Genesis 6-9

Years ago, I noticed the resemblance between the words arca (ark) and arcus (bow or rainbow) in the Latin Vulgate's account of the flood in Genesis 6-9.  (When the Daily Dose of Septuagint went through these chapters recently, I was following along in Italian and noticed that this holds true there, too:  arca and arco, respectively.)  I thought that this similarity was significant, but it took me a long time to sort it out.

The resemblance between these words helps to highlight that the ark and the rainbow have the same basic function:  showing God's dedication to His people.

First, the ark acts as the literal means of deliverance from the flood for Noah and his family specifically:

"But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you." (Genesis 6:18)

After the flood, the rainbow represents a broader covenant with God:

"I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth."  And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations:  I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth."  (Genesis 9:11-13)

Psalm 5:7

The Daily Dose of Hebrew and the Daily Dose of Aramaic went over Psalm 5:8 (verse 7 in the English) about half a year apart, but in this post, I'm combining minor points I noticed from each time.

וַאֲנִי בְּרֹב חַסְדְּךָ אָבוֹא בֵיתֶךָ אֶשְׁתַּחֲוֶה אֶל־הֵֽיכַל־קָדְשְׁךָ בְּיִרְאָתֶֽךָ׃

But as for me, I will come into Your house in the multitude of Your mercy; in fear of You I will worship toward Your holy temple.  [NKJV]

In referencing other translations, I found a couple in which בְּרֹב חַסְדְּךָ is rendered as an alliterative phrase (even more concentrated than the NKJV's "in the multitude of Your mercy") and realized that the repetition involved in this alliteration provides a slight sense of this abundance.

"große Güte" ("great goodness") in German (in which this is also verse 8):

Ich aber darf in dein Haus gehen durch deine große Güte und anbeten vor deinem heiligen Tempel in deiner Furcht.

"multitudine misericordiae" ("multitude of mercy") in Latin (also verse 8):

ego autem in multitudine misericordiae tuae introibo in domum tuam adorabo ad templum sanctum tuum in timore tuo

Additionally, the high number of syllables (eleven) in the phrase "multitudine misericordiae" hints at this great amount, especially in contrast to the surrounding words, which have only one or two each.

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In a way, the placement of the phrase בְּרֹב חַסְדְּךָ before the verb אָבוֹא (rendered as "I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter..." in the ESV) indicates that receiving God's steadfast love necessarily precedes entering His house.  I wouldn't usually use word order as the basis for an argument, but what the Psalmist describes here seems analogous to Luther's explanation of the third article of the Apostles' Creed:  "By nature I am spiritually blind, dead, and an enemy of God, as the Scriptures teach; therefore, 'I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him'" therefore "The Holy Spirit 'has called me by the Gospel,' that is, He has invited and drawn me by the Gospel to partake of the spiritual blessings that are mine in Christ."  Likewise, without the invitation of God's steadfast love, the Psalmist would remain outside, with "the boastful," "all evildoers," "those who speak lies," and "the bloodthirsty and deceitful man" in the preceding verses.

Matthew 15:26

When the Daily Dose of Greek went over Matthew 15:26, I noticed the verbs λαβεῖν (to take) and βαλεῖν (to throw).

Ὁ δὲ ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν· οὐκ ἔστιν καλὸν λαβεῖν τὸν ἄρτον τῶν τέκνων καὶ βαλεῖν τοῖς κυναρίοις.

And he answered, "It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." [ESV]

That the stems of these two verbs are inversions of each other (λαβ- and βαλ-) highlights their opposite meanings to a degree.

Psalm 67:4

In my German translation of Psalm 67, I noticed the phrase "recht richtest" in verse 5:

Die Völker freuen sich und jauchzen, daß du die Menschen recht richtest und regierst die Völker auf Erden.  Sela.

In the ESV, this is verse 4:

Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth.  Selah

As I've noted before with similar phrases, the repetition involved in the consonance of "recht richtest" (rendered as "judge... with equity" in the ESV) provides a sense of orderliness.

Genesis 1:28

When the Daily Dose of Septuagint went over (the first half of) Genesis 1:28, I noticed in particular what's rendered as "Be fruitful and multiply" in the ESV.

And God blessed them.  And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it..."

The meanings of "be fruitful" and "multiply" overlap, so this expression is a bit redundant, yet this redundancy matches the meaning.

Psalm 59:10, 12

In the German translation of Psalm 59, I found two instances of significant assonance.

First, verse 11:

Gott erzeigt mir reichlich seine Güte, Gott läßt mich auf meine Feinde herabsehen.

In the ESV, this is verse 10:

My God in his steadfast love will meet me; God will let me look in triumph on my enemies.

Although a translation of the German is something more like:

God richly shows me His goodness; God lets me look down on my enemies.

The repetition involved in the assonance in the first half of the verse ("Gott erzeigt mir reichlich seine Güte" "God richly shows me His goodness") provides a sense of this abundance (for "reichlich" "richly").

Second, verse 13:

Das Wort ihrer Lippen ist nichts als Sünde; darum sollen sie sich fangen in ihrer Hoffart mit all ihren Flüchen und Lügen.

In the ESV, this is verse 12, with the division between sentences coming earlier and the second sentence extending into the next verse:

For the sin of their mouths, the words of their lips, let them be trapped in their pride.  For the cursing and lies that they utter,

Again, a translation of the German is a bit different:

The word of their lips is nothing but sin; therefore, they should be caught in their pride with all their cursing and lying.

It's a smaller instance, but like the above, the repetition involved in the assonance in "Flüchen und Lügen" ("cursing and lies") gives a slight sense of the large amount ("all").

Psalm 57:4

When I read Psalm 57 in German, I noticed a minor feature in the structure of verse 5:

Ich liege mitten unter Löwen; verzehrende Flammen sind die Menschen, ihre Zähne sind Spieße und Pfeile und ihre Zungen scharfe Schwerter.

In English, this is verse 4.  Here's the NKJV:

My soul is among lions; I lie among the sons of men who are set of fire, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.

In both translations, the parallelism in the second half of the verse is highlighted by alliteration:

ihre Zähne sind Spieße

ihre Zungen scharfe Schwerter

whose teeth are spears

their tongue a sharp sword

Psalm 56:1

When I read Psalm 56 in German, I noticed alliteration and assonance in the second verse:

Gott, sei mir gnädig, denn Menschen stellen mir nach; täglich bekämpfen und bedrängen sie mich.

In the ESV, this is verse 1:

Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me; all day long an attacker oppresses me.

although the German translation is something more like:

God, be merciful to me, for men are after me; daily, they fight and harass me.

The repetition involved in these rhetorical devices provides a sense of this constancy.

Isaiah 43:5-6

Last summer and again more recently, I found elements in Isaiah 43:5-6 that emphasize the completeness that's also indicated more plainly by the various directions listed.

In the ESV, the second part of verse 5 features a chiasm:

I will bring your offspring

from the east,

and from the west

I will gather you.

The inverted structure highlights these opposite directions and consequently this breadth.  It isn't in the Hebrew, however:

מִמִּזְרָח אָבִיא זַרְעֶךָ וּמִֽמַּעֲרָב אֲקַבְּצֶֽךָּ

from the east, I will bring your offspring, and from the west, I will gather you

The first part of verse 6 includes both positive and negative commands:

I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold.

אֹמַר לַצָּפוֹן תֵּנִי וּלְתֵימָן אַל־תִּכְלָאִי

"Give up" and "Do not withhold" describe basically the same action, but the way in which these commands are expressed (both positively and negatively) provides a sense of totality.

Psalm 55:4

When I read Psalm 55 in German, I noticed a pair of synonyms in verse 5:  "Mein Herz ängstet sich in meinem Leibe, und Todesfurcht ist auf mich gefallen."  "Ängstet sich" and "Todesfurcht" both mean fear (first as a verb and then as a noun, "fear of death" specifically).  In the ESV, however (where this is verse 4), it's translated as "My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death have fallen upon me."  That the descriptions of these two fears (or "anguish" and "terrors") encompass both the internal ("in meinem Leibe" "within me" [literally "in my body"]) and the external ("auf mich" "upon me") provides a sense of totality.

In the Latin Vulgate, these phrases are "in vitalibus meis" ("in my vitals," akin to the Hebrew בְּקִרְבִּי) and "super me" ("upon me," עָלָֽי).

Isaiah 24:19

While flipping through Isaiah last summer*, I happened upon Isaiah 24:19:  "The earth is utterly broken, the earth is split apart, the earth is violently shaken" [ESV].  The repetition of the subject in each clause provides a greater sense of this fragmentation than a single subject with a compound predicate would ("The earth is utterly broken, split apart, and violently shaken").

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*I was referencing chapter 22.  The Gospel reading on Worship Anew (Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, 3 August) was Luke 12:13-21, and I noticed "relax, eat, drink, be merry" in verse 19, which seems to have been combined with "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die" in Isaiah 22:13 in the saying "Let us eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die."

Isaiah 53:6

I'd previously noticed that in the change from the plural "we" to the singular "one" and "his own," the language in a section of Isaiah 53:6 matches this sort of fragmentation:  "we have turned - every one - to his own way."  At the time, however, I didn't consider this significant enough to write about here.

When the Daily Dose of Septuagint went over the verse, I noticed that this division is given a bit more emphasis in the Septuagint.

πάντες ὡς πρόβατα ἐπλανήθημεν, ἄνθρωπος τῇ ὁδῷ αὐτοῦ ἐπλανήθη· καὶ κύριος παρέδωκεν αὐτὸν ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις ἡμῶν.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned - every one - to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. [ESV]

Because the same verb is repeated, first in the plural (ἐπλανήθημεν) and then in the singular (ἐπλανήθη), the transition from a group to individuals is more evident.