Subject:
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Re: The Brick Testament - David Joins the Philistines
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.build.ancient
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Date:
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Mon, 10 Sep 2007 04:49:03 GMT
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Viewed:
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18161 times
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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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