I
haven’t received my free
ESV Bible yet, but I thought I’d get the review ball rolling
anyhow. I’ll start off with something easy – Psalm 51. It’s my favorite
psalm and may even be my favorite bit of Scripture. I’ll review the
lexical and grammatical choices made in translating this chapter. Below
is the psalm from the RSV (my favorite translation), the ESV, and the
NAB (the officially endorsed Catholic translation in the U.S. and a
example of banality raised to an artform).
| RSV | ESV | NAB |
| 1: Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy steadfast love; according to thy abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. |
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. |
3 Have mercy on me, God, in your goodness; in your abundant compassion blot out my offense. |
| 2: Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! |
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! |
4 Wash away all my guilt; from my sin cleanse me. |
| 3: For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. |
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. |
5 For I know my offense; my sin is always before me. |
| 4: Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in thy sight, so that thou art justified in thy sentence and blameless in thy judgment. |
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. |
6 Against you alone have I sinned; I have done such evil in your sight That you are just in your sentence, blameless when you condemn. |
| 5: Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. |
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. |
7 True, I was born guilty, a sinner, even as my mother conceived me. |
| 6: Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. |
6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. |
8 Still, you insist on sincerity of heart; in my inmost being teach me wisdom. |
| 7: Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. |
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. |
9 Cleanse me with hyssop, that I may be pure; wash me, make me whiter than snow. |
| 8: Fill me with joy and gladness; let the bones which thou hast broken rejoice. |
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. |
10 Let me hear sounds of joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. |
| 9: Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. |
9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. |
11 Turn away your face from my sins; blot out all my guilt. |
| 10: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. |
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. |
12 A clean heart create for me, God; renew in me a steadfast spirit. |
| 11: Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy holy Spirit from me. |
11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. |
13 Do not drive me from your presence, nor take from me your holy spirit. |
| 12: Restore to me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. |
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. |
14 Restore my joy in your salvation; sustain in me a willing spirit. |
| 13: Then I will teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners will return to thee. |
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. |
15 I will teach the wicked your ways, that sinners may return to you. |
| 14: Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of thy deliverance. |
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. |
16 Rescue me from death, God, my saving God, that my tongue may praise your healing power. |
| 15: O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. |
15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. |
17 Lord, open my lips; my mouth will proclaim your praise. |
| 16: For thou hast no delight in sacrifice; were I to give a burnt offering, thou wouldst not be pleased. |
16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. |
18 For you do not desire sacrifice; a burnt offering you would not accept. |
| 17: The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. |
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. |
19 My sacrifice, God, is a broken spirit; God, do not spurn a broken, humbled heart. |
| 18: Do good to Zion in thy good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, |
18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; |
20 Make Zion prosper in your good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. |
| 19: then wilt thou delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on thy altar. |
19 then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar. |
21 Then you will be pleased with proper sacrifice, burnt offerings and holocausts; then bullocks will be offered on your altar. |
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May I suggest “occult” in lieu of the word “blot”?
I’d never thought of using “occult” as a verb. I had to look it up in a dictionary to convince myself it was a legit. 😉 Were that use of the word more common, it’d be ideal. Great suggestion. 🙂
I’ve often been struck by how sensitive you are to nominally archaic language in the Scriptures, especially given how traditionally oriented you are, liturgically and theologically speaking.
Some archaisms are a good thing: the Scriptures are millennia old. Reading them perhaps should sometimes require us to look up things since they come from distinct cultural milieus–e.g., the hyssop in v. 7. (BTW, I’ve heard “blot” plenty of times, it’s still often mentioned in chemistry and bio labs, and one is supposed to “blot out” stains on carpet,rather than try to rub it out. The action is thus quite different than any of the alternatives presented in your entry for “blot”.)
No, we should lay on baroque archaisms, and many earlier English translations of Catholic prayers got way too unwieldy that way, but I fear that too much zeal in keeping things “modern” will send us right back to the NAB. The Psalms in particular, after all, are poetry, and should be given particular leeway for style.
The blot you refer to is different in meaning than the one used inscripture. It means (roughly) to obscure (like putting your thumb over a word on a page). The biochemical use of blot is like splotch. To blot a carpet to get a stain out is to soak up liquid, not cover it up.
Also, the Scriptures were written in what was vulgar (i.e. common) at the time, without sophisticated vocabularies or grammatical gymanstics. Average Joe shepherd could understand them.
BTW, poetry need not be in iambic pentameter (to use an extreme example) in order to be beautiful. Anyhow, I don’t think I criticized the poetic grammar structures. As for the repitition found in ancient Hebrew poetry, I think you’ll find that I defended translations that retained them as much as possible.
Ah, the irony…
Writing posts in Notepad means doing without a spelling checker. There’s nothing like criticizing poorly constructed English with more poorly constructed English. 😉
I wasn’t referring to the repetition of poetry, but that word-choice in poetry may be more figurative (and thus may reasonably demand a trip to dictionary once or twice; e.g., that they used “blot” in a sense that I wasn’t aware of. 😉 Where did you learn that bit about how the term “blot” was used?)
I agree that the language of scripture should be dignified without being pompous, but readable without being inane.
Regarding the text of Psalm 50/51, verse 9 of which comprises the famous “Asperges me” chanted versicle and response from the old Mass, the text from the NAB is, believe it or not, closer to the Vulgate than the others. Here is the text of the Mass part, the same as in the Vulgate:
Asperges me domine, hyssopo, et mundabor; lavabis me et super nivem dealbabor.
The word “asperges” (as in “aspersion”) is typically translated as “sprinkle”, which the NAB has, while the ESV and RSV have “purge.” Perhaps the difference comes from the fact that the RSV and ESV are translated from the Hebrew, while the NAB, Douay-Rheims, and the Vulgate come from the Septuagint (Greek). But that doesn’t explain why the word “domine,” a derivative of “dominus,” lord, doesn’t show up at all in the English translations cited.
I appreciated reading your first review of the ESV. I have been evaluating it a great deal and posting some of my analysis on my blog. I just linked from my blog to your ESV post.
I agree with you that even though the Bible itself is ancient, its language in translation need not sound ancient. In fact, that would contradict the original sound of the Bible which was, as you stated in a comment, in the “vulgar” language. The Bible can still describe the ancient cultures in whose contexts it was written while using contemporary language which is more accessible to current speakers than is obsolete and archaic wordings.
Just to be clear – I don’t prefer modern wordings to venerable wordings sinply because they are modern any more than I prefer Tuesday to Monday simply because today is Monday (except that it puts me one day closer to the weekend ;)). I like the idea of literal translations that retain the vulargity of the originals in comprehensible English. Most modern/contemporary language translations I’ve seen lean toward or fully embrace idea-for-idea vs. word-for-word. I’d rather see an effort made to go word-for-word except in cases where a word, phrase, or idiom cannot be translated directly to English without losing or distorting the meaning.
In response to Tom, I’ll say that I don’t much care for English translations made from the Vulgate. A translation of a translation is bound to lose information along the way. It’s like playing Whisper Down the Lane. That said, if you’re going to translate from the Vulgate, do it right. Stay as word-for-word as possible and refer to the original languages when any doubts arise. The English “translation” of the Vulgate found in the English version of the Roman Missal is a disaster. It bears little resemblance to the Latin, let alone the Greek or Hebrew.
BTW, I’ll hopefully have my own poor English fixed by tomorrow evening. Right now, time with my wife is more important. 🙂
“uphold me with a willing spirit”
One problem with this wording is that it is syntactically ambiguous. It is not clear from this wording if the person with the willing spirit is God or the repentant sinner. I think, according to English syntactic rules, that the more likely interpretation is that it is the person who is doing the upholding who has the willing spirit.
After posting my preceding message about 51:12, I did further research and discovered that English versions are split over whether the meaning of the original Hebrew is that God or Dave is the one to have the willing spirit. It’s not, then, actually a case of syntactic ambiguity in the RSV and ESV, but, rather, of a different interpretation of the Hebrew. Sorry for posting prematurely. But I learned something from the exercise which is always good.
I wonder if it’s a little of both. That is, the willing spirit is an aspect of God which David wishes to share. Thus, the spirit would dwell in David but belong to God. Thoughts?
Jerry,
I learned that bit about “blot” from a trip to dictionary.com and a look at other translations (like NJB). Translation consensus reveals which meaning of the word was intended. Also, IIRC, there is a NAB footnote about that verse.
For those interested, here’s the Douay-Rheims version (which is based on the Vulgate) of this psalm.
3 Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy great mercy. And according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my iniquity.
4 Wash me yet more from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
5 For I know my iniquity, and my sin is always before me.
6 To thee only have I sinned, and have done evil before thee: that thou mayst be justified in thy words and mayst overcome when thou art judged.
7 For behold I was conceived in iniquities; and in sins did my mother conceive me.
8 For behold thou hast loved truth: the uncertain and hidden things of thy wisdom thou hast made manifest to me.
9 Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed: thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow.
10 To my hearing thou shalt give joy and gladness: and the bones that have been humbled shall rejoice.
11 Turn away thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
12 Create a clean heart in me, O God: and renew a right spirit within my bowels.
13 Cast me not away from thy face; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
14 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and strengthen me with a perfect spirit.
15 I will teach the unjust thy ways: and the wicked shall be converted to thee.
16 Deliver me from blood, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall extol thy justice.
17 O Lord, thou wilt open my lips: and my mouth shall declare thy praise.
18 For if thou hadst desired sacrifice, I would indeed have given it: with burnt offerings thou wilt not be delighted.
19 A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit: a contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
20 Deal favourably, O Lord, in thy good will with Sion; that the walls of Jerusalem may be built up.
21 Then shalt thou accept the sacrifice of justice, oblations and whole burnt offerings: then shall they lay calves upon thy altar.
“I wonder if it’s a little of both. That is, the willing spirit is an aspect of God which David wishes to share. Thus, the spirit would dwell in David but belong to God. Thoughts?”
Yes, I think this is entirely possible. And support for that comes from a Biblical Hebrew scholar who was one of several scholars who responded to my questions about Psalm 51:12 (posted after reading your blog post) on a private discussion list about the Old Testament. This particular scholar claims that in the O.T. predominantly references to “spirit” are to God’s spirit. When there are references to a human spirit, they often are with reference to a spirit which God has placed within that person, sometimes for a particular purpose and time.
I enjoyed your comparison of the 3 versions. It’s a bit tough to rag on any one version for its translation of hhesed, though. It’s a huge word, as far as meaning goes, and gets translated lovingkindness, kindness, mercy, and goodness. The most encompassing definition I’ve seen is “covenant loyalty” but I’m not sure that that concept is understood by Christians the same way it would be by Jews.
The word in the second half of the couplet which was translated “compassion” in one version and “abundant mercy” in another has a root that means “womb”. The implication here is of motherly love, or perhaps the brotherly love of two who share the same womb.
I blogged a bit about this in May if you’re interested in more details.
Talmida, thanks for dropping by and educating us. 🙂 I’m very glad someone with some knowledge of Hebrew found this post. I certainly don’t have any. 😉
As far ragging on the NAB goes, I make no apologies. It consistently soft-peddles. The word choices are often extremely egocentric (“my sacrifice” being a prime example) and/or “feel good” rather than having the power to convict hearts.
Funky Dung, rag the NAB all you want — I do it all the time! 😉 It really is awful.
It’s just that particular word (hhesed) seems to defy translation in English.
I’m almost tempted to just leave the HEbrew word in, as we do with Halleluia or Hosanna. Simon the Just said, “On three foundations does the world stand: On the Torah, on Divine worship, and on hhesed.”
In Christian terms, maybe the Word of God, the Eucharist and hhesed are our 3 pillars, with hhesed encompassing the kind of love that Jesus expresses in “love your neighbour”?
Not to sidetrack too much, but, since you seem to know a bit about Hebrew, Talmida, what exactly does *Sabaoth* mean? In the new Mass translation that’s been “just about to come out” for years, “Sabaoth” is supposedly restored to the English Mass, and that it’ll be used like Alleluia or Hosanna. The ICEL translation is “Lord of Hosts,” I think, but I don’t particularly trust ICEL too much.
tom
isn’t sabaoth latin? (as in “sanctus dominus deus sabaoth”) in which case, isn’t it translated in the icel version “power and might”? (that’s all i could come up with given
“sanctus, sanctus, sanctus dominus deus sabaoth”
“being translated as holy, holy, holy, Lord God of power and might”
and sanctus=holy, dominus=Lord deus=God
so sabaoth has to be what’s left, right? ie power and might)
now i don’t know if that’s a good translation, but i don’t know where you got “Lord of Hosts”?
i could be totally off here….
ok, i just retract that last comment. i didn’t realize there was a hebrew word in the middle of a prayer completely in latin. sorry.
Sabaoth (ts’va’ot) is the plural of tsava, which means warfare, army, warriors when used of humans. It means host, God’s attendants when used of God. Whether they are warriors or angels or stars is up for grabs, according to my lexicon.
I suppose that’s why they kept the original word (with its archaic and misleading transliteration)– probably nobody really knows what or whom it designates.
Many of the words that we consider titles of God (mighty warrior, everlasting Father, etc) are considered by many to be NAMES of God, and are not translated, any more than we would call Amy “Beloved” or Thomas “the Twin”.
Hope that answers your question. I don’t read this blog regularly, so if you have more questions, you’ll probably have more luck finding me at mine or thru email. 🙂