1 Kings 12:10, 2 Chronicles 10:10

In reading the NIV, I found a significant pleonasm in 2 Chronicles 10:10:

The young men who had grown up with him [Rehoboam] replied, "Tell the people who have said to you, 'Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter' - tell them, 'My little finger is thicker than my father's waist.'"

"Tell" unnecessarily appears a second time, also in the Hebrew:

יְדַבְּרוּ אִתּוֹ הַיְלָדִים אֲשֶׁר גָּדְלוּ אִתּוֹ לֵאמֹר כֹּֽה־תֹאמַר לָעָם אֲשֶׁר־דִּבְּרוּ אֵלֶיךָ לֵאמֹר אָבִיךָ הִכְבִּיד אֶת־עֻלֵּנוּ וְאַתָּה הָקֵל מֵעָלֵינוּ כֹּה תֹּאמַר אֲלֵהֶם קָֽטָנִּי עָבָה מִמָּתְנֵי אָבִֽי׃

In the following verse, these young men advise Rehoboam to impose a heavier burden on the people, and later he follows their advice.  In a way, the pleonastic "tell" reflects this increase; even in the language that these young men use, there's an abundance.

The parallel passage in 1 Kings 12:10 also contains a pleonasm, although here the two words are distinct in Hebrew:

וַיְדַבְּרוּ אֵלָיו הַיְלָדִים אֲשֶׁר גָּדְלוּ אִתּוֹ לֵאמֹר כֹּֽה־תֹאמַר לָעָם הַזֶּה אֲשֶׁר דִּבְּרוּ אֵלֶיךָ לֵאמֹר אָבִיךָ הִכְבִּיד אֶת־עֻלֵּנוּ וְאַתָּה הָקֵל מֵעָלֵינוּ כֹּה תְּדַבֵּר אֲלֵיהֶם קָֽטָנִּי עָבָה מִמָּתְנֵי אָבִֽי׃

Proverbs 17:1

In July last year, I read Proverbs 17 after encountering a note in my edition of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice that compares some of Gratiano's lines (I.i.88-92) to Proverbs 17:28:  "Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise."

I noticed a couple small features in the first verse:  "Better is a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife."

The phrase "full of feasting" alliterates, and the repetition involved provides a slight sense of this abundance.

That the word "morsel" is technically a diminutive (from the Latin morsus, which means bite) emphasizes more strongly the contrast between the two meals' sizes.  The Latin Vulgate also contains a diminutive here (buccella, from bucca, which means mouth):  "melior est buccella sicca cum gaudio quam domus plena victimis cum iurgio."

Psalm 37:16

When I read Psalm 37 in German, I also referenced the Hebrew, and I found a couple features in verse 16 that highlight the meaning:

טוֹב־מְעַט לַצַּדִּיק מֵהֲמוֹן רְשָׁעִים רַבִּֽים׃

In the ESV, this is:

Better is the little that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked.

The phrase רְשָׁעִים רַבִּֽים ("many wicked") alliterates and rhymes, and the repetition of these initial and final sounds lends a slight sense of this multitude.

Galatians 5:17

On the Worship Anew program for the Third Sunday after Pentecost (29 June), the Epistle reading was from Galatians 5, and I noticed verse 17 in particular:

For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

The first part of this features a chiasm:

For the desires of the flesh are

against the Spirit,

and the desires of the Spirit

are against the flesh

Such a structure illustrates this opposition.

This chiasm is also in the Greek:

ἡ γὰρ σὰρξ ἐπιθυμεῖ

κατὰ τοῦ πνεύματος

τὸ δὲ πνεῦμα

κατὰ τῆς σαρκός

It's maintained in all of the other translations I referenced, too.

German:

Denn das Fleisch begehrt auf

gegen den Geist

und der Geist

gegen das Fleisch

French:

Car la chair a des désirs

contraires à ceux de l'Esprit,

et l'Esprit en a

de contraires à ceux de la chair

The Latin Vulgate:

caro enim concupiscit

adversus spiritum

spiritus autem

adversus carnem

Italian:

Poichè la carne appetisce

contro allo Spirito,

e lo Spirito

contro alla carne

Psalm 35:18, 22

I found a couple minor features in Psalm 35 when I read it in German.

First in verse 18:

Ich will dir danken in großer Gemeinde; unter vielem Volk will ich dich rühmen.

In the ESV, this is:

I will thank you in the great congregation; in the mighty throng I will praise you.

The repetition involved in the alliteration of "großer Gemeinde" ("great congregation") and the consonance of "vielem Volk" ("mighty throng" or more prosaically "many people") provides a slight sense of abundance.

Second in verse 22:

HERR, du hast es gesehen, schweige nicht; HERR, sei nicht ferne von mir!

In the ESV, this is:

You have seen, O LORD; be not silent!  O Lord, be not far from me!

As if to demonstrate this distance, "HERR" ("LORD") and "mir" ("me") are at opposite ends of the clause.  This is also true of the Hebrew (אֲדֹנָי and the suffix on מִמֶּֽנִּי):

רָאִיתָה יְהוָה אַֽל־תֶּחֱרַשׁ אֲדֹנָי אֲל־תִּרְחַק מִמֶּֽנִּי׃

the Latin Vulgate ("Domine" and "me"):

vidisti Domine ne taceas Domine ne elongeris a me

and - excepting the vocative "O" - the Italian Bible I've been referencing ("Signore" and "me"):

O Signore, tu hai vedute queste cose; non tacere; O Signore, non allontanarti da me.

Mark 5:4, 19-20; Luke 8:29, 39

Luke 8:26-39 was the Gospel reading on the Worship Anew program for the Second Sunday of Pentecost last year (22 June).  I was following along in the Latin Vulgate and noticed a characteristic in verse 29 that (probably just coincidentally) matches the meaning.

praecipiebat enim spiritui inmundo ut exiret ab homine multis enim temporibus arripiebat illum et vinciebatur catenis et conpedibus custoditus et ruptis vinculis agebatur a daemonio in deserta

In the ESV, this is:

For he [Jesus] had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man.  (For many a time it had seized him.  He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.)

The phrase "catenis et conpedibus custoditus" ("with chains and with shackles held in custody") exhibits consonance in Latin.  That the successive words begin and end with the same sound lends a sense of stasis, illustrating the man's (temporary) immobility.

The account in Mark (5:1-20) exhibits the same feature (in verse 4), but the phrase is shorter (merely "conpedibus et catenis" - "with shackles and with chains"):

quoniam saepe conpedibus et catenis vinctus disrupisset catenas et conpedes comminuisset et nemo poterat eum domare

for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces.  No one had the strength to subdue him.  [ESV]

---&---

I also noticed a sort of syllogism in Luke 8:39:  "'Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.'  And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him."  The similarity between "'how much God has done for you'" and "how much Jesus had done for him" implies that Jesus is God.  By recounting the event in this way, the man's statement also becomes a testimony to his faith in Jesus' divinity.

This, too, is in the Mark 5 account:  "19 And he did not permit him [to go with Jesus] but said to him, 'Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.'  20 And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled."

Psalm 30:5

When I read Psalm 30 in German last year, I noticed some significance in the structure of the first half of verse 6:

Denn sein Zorn währet einen Augenblick und lebenslang seine Gnade.

In the ESV, this is the first half of verse 5:

For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime.

The German version features a chiasm:

Denn sein Zorn

währet einen Augenblick

und lebenslang

seine Gnade.

This structure highlights the opposite natures of Zorn (anger) and Gnade (favor) and of "einen Augenblick" ("a moment," literally "a blink of an eye") and lebenslang (lifelong).

Of the translations I lookt at, this is unique to the German.

1 Chronicles 29:25, Philippians 2:9

While reading 1 Chronicles 29 in the NIV last year, I noticed a resemblance to an-other passage, albeit in a different translation.

In the NIV, 1 Chronicles 29:25 is:

The LORD highly exalted Solomon in the sight of all Israel and bestowed on him royal splendor such as no king over Israel ever had before.

In the ESV, Philippians 2:9 is:

Therefore God has highly exalted him [Jesus] and bestowed on him the name that is above every name

For what it's worth, in the ESV, 1 Chronicles 29:25 is:

And the LORD made Solomon very great in the sight of all Israel and bestowed on him such royal majesty as had not been on any king before him in Israel.

And in the NIV, Philippians 2:9 is:

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name

The passages within each translation resemble each other to a degree, but those across translations contain two identical phrases.  Of course, referencing the original languages would be irrelevant here because 1 Chronicles 29 is in Hebrew while Philippians 2:9 is in Greek.

Although this similarity may be just coincidental, it does match with how Solomon foreshadows Christ in a way.  For instance, take 1 Chronicles 17:11-14, where God says to David (via Nathan):  "11 'When your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom.  12 He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever.  13 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.  I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you, 14 but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.'"  In its immediate context, this describes Solomon, but in a broader sense, it also pertains to Christ.  It may also be worth pointing out that in Matthew 12:42, Jesus says of Himself, "Something greater than Solomon is here."

1 Kings 3:12, 2 Chronicles 1:12

I've been following Aleph with Beth since it started in 2020, although I'm not up to date because I've been watching the videos at a slower rate than they're posted.  In June last year, I watched lesson 98 where (at ~13:53) 1 Kings 3:12 is shown:

הִנֵּה עָשִׂיתִי כִּדְבָרֶיךָ הִנֵּה ׀ נָתַתִּי לְךָ לֵב חָכָם וְנָבוֹן אֲשֶׁר כָּמוֹךָ לֹא־הָיָה לְפָנֶיךָ וְאַחֲרֶיךָ לֹא־יָקוּם כָּמֽוֹךָ׃

"Behold, I now do according to your word.  Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you."  [ESV]

In Hebrew, the last portion of the verse features a chiasm:

כָּמוֹךָ (like you)

לֹא־הָיָה (one has not existed)

לְפָנֶיךָ (before you)

וְאַחֲרֶיךָ (and after you)

לֹא־יָקוּם (one will not arise)

כָּמֽוֹךָ (like you)

This structure illustrates the two-fold view:  one word order for looking to the past, and the opposite order for looking to the future.

Shortly after I noticed this, I happened to read 2 Chronicles 1 in the NIV, where Solomon's request is recounted again.  God's response exhibits a chiastic structure here, too, albeit in a condensed form (in verse 12):

הַֽחָכְמָה וְהַמַּדָּע נָתוּן לָךְ וְעֹשֶׁר וּנְכָסִים וְכָבוֹד אֶתֶּן־לָךְ אֲשֶׁר ׀ לֹא־הָיָה כֵן לַמְּלָכִים אֲשֶׁר לְפָנֶיךָ וְאַחֲרֶיךָ לֹא יִֽהְיֶה־כֵּֽן׃

"therefore wisdom and knowledge will be given you.  And I will also give you wealth, riches, and honor, such as no king who was before you ever had and none after you will have."  [NIV]

Specifically:

לֹא־הָיָה כֵן (such as was not)

לַמְּלָכִים אֲשֶׁר לְפָנֶיךָ (to the kings who [were] before you)

וְאַחֲרֶיךָ (and after you)

לֹא יִֽהְיֶה־כֵּֽן (will not be thus)

Matthew 20:20-34, Mark 10:35-52

For the last five years or so, I've been studying Gothic via Joseph Wright's A Primer of the Gothic Language.  Part of the book contains fragments of the Gospels in Gothic, and as I was stumbling through Mark last year, I noticed a significant contrast in chapter 10.  In the second half of the chapter (verses 35-52), Jesus twice asks the question "What do you want me to do for you?" - first to James and John (in verse 36) and then to Bartimaeus (in verse 51).  The identical* form of this question highlights the different contexts in which it appears, specifically the opposite ways in which these two parties approach Jesus.  James and John come to Him as if they have authority over Him, expecting their demands to be met ("We want you to do for us whatever we ask of you"), but Bartimaeus begins with humility ("Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!").

About a week after I noticed this similarity, I ran across the parallel in Matthew 20:20-34.  In this account, it's James and John's mother who asks on behalf of her sons, and Jesus' questions aren't identical ("What do you want?" in verse 21, but "What do you want me to do for you?" in verse 32).  Because there are two blind men here, however, the account draws a sharper contrast between the two parties.  The two brothers who aspire to high positions are more evenly balanced against the two blind men who demonstrate humbleness.

---

*It's identical in English, but it differs slightly in other languages, principally depending on whether you is singular or plural.

Psalm 25:1, 3

When I read Psalm 25 in my German Psalter, I noticed some significance in the word order in the first verse:  "Nach dir, HERR, verlanget mich."  The pronoun ("dir" "You") and vocative ("HERR" "LORD") come first in the clause, illustrating the importance that the Lord holds for the Psalmist.  The German here means something like "For You, Lord, I long," but all of the English translations I referenced have "To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul."

I also noticed a chiasm in verse 3, although a relative clause complicates it a bit:

Denn keiner

wird zuschanden, der auf dich harret;

aber zuschanden werden

die leichtfertigen Verächter.

It's clearer in the Hebrew:

גַּם כָּל־קֹוֶיךָ

לֹא יֵבֹשׁוּ

יֵבֹשׁוּ

הַבּוֹגְדִים רֵיקָֽם׃

and even in the Latin Vulgate (where the versification is different, so this bridges verses 3 and 4):

sed et universi qui sperant in te

non confundantur

confundantur

qui iniqua gerunt frustra

In English, this is something like:

But all who hope in you

will not be put to shame;

will be put to shame

those who act treacherously in vain

The chiastic structure highlights the difference between "those who hope in you" and "those who act treacherously" and - obviously - between "will not be put to shame" and "will be put to shame."

1 Chronicles 22:11, 16

When I read 1 Chronicles 22 in the NIV last year, I noticed two instances of "the LORD be with you" (in verses 11 and 16) and correctly guessed that these are rendered with tecum in the Latin Vulgate:

sit Dominus tecum ("may the LORD be with you")

erit Dominus tecum ("the LORD will be with you")

As I've noted before, tecum is the prepositional phrase "cum te" ("with you") with its words inverted and combined, and in this context, it provides a slightly greater sense of accompaniment since "te" ("you") and "Dominus" ("the LORD") are directly next to each other.

Psalm 18:4, 27

While reading Psalm 18 in my German Psalter last year, I found a couple points to note.

Verse 5 is:

Es umfingen mich des Todes Bande, und die Fluten des Verderbens erschreckten mich.

In the ESV (where this is verse 4), it's:

The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of destruction assailed me

The German is a bit redundant (literally:  "it encompass me of the death [the] cords"), but this does result in a somewhat literal picture of what the verse is describing:  "me" really is "encompass[ed]," between "the cords of death" and the pleonastic "it."

In the Hebrew, this clause is:

אֲפָפוּנִי חֶבְלֵי־מָוֶת

The verb has a pronominal suffix and is followed by an explicit subject ("encompass-me the cords of death"), but if a less specific subject (a generic "they") is understood as inflected into the verb, the structure is the same as the German:  "they encompass me, the cords of death."

The Latin Vulgate is comparable:  "[ei] circumdederunt me funes mortis."

---&---

Verse 28 has a chiastic structure, although some of the elements are equated a bit loosely:

Denn du

hilfst

dem elenden Volk,

aber stolze Augen

erniedrigst

du.

For You

help

the miserable people,

but proud eyes [accusative]

lower

You [nominative].

This structure highlights the difference between "dem elenden Volk" (miserable people) and "stolze Augen" (proud eyes) and between "hilfst" (help) and "erniedrigst" (lower).

This structure isn't in the Hebrew, but in the ESV (in which this is verse 27), the order is as similar as English syntax will allow:  "For you save a humble people, but the haughty eyes you bring down."

John 16:32

John 16:23-33 was the reading on a Worship Anew program in May last year (The Sixth Sunday of Easter, 25 May), and in verse 32 in the Vulgate, I found an-other instance of a minor feature I've noted a few times before.

ecce venit hora et iam venit ut dispergamini unusquisque in propria et me solum relinquatis et non sum solus quia Pater mecum est

In the ESV, this is:

"Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone.  Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me."

In Latin, the words in the prepositional phrase "cum me" ("with me") are inverted and combined into mecum.  Consequently, me is directly next to Pater ("the Father"), lending a slightly greater sense of this accompaniment, especially in this instance since these are two figures of the Trinity.