Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Stephen Shead <sshead.email AT gmail.com>]

Interestingly, most of the Spanish translations that I can easily consult
(in BibleWorks) translate in the singular, for the most part, all the way
through to verse 11. Some have plurals in v.9, because of KLH, but then
return to singular. The translations are:

- La Biblia de las Américas
- several versions of the Reina Valera
- La Biblia del Peregrino (Luis Alonso Schökel's translation)
- La Biblia de Nuestro Pueblo, which repeats "It is a people that" (Es un
pueblo que) in v.10 for clarity
- The translation of P. Serafín de Ausejo, revised by Marciano Villanueva
(I'm never sure how to refer to that one!)

So there you are. It might be because English tends very strongly towards
logical number, whereas Spanish tends more to maintain grammatical number.
The classic example is with the subject "people" ("gente" in Spanish): even
though it's grammatically a singular noun, in English we say "all the people
ARE going to the same place", not "is going", whereas Spanish maintains the
singular verb (toda la gente se dirige al mismo lugar).

Stephen Shead
Santiago, Chile

---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Pere Porta <pporta7 AT gmail.com>
> To: Yigal Levin <Yigal.Levin AT biu.ac.il>
> Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2011 10:22:19 +0200
> Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Hb 1:7
> There are for all tastes.
> And so, the Catalan version (BCI) has singular in verse 7 but... it changes
> to plural in verse 9 and the following.
>
> I guess that in a general way, the use of singular or plural by translators
>  depends on what is the thing (singular or plural) every translator focuses
> on...
>
> Regards,
>
> Pere Porta
>
> 2011/9/20 Yigal Levin <Yigal.Levin AT biu.ac.il>
>
> > I'm sure you're right. I just think that it's interesting how all of the
> > English translators chose to follow "Chaldeans" as plural, despite the
> fact
> > that the Hebrew goes with "nation" as singular. The LXX, by the way,
> stays
> > with the singular. Do you (or anyone else) know what any non-English
> > translations do?
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Yigal Levin
> >
> >
> >
> > From: Pere Porta [mailto:pporta7 AT gmail.com]
> > Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2011 10:30 AM
> > To: Yigal Levin
> > Cc: b-hebrew
> >  Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Hb 1:7
> >
> >
> >
> > I think, Yigal, that this is because of the two number noun types that
> are
> > found in verse 6 (the plural KSDYM and the singular GWY).
> >
> > The Hebrew writes and refers to the singular (GWY) and translators tink
> of
> > the plural (KSDYM).
> >
> > But.... they both speak or write on the same entity, not on different
> > entities....
> >
> >
> >
> > Because really we can assert that in a general way (not always) England
> > (singular) = Englishmen (plural); Israel (singular) = Israelians
> (plural);
> > Spain = Spaniards... and so on.
> >
> >
> >
> > Do you think I'm right?
> >
> >
> >
> > Pere Porta
> >
> > 2011/9/20 Yigal Levin <Yigal.Levin AT biu.ac.il>
> >
> > Hi Pere,
> >
> > I would agree with you. I would also ask why all of the translation that
> > I've seen translate this and the other verses in this section as plural,
> > when the Hebrew treats the Chaldean nation of verse 6, which is the
> subject
> > all the way to verse 11, as a singular.
> >
> >
> > Yigal Levin
> >
>