Language Studies

Aramaic Thoughts

Digging into the Peshitta! - Part 2

Psalm 110 (continued)

Verse 1 continues, "Until I set your enemies as a footstool for your feet." Both the Peshitta and the Septuagint give a good literal translation of the Hebrew. Thus it is impossible to tell whether the Peshitta is dependent more on the Septuagint or on the Hebrew text.

In verse 2a the Peshitta reads, "The rod of his strength the Lord shall send to you from Zion." This differs from both the Hebrew and the Septuagint. These both read, "the rod of your strength the Lord (YHWH in Hebrew) shall send from Zion." The Peshitta does not use the divine name, but instead marya, the Syriac equivalent of the Greek kurios. The other difference is difficult to account for, since the Syriac equivalent of "the rod of your strength" is straightforward. Thus, the difference seems to have arisen as an interpretive choice on the part of the translator of the Peshitta.

Verse 2b of the Peshitta reads, "and it shall rule over your enemies." The verb "rule" is a third masculine singular form, with "rod" (a masculine noun) probably understood as the subject of the verb. Again, this differs from both the Hebrew and the Septuagint, which both have "rule in the midst of your enemies." The rendering of the Peshitta seems to have been demanded by the choice the translator made in the first part of the verse, since "rod" would not usually be considered the subject of an imperative, which is what both the Hebrew and the Septuagint have.

Verse 3a in the Hebrew reads, "your people are freewill offerings in the day of your strength." The Septuagint says, "with you is dominion (or "rule") in the day of your power." The Peshitta reads, "your people are praiseworthy in the day of power." Obviously, the Hebrew is difficult. The Septuagint, working probably from an unpointed text (a text without vowels) has read the first word as "with you" rather than "your people" (which is possible). Then it has taken the Hebrew nedaboth (freewill offerings) as coming from the noun nedibah, meaning "noble deeds," rendering it as indicated. Te Peshitta translator, on the other hand, has read the "your people" correctly, and then interpreted what he saw as the sense of "freewill offerings" indicating something worthy of praise.

The remainder of verse 3 is difficult in Hebrew. It reads, "in the ornaments of holiness, from the womb of the dawn, to you is the dew of your youth." The Septuagint reads, "In the splendors of your saints; from the womb before the morning I have begotten you." The Peshitta reads, "in the magnificence of holiness from the womb, from of old you the son I have begotten." The Hebrew "ornaments" could easily, and adequately, be rendered either by the Septuagint’s "splendors" or the Peshitta’s "magnificence." As for "holiness" found in the Hebrew and Peshitta, the Septuagint seems to have read the singular noun as a collective for "holy ones," or "saints," than added the specifying "your."

The difficulties of the remainder of the verse will occupy us next time.

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