Why Would It Matter?

I am small and despised, yet I do not forget Your precepts.  Psalm 119:141  NASB Yet – The translators have added this adverb.  The text just says, “small I and despised Your precepts not do I forget.”  While the NASB treats ṣāʿîr as “small,” Chabad renders is as “young.” I am young and despised; I have not forgotten…

Get Thee Behind Me

The debased in his eyes is repugnant but to LORD-fearers he accords honor.  When he vows to his fellow man, he does not revoke it.  Psalm 15:4  Robert Alter Repugnant – The NASB translation offers some synonyms that help us understand the sense of this verse: “A despicable person is despised in his eyes, but…

Revising the Text

He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.  Isaiah 53:3  NASB Despised and forsaken – In Messiah Journal, Special Supplement of 2011[1], Steven Lancaster and James Monson examine the Isaiah…