Jeremiah 7:20

A few months ago, I watched the Daily Dose of Hebrew video on Jeremiah 7:20:

I was sort of disappointed to find that in the ESV, this verse is translated as:

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD:  behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched.

In the Hebrew text, the preposition עַל ("upon") is repeated a number of times, but some of these are dropped out of the ESV, resulting in the above instead of "upon man and upon beast, upon the trees of the field and upon the fruit of the ground."  This anaphora (reiterating the preposition) provides a greater effect, and the ESV seems a bit lacking in comparison.

For what it's worth, all these prepositions are retained in the Latin Vulgate, and the "אֶל" of "on this place" (אֶל־הַמָּק֣וֹם הַזֶּ֔ה) is translated as the same preposition ("super"), so there are five total:  "ideo haec dicit Dominus Deus ecce furor meus et indignatio mea conflatur super locum istum super viros et super iumenta et super lignum regionis et super fruges terrae et succendetur et non extinguetur."

I also noticed the construction "it will burn and not be quenched."  A verb is paired with its negated opposite, and this combination also provides emphasis.  I've noted similar constructions elsewhere, and I feel that there must be a term for this device, but I've been unable to find it.

Isaiah 64:11

A few months ago, a footnote in The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume II directed me to Isaiah 64, and in verse 11, I noticed the phrase "pleasant places."

Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers praised you, has been burned by fire, and all our pleasant places have become ruins. [ESV]

I've noted this sort of thing before, but because the phrase has alliteration and syllabic balance, there's a euphony that matches the meaning.

In the Hebrew, however, the phrase is just a single word:  מַחֲמַדֵּ֖ינוּ.

Psalm 44:2

A few months ago, I read Psalm 44 in the ESV and noticed some interesting structures in verse 2:

You [God] with your own hand drove out the nations, but them [our fathers] you planted; you afflicted the peoples, but them you set free.

There's normal subject-verb-object word order in the clauses "You with your own hand drove out the nations" and "You afflicted the peoples," but there's object-subject-verb word order in the clauses "them you planted" and "them you set free."  This shift in the word order mirrors the change in the type of action.

If I understand the Hebrew correctly, the "them"s are suffixes on the verbs, so this inverted structure isn't present:

אַתָּ֤ה ׀ יָדְךָ֡ גּוֹיִ֣ם ה֭וֹרַשְׁתָּ וַתִּטָּעֵ֑ם תָּרַ֥ע לְ֝אֻמִּ֗ים וַֽתְּשַׁלְּחֵֽם׃

Nor is it in the NIV, which clarifies the "them"s and supplies "our fathers" instead:

With your hand you drove out the nations and planted our fathers; you crushed the peoples and made our fathers flourish.

It is in my German Psalter, though, where this is verse 3:

Du hast mit deiner Hand die Heiden vertrieben, sie aber hast du eingesetzt; du hast die Völker zerschlagen, sie aber hast du ausgebreitet.

Psalm 38:11

A few months ago, I read Psalm 38 and noticed a small feature in verse 11:  "My friends and companions stand aloof from my plague, and my nearest kin stand far off" [ESV].  In the first clause, the words "friends and companions" are as far from "my plague" as they can be, illustrating the distance of "stand[ing] aloof."

This feature is also present in my German Psalter (where this is verse 12):  "Meine Lieben und Freunde scheuen zurück vor meiner Plage, und meine Nächsten halten sich ferne."

This isn't present in the Hebrew, though.  The word order there is something like "My friends and companions aloof from my plague stand."  אֹֽהֲבַ֨י ׀ וְרֵעַ֗י מִנֶּ֣גֶד נִגְעִ֣י יַעֲמֹ֑דוּ  This word order is also what the Vulgate has:  "cari mei et amici mei quasi contra lepram meam steterunt."