Messy Matters

For You have abandoned Your people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled with influences from the east,  Isaiah 2:6a  NASB

Your people – A statement from Yehezkel Kaufmannn’s book, The Religion of Israel, caused me to pose a question to the rabbi of Parma.  Kaufmann wrote: “After the prophet depicts the end-time, he turns to reproach the house of Jacob for having forsaken their God (read ‘oseka ‘your maker’ for ‘ammeka ‘your people’) . . .”[1]  But before you read the question I asked and hear his reply, let’s look at the way this verse is translated in some other English Bibles.

You, LORD, have abandoned your people, the descendants of Jacob.  NIV

For the LORD has rejected his people, the descendants of Jacob,  NLT

Our LORD, you have deserted your people, Israel,  CET

Universally, the idea is that God has abandoned (forsaken) His people (Jacob or Israel).  It’s worth noting that some versions replace “house of Jacob” with the broader and more comprehensive “Israel.”  The NIV plays the replacement theology card by tearing the verse from its temporal context, reading “descendants,” which, of course, means everyone who will ever be born a Jew.  Apparently God’s promise had been superseded.  The “new” Israel is now favored.

The point of our investigation today is that every English Bible reads this verse as if God abandons Jacob, not as Kaufmannn suggests, that is, Jacob abandons God.  Kaufmann argues his case by suggesting a change in the Hebrew, from ‘ammeka to ‘oseka.  At first I thought this might be a clever replacement of a consonant.  Many consonants in Hebrew appear very much the same, so it may have been that a copyist mistook a vav for a final nun, for example (Go ahead and look.  They are very similar.)  But here the two words don’t actually have this confusing consonant resemblance.

‘ammeka is עֵמֶךָ – Your nation (people)

‘oseka is עֹשֶׂךָ – Your maker

Look at the center consonants.  No one would confuse a mem for a shin.  Kaufmann must be wrong.

Maybe.  You see, Hebrew is messy when it matters.  As my rabbi friend noted: “I don’t really see how Kaufmann can do that [change the consonant], or even why he needs to.  According to the commentaries, both interpretations [that G_d left the Jews (because they sinned against him or that the Jews left G_d], are derived from the present text, depending on how it is read.  So there is no need to change the word.”

What does he mean that both interpretations can be read from the same text?  Simple.  It all depends on syntax.  Remember there are no capital letters or punctuation.  Look at the Hebrew text:

כִּי נָטַשְתָּה עַמְּךָ בֵּית יַעֲקֹב כִּי מָלְאוּ מִקֶּדֶם

The syntax can be read “You have abandoned your people” or “Have abandoned You, your people.”   In Hebrew both are the same wording.  Why do the majority of the Christian Bibles choose “You have abandoned”?  It’s a theological decision.  But in English Bibles, there are no footnotes to tell the reader that the alternative is equally true.  Why?

By the way, this isn’t the only case where a Hebrew sentence can be read in the opposite way depending on the syntax.  Remember the oracular statement about Jacob and Esau.  Is it the younger will serve the older or the older will serve the younger?  Both readings are possible.  The Hebrew is messy.

But English isn’t.  English is much more precise, much more linear.  Hebrew is convoluted, interleaved, cycloidal.  In English, meaning is conveyed by the words you write.  In Hebrew meaning is a function of the way the words are read. Oh, and to make it even worse, some Hebrew words are written but never read, and some are read but not written.  More on that later.

Here’s the point.  Bible translations are culturally and theologically biased.  The fact is that if you read your Bible in English (or any other language except the original), you really don’t know what the text says.  You trust the translator, and he (or the committee) often has an agenda.

But isn’t it nice to have a Bible that isn’t messy?  Why, that’s what we want, right?  Certainty!  Then we don’t have to trust.  We know for sure.

Topical Index: ‘oseka, your maker, ‘ammeka, your people, replacement theology, Isaiah 2:6a

[1] Yehezkel Kaufmannn, The Religion of Israel, pp. 386-387.