Three New Titles on Translation

Robert Alter recently finished the decades long process of translating the Hebrew Scriptures into English [link] (quite rare for a single person to complete a full translation of a testament).

In the introduction to his translation he writes,

"Why, after so many English versions, a new translation of the Hebrew Bible? There is, I shall explain in detail, something seriously wrong with all the familiar English translations, traditional and recent, of the Hebrew Bible. Broadly speaking, one may say that in the case of the modern versions, the problem is a shaky sense of English and in the case of the King James Versions, a shaky sense of Hebrew. The present translation is an experiment in re-presenting the Bible--and, above all, biblical narrative prose--in a language that conveys with some precision the semantic nuances and the lively orchestration of literary effects of the Hebrew and at the same time has stylistic and rhythmic integrity as literary English." (xiii)

Isaiah 5:1-7, Robert Alter

Let me sing to My beloved

the song of my lover for his vineyard.​

A vineyard my beloved had

on a hillside rich in soil.​

And he hoed it and took off its stones,

and planted it with choice vines.​

And he built a tower in its midst,

and a winepress, too, he hewed in it.​

And he hoped to get grapes

but it put forth rotten fruit.​

And, now, O dweller of Jerusalem

and man of Judah,​

judge, pray, between Me

and My vineyard.​

What more could be done for My vineyard

that I did not do?​

Why did I hope to get grapes

and it put forth rotten fruit?​

And now, let Me inform you, pray,

what I am about to do to My vineyard:​

take away its hedge, and it shall turn to waste,

break down its fence, and it shall be trampled.​

And I will make it a wild field,

and it shall not be pruned nor raked,

and thorn and thistle shall spring up.​

And I will charge the clouds

not to rain on it.​

For the house of Israel is the vineyard of the LORD of Armies

and the men of Judah are His delightful planting.​

He hoped for justice, and, look, jaundice,

for righteousness, and look, wretchedness.​

In March Alter releases another book, The Art of Bible Translation

"In this brief book, award-winning biblical translator and acclaimed literary critic Robert Alter offers a personal and passionate account of what he learned about the art of Bible translation over the two decades he spent completing his own English version of the Hebrew Bible."​

AND THERE'S YET ANOTHER...

Gary Rendsburg (the author of The Redaction of Genesis) will publish another book due out in April, How the Bible is Written

"A book focusing on the nexus between language and literature in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, with specific attention to how the former is used to create the latter; topics include wordplay, wordplay with proper names, alliteration, repetition with variation, dialect representation, intentionally confused language, marking closure, and more."
​

Hold on to your hats! Things don't get more exciting than this!!!

Rob

 

Here is a review of Robert Alter's translation by Gary Rendsberg

Book Review | The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary,
by Robert Alter
A Man, a Book, a Mission
by Gary A. Rendsburg