Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Paul Zellmer <zellmer AT cag.pworld.net.ph>]

This is carried over from the Virginia list.

Trevor Jenkins wrote:

Could I crave your collective indulgences and ask someone for a literal
translation of Daniel chapter 11 verse 32, which in the KJV is translated as
"... the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits."

Regards, Trevor

--

<>< Re: deemed!

Trevor,

Maybe it would be easier if you just asked the question raised in your mind, since any time you get a "literal" translation, you will have a tendency to lose any of the idiomatic possibilities of a text.  Anyway, here's the text under consideration:

W:(aM YoD("Y )eLoHfYW YaXaZiQW. W:(f&W.

which I would translate word-for-word:

and-(the)-people the-(ones-)knowing-of gods-his they-will-seize and-they-will-do

I take the first word as an absolute with no expressed definite article.  The next two words describe the people.  The second word in the clauses is the masculine plural construct, to which, for literal translations, I append "of".  (It is definite because the absolute in the construct chain has the personal pronoun attached.)  The third is the word which I really feel would be better translated "God" in the English, and it has the third masculine singular pronoun attached.  (This pronoun is probably referring to "people," treating it as a collective noun in this case. This raises the question, however, as to why the "knowing" is plural and the "his" is singular.  I suppose another idea would be a personalization of God to each member of the group.)  Then we have a 3rd person common plural yiqtol in the hiphil stem joined by a conjunction with a 3rd person common plural yiqtol in the qal.

So, Trevor, what's the question?

HTH,

Paul
--
Paul and Dee Zellmer, Jimmy Guingab, Geoffrey Beltran
Ibanag Translation Project
Cabagan, Philippines

zellmer AT faith.edu.ph