13 August 2022 draft-bible
1. fill. Hebrew milʾu. If taken strictly in its old sense, as a perfect synonym for fill, then ‘replenish’ is an adequate, though archaic, translation here. WEB is aware of this in Genesis 1:28, where it updates the ASV’s “replenish” (also for milʾu) to “fill”. Here, however, it neglects to do the same, even though the blessing of Genesis 9 is clearly modelled word for word on the blessing of Genesis 1.
2. beast of the earth. Hebrew ḥayat ha-ʾareṣ. In view of the way that this Hebrew phrase tends to imply wild animals as opposed to simply animals in general, it seems worthwhile to retain ‘beast’ here.
2. with which the ground teems. See DCH, entry for רמשֹ. In this clause, ‘the ground’ is the subject of the verb rmś. The WEB translates here as if ‘everything’ is the subject.
3. Like the green herb, I give you them all. The Hebrew does not use the verb ‘give’ twice in this sentence, so I am trying not to either.
5. require a reckoning. I am here treating the entire verb drš as meaning ‘to require a reckoning for’.
5. From the hand. Hebrew mi-yad.
5. human. Hebrew ʾadam. Although various complications in the first few chapters of Genesis lead me to leave in the less than optimal translation ‘man’ (see the note on 1:26), it is nonetheless true that ‘human’ is usually a better equivalent for ʾadam than ‘man’ is.
6. human, humankind. Hebrew ʾadam.
7. And you. Hebrew wᵉ-atem. I’m not sure why the WEB deletes this phrase.
7. Swarm. Hebrew šrṣ, for which ‘swarm’ is probably a better equivalent than ‘increase abundantly’.
8. As for me. Where the Hebrew has wa-ʾani hinᵉni, the WEB is using “As for me” as an equivalent for wa-ʾani, while I use “And as for me” as an equivalent for the entire wa-ʾani hinᵉni.
10. beast of the earth. Hebrew ḥayyat ha-areṣ, a term which tends to imply wild animals specifically.
10. of every beast of the earth. These words at the end of this verse hang awkwardly, just a bit redundant in the MT. In the MT, the verse reads “… and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, of every beast of the earth.” ASV and WEB follow the MT here, and so do many modern translations.
According to BHK1913, these words at the end of the verse are not present in the Septuagint, and are perhaps not part of the earliest text. The NRSV and NHEB (2022) both side with the Septuagint here.
12. sign. Hebrew ʾot. While WEB does translate the word as “token” here, it reads “sign” in verse 13. I will resolve the inconsistency in favor of “sign” throughout the story.
13. rainbow. Hebrew qešet, which can be read both as ‘bow’ (as a hunter’s bow) or ‘rainbow’.
13. become. Hebrew hayᵉtah lᵉ-.
13. sign. As in verse 12.
14. it shall come to pass. While the WEB attempts to delete this phrase, it forgets to delete “that”, making the verse awkwardly read, “When I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow …”.
14. rainbow. As in verse 13.
14. to remember. Slightly more economical than “that I may remember”.
17. sign. As in verse 12.
19. populated. The word overspread would also do fine here, if it were a word.
23. went backwards. So says the Hebrew. There is no word equivalent to ‘in’ here.
25. Cursed be Canaan. A curse is a sort of solemn wish or command that something bad befall someone. In that case, Cursed be Canaan, expressing Noah’s wish for Canaan, is more appropriate than Canaan is cursed, as if Noah were simply making an observation about his grandson.
25. slave of slaves. Here we have an etiology for the hereditary slavery of Canaanites, a topic which comes up a number of times in the Hebrew Bible. There is no need to engage in euphemisms such as ‘servant’ here. See SLAVE in the appendix “Recurring Words”.
26. god. On capitalization, see the entry GOD in the appendix “Recurring Words’. My policy throughout this translation will be to capitalize “God” wherever the word is a proper noun or begins a sentence or quotation, and to leave it lower-case in all other cases.
26, 27. slave. As in verse 25.
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