Ancient Hebrew Poetry

The Desirability of Metaphor-for-Metaphor Translation

    Some draw an analogy between Bible translation and simultaneous translation. I resist the analogy. The translation of classics like Homer, the Bible, Vergil, and Dante is subject to a different set of constraints than the translation of texts fit for simultaneous translation. I was reminded of this yesterday since the girls of the house were preparing for Anna’s dance recital and Betta’s pictures before prom. In a conversation we had, the salience of metaphor smacked me in the face.

Trafficking in Women and Slavery of Foreigners: A Redemptive Response

    Some people take the God of Jews and Christians to task because the world he is said to sustain runs over, like a river in flood, with acts of aggression. Why doesn’t God do something about it, since he can? The question comes up often in the Bible. It is a question that believers pose, if in fact they are believers. Jews and Christians know this, if they have read the Torah, the Psalms, the Prophets, and the books of Job and Qohelet.

    It is not a question non-believers necessarily pose, unless they want to aggravate believers. Ayn Rand atheists in particular are convinced that God does not care, and neither should they. Live and let die.

  An ethically responsible way of approaching the question of God’s justice is to turn the question against ourselves. For example, why don’t we do something about human trafficking, since we can?

The Poetry of Haviva Pedaya

    Haviva Pedaya (חביבה פדיה), along with Mois Ben Harash, has been named a recipient of the 2012 Yehuda Amichai Prize for Hebrew poetry. The turns of phrase she deploys often depend on the language of the Psalms and the siddur. She writes from a situation of need and distress. For that very reason, in a coincidence of opposites, her poetry is often “fulfilled, recumbent, big with seed.” According to the panel that awarded her the prize,

a poem by Rachel; a song by Noa

    Of the making of beginner’s textbooks of ancient Hebrew there is no end, yet I am unsatisfied with all of them. None of them is oral enough in emphasis, except for that of Randall Buth (first lesson here); none of them takes full advantage of the ability of music to aid in the process of learning; only a couple, that of Randall Buth and that of John Cook and Rob Holmstedt, make use of visual learning.

    Poetry and music are gateways into the heart and soul of a language. In this post I introduce a poem by Rachel Bluwstein Sela, known to most as Rachel, and a song by Achinoam_Nini, known to most as Noa. The lyrics of the song are based on the poem.

Psalm 26: The Kinetic Energy of Protest before God

    The one who asks God to vindicate him in Psalm 26 is committed to "walking" in reliance on God. The alternative the psalmist rejects: that of acquiescing to evil and dishonesty. The prayer is full of controlled kinetic energy. 

Moshe and Akiva in TB Menachot 29b

    What reward awaits the one who makes Torah, the words of Holy Writ, the foundation of her life? Judaism has a realistic view of the matter. The reward of a chasid or faithful one is the privilege of living and dying for the sake of the truth embraced. Below the fold, text and translation of a famous passage which makes the point and turns away all questions as to why it is so.

Jerome to Paula and Eustochium (394): Text and Translation

    The text of Jerome’s letter of dedication to Paula and Eustochium of his translation from the Hebrew of 1 Samuel – 2 Kings presented here is from the Biblia Sacra Vulgata (Robert Weber, ed.; Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1984) 364-66. I collated the translations of W. H. Freemantle (see Michael Marlowe’s note 2) and Kevin Edgecomb, to which I am indebted, but the translation I present is my own. My goal throughout has been to bring Jerome’s wit back to life, however imperfectly, through a close translation of his words, with transliterated Hebrew and Greek, Greek in Greek script, and the Wortlaut of the Latin names of biblical books accurately preserved. For an introductory discussion, go here; for Jerome’s grasp of Hebrew, go here.

Reading Akkadian Prayers

    Reading Akkadian Prayers and Hymns: An Introduction (Alan Lenzi, ed.; ANEM 3; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2011) belongs in the library of every serious student of the Hebrew Bible and every serious student of the ancient Near East. ANEM 3 is an outstanding example of open access scholarship. In the future, all scholarship of significance will be available in searchable, electronic form; if not, it will fade into insignificance. Like ANEM 1 and ANEM 2, ANEM 3 was, and will soon be available again, for free download online (UPDATE: go here).

Psalm 1: A Bilingual Edition

My goal in offering a bilingual edition of the psalms is to lay out the Hebrew and the text in translation such that the poetry’s fierce eloquence is more fully evident to readers.

Come, Let us Walk in the Light of the Lord: Isa 1:21–2:5

    "Come, let us walk in Yhwh's light" (Isa 2:5): these words echo those that introduce the concluding lines of a preceding pericope in the book of Isaiah (1:2-20): "Come, let us settle the case" (1:18). In my view, "Come, let us walk in Yhwh's light" is the concluding admonition of a speech that originally consisted of Isa 1:21-26 and 2:2-5.