Genesis 8: part 1, Translation

Sunday, 26 October 2008

Note: Please bear with me as I 1) it takes me forever to get around to posting on my Gen 1-11 translation and 2) as I work out some type of visual formatting that helps me capture the feel as I read/translate these texts. While I'm working on the flood story, I can't help but want to put it into an epic poem type format. However, please also note, that the format below is more of a "feel" of the text than anything poetically techinical.

Translation of Genesis 8:

Elohim remembered Noach and all the Living
     and all the Beasts which were with him in the ark.
And Elohim caused a wind to pass over the Land,
     and the Waters were calmed. [8.1.1]

The fountains of the Abyss and the windows of the the Skies were closed,
     the rain from the Skies were held back.
The Waters returned from upon the Land,
     going and returning.
The Waters descreased at the end of one hundred fifty days.

The ark rested in the seventh month,
     on the seventeenth day of the month,
         on the mountains of Ararat.
And the Waters were going and decreasing until the tenth month. [8.5.1]
     In the tenth, month on the first day,
       the heads of the mountains were seen.

And it was the end of forty days,
    And Noach opened the window of the ark which he had made.
And he sent a raven,
     and he went, going and returning,
          until the Waters dried from upon the Land.

And Noach sent the dove from him, [8.8.1]
     to see if the Waters had lessened from the face of the earthen soil.
And the dove did not find rest for the sole of her foot,
     and she returned to him, to the ark,
          because of the Waters upon the face of all the Land.

And he sent out his hand, and took her, and brought her to him into the ark.

And he waited another seven days afterwards,
and again he sent the dove from the ark.
And the dove came to him at evening time,
and, look! A plucked olive leaf in her mouth! [8.11.1]

And Noach knew that the Waters had lessened uon the Land.

And he waited another seven days afterwards,
     and he sent the dove,
          and she never returned to him again.
And in the six hundred and first year,
     on the first, on the first of the month,
         the Waters were dried up from upon the Land,

And Noach removed the cover of the ark and looked,
     and, look! The face of the earthen soil was dried up.

And in the second month,
     on the twenty-seventh day of the month,
          the Land was dried.

And Elohim spoke to Noach, saying:

“Go out from the ark,
     you and your woman,
          and your sons and the women of your sons, with you.
All of the Living which is with you
     from all Flesh, and Flying, and Beasts,
          and from all the Crawlers crawling upon the Land,
    Bring out with you,
         To swarm on the Land,
         and be fruitful
         and be great upon the Land.

And Noach came out,
     as well as his sons,
     his woman,
     and his sons women with him.

All the Living,
All Creeping things,
All the Flyers,
All the Crawlers upon the Land,
     according to their families,
         came out from the ark.

And Noach built an altar to YHWH, [8.20.1]
     and took from all the clean Beasts,
     and from all the clean Flyers,
and offered up offerings of rising smoke on the altar. [8.20.2]

And YHWH smelled the sweet smell,
and YHWH said to his heart,

“I will not again curse the earthen soil in the produce of the Earthling,
for the leaning of the Earthling’s heart is towards evil from his youth.
I will never again smite all the Living as I have done.

For all the days of the Land,
     seed and harvest,
     cold and heat,
     summer and winter,
     day and night,
they will not cease."

Notes:
8.1.1 I’ve gone with “calmed” here for ‏וַיָּשֹׁכּוּ‎ , wayashocu, rather than the more commonly used “receded” or “abated”. The various versions all support the idea of “rest” or “calm”. Targum Onqelos has the waters “rested” (‏נַחוּ מַיָא‎). LXX has ἐκόπασεν τὸ ὕδωρ, ekopasen to hydor. Ekopasen can mean “stop” or “cease”, but can also mean “rest”. This creates would a process of calming, closing, and then ceasing/receding of the waters. Note that the “wind”, ruach, passing over the Land may be remeniscient of the “wind hovering over the waters” at the creation account. However, a different verb is used, and in this case the wind actually is on the Land rather than water (begging the question, “Land? What land? Isn’t the land covered by the flood?”)

8.5.1 Targum Pseudo-Jonothan has “Tammuz” rather than “tenth month”.

8.8.1 LXX has “after him”, refering to the raven.

8.11.1 Targum Pseudo-Jonathan adds “which she had taken from the Mount of Olives”.

8.20.1 Targum Pseudo-Jonathan renders this verse: “It was the altar that Adam had built at the time when he was driven away from the Garden of Eden, and on which he had offered an offering, and on which Cain and Abel had offered their offering. And when the waters of the flood had gone down, it had become desolate, so Noah built it up and took some of every clean animal and from every clean bird, and offered up four burnt offerings on that altar.”

8.20.2 In Hebrew the idea of “offering” is tied into “going up” . One basically “sends up” a burnt offering, with the idea of the smoke rising to the God/god/gods in the Heavens/Skies. This is difficult to capture in English. The phrase is very connected verbally and visually in Hebrew, ya’al ‘olot , ‏יַּעַל עֹלֹת‎.

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