whirlingmerc
Well-Known Member
Seems "Oh" often is used as special emphasis in Psalms
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Are there any special words for emphasis used in your scriptures?
- Thread starter whirlingmerc
- Start date
whirlingmerc
Well-Known Member
I like the first example in Psalms
Oh Kings, beware
Oh rulers, take warning
Server the Lord with trembling
Kiss the Son lest be be angry and you perish in the way
That is a translation of the vocative address from Hebrew but there are also cases that are not addresses like
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good OR Oh how I love your law?
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Tumah
Veteran Member
FTFY
whirlingmerc
Well-Known Member
A translation is a translation and I was referring to English
Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Like TWO FTFY?
whirlingmerc
Well-Known Member
I think maybe FIXED THAT FOR YOU
However...
There seems to be many cases in English of the hebrew vocative with O inserted. Not exactly the same as adding a word as much as translating it. English doesn't have a vocative and so O is inserted.
but what of the verses that aren't simply vocative addresses, like
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good OR Oh how I love your law?
seems the use of Oh is to try and capture some semantic meaning
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Tumah
Veteran Member
A translation is a translation.
whirlingmerc
Well-Known Member
OK, but I would not say it inserts words that are not there so much as trying to capture and restate something in another language with different grammars and rules that won't exactly match.
It looks like "Oh how I love your law" is a restatement/repackaging of a longer Hebrew phrasing in Psalm 119:47 Oh how I love your law - restated from - And I will delight myself in your commandments which I love. English also having tense and Hebrew having aspect makes the read different as well. ( Maybe there's also a preference to keep a classic translation if it restates something well and I can understand a translator trying to make a translation more tersely readable and not woodenly awkward. )
I'm not sure about Psalm 34:8 "Oh taste and see that the Lord is good!... " is that like a type of infinitive construct emphasis related to the verbs taste test and see? -restated from - To taste to see good is YHVH .... (the famous 'taste test" verse from that great song David wrote about the time he faked being crazy in front of a dangerous Philistine ruler and got away)
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Tumah
Veteran Member
Psa. 119:47
I will delight in your commandments, which I have loved.
Definitely not longer Hebrew phrasing. The whole verse is 4 words.
Psa. 34:8
Taste and see that G-d is good; praised is the man taking refuge in Him.
There's no infinitive, the first two words of the verse ('taste' 'and see') are in the imperative (plural).
whirlingmerc
Well-Known Member
I'm not sure why it's translated "ohhh how I love your law" then except maybe its an old classic translation or could it be an aspect issue
The Oh probably comes form the imperative in the other case. So maybe imperatives and vocatives get the Oh in English translations
Tumah
Veteran Member
The first words in Psa. 34:14 and 15 "guard/watch/keep" and "depart/remove" are also in the imperative, but don't get the O treatment. Sounds like it's just stylistic.
A buck tree fiddy.
whirlingmerc
Well-Known Member
OK thank you
Learning Hebrew is something I would love to find time to do
I know very little currently and although I know the English versions pretty well would like to learn Hebrew
whirlingmerc
Well-Known Member
maybe more stylistic than I would have thought.