Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Steve Miller" <smille10 AT sbcglobal.net>]

Thanks Yigal. 
It seems that Adonai is usually treated as a name of God and thus not
translated as "my Lord" but as "the Lord" as if it was the name. I couldn't
find any New Testament quotes of a verse containing Adonai except for Isa
61:1 (Luke 4:18), but it seems that DSS does not have Adonai in it. I can't
tell for sure because Fred Miller's site is down. I just went by the
footnotes in the English translation.

I also found a few cases where translating Adonai as "my Lord" doesn't work:
Dan 9:9, 15 (Adonai, our God). I was surprised that those 2 were the only
cases of Adonai, our God. 
Also Mal 1:14. There should be more like this where Jehovah calls Himself
"Adonai".

-Steve Miller
Detroit

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Yigal Levin
> Sent: Monday, December 14, 2009 11:49 PM
> To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] adonai "my Lord" or "the Lord"
> 
> Steve,
> 
> I think that the "MY Lord(s) is part of the same thing that Pere was
> referring to: a sort of "royal 'we'". Of course, in places in which YHWH
> is
> addressed directly by the speaker - as in the Psalms that you cited -
> calling him "MY Lord(s)" is totally appropriate. This could have carried
> over to other cases as well. This is also the vocalization of the proper
> name YHWH. The translators of the LXX might have felt that this idiom was
> not as appropriate in Greek, and thus translated just "Kurios". This in
> turn
> influenced the Latin and then the English as well.
> 
> Yigal Levin
> 
> 
> 
> [Steve Miller] Pere, thanks for sharing that. I did not know it. Yes, I
> agree. Translating it as "Lords" would not make sense.
> 
> I still have the question about "my". The yod suffix makes it "my Lord"
> rather than just "Lord". The yod was not added by the Masoretes. Why then
> is
> it not always translated "my Lord"? It seems to me that "my Lord" would
> fit
> just about all uses. But it is only translated "my Lord" in few places,
> like
> in Ps 16:2 where the context almost demands it. Even the LXX rarely
> translates it as "my Lord".
> 
> But if the word was written, adoni, with a chirik instead of a kamatz
> under
> the nun, then it would be consistently translated, my lord.
> 
> Sincerely,
> -Steve Miller
> Detroit
> www.voiceInWilderness.info
> They shall come, and they shall declare
> to a people to be born,
> reveal His righteousness.
> This deed which the Lord has done
> they'll retell to everyone
> that He may all peoples bless. (Psalm 22:31)