Introduction
The Tanak is one of the most common names used to describe the Jewish Bible. It is also known in Protestant circles as the beginning books of the Bible, which is also called the Old Testament. No matter what name this section is given, it is a complex set of books with multiple authors, written in diverse languages, and has a history all its own. Yet, with proper study, much about the text can be discovered because many try to translate the original Hebrew and Aramaic as accurately as possible. This does not mean every form has the same wording because the translator’s preference and the specific words used in the text can lead to several translations emerging with slight differences between each version. Even seemingly straight-forward …show more content…
This means that after the difference found in v. 7, another is not seen until v. 17 where it uses a word that has multiple meanings. It is the word, “mothen”, which means loins or hips, but the root of the word meant “to be slender”. It is thought that the slenderness being referred to has something to do with the waist or the small of the back. However, there is also evidence in Proverbs 30:31 that this word has been used to represent an animal of some sort. With so many different meanings, the various translators who worked on the different versions of the Bible chose to represent the same text in different ways. For instance, the compiler of the Holman Christian Standard Bible decided to overlook the word “mothen” because of the difficulty in translating a word with so many meanings. On the other hand, the King James Version, the New International Version, and the New Revised Standard Version chose to keep the word “mothen”, and chose to represent it as “loins”. While studying this verse the word “oz” seemed to stand out from the text. In the transliteration of v. 17 it is the next word, and means “strength”. In all four versions, it is translated as “strength”, and it is often thought of as physical strength. However, what was interesting was the second meaning of the word. It is strength, but the second entry says it is a “personal or social or political” type of strength. Considering the rest of the passage, the meaning of the word puts the verse, and the passage, in a new light, and gave the verse an interesting, philosophical
The Tanak is one of the most common names used to describe the Jewish Bible. It is also known in Protestant circles as the beginning books of the Bible, which is also called the Old Testament. No matter what name this section is given, it is a complex set of books with multiple authors, written in diverse languages, and has a history all its own. Yet, with proper study, much about the text can be discovered because many try to translate the original Hebrew and Aramaic as accurately as possible. This does not mean every form has the same wording because the translator’s preference and the specific words used in the text can lead to several translations emerging with slight differences between each version. Even seemingly straight-forward …show more content…
This means that after the difference found in v. 7, another is not seen until v. 17 where it uses a word that has multiple meanings. It is the word, “mothen”, which means loins or hips, but the root of the word meant “to be slender”. It is thought that the slenderness being referred to has something to do with the waist or the small of the back. However, there is also evidence in Proverbs 30:31 that this word has been used to represent an animal of some sort. With so many different meanings, the various translators who worked on the different versions of the Bible chose to represent the same text in different ways. For instance, the compiler of the Holman Christian Standard Bible decided to overlook the word “mothen” because of the difficulty in translating a word with so many meanings. On the other hand, the King James Version, the New International Version, and the New Revised Standard Version chose to keep the word “mothen”, and chose to represent it as “loins”. While studying this verse the word “oz” seemed to stand out from the text. In the transliteration of v. 17 it is the next word, and means “strength”. In all four versions, it is translated as “strength”, and it is often thought of as physical strength. However, what was interesting was the second meaning of the word. It is strength, but the second entry says it is a “personal or social or political” type of strength. Considering the rest of the passage, the meaning of the word puts the verse, and the passage, in a new light, and gave the verse an interesting, philosophical