TRANSLATING II SAMUEL 3

Accurately rendering the Hebrew or Greek language of the Bible into English is an enterprise that is not the easiest to accomplish. On the one hand are scholars who have attempted to produce a completely literal translation and tout it as the only true way to understand the original wording. One such example is Young's Literal Translation. On the opposite side of the spectrum are those who feel quite free to translate the same word completely differently depending on the way it is used in each particular context, resulting in loose paraphrases such as The Message or The Living Bible. In fact, neither extreme is entirely successful in completely conveying the often subtle details that were put into the text by the authors.

As but one example of the difficulties translators face, Robert Alter points to a repeated phrase that appears in II Samuel 3. This chapter recounts how a feud broke out between two powerful generals, Abner and Joab, when the former killed the brother of the latter. Abner approaches David with an offer of peace and a covenant between the two of them. The King James Version renders a particular repeated phrase that later follows as:

    “David sent Abner away; and he went in peace.” (v. 21)

    “Abner was not with David in Hebron, for he had sent him away, and he was gone in peace.” (v. 22)

    “they told Joab, saying....'he [the king] hath he sent him away, and he is gone in peace.'” (v. 23)

    “Then Joab came to the king, and said...'why is it that thou hast sent him away, and he is quite gone.'” (v. 24)

The first three appearances of the phrase are simple statements of the facts in the case. However, you can clearly see from the fairly literal KJV translation of the fourth telling from Abner's mouth that there are two subtle changes in wording. In the first place, “peace” is pointedly missing, and secondly, KJV accurately renders the final repetition of the verb “gone” as an intensive variation “quite gone.” In other words, Abner is questioning the wisdom of David letting him go in peace as well as expressing his frustration that his enemy is now completely out of his own reach.

George Hubbard calls attention to this “sophisticated narrative technique, in which a pattern of repetition is suddenly subverted by an ominous variant of a familiar phrase...With such formulaic narrative the Authorized Version translators are entirely happy, and the reader of their English rendering will, just like the reader of the Hebrew original, first become accustomed to the pattern and then find it suddenly subverted.”

The Revised Standard Version, as usual, follows the KJV fairly closely with one exception, the last part of the fourth occurrence of the key phrase is even closer to the wording in the first three, simply reading “he is gone.” This version does a good job of highlighting the absence of “peace” in v. 24 but fails to convey the intensive or superlative form of the verb “gone” that is in the Hebrew original.

Moving forward in time to an even more recent translation within the same tradition, NRSV uses the English word “dismiss” in all four verses in place of “sent away” so that we can still clearly note the similarity between the repetitions. However, it departs even further from the Hebrew in II Samuel 3:24 by using “got away” in place of “quite gone.” This does have the advantage of expressing Joab's frustration that his enemy is safely out of his reach, but conveys that idea by substituting a completely different Hebrew verb than is in the original text. As you can see, it is really a subtle balancing act that the translators are forced to walk with no one completely successful way to accomplish it.

Next, let's consider how other modern translations attempt to cope with the problem.

NIV has “sent him away” and “gone in peace” in the first three appearances of the phrase. However, in the final case, it says “let him go” and “is gone.” Thus, just like NRSV, this translation resorts to use of a different verb in an attempt to better convey Joab's frame of mind. The only difference from NRSV, however, is that it accomplishes this by using a substitute for the verb “let go” instead of finding a replacement for “gone.”

Even further from the original Hebrew is the New English Bible, which uses the following paired expressions in verses 21-24:

    “dismissed / granting his safe conduct”

    “dismissal / was no longer with David”

    “departed under safe conduct”

    “How could you let him go? He has got clean away”

In this case, there is no attempt made to adhere to the original wording. Thus, the reader might certainly comprehend what is going one but would do so at the expense of having no idea how the author originally conveyed the meaning.

The Jerusalem Bible goes to the opposite extreme by translating all four appearances the same: “allow to go unmolested.” This shows a total lack of understanding of the original Hebrew, as Hammond notes.

Finally, let's turn to some modern paraphrases, beginning with The Message by Eugene Peterson. The four appearances of the key phrase are rendered as follows:

    “sent off with David's blessing”

    “dismissed with David's blessing”

    “sent off with David's blessing”

    “you let him walk away scot-free”

As with the NEB, we have a very readable and understandable rendering here, with even a little gratuitous variation in the second appearance of the identical Hebrew wording thrown in. But in the final appearance, there is no vestige left of the wording in the first three occasions.

The Living Bible takes even more liberties with the text by removing one of the four times the phrase is used entirely so that we are left with:

    “David let Abner return in safety”

    “Abner...had been sent away in peace.”

    “What do you mean by letting him go?”

So the unaware reader would have not have the slightest hint that there was a carefully prepared literary pattern built up by the author in the first place.

Now I realize that the average reader of the narrative portions of the Bible is generally only interested in the bare bones of the plot with possible some moral or application thrown in. But every once in a while it is good to point out what hidden riches the Scripture also holds for those who are interested in delving a little deeper into the text.