’ll correct it.
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In
this pic, is David’s arm and spear just leaning there? How many times did
that fall down in photographing the scene? :)
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Heh, it fell over a lot. Yep, that’s just leaning there with good ol’ friction
and gravity.
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David Joins the Philistines - David looks good in a Philistine hat. The
repeated references to David and Saul’s reconciliation are funny.
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David joining the Philistines (and the Israelites later not holding this against
him) is pretty confounding as the Bible presents it. I’m not sure if there’s a
logic to it I’m missing or what, but I have read that scholars think that the
stories of 1 and 2 Samuel got jumbled around at some point so that they don’t
really tell a coherent chronological story (despite it seemingly being presented
as if it were one). So maybe if the stories are sorted in the right order it
makes more sense, or maybe groups of originally independent David stories got
mixed together, or maybe there are stories that got dropped from the collection
that would have aided coherency. Who knows?
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David Massacres Women and Men - Lots of effective mayhem scenes here. In
27:8, the guy carrying a sheep over his head is funny. Great new camel
design.
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Of course I was wondering what you’d think of the new camels when I was
redesigning them. Glad that get the Hietbrink approval. :)
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In the very last scene, I think Achish is trying to hyptonize me
through the screen.
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Those
little black lightning bolts under his eyes can have that effect.
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Saul and the Necromancer - In 28:5-6 I’m curious as to what pieces make up he
out-of-focus Philstine army.
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I think for that scene I just used scores of blue minifig arms (with the yellow
hands in place). Since I keep minifig arms sorted by color, this has been a
handy solution in other scenes too. Usually the arms are used as corpses in
scenes depicting the massacre of tens of thousands of people (of the sort that
is so frighteningly common in the Bible).
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The necromancer’s home is cool with a jumble of
all sorts of objects. I’m not thrilled with the necromancer herself made of
all those mismatched bits.
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The hat and epaulets may be a bit much, but I like the legs and torso combo. I
can’t think of when else I’ll get to use the dead cat necklace torso piece.
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The use of the Pooh hunny pot is inspired.
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Thanks.
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Philistines Reject David - Not a lot here to comment on. In the last pic,
David’s men do look fairly depressed. Good head choices.
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Thanks, I did try to position each figure so that the most let-down looking
faces were visible to the camera.
Looking forward to more comments, should you get the time to leave them. Hope
you had a nice Christmas with your burgeoning family.
-Brendan
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