cincinnatus_c | David and regret

Since moving on from Genesis, for whatever reason, I haven't felt compelled to compare translations or look up words anywhere nearly as often. But today's reading from 2 Samuel provided a compelling example of why there's no going back, for me, to the NRSV or NIV from the NASB as my default text. The last verse in 2 Samuel 12 goes like this in the NASB's rendering: "[David] also brought out the people who were in [Ammon], and set them under saws, sharp iron instruments, and iron axes, and made them pass through the brickkiln. And thus he did to all the cities of the sons of Ammon." To which I said "good Lord!" and then went googling (actually duck-duck-go-ing, which I have switched to in my ongoing feeble efforts to de-evil-ize my internet usage) to see if that is actually supposed to mean what it sounds like it's supposed to mean. I figured the quickest way would be an image search, which turned up this German cartoon illustrating the difference between older and newer German renderings of the first sentence of 2 Samuel 12:31. Google-translating Luther's rendering produces this: "But he brought out the people inside and laid them under iron saws and spikes and iron wedges and burned them in brick kilns." The 2009 Neue Evangelistische rendering goes like this: "The city's population David made to do forced labor. He placed them on stone saws, iron pick-axes, iron axes, and brick-making." The NRSV has: "He brought out the people who were in it, and set them to work with saws and iron picks and iron axes, or sent them to the brickworks." And the NIV has: "[David] brought out the people who were there, consigning them to labor with saws and with iron picks and axes, and he made them work at brickmaking"--though it has a note at the end of the sentence that says that "the meaning of the Hebrew for this clause [presumably 'work at brickmaking'] is uncertain"; the NRSV just cheerfully withholds from you the distinct possibility that the Hebrew means to say that David sent people to be burned to death in kilns. Meanwhile, Young's Literal Translation has: "and the people who [are] in it he hath brought out, and setteth to the saw, and to cutting instruments of iron, and to axes of iron, and hath caused them to pass over into the brick-kiln;" The Jewish Publication Society version (1917 edition) has: "And he brought forth the people that were therein, and put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brickkiln"; and the KJV has: "And he brought forth the people that were therein, and put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brick-kiln." So, without getting into textual criticism of the Hebrew sources, it sure looks clear that the NRSV's and NIV's and the newer German versions', uh, gentler renderings are based purely on an ideological commitment to David's being, uh, not a horrible person. On the other hand, it looks like Luther's definitively stating that David had people burned in ovens is also unwarranted--it looks like the text is actually ambiguous (though it does look like the putting-them-to-work reading is probably more of a stretch from the text than the putting-them-to-horrible-deaths reading is). Maybe it is intentionally ambiguous. Given what we've been told about David, either reading is entirely plausible, and maybe that might even be the point, of someone, somewhere, somehow.

Something of note from yesterday's reading: in 2 Samuel 7, David wants to build a permanent temple for God to live in--up to this point God's ark has been shuttled around from tent to tent--but God tells the prophet Nathan to tell David not to do it. He says that he will have a descendant of David's (who will turn out to be David's son Solomon) do it: "He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever." What's noteworthy to me about this is God's saying that he will not treat David and his descendants like he treated Saul. This covenant that God makes with David, much like the first covenant God made, with Noah, seems to be founded on an admission of regret.

And now, some Interesting Facts!

Blue Jays backup catcher Luke Maile, who at one point today was hitting .522 for the season, can go hitless in his next 57 at-bats and still have a higher batting average than he had last year.

In the first round of this year's NHL playoffs, LA goaltender Jonathan Quick had a .947 save percentage and a 1.55 goals-against average in a four-game sweep by the other team.

Currently at Peterborough airport: -0.9. High today: 3. Today was the presumable last day of what has pretty much been the longest winter ever. April 19 was the previous latest date the Waterloo weather station hit 20 degrees; this year it looks like there's a good chance it won't hit 20 until sometime in May.