Jeremiah 10:14

A couple months ago, I went over Jeremiah 10:14 in the weekend edition of the Daily Dose of Hebrew:

In the ESV, this is "Every man is stupid and without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols, for his images are false, and there is no breath in them."

I think it may be significant that the word אָדָם is used rather than אִישׁ.  Both mean man, but אָדָם is related to אֲדָמָה, which means ground or soil, so there may be a slightly disparaging tone here, as if to say that the man who makes idols is like dirt.

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.

Jeremiah 9:23

A couple months ago, I watched the Daily Dose of Hebrew video on Jeremiah 9:23, which is 9:22 in the Hebrew versification:

כֹּה ׀ אָמַר יְהוָה אַל־יִתְהַלֵּל חָכָם בְּחָכְמָתוֹ וְאַל־יִתְהַלֵּל הַגִּבּוֹר בִּגְבֽוּרָתוֹ אַל־יִתְהַלֵּל עָשִׁיר בְּעָשְׁרֽוֹ

Thus says the Lord:  "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches" [ESV]

The sentiment is completed in the next verse:  "'but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth.  For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.'"

Tom Blanchard, the host of these weekend editions, notes the relationship between חָכָם (a "wise man") and חָכְמָתוֹ ("his wisdom"), between הַגִּבּוֹר ("the mighty man") and גְבֽוּרָתוֹ ("his might"), and between עָשִׁיר (a "rich man") and עָשְׁרֽוֹ ("his riches"), which the ESV retains.

Because these words are so closely related, there's almost a reflexive sense.  Although the wise man is boasting in his wisdom, the mighty man is boasting in his might, and the rich man is boasting in his riches, common to all is a man boasting in himself (what he possesses or what he's done).  These closely related words indicate the inward-looking nature that must be eschewed in favor of looking to God.  This contrast is also present in Psalm 146:  "3 Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.  4 When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.  5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God, 6 who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever."

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."

Jeremiah 4:9

In October, I started going through the Daily Dose of Hebrew's weekend series on Jeremiah from the beginning.  I'd watched most of these videos when they were originally posted, but this time, I'm copying out the verses, and eventually, I'll catch up to where the series is currently (in chapter 9 as of this writing).

After I watched the video on Jeremiah 4:9, I noticed an interesting feature of the ESV translation.

וְהָיָה בַיּוֹם־הַהוּא נְאֻם־יְהוָה יֹאבַד לֵב־הַמֶּלֶךְ וְלֵב הַשָּׂרִים וְנָשַׁמּוּ הַכֹּהֲנִים וְהַנְּבִיאִים יִתְמָֽהוּ׃

"In that day, declares the LORD, courage shall fail both king and officials.  The priests shall be appalled and the prophets astounded."

The phrase "יֹאבַד לֵב" is literally something like "the heart will perish," but in the ESV, it's translated as "courage shall fail."  This has a slightly different sense, but the etymology of courage actually points back to "the heart will perish," although this may be just coincidental.  The word courage comes ultimately from cor, the Latin word for heart.  In the Vulgate, this section of the verse is "peribit cor regis et cor principum."

On Every High Hill and under Every Green Tree

I read some chapters of 1 Kings a couple weeks ago (after seeing a citation of 1 Kings 11:3 in my edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales), and I came across the phrase "on every high hill and under every green tree" in 1 Kings 14:23.  A couple years ago, I'd run across a somewhat expanded version of this phrase in Ezekiel 6:13 ("on every high hill, on all the mountain-tops, under every green tree, and under every leafy oak, wherever they offered pleasing aroma to all their idols").  At the time, I knew this sounded familiar, and I eventually found what I was thinking of, in Jeremiah 2:20:  "on every high hill and under every green tree."

These constructions may not fit a strict definition of a merism, but the nearly opposite senses of "high" and "under" do provide a sense of breadth.  This is also indicated more clearly by "wherever" in the verse in Ezekiel.

At the time, I didn't consider this significant enough to write about, but since I found a third occurrence of this phrase, I thought I would note it.

Jeremiah 4:9

I've been following along with the weekend edition of The Daily Dose of Hebrew as it goes through Jeremiah.  Yester-day, the verse was Jeremiah 4:9.  I always read the verse in my Bible before watching the video, and I noticed a slightly interesting thing in the ESV:  "'In that day, declares the LORD, courage shall fail both king and officials.  The priests shall be appalled and the prophets astounded."

In the second sentence, where the Hebrew has a chiasm, the English translation has parallel structure (with the ellipsis of "shall be," even).  As if to emphasize that parallel structure, there's consonance between priests and prophets and assonance between appalled and astounded.