H6165

• {"n":"Psalm 42:1","s":"As the hart panteth after the water brooks. Arag, a rare verb for an audible cry of longing, not quiet heavy breathing.","u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/bible-translation-differences\/#id=psalm-42-1","r":"Psalm 42:1","b":[{"l":"How modern translations read it","t":"Every version reads panteth, an accurate but physically narrower English verb than the Hebrew's onomatopoeic, sound-based image of a distressed animal's cry."},{"l":"First, in plain English","t":"English pants describes a physical action, hard breathing, mostly silent. Hebrew arag pictures something noisier and more desperate, closer to a lost animal crying out, bleating for its mother or its herd, unable to find its way. The soul is not merely tired and breathing hard; it is crying aloud in desperation."},{"l":"What you are seeing","t":"Arag occurs only here, twice in this psalm, and once more at Joel 1:20, always describing the desperate, audible longing of an animal, close to a bleating or braying cry rather than simple physical panting. The image is not a deer breathing hard after running; it is a deer crying out, its very life depending on finding water, a cry the psalmist applies directly to his own soul's desperation for God."},{"l":"Why translators split","t":"English panteth suggests only physical exertion, quiet and mostly involuntary; it misses the vocal, almost anguished cry the rare Hebrew verb actually pictures, an animal crying out because it knows it will perish without what it seeks."},{"l":"The rule to carry away","t":"When a translated verb for physical action sounds ordinary in English, check whether the Hebrew original is describing something more vocal or desperate. A rare, nearly onomatopoeic verb like arag often carries far more emotional weight than its common English gloss suggests."},{"l":"Choosing between them","t":"Panteth is the traditional, poetic English rendering and captures physical desperation well. Cries out, or a more vivid rendering closer to bleats, better conveys arag's audible, almost anguished sense, an animal, or a soul, crying aloud rather than merely breathing hard."},{"l":"The word","t":"\u05ea\u05b7\u05bc\u05e2\u05b2\u05e8\u05b9\u05d2 ta'arog (\u05e2\u05b8\u05e8\u05b7\u05d2 arag) \u00b7 H6165"}],"src":["Only other occurrences: Psalm 42:2; Joel 1:20","arag's onomatopoeic, cry-based sense: standard Hebrew lexicons"]}