Translation work in Jeremiah

Jefferson Vann

Translation work in Jeremiah

Jefferson Vann shares some notes from his work on translating the book of Jeremiah.

Since my congregation is reading through the Bible, I have been revising my translation to keep up with our reading schedule of two chapters per day. This month, we are in the Old Testament book of Jeremiah.

One of my aims as a translator is to reduce confusion caused by lexicons. In their haste to cover all possible meanings and implications of a word, lexicon authors often provide more information than necessary. Consequently, the semantic range of some words becomes so broad that they seem to mean almost anything.  

For example, the Hebrew word נפש (nefesh) appears numerous times in the Old Testament. In Jeremiah, it appears in 2:24; 2:34; 3:11; 4:10; 4:30; 6:8; 11:21; 12:7; 13:17; 14:19; 15:9; 19:7; 19:9; 21:7; 22:25; 22:27; 26:19; 31:25; 32:41; 34:16; 34:20; 34:21; 37:9; 38:16; 38:17; 38:20; 40:14; 40:15; 42:20; 43:6; 44:7; 44:14; 44:30; 46:26; 48:6; 49:37; 50:19; 51:6; 51:45; 52:29; 52:30.

Holladay’s Lexicon[1] identifies 10 possible meanings of the word:

1.    throat

2.    neck

3.    breath (or ‘soul’, but not the Greek idea of soul).

4.    living being

5.    person

6.    personality, individuality

7.    life

8.    desire, state of mind or will

9.    corpse

10. perfume bottle

I had no desire to add to the confusion in my translation by merely hunting and pecking through this list of suggested “meanings” every time I encountered נפש in Jeremiah. I wanted to know what the word actually means and to reflect that meaning in my translation. I realize that words can have secondary implications in specific contexts.

For example, Holladay noted that his meaning #4, “living being,” applies to the word when used with another word, the word for “living.” I do not see this as a separate meaning. It is an implication. If the word does not mean being, adding the word “living” to it does not change its meaning to being.

Also, his rendering of #6 as “personality and individuality” is based on the occurrence of נפש with pronominal suffixes. Again, if the word does not mean “self,” adding the first-person pronominal suffix to it does not make it mean “myself.”

When 83-year-old Jewish scholar Dr. Robert Alter wrote his Hebrew Bible translation, he rejected the KJV rendering of Jonah 2:5, which states, “The waters compassed me about, even to the soul." Instead, he translated it as "for the waters have come up to my neck.’ He preferred this version because he believed Jonah was not worried about his immortal soul drowning, but about his body drowning. The Hebrew word נפש does not refer to a spiritual entity but rather to a physical body part.

For that reason, when I encountered the word while translating Jeremiah, I vowed to translate it as “throat” and see what happens. Obviously, the word would be used differently in different contexts. Still, I did not feel that justified using different glosses that might lead people to think outside the box about the word’s origin as a physical body part.

As I looked at each verse containing the word, I encountered numerous instances where the translators skipped it. Rather than translating נפשי as “my throat,” they chose to translate it as “me.” This could be an example of the translators simply choosing meaning #6, or it could be that they did not want to reveal how many times the Hebrew authors of Scripture used the word “throat” as a metonymy.

After all, every translator comes from a theological mindset, and that mindset shapes translation. As a conditionalist, I have no problem with the idea that a person’s throat is a physical part that can be choked, drowned, or cut, leading to that person’s death. If “my throat” means “me,” then I am mortal. When I speak of my throat, I speak of myself as a mortal, in danger of being killed.

Here is my translation of every verse in Jeremiah containing the word נפש:

Jeremiah 2:24 “a wild donkey at home in the open country. Her throat sniffs the wind in the heat of her desire.”

Jeremiah 2:34 “your skirts are stained with the throat-blood of the innocent poor.”

Jeremiah 3:11 “Unfaithful Israel has shown her throat more righteous than treacherous Judah.”

Jeremiah 4:10 “You have certainly deceived this people and Jerusalem, by announcing, 'You will have peace,' while a sword is at our throats."

Jeremiah 4:30  “Your lovers reject you; they seek to cut your throat.”

Jeremiah 6:8 “Be corrected, Jerusalem, or My throat will turn away from you.”

Jeremiah 11:21 “the people of Anathoth who intend to take your throat.”

Jeremiah 12:7 “I have handed the love of my throat over to her enemies.”

Jeremiah 13:17 “My throat will weep in secret because of your pride.”

Jeremiah 14:19 “Does your throat detest Zion?”

Jeremiah 15:9 “her throat breathed her last breath.”

Jeremiah 19:7 “I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, by the hand of those who intend to take their throat.”

Jeremiah 19:9 “their enemies who intend to take their throat.”

Jeremiah 21:7 “their enemies, yes, to those who intend to take their throats.”

Jeremiah 22:25 “those who seek to take your throat.”

Jeremiah 22:27 “They will never return to the land their throats long to return to."

Jeremiah 26:19 “We are about to bring a terrible disaster on our throats!"

Jeremiah 31:25 “because I satisfy the thirsty throat.”

Jeremiah 32:41 “with all my heart and throat I will faithfully plant them in this land.”

Jeremiah 34:16 “Each has taken back his male and female slaves who had been let go free to go wherever their throats wanted.”

Jeremiah 34:20 “their enemies, to those who intend to cut their throat.”

Jeremiah 34:21 “their enemies, to those who intend to cut their throat.”

Jeremiah 37:9 “Don't deceive your throats by saying, 'The Chaldeans will leave us for good."

Jeremiah 38:16 "As Yahveh lives, who has given us this throat, I will not kill you or hand you over to these men who intend to cut your throat."

Jeremiah 38:17 “then your throat will live.”

Jeremiah 38:20 "so it may go well for you and your throat can stay alive.”

Jeremiah 40:14 “Baalis, king of the Ammonites, has sent Ishmael son of Nethaniah to cut your throat?"

Jeremiah 40:15 “Why should he cut your throat?"

Jeremiah 42:20 “You have gone astray at the cost of your throats.”

Jeremiah 43:6 “They led away the men, women, children, the king's daughters, and everyone’s throat.”

Jeremiah 44:7 “Why are you doing such horrible harm to your throats?”

Jeremiah 44:14 “the land of Judah, where their throats are longing to return.”

Jeremiah 44:30 “those who intend to cut his throat.”

Jeremiah 46:26 “I will hand them over to those who intend to cut their throats.”

Jeremiah 48:6 “Flee! Escape with your throats!”

Jeremiah 49:37 “those who intend to cut their throats.”

Jeremiah 50:19 “he will feed at Carmel and Bashan; his throat will be satisfied in the hill country of Ephraim.”

Jeremiah 51:6 “Leave Babylon; escape with your throats.”

Jeremiah 51:45 “Escape! May each man preserve his throat.”

Jeremiah 52:29 “in his eighteenth year, 832 throats from Jerusalem.”

Jeremiah 52:30 “Nebuzaradan …  deported 745 Jewish throats. Altogether, 4,600 throats were deported.”

There it is. Every instance of the Book of Jeremiah referencing the נפש, and no need to resort to a pile of definitions. One word – throat – says it all. Jeremiah only needed one word. Once we jettison that unbiblical idea of the soul, we can clearly see what Jeremiah meant by the word נפש.

Oh, and what about #10, the perfume bottle?  Isaiah 3:20 refers to the bayit-hanefesh, a sachet of perfume worn around the neck.

[1] Holladay, William Lee, and Ludwig Köhler. A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament : Based upon the Lexical Work of Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner. Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1971. pp. 242-243.