H1270

• {"n":"Psalm 105:18","s":"The iron entered into his soul. The Hebrew more literally reads his soul came into iron, a difficult phrase ancient translators handled differently.","u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/bible-translation-differences\/#id=psalm-105-18","r":"Psalm 105:18","b":[{"l":"How modern translations read it","t":"Most versions read some form of describing Joseph's affliction in prison, his feet hurt with fetters, his neck or person constrained by iron, with varying degrees of literalness about the famous his soul entered iron phrase."},{"l":"First, in plain English","t":"English the iron entered into his soul is now a familiar idiom for deep inner anguish, but it is also a slightly unusual translation choice: the Hebrew word order more literally has his soul entering iron, not the other way around, a small but real difference ancient translators noticed and handled in at least three different ways."},{"l":"What you are seeing","t":"The Hebrew reads nephesh, soul, life, or person, as entering into iron, backward from the more intuitive image of iron entering a person. The Syriac keeps this direction, his soul went into iron; the Aramaic Targum reverses it, the chain of iron went into his soul; the widely beloved English phrase, the iron entered into his soul, popularized through the Book of Common Prayer, follows the Targum's reversed direction rather than the more literal Hebrew word order."},{"l":"Why translators split","t":"English readers who know the phrase the iron entered into his soul as a beautiful, familiar idiom for suffering may not realize the phrase's exact grammatical direction was already being debated and reversed by ancient translators, since the literal Hebrew has the person entering the iron, not the iron entering the person."},{"l":"The rule to carry away","t":"When a beloved, idiomatic English Bible phrase sounds too poetically perfect to be a plain translation, check its actual grammatical direction against the Hebrew. Some of the most famous English biblical phrases, like this one, already represent an ancient interpretive choice rather than a purely literal rendering."},{"l":"Choosing between them","t":"His soul entered into iron, closer to the literal Hebrew word order, pictures Joseph's whole self being absorbed into confinement. The iron entered into his soul, the beloved reversed idiom following the Targum, pictures suffering piercing inward instead, the version that became proverbial in English despite reversing the Hebrew's own direction."},{"l":"The word","t":"\u05d1\u05b7\u05bc\u05e8\u05b0\u05d6\u05b6\u05dc \u05d1\u05b8\u05bc\u05d0\u05b8\u05d4 \u05e0\u05b7\u05e4\u05b0\u05e9\u05c1\u05d5\u05b9 barzel ba'ah naphsho (his soul came into iron) \u00b7 H1270 + H935 + H5315"}],"src":["Syriac Peshitta keeping the Hebrew's direction, 'his soul went into iron'","Aramaic Targum reversing it, 'the chain of iron went into his soul'","The Book of Common Prayer popularizing the reversed English idiom"]}