Obscure and Unintelligible
He will redeem my soul in peace [l]from the battle which is against me, for they are many who are aggressive toward me. God will hear and humiliate them—even the one who sits enthroned from ancient times— Selah Psalm 55:18-19a NASB
Sits enthroned from ancient times – Before we tackle this text, we need to understand the caution provided by Nahum Sarna:
Translations, particularly those adopted by ecclesiastical hierarchies, tend to wield potent influence, frequently deleterious, over the hearts and minds of their devotees. They often receive virtual, if not official, canonicity. Either way, the phenomenon engenders an attitude that encourages a fundamentalist, monolithic approach to the Scriptures, one that is subversive of intellectual freedom, corrosive of tolerance, and productive of doctrinal tyranny. Moreover, a translation of the Holy Scriptures, however felicitously and elegantly executed, must perforce, in the long run, be the enemy of truth. It is surely difficult enough to transplant a piece of literature from its native cultural soil into another milieu of quite a different character and composition. Can the fine nuances of language, the deliberately introduced ambiguities, the instinctive elements and distinctive qualities of style of a great national opus of consummate artistry really be accurately conveyed and truthfully reproduced in another language? Can the cultural, linguistic, and spiritual barriers really be overcome? These difficulties are compounded immeasurably by the large number of obscure Hebrew words, phrases and grammatical forms that are scattered over the texts. The truth is that despite the vast strides in our knowledge of the ancient Semitic languages made over the past century, many passages in the Hebrew Bible still remain imperfectly understood. In many instances, therefore, translations are deceptive. Rt They substitute simplicities or speculative emendations for the obscurities, either of which can be quite misleading.[1]
Now we can compare the NASB translation with that of Robert Alter:
“He has ransomed my life unharmed from my battle, for many were against me—Ismael and Jalam and the dweller in the east, . . .”
You will notice immediately that the last part of Alter’s translation is considerably different than the NASB. Alter explains:
The translation here adopts an emendation that has considerable scholarly support, turning this into a small list of the enemies arrayed against the speaker. The Masoretic Text reads yishma’ ‘el weya’anem weyoshev qedem, literally, and un intelligibly, “God hears and answers them and is seated as of old.” In the reconstruction, the first two words and the last two remain unchanged, but they are construed as gentilic names rather than as references to God, and weya’anem is amended to weya’lam. Jalam is mentioned In Genesis 36:5 as one on the people descended from Esau.[2]
What we discover is precisely what Sarna mentions. The English translation attempts to make sense of the text when the text itself makes no sense. Unfortunately, believers who are not aware or familiar with these issues often treat the English translation as if it were pure, unadulterated divine communication. That leads to many theological dogmas. But now that you know, and have but one example, you will learn to be careful with your English Bible, right?
Topical Index: emendation, translation, Nahum Sarna, Robert Alter, Psalm 55:18-19a
