Today’s Word

Divine Pity

Grant us grace, LORD, grant us grace. For we are sorely sated with scorn.  Psalm 123:3  Robert Alter Grant – How did you come to believe?  I’m not asking how you came into religion.  That happens mostly by drifting through cultural or family expectations.  No, I’m asking something else.  How did you realize that God…
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Imaginative Consent

God has spoken once; twice I have heard this: that power belongs to God;    Psalm 62:11 [English]  NASB Once; twice – You wouldn’t know it from reading this English translation, but the rabbis used this verse as a prooftext for the assertion that every verse in the Bible demands multiple interpretations.  Why did they use this verse? …
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The Scroll and the Book

And the LORD said to Moses, “Write this down as a remembrance in a record, and put it in Joshua’s hearing, that I will surely wipe out the name of Amalek from under the heavens.”  Exodus 17:14  Robert Alter Record – Compare the translation of the same verse in the NASB: Then the Lord said to Moses,…
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God of the Living

For the sake of Your name, LORD, give me life, in Your bounty bring me out from the straits.  Psalm 143:11  Robert Alter Give me life – The NASB translates this single Hebrew word as “revive me,” but that implies I only need resuscitation.  Alter’s translation is more fundamental.  “Give me life,” implies that I…
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Guttenberg Assumptions

“Oh that my words were written!  Oh that they were recorded in a book!”  Job 19:23  NASB Book – It seems obvious, doesn’t it?  Scrolls are not books.  The Bible wasn’t written as a collection of books.  We all know that, but what we might not realize is how this affects our understanding of the text. …
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