Sunday, March 26, 2023

Jeremiah 4:22

While continuing through Jeremiah 4 in the archives of the Daily Dose of Hebrew last month, I noticed an interesting feature in verse 22:


When I read the ESV translation before watching the video, I noticed the chiastic structure near the end of the verse:  "'They are 'wise' - in doing evil!  But how to do good they know not.'"  This is also true of the Hebrew:
חֲכָמִים הֵמָּה לְהָרַע וּלְהֵיטִיב לֹא יָדָֽעוּ
The inversion between the two clauses illustrates the opposites:  חֲכָמִים ("wise," used ironically) with לֹא יָדָֽעוּ ("they know not") and לְהָרַע (to do evil) with לְהֵיטִיב (to do good).

This structure is also maintained in the Vulgate:  "sapientes sunt ut faciant mala bene autem facere nescierunt."