13 August 2022 draft-bible
1, 2. Now. Every so often, a wyhy interrupts the flow of ‘and’ clauses in Hebrew and signals a sort of pause and a starting of something new. I attempt to mirror that in this case with the discourse marker ‘Now’, which seems to me to serve a similar function here. ‘Now’ is repeated at the beginnings of both verses 1 and 2 just as the wyhy is repeated in the Hebrew.
2. journeyed. ‘Traveled’ also seems suitable.
3. settled. Literally, ‘sat’.
3. bricks. Hebrew lᵉbenim, a plural word.
3. they had tar. This is the most straightforward translation of the Hebrew.
3. tar. See Gesenius-LT, HALOT, DCH.
4. we be scattered across the face. Hebrew nafuṣ al pᵉnei. Even this is wordy, but the ASV and WEB renderings of it seem even wordier.
5. human beings. Hebrew bᵉnei ha-ʾadam, or more literally, ‘the sons of humankind’.
6. intend. A good update for the archaic use of the verb ‘purpose’.
7. confuse. A good update for the somewhat dated ‘confound’. So also in verse 9.
8. from there. A more up to date equivalent for ‘from thence’.
8, 9. scattered … across. I am attempting here not to let the English get too much wordier than the Hebrew.
8. stopped. A more up to date equivalent for ‘left off’.
9. Babel. This is the Hebrew name for Babylon. This verse is playing the name Babel against the verb bll, ‘to confuse’. This might be a bit like comparing ‘babbling’ to ‘Babylon’.
10. These are the generations. See Genesis 2:4.
11, 13, 15. more (WEB). This word is not present in the Hebrew, and seems to be added for clarity. But it is unnecessary to point out that these are additional sons and daughters.
19, 21, 23, 25. more (WEB). As in verse 11, 13, and 15.
27. generations. As in 2:4.
28. birth. The term ‘nativity’ is not used too often anymore.
28. Chaldeans. Hebrew Kasdim. The people known as Kasdim in Hebrew are more often called ‘Chaldeans’ today, but in older forms of English are often called ‘Chaldees’. See the entry CHALDEANS in the appendix “Recurring Words”.
29. took themselves wives. So reads the Hebrew, literally.
29. who was also the father (WEB). The WEB tidies up the verse quite a bit, reducing the mentions of Milcah in this verse from two to one.
31. went out. Here ‘forth’ means ‘out’, and ‘went out’ or ‘went forth’ is a good translation of the Hebrew verb involved. As to the WEB’s simple deletion of ‘forth’, see the entry FORTH in the appendix “Recurring Words”.
31. with them. Why the WEB deletes these words, I do not know.
31. settled. Literally, ‘sat’.
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