"All our days ebb away under your wrath;
our years die away like a sigh.
The span of our life is seventy years,
or if we are strong, eighty;
yet at best it is toil and sorrow,
over in a moment, and then we are gone.
Who grasps the power of your anger and wrath
to the degree that the fear due you should inspire?
So teach us to count our days,
so that we will be come wise.
Return, ADONAI! How long must it go on?
Take pity on your servants!
Fill us at daybreak with your love,
so that we can sing for joy as long as we live."
Psalm 90:9-14 Complete Jewish Bible
I don't really care for poetry all that much, but this is beautiful to me. I'd love to know Hebrew so I could read it in it original form.
6 comments:
What a great Psalm in light of all we have been talking about. I too wish I could really know the Hebrew so that I could see the poetry in it all. Especially with Psalms like 119 where each line in each section starts with the same letter. How cool? But it is lost on me. But, for just a few years of time and tons of money, you too can go to seminary and learn Hebrew! :)
well, actually sometimes i think about getting rosetta stone, because i hear it works really well. plus, susan wise-bauer is using rosetta stone for korean and if she recommends it, it's probably good. i'd like to do the korean one too. but of course i'd like to do greek and latin also. and then maybe spanish.
I'm sorry. I am LOL! Because I would love to learn several languages, myself. But basic Latin is all I have managed so far, other than English.
I love how they translated that passage. I generally like the KJV because of the flow of the language, but I know some of that flow is just totally lost because I am not reading it in its original form. :(
Yes, the languages bit was sort of tongue-in-cheek because I know that'll never happen.
The Complete Jewish Bible is my favorite translation because it was translated by a (Messianic) Jew, a native speaker of Hebrew. It reads more like a story. I think a lot of things in the Bible are lost on us native-English-speaking Protestants because we don't know the Hebrew and we don't understand what it really means to be a Jew; to celebrate the feasts and such. This translation really goes a long way in bridging that gap.
I don't think the important things are lost though. You know? :)
I love looking through different translations. I may have to look into that one! :)
You're right, the really important things span the language/culture barrier. Everyone, no matter what they speak, understands the sin problem and the need for a savior, even if they don't want to admit it.
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