H7390

• {"n":"Genesis 29:17","s":"Leah was tender eyed. The word could mean weak, or it could mean soft and lovely.","u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/bible-translation-differences\/#id=genesis-29-17","r":"Genesis 29:17","b":[{"l":"How modern translations read it","t":"Translations split roughly down the middle: several read weak or ordinary, reading the description as unflattering, while others read tender or delicate, allowing a gentler, even positive sense."},{"l":"First, in plain English","t":"English **soft-spoken** can be a compliment or, said a certain way, faint praise bordering on an insult. Hebrew rakkot sits in exactly that kind of gap: soft or delicate could mean gentle and attractive, or it could mean weak, pale, lacking the sparkle Rachel's beauty is about to be praised for in the very next clause."},{"l":"What you are seeing","t":"Rakkot, soft or tender, most often describes something delicate or fine elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible, but applied to eyes without further qualification, its force is genuinely unclear: does it mean lovely and soft-eyed, or pale and lacking luster, weak by comparison to what follows? The verse immediately contrasts Leah's description with Rachel, who was beautiful and well favoured, a contrast that reads very differently depending on which sense of rakkot is meant."},{"l":"Why translators split","t":"A single word is what English is forced to pick, weak, tender, or delicate, each committing the translation to a specific emotional tone, complimentary, neutral, or unflattering, that the bare Hebrew word does not clearly settle on its own."},{"l":"The rule to carry away","t":"When a physical description sits between two characters being compared, check whether the description word's range includes both a flattering and an unflattering sense before assuming the comparison is entirely one-sided."},{"l":"Choosing between them","t":"Weak or ordinary reads the verse as setting up a stark contrast, Leah unremarkable, Rachel stunning. Tender or delicate allows Leah a real, if quieter, virtue of her own before Rachel's more obvious beauty is introduced. The Hebrew word does not clearly force either reading."},{"l":"The word","t":"\u05e8\u05b7\u05db\u05bc\u05d5\u05b9\u05ea rakkot (\u05e8\u05b7\u05da\u05b0 rakh, soft, tender) \u00b7 H7390"}],"src":["rakh\/rakkot elsewhere describing something delicate or fine: Deuteronomy 28:56; Proverbs 4:3","The immediate contrast with Rachel's beauty in the same verse"]}