H6313

• {"n":"Genesis 45:26","s":"Jacob's heart fainted. A rare verb some read as his heart simply stopped, not merely swooned.","u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/bible-translation-differences\/#id=genesis-45-26","r":"Genesis 45:26","b":[{"l":"How modern translations read it","t":"Most versions read fainted, was stunned, or did not believe them, softer options for a word whose exact force is genuinely unclear given how rarely it occurs."},{"l":"First, in plain English","t":"English fainted suggests a brief swoon, someone who recovers in a moment. If the stronger reading of the rare Hebrew verb is right, the sentence is closer to his heart stopped, a far more severe, almost fatal reaction to shocking news, before Jacob's spirit revives in the very next verse."},{"l":"What you are seeing","t":"Vayafag, from the rare root pug, appears seldom enough in the Hebrew Bible that its precise force is debated; at Lamentations 2:18 the same root clearly means cease or stop, which has led some readers, including the medieval commentator Ibn Ezra, to render this verse in stronger terms than a simple faint, and Robert Alter's translation renders it 'his heart went numb' rather than the milder, more traditional fainted."},{"l":"Why translators split","t":"English fainted names a brief, recoverable swoon; if pug's stronger sense of ceasing or stopping is correct here, the verse is describing something closer to a genuine, momentary cardiac event, a considerably more severe reaction that softer English translations do not convey."},{"l":"The rule to carry away","t":"When a rare verb's few other occurrences point toward a stronger sense than the traditional English gloss suggests, weigh the stronger reading seriously rather than defaulting to whichever translation sounds most familiar. Familiarity is not evidence."},{"l":"Choosing between them","t":"Fainted or was stunned keeps the traditional, milder reading and fits smoothly with Jacob's quick recovery the following verse. His heart stopped, following the word's clearer sense at Lamentations 2:18, reads the shock as considerably more severe, a nearly fatal jolt rather than a brief swoon."},{"l":"The word","t":"\u05d5\u05b7\u05d9\u05b8\u05bc\u05e4\u05b8\u05d2 vayafag (\u05e4\u05bc\u05d5\u05bc\u05d2 pug) \u00b7 H6313"}],"src":["pug clearly meaning cease\/stop at Lamentations 2:18","Ibn Ezra's reading of this verse in light of that parallel","Robert Alter's translation, 'his heart went numb'"]}