H3368

• {"n":"Psalm 116:15","s":"Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. Or: grievous, costly, in the LORD's sight.","u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/bible-translation-differences\/#id=psalm-116-15","r":"Psalm 116:15","b":[{"l":"How modern translations read it","t":"Every major version reads precious, following yaqar's dominant Hebrew sense. A minority of scholars, most notably John Emerton, argue for grievous or costly, based on the word's attested Aramaic and later Rabbinic Hebrew sense."},{"l":"First, in plain English","t":"English precious and English grievous describe nearly opposite reactions, treasuring something versus being pained by it. Yaqar's ordinary Hebrew sense leans toward precious or valuable, but a minority reading, built on the word's sense in the closely related language Aramaic, argues for grievous instead, a real difference in what the verse claims God feels about a believer's death."},{"l":"What you are seeing","t":"Yaqar's ordinary Hebrew range covers precious, valuable, weighty, or honored, and this is how the word functions in its other eight occurrences across the Psalms. The grievous reading depends on importing a sense well-attested in Aramaic and Rabbinic Hebrew but, by Emerton's own admission, not clearly attested in Hebrew itself at this early period, making the grievous reading linguistically possible but resting on evidence from a related, later-developing language rather than from Hebrew usage contemporary with the psalm."},{"l":"Why translators split","t":"English precious and grievous land in almost opposite emotional registers, and a reader meeting only the traditional precious rendering would never guess that a real, if minority, scholarly case exists for reading the verse as saying God finds the death of His faithful costly or painful rather than something to be treasured."},{"l":"The rule to carry away","t":"When a minority reading depends on evidence from a related language rather than the text's own contemporary vocabulary, weigh it seriously but note the evidentiary gap. Grievous for yaqar is a real proposal, but it leans on Aramaic usage not securely attested in Hebrew at this period."},{"l":"Choosing between them","t":"Precious, the traditional and dominant reading, treats the verse as comfort: God treasures the death of His faithful ones rather than treating it lightly. Grievous, the minority reading, treats the verse as lament: death, even of the faithful, costs God something, a reading some find pastorally and theologically more satisfying but resting on thinner direct Hebrew evidence."},{"l":"The word","t":"\u05d9\u05b8\u05e7\u05b8\u05e8 yaqar \u00b7 H3368"}],"src":["yaqar's ordinary sense elsewhere in the Psalms: Psalm 49:8; 72:14","John Emerton's argument for 'grievous,' based on Aramaic and Rabbinic Hebrew usage"]}