MT Isaiah 38:9-20: Text, Translation, and Notes

It’s easy to criticize the translation work of others. Any James Barr, if you know what I mean, can do that. It’s harder to provide a better and more carefully documented translation than previous attempts.

I nevertheless seek to do just that, for MT Isaiah 38:9-20, below the fold. The pattern I follow involves the following steps: (1) a reconnaissance of MT, with an eye for possible issues; (2) a straight-up translation of MT, warts and all; (3) notation of words and idioms that seem improbable, or are of uncertain meaning, or are otherwise unattested or poorly attested.

The text of Codex Leningradensis is offered first. L’s features, including its prosodic – syntactic parse, are adhered to. Each masoretic pasuq is bisected at the atnach and, within each half-pasuq, a break follows every occurrence of a major disjunctive accent, viz., zaqef, tifcha, and revia. If every occurrence of zarqa were marked as well, a higher number of discrete prosodic subunits would be delimited. Either way, the result cannot be considered a poetic scansion: this is a first, and important, result. “Line” and “stich” length do not conform to a sufficiently delimited range. A straight-up translation of MT follows; and then the notes.

In an upcoming post, I will offer a reconstruction of a more pristine text of Isa 38:9-20 based on text-critical reasoning, other ancient witnesses, and a working hypothesis about how ancient Hebrew poetry works; an idiomatic translation thereof; and a corresponding set of footnotes.

MT Isaiah 38:9-20

9  מִכְתָּב לְחִזְקִיָּהוּ מֶלֶךְ־יְהוּדָה        בַּחֲלֹתוֹ וַיְחִי מֵחָלְיוֹ

10  אֲנִי אָמַרְתִּי     בִּדְמִי יָמַי אֵלֵכָה      בְּשַׁעֲרֵי שְׁאוֹל

פֻּקַּדְתִּי     יֶתֶר שְׁנוֹתָי

11   אָמַרְתִּי לֹא־אֶרְאֶה יָהּ      יָהּ  בְּאֶרֶץ הַחַיִּים

   לֹא אַבִּיט אָדָם עוֹד       עִם־יוֹשְׁבֵי חָדֶלׂ

12 דּוֹרִי  נִסַּע    וְנִגְלָה מִנִּי      כְּאֹהֶל רֹעִי

קִפַּדְתִּי כָּאֹרֵג     חַיַּי מִדַּלָּה יְבַצְּעֵנִי

מִיּוֹם עַד־לַיְלָה      תַּשְׁלִימֵנִי

13 שִׁוִּיתִי עַד־בֹּקֶר כָּאֲרִי       כֵּן יְשַׁבֵּר כָּל־עַצְמוֹתָי

מִיּוֹם עַד־לַיְלָה     תַּשְׁלִימֵנִי

14 כְּסוּס עָגוּר כֵּן אֲצַפְצֵף      אֶהְגֶּה כַּיּוֹנָה

דַּלּוּ עֵינַי לַמָּרוֹם אֲדֹנָי       עָשְׁקָה־לִּי עָרְבֵנִי

15 מָה־אֲדַבֵּר וְאָמַר־לִי       וְהוּא עָשָׂה

אֶדַּדֶּה כָל־שְׁנוֹתַי      עַל־מַר נַפְשִׁי

16 אֲדֹנָי           עֲלֵיהֶם יִחְיוּ

וּלְכָל־בָּהֶן חַיֵּי רוּחִי      וְתַחֲלִימֵנִי  וְהַחֲיֵנִי

17 הִנֵּה לְשָׁלוֹם        מַר־לִי מָר

וְאַתָּה חָשַׁקְתָּ נַפְשִׁי      מִשַּׁחַת בְּלִי

כִּי הִשְׁלַכְתָּ אַחֲרֵי גֵוְךָ         כָּל־חֲטָאָי

18 כִּי לֹא שְׁאוֹל תּוֹדֶךָּ        מָוֶת יְהַלְלֶךָּ

לֹא־יְשַׂבְּרוּ יוֹרְדֵי־בוֹר       אֶל־אֲמִתֶּךָ

19 חַי חַי הוּא יוֹדֶךָ       כָּמוֹנִי הַיּוֹם

אָב לְבָנִים           יוֹדִיעַ        אֶל־אֲמִתֶּךָ

20 יְהוָה לְהוֹשִׁיעֵנִי

וּנְגִנוֹתַי נְנַגֵּן כָּל־יְמֵי חַיֵּינוּ       עַל־בֵּית יְהוָה

Translation of MT Isaiah 38:9-20

9     An inscription of Hezekiah, king of Judah. When he became sick he recovered from his sickness.

10   It was I who said: In the middle¹ of my days I must walk into² the gates of Sheol.

       I was forced to pass in review³ the rest of my years.

11  I said: I will not see יה ,יה in the land of the living.

      I will no longer see a human or others who inhabit what is passing away.⁴

12   My dwelling⁵  was pulled up and taken from me like the tent of my shepherd.⁶

      I folded together⁷ like a weaver my life from the thrum⁸ he will cut me off from.

      In a dawn to dusk interval⁹  you will finish me!

13   I imagined¹⁰ until morning like a lion, thus he will break all my bones.

       In a dawn to dusk interval⁹ you will finish me!

14   Like a swallow crane¹¹ I pipe, I moan like a dove.

       My eyes hung¹² to heaven: “Lord, I am in straits, be my surety!”

15   What might I say that he speak on my behalf? He it is who wrought it.

       I will walk at a slow pace¹³ all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.

16   Lord, ¹⁴beside them they will live,

       and to all among them¹⁴ the life of my spirit belongs.

        May you restore my health, and revive me!

17   The fact is, ¹⁵for good my bitterness is bitter,¹⁵

        and you loved my soul out of¹⁶ the pit of nothingness,

       for you threw behind your back all my sins.

18    For it’s not Sheol that will praise you, death extol you.

       Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your faithfulness.

19   The living, the living, he will praise you  as I do today.

        A father to sons  will tell of¹⁷ your faithfulness.

20   The Lord is ready to¹⁸ save me,

        and songs¹⁹ we will sing all the days of our lives before the temple of the Lord.

Notes

¹ middle hapax legomenon.

² walk into improbable idiom (hapax legomenon).

³ forced to pass in review uncertain expression (dis legomenon).

⁴ Lit. along with those who inhabit cessation. cessation improbable expression in context (hapax legomenon).

⁵ dwelling hapax legomenon.

⁶ my shepherd improbable expression in context.

⁷ I folded together, or rolled up hapax legomenon.

⁸ thrum uncertain; possibly loom (hapax legomenon).

⁹ Lit. from day to night.

¹⁰ imagined improbable expression in context.

¹¹ swallow crane improbable syntax.

¹² hung uncertain; possibly were reduced, became weak.

¹³ will walk at a slow pace improbable expression (dis legomenon).

¹⁴ Sequence unintelligible.

¹⁵ for good my bitterness is bitter uncertain idiom (hapax legomenon).

¹⁶ love out of improbable idiom (hapax legomenon).

¹⁷ tell of improbable idiom (hapax legomenon).

¹⁸ ready to improbable idiom in context.

¹⁹ songs archaic pl. ending; cf. Hab 3:19; or my songs.

UPDATE: Duane Smith takes a look of his own at this passage. He is insightful as always. Go here.

Comments

[tim bulkeley]

John, this is really interesting, except what you now have is not really a translation, yet. It does not read well in the target language. Will you in another post move from this to a usable translation. So we can "watch" that process too, in my experience that's often an equally difficult part of the task, and one where many of the compromises have to be made!

[Jin]

Dear John,
Hezekiah's psalm (מכתב) is fascinating. It is included in the middle of the narrative.

Thank you for the translation, Your translation seems to be a literal (pristine) translation.

I would translate the superscription as "Hzekia's Psalm" rather than "Hezekiah's Inscription" since מכתב is used in the superscriptions of Pss 16, 56-60 as a technical term for a psalm.

[Phil Sumpter]

Jin,

the word in the superscriptions is מִכְתָּם, not מכתב (with a "mem" and not a "bet"). מכתב always emphasises that something is written, so I think "writing" or "inscription" is fine (though "inscription" sounds too much like an engraving to me). Though you are right about it being inserted in the narrative. According to Childs (1971), this is one of the only places where an independent poetic composition has been retained apart from the narrative, as opposed to, say, 2 Sa 1.17, where an independent poetic composition has been integrated into the narrative.

[rochelle]

John,

The shepherd (footnote 6) is an allusion to Psalm 23. The tent is also an allusion. Makes perfectly good sense as written.

I am reading with great interest.

BTW, the tifcha is not an accent, it is a neume.

[rochelle]

John,

I am not picking on you, but "folded together" (footnote 7) and "thrum" (footnote 8) are allusions to weaving. You cut the warp threads (thrum) to cut the finished cloth off the loom and you fold together the cut off cloth.

So he is saying that he feels like a folded together piece of cloth cut off the loom (of the living).

Footnote 10, here "imagine" would equal what we call white nights -- tossing and turning with horrible visions.

Perhaps verse 14 makes more sense if the parallelism is clearer:
Like a swallow crane, I pipe;
Like a dove, I moan.

Footnote 19 -- I don't quite follow the problem with my songs -- it does state we will sing *my* songs... and it sure looks like the royal "we."

This entire song is loaded with allusions to various ways a life can be cut short... and to the imaginings that accompany such thoughts.

Thank you so much for bringing such a tour de force of allusions and images to my attention. (Life is too short to see everything on your own.)

[JohnFH]

Hi Rochelle,

thanks for commenting here. So, you take "my shepherd" as an allusion to Psalm 23. Any precedents for that in traditional exegesis? I can't find any in modern exegesis. One reason an allusion seems far-fetched is that "tent of my shepherd" comes out of nowhere, at least from our point of view.

You're right, tifcha is a neume - I use the term often enough myself. I was just trying to be non-technical.

It's possible, as you say, that "I imagine" refers to something like white nights. But how is that "like a lion" (I'm following the prosodic parse of MT here)? How does that fit in context? The uncertainty and obscurity of the phrase are hard to gainsay.

The "my" "we" alternation at the end of composition is at least open to question. Are there convincing parallels to it? Plus, there is the parallel at the end of the psalm in Habakkuk 3 that points the other way.

[rochelle]

Hi, John,

No, the tent allusion does not come out of nowhere. "My dwelling" compares his physical body to the portable tent (tabernacle tent) of his shepherd (god).

The metaphor of shepherd = god/king/leader is standard in the ANE. The two domains of Psalm 23 are where all the lamb/child allusions of the good shepherd come from.

There are two allusions to Psalm 23: the shepherd and all of verse 20. There are other allusions in the MT and, if you wish, I can look them up... I don't tend to mark them down; just one of those things I notice as I work through other portions.

It's 2:00 am, so I am not up to digging into Verse 16 right now-- the only one that I see as problematic.

Otherwise, no emendations are necessary; it all makes sense. These are the thoughts of a man who describes the various ways he felt when he believed he was being cut off in the middle (1) or prime of life. Nothing wrong with walk into (2) (or through) the gates of sheol.

He sees his life (review (3)) passing before him on the brink of death -- looks like this one is an oldie, doesn't it.

Cease (4) to see humans or other inhabitants makes sense in context. Cease to exist or as you put it, passing away.

Hung (12) perfectly clear; his eyes are turned to heaven -- hangs imploringly on the heavens where his god is.

The lion? He must have had one heck of a fever -- his bones felt like they were being broken as if in the jaws of a lion.

With Verse 17 we find him cured...

Nothing wrong with tell -- Passover is just past... where we tell the exodus story.

I don't know if there are parallels to the my/we. I suspect that this was inscribed as a public type 2 vow. Then "we" (royal) and "we" (people) are to sing this song of praise to the Lord for the his/king's return to health.

What is true is that many of his analogies are a forced. Still, that comparison of his body with a portable tent warns us that there are going to be many forced analogies coming up. Hezekiah was not a Master poet like David.

Like Goulder, I strive to understand the actual meaning of the words. Psalm 23, for instance, is so complex and so sophisticated that it took three years of coming back again and again to the Psalm -- and in Table 10.2 (p. 173) of my book -- I didn't even go into the sound to sense links. I also bet that I still missed something.
(And nary a forced analogy.)

I have to get up at 6:30, so I am of to bed.

[JohnFH]

Rochelle,

Your reference to your article in Antiguo Oriente reminds me I need to link to Duane's treatment in the body of this post. He of course footnotes and discusses your article.

[rochelle]

Good morning John,

I missed other allusions to the 23rd Psalm. Footnote 2: walk into the gates of sheol -- "gam ki elekh b'gai tzal-mavet."

The aching bones that brings up the lion is also an allusion to the 23rd: the lion is one of the "tzorerai" that preys upon the innocent.

That's what I get for writing at 2:00 am.

Reference to AO? Oh, the vows.

Sorry, still sleepy.