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| − | [[The Book of Mormon]] > [[Second Nephi]] > [[Second Nephi 4|Chapter 4]]
| + | #REDIRECT [[2 Ne 4:13-35]] |
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| − | | [[2 Ne 4:16-20|Previous (2 Ne 4:16-20)]] || || [[2 Ne 4:26-30|Next (2 Ne 4:26-30)]]
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| − | == Questions ==
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| − | * ''Click the edit link above and to the right to add questions''
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| − | == Lexical notes ==
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| − | Regardless of what language Nephi used to transmit the "Psalm of Nephi," there are, in the passage, enough Hebraisms and similarities to Hebrew poetry to conjecture a Hebrew language original. When we conclude so, we can make some interesting observations.
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| − | Verses 21 and 22. The two lines are linked by parallel elements of syntax and morphology. The parallelism of Hebrew poetry often extends beyond a rhythm of thought and ideas to that of morphology, syntax, and phonetics, resemblances which tend to be less obvious, especially in translation.
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| − | <font color="#ff0000">He hath filled me with his love, even unto the consuming of my flesh.
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| − | He hath confounded mine enemies, unto the causing of them to quake before me.</font>
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| − | If we translate the passage back into Hebrew, and arrange it into typical "verse" format, we observe that each line begins with the verb form "he hath" followed by a parallel in the Hebrew root <i>aleph - yod - bet</i> (enemy) with <i>aleph - heh - bet</i> (love). The two words have similar roots (in fact <i>yod</i> and <i>heh</i> are related root letters). The second half of each line begins with "unto" (<i>"od"</i> in the Hebrew) followed in the Hebrew by the infinitive construct verb form.
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| − | Thus vs 21b in Hebrew would read:
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| − | <i><font color="#339900">od kkelot bbesari</font></i></font>(compare [[Ruth 2:23]]).
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| − | In vs 22, the phrase "the causing of them to quake" is awkward in English, but brings to mind the <i>hiphil</i> "causative" verb form in the Hebrew.
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| − | Verse 22b in Hebrew might read:
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| − | <i><font color="#339900">od ham'idu mippanai</font></i> (compare [[Ps 69:23]]) [an alternative choice would be <i><font color="#339900">od hacharidu mippanai</font></i> (compare [[Ezek 30:9]])].
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| − | When we stack these together the correspondences in the first clause of both lines become more evedent:
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| − | he hath filled / <i>aleph - heh - bet</i>
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| − | he hath confounded / <i>aleph - yod - bet</i>
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| − | And in the final clause of both lines we have:
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| − | connective <i>od</i> / infinitive construct / of my flesh
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| − | connective <i>od</i> / infinitive construct / "from my face"
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| − | The parallel at the end of each line is not readily apparent in English, but the idiom for "before me" in Hebrew reads literally <i>from my face</i>, which draws a connection to "of my flesh" in the first line. The syntactic link is further bolstered by the personal posessive suffix <i>yod</i> affixed as the final character of both lines.
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| − | As interesting as these musings might be (to some), we are tempted to ask the question, "Does a poetic interpretation effect the message conveyed by the text?" If we establish a parallel between these two lines, the answer is yes, because then we are justified in viewing them as one thought unit:
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| − | <font color="#ff0000">He hath filled me with his love, even unto the consuming of my flesh.
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| − | He hath confounded mine enemies, unto the causing of them to quake before me.</font>
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| − | As such, we have a much stronger statement than if the two lines were merely treated as successive lines among many others. As a unit, the verse has <u>sharper</u> <u>contrast</u>. As a unit, the statement is more emphatic! The lines together would be understood as:<font color="#ff0000">
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| − | </font><font color="#339900">He has filled me such that I am completely consumed with his love,
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| − | But my enemies he has so confounded that they tremble with fear!</font>
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| − | == Exegesis ==
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| − | ''Click the edit link above and to the right to add exegesis''
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| − | == Related links ==
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| − | * ''Click the edit link above and to the right to add related links''
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| − | ----
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| − | {|
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| − | | [[2 Ne 4:16-20|Previous (2 Ne 4:16-20)]] || || [[2 Ne 4:26-30|Next (2 Ne 4:26-30)]]
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| − | |}
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