1 Chronicles 16:26, Psalm 96:5

About a month ago, I read some of 1 Chronicles 16 and noticed a couple contrasting features in verse 26:  "For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens."  In the first clause, there's only a stative verb, which is actually merely implied in the Hebrew (it's just "For all the gods of the peoples - idols":  כִּי כָּל־אֱלֹהֵי הָעַמִּים אֱלִילִים), but in the second clause, there's an active verb ("made" עָשָֽׂה).  The different qualities of these verbs (absent or present and stative or active) distinguish between the "idols" and "the Lord" and highlight the inactivity of the idols.

This verse seemed familiar to me, and after some searching, I discovered that it appears verbatim as Psalm 96:5.

The same features are present in the Vulgate, although there's a slight difference in that "idols" is translated as "idola" in 1 Chronicles but as "sculptilia" ("sculpted things") in the Psalm:

omnes enim dii populorum idola Dominus autem caelos fecit 

omnes enim dii populorum sculptilia Dominus autem caelos fecit

Matthew 7:3

A couple weeks ago, I watched the Daily Dose of Greek video on Matthew 7:3:

"'Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?'" [ESV]

Even before Dr. Plummer mentioned it in the video, I noticed that the verse has a chiastic structure:

τί δὲ βλέπεις

τὸ κάρφος

τὸ ἐν τῷ ὀφθαλμῷ τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ σου,

τὴν δὲ ἐν τῷ σῷ ὀφθαλμῷ

δοκὸν

οὐ κατανοεῖς;

Something like:

Why do you see

the speck

that is in your brother's eye,

but that is in your own eye

the log

you do not notice?

Since the words in the two clauses appear in an inverted order, this structure highlights the contrast between βλέπεις ("you do see") and οὐ κατανοεῖς ("you do not notice") and perhaps also between the sizes of τὸ κάρφος ("the speck") and τὴν δοκὸν ("the log").

Joshua 5:1

Last month, I read Joshua 5 in the NIV, and I noticed a feature in verse 1 that's related to what I noticed in the ESV translation of Jeremiah 4:9 last year.

The entire verse is "Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the LORD had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until we had crossed over, their hearts melted and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites."

The Hebrew clause וְלֹא־הָיָה בָם עוֹד רוּחַ is translated as "and they no longer had the courage," although it's literally something like "and there was no longer any spirit in them," which is how the ESV translates it.  Because the word courage is related to cor, the Latin word for heart, the NIV translation actually exhibits a sort of parallelism between "their hearts melted" and "they no longer had the courage."

Genesis 1:18

About a month ago, I watched the Daily Dose of Aramaic video on Genesis 1:18 in Targum Onkelos:

"to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness.  And God saw that it was good" [ESV]

I had a small realization about the phrase בֵּין הָאוֹר וּבֵין הַחֹשֶׁךְ and its Aramaic equivalent.  In English, it's translated as "the light from the darkness," but in Hebrew and Aramaic the preposition בֵּין is repeated, so it's actually "between the light and between the darkness."  I'm not sure a native Hebrew or Aramaic speaker would see it this way, but compared to the English, at least, there's a greater sense of that separation because there are two distinct phrases.  Each object has its own preposition.

John 8:44

Last month, I watched the Daily Dose of Latin video on John 8:44:

In the ESV, this is "'You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires.  He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him.  When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.'"

I don't know how significant this is, but it occurred to me that parts of this contrast with John 1 in a way that seems deliberate.  In this verse, Satan, "your father the devil," is described as "a murderer from the beginning" who "has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him."  John 1 starts with "In the beginning was the Word" (verse 1), Who is "the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth" (verse 14).  An establishment from "the beginning" is common to both passages, but one describes "the father of lies," who "has nothing to do with the truth," and the other describes "the only Son from the Father," who is "full of... truth."

Psalm 25:6-7

On the Worship Anew program for 18 February, the First Sunday of Lent last month, the Psalm reading was Psalm 25:1-10.  I was following along in the Latin Vulgate and noticed a chiastic structure in verses 6-7:

6 recordare

miserationum tuarum Domine et misericordiarum tuarum quia ex sempiterno sunt 

7 peccatorum adulescentiae meae et scelerum meorum

ne memineris...

This is roughly the same structure the Hebrew has.

In the ESV, this section is translated as "6 Remember your mercy, O LORD, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. 7 Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions..." although adhering more closely to the original word order, it's something like "Remember your mercy, LORD, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.  The sins of my youth and my transgressions do not remember."

The chiastic structure highlights the contrast between "Remember" ("recordare" זְכֹר) and "Remember not" ("ne memineris" אַל־תִּזְכֹּר) and between God's "mercy" and "steadfast love" and the Psalmist's "sins" and "transgressions."

Psalm 88:18

A few weeks ago, I read Psalm 88 in the NKJV, where verse 18 is translated as "Loved one and friend You have put far from me, and my acquaintances into darkness."  I noticed that "Loved one and friend" and "me" are at opposite ends of the first clause, lending a sense of the distance of having been "put far."  This structure seems unique to the NKJV, though; none of the other translations I referenced nor the Hebrew has it.

Daniel 5:23

Last month, I read Daniel 5 (in the ESV) after running across a reference to it in an Emily Dickinson poem ("Belshazzar had a letter"), and I noticed a chiasm highlighting opposites in a section of verse 23 where Daniel tells Belshazzar:

You have praised

the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, 

but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways,

you have not honored.

When I lookt up the Aramaic in the Step Bible, however, I discovered that this structure isn't original; both clauses have the same structure, with the direct object preceding the verb.  Here are the two Daily Dose of Aramaic videos on this section of the verse:

In the NIV, this section is translated as "You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or undersatnd.  But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways."

Mark 1:22

I'm still behind on watching Worship Anew programs, but when I watched the program for 28 January (the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany) a couple weeks ago, I noticed a significant contrast in the Gospel reading from Mark 1.  In the ESV, Mark 1:22 is "And they [the people in the synagogue] were astonished at his [Jesus'] teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes."  While following along in the Latin Vulgate, I noticed that what's translated as a relative clause in the ESV ("who had authority") is a participial in the Latin ("potestatem habens"), as it is in the Greek (ἐξουσίαν ἔχων), so it's more like "having authority."  Since participles are verbal adjectives, there's some of the action quality of a verb here, and this contrasts with the more static nature of the noun "scribes" (γραμματεῖς, "scribae").

For what it's worth:  in my German New Testament, this participial is translated as a prepositional phrase ("mit Vollmacht" "with power"), but my French New Testament retains it as a participial ("ayant autorité").

Deuteronomy 28:47-48a

I've been reading Deuteronomy in the NIV lately.  A couple weeks ago, I read chapter 28 and found an-other chiasm highlighting opposites (bridging verses 47 and 48):

47 Because you did not serve the LORD your God

joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, 

48 therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty,

you will serve the enemies the LORD sends against you.

I referenced the underlying Hebrew and a couple other translations, but this structure isn't in any of them.  The ESV follows the Hebrew word order more closely:  "47 Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things, 48 therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything."

The Conversion of Saul

A couple weeks ago, I watched the Concordia University Wisconsin chapel service from 25 January.  The text was Acts 9:1-22, the conversation of Saul:

I think it's not until Acts 13:9 that Saul is also named Paul, but in hearing the account in Acts 9 about his conversion and Pastor Smith's sermon, in which he mentions the significance of names, I realized that Paul's new name embodies John 3:30 where John the Baptist says, "He [Christ] must increase, but I must decrease" since the Latin adjective paulus, -a, -um, from which Paul's name comes, means "small" or "little."  Coincidentally, the same day I watched the CUW chapel service, I also watched a Daily Dose of Greek video on Hebrews 2:7, and in the Latin Vulgate (which I always reference), the Greek word βραχύ is translated as "paulo."

Psalm 49:6

A couple weeks ago, I read Psalm 49 and noticed a feature in verse 6.  In the NKJV, the sense continues beyond verse 6 into verse 7:  "6 Those who trust in their wealth and boast in the multitude of their riches, 7 none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him."

In the ESV, however, verse 6 continues the sense from verse 5:  "5 Why should I fear in times of trouble, when the iniquity of those who cheat me surrounds me, 6 those who trust in their wealth and boast of the abundance of their riches?"  The NIV is similar:  "5 Why should I fear when evil days come, when wicked deceivers surround me - 6 those who trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches?"

In any case, what I noticed is that the parallelism between "their wealth" and "their riches" highlights this abundance.