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.

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."

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."

Psalm 16:6

When I read Psalm 16 in my German Psalter, I found the same sort of feature in verse 6 that I'd noticed in the ESV years ago.

Das Los ist mir gefallen auf liebliches Land; mir ist ein schönes Erbteil geworden.

The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

The phrase "liebliches Land" ("lovely land," comparable to the ESV's "pleasant places") alliterates, and in a small way, this euphony matches the meaning.

Psalm 10:5, 7

I found a couple features in my German translation of Psalm 10 that highlight the meaning.

Verse 5 is:

Er fährt fort in seinem Tun immerdar.  Deine Gerichte sind ferne von ihm, er handelt gewaltsam an allen seinen Feinden.

In the ESV, this is:

His ways prosper at all times; your judgements are on high, out of his sight; as for all his foes, he puffs at them.

"Deine Gerichte" ("your judgements") and "ihm" ("him") are at opposite ends of the clause, giving a sense of the distance between them.  (In German, it's more prosaic:  "Your judgements are far from him," but the ESV renders it as "your judgements are high, out of his sight.")

Verse 7:

Seine Mund ist voll Fluchens, voll Lug und Trug; seine Zunge richtet Mühsal und Unheil an.

His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression; under his tongue are mischief and iniquity.

The repetition of sound between "Lug" and "Trug" (in a phrase that means something like "lies and deception") lends a slight sense of abundance, which matches being "filled."

Psalm 9:4, 18

When I read Psalm 9 in my German Psalter, I found the same sort of feature that I noticed in Psalm 7:11.  In German, it's in verse 5:

Denn du führst mein Recht und meine Sache, du sitzest auf dem Thron, ein rechter Richter.

But in the ESV, this is verse 4:

For you have maintained my just cause; you have sat on the throne, giving righteous judgement.

To a degree, the repetition of the consonance in "rechter Richter" ("just judge," comparable to the ESV's "giving righteous judgement") lends a sense of orderliness.

As with Psalm 7:11, the corresponding Latin and Italian phrases exhibit alliteration, providing a similar effect (in the Latin Vulgate, it's also verse 5):

fecisti enim iudicium meum et causam meam sedisti super solium iudex iustitiae

Conciossiachè tu mi abbi fatta ragione e diritto; tu ti sei posto a sedere sopra il trono, come giusto giudice.

---&---

A number of qualities highlight the parallelism in verse 19 of the German:

Denn er wird den Armen nicht für immer vergessen; die Hoffnung der Elenden wird nicht ewig verloren sein.

In the ESV, this is verse 18:

For the needy shall not always be forgotten, and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.

Vergessen (forgotten) and verloren (lost, comparable to the ESV's perish) alliterate and have the same number of syllables, and the emphasis falls on the same syllable in each (the second).  The similar sounds of the words match the parallel structure in which they appear.

Psalm 8:4

I'd previously noticed the parallelism in Psalm 8:4, but when I read the verse in German months ago, the foreignness of the language made me realize that this parallelism has a significant unevenness.

In the German Psalter, it's verse 5:

was ist der Mensch, daß du seiner gedenkst,

und des Menschen Kind, daß du dich seiner annimmst?

In the ESV, this is:

What is man that you are mindful of him,

and the son of man that you care for him?

Structurally, "der Mensch" ("man") parallels "des Menschen Kind" ("the son of man"), but the genitive relationship shows that this "son" has a lower rank than the "man."  He's under his authority and obviously younger.  The two figures here continue the narrowing scope that began in verse 3:  the "heavens," "the moon and the stars," "man," and finally "the son of man."   This sort of zooming in emphasizes the smallness of "the son of man," and yet he still receives God's care.

Psalm 7:11

As I've been going through my German Psalter, I've found many instances of the same minuscule features.  I'm going to keep them divided by Psalm as I write about them, however, even though this arrangement will result in multiple short posts that may be repetitive and perhaps even insignificant.

In the German Psalter, Psalm 7:12 is "Gott ist ein gerechter Richter und ein Gott, der täglich strafen kann."  In the ESV, this is verse 11:  "God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day."

The phrase "gerechter Richter" ("righteous judge") exhibits consonance, and to a degree, the repetition of these sounds provides a sense of the orderliness involved.  A similar effect is achieved with alliteration ("just judge") in the NKJV:  "God is a just judge, and God is angry with the wicked every day."

Last month, the Daily Dose of Hebrew went over this verse (it's verse 12 in the Hebrew):

Before I watched the video, I read the verse in Latin and Italian (I've been referencing this Italian Bible from 1894) and noticed that the corresponding phrases alliterate in these languages, too:

Deus iudex iustus et fortis comminans tota die

Iddio è giusto giudice, e un Dio che si adira ogni giorno.

2 Corinthians 11:26

While flipping through the Vulgate months ago, I happened upon 2 Corinthians 11:26.  The formatting (in my edition, anyway) made it very obvious that this verse exhibits anaphora:

in itineribus saepe

periculis fluminum

periculis latronum

periculis ex genere

periculis ex gentibus

periculis in civitate

periculis in solitudine

periculis in mari

periculis in falsis fratribus

This structure is also in the Greek:

ὁδοιπορίαις πολλάκις, κινδύνοις ποταμῶν, κινδύνοις ληστῶν, κινδύνοις ἐκ γένους, κινδύνοις ἐξ ἐθνῶν, κινδύνοις ἐν πόλει, κινδύνοις ἐν ἐρημίᾳ, κινδύνοις ἐν θαλάσσῃ, κινδύνοις ἐν ψευδαδέλφοις,

My German New Testament:

Ich bin oft gereist, ich bin in Gefahr gewesen durch Flüsse, in Gefahr unter Räubern, in Gefahr unter Juden, in Gefahr unter Heiden, in Gefahr in Städten, in Gefahr in Wüsten, in Gefahr auf dem Meer, in Gefahr unter falschen Brüdern

And my French New Testament:

Fréquemment en voyage, j'ai été en péril sur les fleuves, en péril de la part des brigands, en péril de la part de ceux de ma nation, en péril de la part des païens, en péril dans les villes, en péril dans les déserts, en péril sur la mer, en péril parmi les faux frères.

Here's the ESV translation:

on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers

There's a parity between the frequency indicated by πολλάκις (often) and the inherent repetition of anaphora, and the combination of these two (the temporal adverb and repetitive structure) may even create a greater sense of the constancy of this peril.

Proverbs 3:10

Months ago, the weekend edition of The Daily Dose of Hebrew went over Proverbs 3:10:

וְיִמָּלְאוּ אֲסָמֶיךָ שָׂבָע וְתִירוֹשׁ יְקָבֶיךָ יִפְרֹֽצוּ׃

As Dr. Howell notes in the video, the word שָׂבָע can mean something like plenty or satiety.  If it's understood as plenty, these barns are redundantly described ("filled with plenty"), but this redundancy does illustrate that abundance.

The ESV and NKJV both have "filled with plenty," and the Vulgate ("et implebuntur horrea tua saturitate") is comparable.  The NIV seems to go a bit further with "filled to overflowing."

My German translation of Proverbs goes the other way and takes שָׂבָע to mean simply satiety:  "so werden deine Scheunen voll werden" ("so your barns will become full").

Proverbs 10:6

When I was flipping to Proverbs 14 in order to reference verse 35 and write this post about it, I ran across an-other significant chiastic structure, this time in Proverbs 10:6.  In the ESV, it's:

Blessings

are on the head of the righteous,

but the mouth of the wicked conceals

violence.

As with the last few chiasms in Proverbs that I've written about, the elements here are a bit more loosely equated, but the structure does highlight the contrasts between "blessings" and "violence" and between "the head of the righteous" and "the mouth of the wicked."

This chiasm is also in the Hebrew:

בְּרָכוֹת

לְרֹאשׁ צַדִּיק

וּפִי רְשָׁעִים יְכַסֶּה

חָמָֽס׃

and the Latin Vulgate:

benedictio

super caput iusti

os autem impiorum operit

iniquitatem

It's also in my German translation of Proverbs, but the meaning is a bit different:

Segen ruht

auf dem Haupt des Gerechten;

aber auf die Gottlosen

wird ihr Frevel fallen.

Something like:

Blessing rests

on the head of the righteous,

but on the wicked

will their iniquity fall.

The second half of this echoes Psalm 7:16:  "His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends."

Matthew 13:30

When the Daily Dose of Greek went over Matthew 13:30 a few months ago, I noticed some significance in the structure.

The text I referenced from the STEP Bible (the Tyndale House Greek New Testament) is slightly different (μέχρι instead of ἕως):

ἄφετε συναυξάνεσθαι ἀμφότερα μέχρι τοῦ θερισμοῦ· καὶ ἐν καιρῷ τοῦ θερισμοῦ ἐρῶ τοῖς θερισταῖς· συλλέξατε πρῶτον τὰ ζιζάνια καὶ δήσατε αὐτὰ εἰς δεσμὰς πρὸς τὸ κατακαῦσαι αὐτά· τὸν δὲ σῖτον συναγάγετε εἰς τὴν ἀποθήκην μου.

This is Jesus giving the dialogue of the master of the house in the Parable of the Weeds.  In the ESV, it's:

"'Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'"

The direct object follows the verb in the phrase συλλέξατε πρῶτον τὰ ζιζάνια, but it precedes the verb in the phrase τὸν δὲ σῖτον συναγάγετε, forming a sort of chiasm:

συλλέξατε ("gather")

τὰ ζιζάνια ("the weeds")

τὸν δὲ σῖτον ("but the wheat")

συναγάγετε ("gather")

Such a structure highlights the different values that the weeds and the wheat have for the master of the house.

This structure is also present in the Latin Vulgate:

sinite utraque crescere usque ad messem et in tempore messis dicam messoribus colligite primum zizania et alligate ea fasciculos ad conburendum triticum autem congregate in horreum meum

My German New Testament has this structure, too, but it translates the two verbs (συλλέξατε and συναγάγετε) as the same word ("sammelt"), like the ESV does with "gather."  That this element in the chiasm is exactly the same lends even more emphasis to the contrasting nature of the inner elements (the weeds and the wheat):

Laßt beides miteinander wachsen bis zur Ernte; und um die Erntezeit will ich zu den Schnittern sagen:  Sammelt zuerst das Unkraut und bindet es in Bündel, damit man es verbrenne; aber den Weizen sammelt mir in meine Scheune.

Matthew 13:20

Back in March, I watched the Daily Dose of Greek video on Matthew 13:20:

ὁ δὲ ἐπὶ τὰ πετρώδη σπαρείς, οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ τὸν λόγον ἀκούων καὶ εὐθὺς μετὰ χαρᾶς λαμβάνων αὐτόν.

In the ESV, this is:

"As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy"

In both my German and French translations of the New Testament, the pronoun referring to the word is drawn forward in the clause:

Bei dem aber auf felsigen Boden gesät ist, das ist, der das Wort hört und es gleich mit Freuden aufnimmt

Celui qui a reçu la semence dans les endroits pierreux, c'est celui qui entend la parole et la reçoit aussitôt avec joie

As far as I can tell, this placement is just because of the syntax of each of these languages, not a sort of inversion to create some emphasis, but to some degree, it does indicate the eagerness with which the word is received.

Hebrews 2:16

A couple months ago, I watched the Worship Anew program for 2 February (The Purification of Mary and Presentation of Our Lord).  The epistle reading was Hebrews 2:14-18, and I noticed verse 16 in particular:  "For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham."

There's a chiastic structure highlighting this difference:

It is not angels

that he helps,

but he helps

the offspring of Abraham.

Of the translations I referenced, this is unique to the ESV and my German New Testament, in which this verse is:

Denn er nimmt sich

nicht der Engel an,

sondern der Kinder Abrahams

nimmt er sich an.

Hebrews 13:8

A few months ago, I read Hebrews 13:8 in my German/English catechism (cited under "Who is Jesus Christ?" in the explanation to the second article of the creed) and noticed that there's no explicit verb in the German translation:

Jesus Christus, gestern und heute und derselbe auch in Ewigkeit.

It's something like:  "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and also in eternity."

The Greek text also has no verb:

Ἰησοῦς χριστὸς ἐχθὲς καὶ σήμερον ὁ αὐτὸς καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας.

Likewise the Latin Vulgate:

Iesus Christus heri et hodie ipse et in saecula

I think it may be significant that a form of "to be" is merely implied here.  All tenses equally apply (Jesus was, is, and will be the same, as the different time elements in the verse indicate), so it's almost as if any one form would be too temporally specific.

Proverbs 1:22

A few months ago, I started reading Proverbs in the ESV again and noticed some significance in the diction of Proverbs 1:22, where Wisdom says, "How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?  How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?"  As if to reflect the nature of the "simple ones," the vocabulary of the first clause is somewhat limited, with "simple" being repeated.

This repetition is also in the Hebrew:

עַד־מָתַי ׀ פְּתָיִם תְּֽאֵהֲבוּ פֶתִי

And in my German translation of Proverbs:

Wie lange wollt ihr Unverständigen unverständig sein

Psalm 125:4-5

Last month, I read Psalm 125 in the ESV, and I noticed a sort of chiastic structure highlighting opposites in verses 4-5:

4 Do good, O LORD,

to those who are good, and to those who are upright in their hearts!

5 But those who turn aside to their crooked ways

the LORD will lead away with evildoers!  Peace be upon Israel!

The structure is delineated more by meaning than strict grammatical form, though, since the phrases "those who are good" and "those who are upright in their hearts" are in the dative case where the phrase "those who turn aside to their crooked ways" is in the accusative.  The verbs are slightly different, too:  "do good" is an imperative, but "will lead away" is a future indicative (in the English, at least).

This structure is also present in the Hebrew:

הֵיטִיבָה יְהוָה לַטּוֹבִים וְלִֽישָׁרִים בְּלִבּוֹתָֽם׃

וְהַמַּטִּים עַֽקַלְקַלּוֹתָם יוֹלִיכֵם יְהוָה אֶת־פֹּעֲלֵי הָאָוֶן שָׁלוֹם עַל־יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃

The Latin Vulgate:

4 benefac Domine

bonis et rectis corde

5 qui autem declinant ad pravitates suas

deducet eos Dominus cum his qui operantur iniquitatem pax super Israhel

And my German Psalter:

4 HERR, tu wohl

den Guten und denen, die frommen Herzens sind.

5 Die aber abweichen auf ihre krummen Wege,

wird der HERR dahinfahren lassen mit den Übeltätern.  Friede sei über Israel!

Hebrews 9:14

Last month, I watched the Concordia University Wisconsin chapel service from the 6th:

The reading was Hebrews 9:11-14, and part of verse 14 caught my attention:  "how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God" [ESV].

In the Greek, it's:  πόσῳ μᾶλλον τὸ αἷμα τοῦ χριστοῦ, ὃς διὰ πνεύματος αἰωνίου ἑαυτὸν προσήνεγκεν ἄμωμον τῷ θεῷ, καθαριεῖ τὴν συνείδησιν ὑμῶν ἀπὸ νεκρῶν ἔργων εἰς τὸ λατρεύειν θεῷ ζῶντι;

There's a sort of contrast between "from dead works" and "to serve the living God," and this is heightened by the different forms of the modifiers.  "Dead" (νεκρῶν) is just an adjective, but "living" (ζῶντι) is a participle, and since participles are verbal adjectives, there's some of the dynamic action of a verb here rather than just the static nature of a plain adjective.

The same distinction is also in the Latin Vulgate ("quanto magis sanguis Christi qui per Spiritum Sanctum semet ipsum obtulit inmaculatum Deo emundabit conscientiam vestram ab operibus mortuis ad serviendum Deo viventi"), my German New Testament ("um wieviel mehr wird dann das Blut Christi, der sich selbst als Opfer ohne Fehl durch den ewigen Geist Gott dargebracht hat, unser Gewissen reinigen von den toten Werken, zu dienen dem lebendigen Gott!"), and my French New Testament ("combien plus le sang de Christ, qui, par un esprit éternel, s'est offert lui-même sans tache à Dieu, purifiera-t-il votre conscience des œuvres mortes, afin que vous serviez la Dieu vivant!").

Matthew 10:39

A couple weeks ago, the Daily Dose of Greek went over Matthew 10:39:

I noticed that there's a chiastic structure, and that this highlights the opposites "find" and "lose."

ὁ εὑρὼν τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ

ἀπολέσει αὐτὴν

καὶ ὁ ἀπολέσας τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ἕνεκεν ἐμοῦ

εὑρήσει αὐτήν.

Here's the ESV translation:

'Whoever finds his life

will lose it,

and whoever loses his life for my sake

will find it.'

This structure is also in the Latin Vulgate:

Qui invenit animam suam

perdet illam

et qui perdiderit animam suam propter me

inveniet eam

My German New Testament:

Wer sein Leben findet,

der wird's verlieren;

und wer sein Leben verliert um meinetwillen,

der wird's finden.

And my French New Testament:

Celui qui conservera sa vie

la perdre,

et celui qui perdra sa vie à cause de moi

la retrouvera.

Mark 10:21

A couple weeks ago (13 October, Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost), the Gospel reading was Mark 10:17-22.  While watching Worship Anew, I was following along in the Latin Vulgate and noticed a significant difference in verse 21.  In the ESV, Jesus tells the rich young man, "You lack one thing" (the NIV and NKJV simply invert this:  "One thing you lack"), but in the Vulgate, He says, "Unum tibi deest" ("One thing is lacking from you," although technically, "tibi" is in the dative case).  The Greek is similar:  ἕν σε ὑστερεῖ.

The rich young man is too concerned about his own efforts in acquiring eternal life, apparently not understanding that whatever they are, they would be insufficient and that eternal life is given to him freely (just like an earthly inheritance).  The accusative σε in the Greek (and dative "tibi" in the Latin) stands in contrast to the nominative "you" in the English translations, and, coincidentally, this matches the lesson (or a lesson) that the man needs to learn:  he doesn't have to be the subject or the one doing the action.  It's done for him.  

For what it's worth:  in my German New Testament, this clause is "Eines fehlt dir" (with the dative "dir"), and in my French New Testament, it's "Il te manque une chose" (with the accusative "te").