An exciting aspect of ISV is its commitment to reproduce the poetry of the Old and New Testaments in its integrity. The ISV website states: “Poetic passages in both the Old and New Testaments are printed in poetic form.” But I continue to be frustrated by ISV’s formatting of ancient Hebrew poetry. Here is an example, ISV Lamentations 1:1-6:
א
How lonely lies the city
that once thronged with people!
How like a widow the great one among nations has become!
The princess among provinces has become a vassal.
ב
Bitterly she cries in the night,
her tears streaming down her cheeks.
Not even one of her lovers will console her,
and all of her friends have betrayed her.
They all have become her enemies.
ג
Judah has gone into exile,
where affliction and harsh servitude awaits.
She dwells among the nations,
finding no rest.
All her persecutors have overtaken her
in the midst of her distress.
ד
The roads that lead to Zion are in mourning,
because no one travels to the festivals.
All her gates are desolate,
her priests are moaning,
her young womenc are grieving,
and she is bitter.
ה
Her adversaries dominate her,
while her enemies prosper.
For the LORD has made her suffer
because of her many transgressions.
Her children have gone
into captivity before the enemy.
ו
All splendor has fled from cherished Zion;
her princes have become like deer
that cannot find their feeding grounds.
They flee with strength exhausted
from their pursuers.
ISV’s formatting of the poetry of Lam 1:1-6 is idiosyncratic. ISV subdivides the contents of each letter of the acrostic into four, five, or six parts according to a logic which is far from transparent.
A broad consensus of scholarship holds that each verse in Lam 1:1-6 is divisible into six parts. More precisely still, each verse is divisible into three parts each of which in turn is divisible into two parts. The pattern characterizes the chapter as a whole.[1] It has long been recognized and shows up in BHS, BHQ, and many modern translations.
Among evangelical translations, ESV and NLT reproduce the pattern with crisp clarity. It is also reproduced, but not emphasized, in NIV, TNIV, and NHCB.
Among “mainline” Protestant and Catholic translations, NRSV, REB, NAB, and NJB reproduce the pattern.
Among Jewish translations, NJPSV reproduces the pattern, and the sixfold division is reproduced in Adele Berlin’s careful rendering.[2] To be sure, Berlin bisects rather than trisects 1:1 and 1:4, with the masoretic accents in the first instance, against them in the second.
The prosody of ancient Hebrew poetry is something I’ve spent a lot of time working on. But this is not about my theory. It’s about the discernment of a pattern in Lamentations 1 and 2 which is also observable, and clearly marked by the masoretic verse divisions, in Lamentations 3.
I’m confident that the Committee will improve on its formatting of the poetry of Lamentations 1:1-6 and beyond in a future draft.
It is also possible that the Committee is formatting on the basis of a brand new theory of ancient Hebrew poetry which has yet to see the light of day. That would be exciting! But I doubt that is the case.
This is the third and last installment in a three-part series. Go here and here for the first two installments.
UPDATE: this post earned me an invitation from ISV's Willliam Welty to go at it and fix the problems I see in ISV's formatting of the book of Lamentations. That's what I get for opening my big mouth. But of course, I'm happy to help if I can.
Interesting. Incidentally (ISV verse 1), can a city "throng". I would have said that only the living can throng, and places have to "be thronged." Is this a difference between UK and US usage, or should it be "once was thronged with people"?
Posted by: Doug Chaplin | August 21, 2007 at 11:10 AM
Doug, I'm not sure myself. But your general point is one the ISV people would do well to consider: an international translation in English has to aim to produce a text that sounds like correct English in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and those who read this blog, I know from Technorati, in Ethiopia, Mozambique, and North Borneo, as well as, for example, the US and Canada.
Posted by: JohnFH | August 21, 2007 at 11:30 AM