It is currently the case that in using a
translation of the Hebrew Bible, it is often unclear how and why the
translation departs, or seems to depart, from the traditional text. The problem
might be solved in the future by offering better and fuller textual notes to
the translation, and a footnoted online edition of the emended version of the received
text that served as the base of the translation.
I offer an example of what I have in
mind (for the Hebrew and the entire post, go here). In the formatting of the Hebrew text, the
prosodic-syntactic division implied by the accents of the Masoretic text (MT)
is not always followed. Departures are marked with a circulus. In the
footnotes, standard abbreviations are employed. The footnoted translation alone
is offered below the fold.
The subdivision of the text into lines with one to two
medial caesurae and into groups of two to three lines is in accord with a
working hypothesis regarding the prosody of ancient Hebrew prosody. On this
hypothesis, lines are composed of two to three part-lines each of which
contains two to three prosodic words. As Joachim Begrich observed, the
composition is written in an almost perfectly consistent qinah meter in
which the second half of each line is shorter than the first half. Qinah
meter in my view also permits half-lines of the same length (note the prosodic
word counts in the left margin).
Departures from the consonantal text or vocalization thereof are marked by footnotes. Apart from the thoroughly difficult patch in 38:16 – the reconstruction I offer there is perforce a shot in the dark - the suggested restorations are minor and similar to those accepted by text critics elsewhere. A far less conservative restoration of the whole has been offered in an excellent monograph by Michael Barré. Translation based on conjectural emendation is clearly marked as such, even when an ancient version reflects an identical result but not necessarily the same reading.
According to the superscription of this composition, it
is a מכתב “inscription.” The contents may originally have been
inscribed on a votive stela set up by Hezekiah to memorialize his recovery and
his vow of praise. The ‘vow’ idea I owe to Duane Smith (p.c.). LXX and Targum translate a similar
term, מכתם, in contexts analogous to Isaiah
38:9, with Στηλογραφία
‘inscription of a stela’ and גליפא תריצא
‘upright sculpture’ (Pss 16:1; 56:1; 57:1; 58:1; 59:1; 60:1).
An interesting question:
are יהוה and El fully merged in this prayer, or are they
separate deities?
Bibliography
Michael L. Barré, The Lord Has Saved Me: A Study of the Psalm of Hezekiah (Isaiah 38:9-20) (CBQMS 39; Washington: Catholic Biblical Society of America, 2005); Joachim Begrich, Der Psalm des Hiskia: Ein Beitrag zum Verständnis von Jesaja 38:10-20 (FRLANT NF 25; Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 1926).
9 The inscription of King Hezekiah of
Judah. When he became sick he recovered from his sickness.
10 I really thought1
in the middle of my days:
Let me enter the gates of Sheol,
I've become a burden my remaining years.
11 I thought1: I cannot
see יה,
יה in the land of
the living,
no
longer see a fellow human
or other
denizens of this world.2
12 My
surroundings are pulled up, taken from me
like a shepherd’s3 tent;
my life is bundled up4 like a cloth,5
he cuts me from the thrum.
In one day’s time6 you finish me!
13 Worn
down I am7 by morning.
Like a lion he breaks all my bones.
In one day’s time6 you finish me!
14 Like
a swallow I pipe,
like a dove I moan.
I cried out my eyes8 to heaven, יהוה9!
Contend10 for me, be my surety!
15 What
might I say that he speak on my behalf?
He it is who wrought it.
All my sleep fled11
because of the bitterness of my
soul.
16 Lord,
12Elyon,13
who revives every heart,
17 here12
is my life-breath:
may you restore me and revive me!
It was for good
that my bitterness was
bitter:
it was you who kept my soul back14
from the pit of destruction,
for you have cast behind your back
all my sins.
18 For
it is not Sheol that praises you,
death that extols you;
those who go down to the pit cannot recount,15
El,16 your constancy.
19 The
living, the one who is living praises you
as I do today;
a father tells sons, El,17 of your constancy,
20 how יהוה saved me,
and songs18 we will sing all the days of our
lives
before the house of יהוה.
2 M lit. along with those who
inhabit cessation. Cessation: read age = this world;
cf. Syriac; Yefet ben Eli; Saadya.
3 M my shepherd, read shepherd; conjectural emendation; cf.
Targum, Symmachus.
4 M I bundled, read I was bundled up; cf. Theodotion;
Symmachus, Aquila, Vulgate, Syriac, and Targum.
5 M weaver; read cloth; cf. Greek, Theodotion, Syriac.
6 Lit. from day to night = in a dawn-to-dusk interval.
7 M uncertain; read I am worn down; cf. 1QIsaa.
8 M hung, read were
exhausted = cried out; cf. LXX.
9 M Lord, read יהוה; cf. 1QIsab.
10 M distress, read contend;
conjectural emendation; cf. Gen 26:20.
11 M I will walk at a slow pace all
my years, read All my sleep fled; cf. Syriac, Arabic.
12-12 M unintelligible. The translation is
based on a hypothetical reconstruction.
13 Lit. Ely, a short form of Elyon,
a divine name.
14 M loved me, read kept
back; cf. Vulgate.
15 M hope, read recount;
conjectural emendation.
16 M for; read El, a divine name; conjectural emendation.
17 M for; read El, a divine name; cf.
1QIsaa;
1QIsab.
18 M my songs; read songs; conjectural emendation.
UPDATE: Duane Smith takes a look of his own at this passage. He is insightful as always. Go here.
John - I could not agree more with your plea. Every decent Bible should have at least some footnotes.
Posted by: Chris | May 01, 2008 at 11:41 AM