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  • From: "Bill Ross" <wross AT farmerstel.com>
  • To: b-hebrew
  • Subject: Psalm 51:5
  • Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2000 11:16:28


Hello, my name is Bill Ross. I'm new to B-Hebrew. I'm just learning Hebrew.
I joined this list because I often have questions of a translation nature
and hope to tap into your collected expertise.

I have a question regarding the proper translation (and hence,
interpretation) of Psalm 51:5. Here are some popular translations:

NIV
Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
RSV
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me.
KJV
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
DBY
Behold, in iniquity was I brought forth, and in sin did my mother conceive
me.
YLT
Lo, in iniquity I have been brought forth, And in sin doth my mother
conceive me.

I know enough from my tools to know that the NIV is *highly* interpretive.

My theory is that this verse is not teaching anything about David, but is
rather David expressing loathing for himself by criminalizing his own
birth. I would paraphrase it:

"My mother screwed up when she had me - it was a sin for her to conceive
me!"

...and thus David "curses his day" as did Job in Job 3:

3:1 After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.
2 And Job spake, and said,
3 Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was
said, There is a man child conceived.
4 Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let
the light shine upon it.
5 Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon
it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.
6 As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined unto
the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.
7 Lo, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein.
8 Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their
mourning.
9 Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light,
but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day:
10 Because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb, nor hid sorrow
from mine eyes.
11 Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I
came out of the belly?
12 Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck?
13 For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept:
then had I been at rest,
14 With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places
for themselves;
15 Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver:
16 Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never
saw light.
17 There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest.
18 There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the
oppressor.
19 The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his
master.
20 Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the
bitter in soul;
21 Which long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for
hid treasures;
22 Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?
23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged
in?
24 For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like
the waters.
25 For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I
was afraid of is come unto me.
26 I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet
trouble came.

Does the Hebrew support or preclude this interpretation??

Thanks in advance:

Bill Ross
http://members.xoom.com/woundedego
Download free music from my web page!






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