Therefore I carefully follow all Your precepts concerning everything, I hate every false way. Psalm 119:128 NASB Carefully follow – Step one: recognize that the miṣwōt are designed to ensure the success of society. Step two: do them! Now you know why ʿǎl-·kēn opens each of these last two verses in this section of the acrostic. There’s no…
I will meditate on Your precepts and [f]regard Your ways. Psalm 119:15 NASB Precepts – This Hebrew word is a derivative of the root pāqad. That means we may have some difficulties understanding what this means. “It has been said of this verb, which occurs more than three hundred times in the ot; ‘There is probably no other…
You have [c]ordained Your precepts, [d]that we are to keep them diligently. Psalm 119:4 NASB Precepts – Perhaps “ordained” isn’t quite the word we want. We’re more familiar with this term in regard to priests and ministers, but it has a second, and perhaps original, meaning as well. It means “to decree,” for example, when a king officially…
You have granted me life and goodness; and Your care has guarded my spirit. Job 10:12 NASB Care – Be very careful with this one. “It has been said of this verb, which occurs more than three hundred times in the ot; ‘There is probably no other Hebrew verb that has caused translators as much trouble…
You have granted me life and goodness; and Your care has guarded my spirit. Job 10:12 NASB Life – Yesterday we examined the Qohelet’s claim that the animating spirit returns to God at death. This idea is an important correction to the popular Western conception of eternal life. It is important to note that this correction…
yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, inflicting the punishment of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” Exodus 34:7b NASB Inflicting – I like the NASB. I use it as my standard English Bible text. But in this verse, the translation couldn’t be worse! There is simply no…
“ . . . reckoning the crime of fathers with sons and sons with sons, to the third generation and the fourth.” Exodus 34:7 Alter This was supposed to go out on October 8, but the server missed the schedule. Reckoning – Robert Alter’s attempt to render the Hebrew pāqad avoids the totally misdirected implication…
Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I am indeed concerned about you and what has been done to you in Egypt. Exodus 3:16 NASB Indeed concerned– Frankly, this translation is pathetic. I don’t mean it…
Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have ransomed me, O Lord, God of truth. Psalm 31:5 NASB I commit my spirit– Exodus 34:7. Yes, that’s right. The infamous verse about “visiting the iniquity of the fathers” uses the same verb we find here, pāqad. Speiser writes, “There is probably no other Hebrew verb that has caused translators…
who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” Exodus 34:7 NASB Visiting – Does God pass iniquity to the children of sinful fathers? Or…
