Friday, November 19, 2010

Isaiah 43:19

הִנְנִי עֹשֶׂה חֲדָשָׁה עַתָּה תִצְמָח הֲלוֹא תֵדָעוּהָ אַף אָשִׂים בַּמִּדְבָּר דֶּרֶךְ בִּישִׁמוֹן נְהָרוֹת׃

19 See, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up; don't you know (this)? Also, I will make a way in the wilderness; rivers in the desert.

We should discuss the differences between R.Valera 1909 / 1977 sometime as you continue to do outreach.
RV 1909: He aquí que yo hago cosa nueva: presto saldrá á luz: ¿no la sabréis? Otra vez pondré camino en el desierto, y ríos en la soledad.

RV 1977: He aquí que yo voy a hacer una cosa nueva: pronto saldrá á luz: ¿no la conoceréis? Aun abriré camino en el desierto, y ríos en la soledad.
הִנְנִי עֹשֶׂה חֲדָשָׁה See, I am doing a new thing. עֹשֶׂה is a qal active participle. חֲדָשָׁה (fem sg) is "new," as we would say a "new car," or in Scripture, a "new song" (Psalm 33:3).

עַתָּה תִצְמָח הֲלוֹא תֵדָעוּהָ Now it springs up; don't you know (this)? תִצְמָח qal imperfect, "it is springing up, sprouting." The root צָמַח most often describes plants growing, as in the warning in Dt. 29:23, "The whole land will be a burning waste of salt and sulfur--nothing planted, nothing sprouting..." The rhetorical הֲלוֹא תֵדָעוּהָ "Don't you know?" shows that this was a familiar theme in Isaiah's preaching as well as throughout his book.

אַף אָשִׂים בַּמִּדְבָּר דֶּרֶךְ בִּישִׁמוֹן נְהָרוֹת Also, I will make a way in the wilderness; rivers in the desert. We see אַף "even" more often in Isaiah than any other prophet. It is also a common word in Job and Psalms, which perhaps supports the observation that Isaiah was very familiar with those books (although Psalms, perhaps, was not yet in the form we know it when Isaiah was writing). We have seen the Lord talking about the way in the wilderness before.

LXX. ἰδοὺ ποιῶ καινὰ ἃ νῦν ἀνατελεῖ, καὶ γνώσεσθε αὐτά˙ καὶ ποιήσω ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ ὁδὸν καὶ ἐν τῇ ἀνύδρῳ ποταμούς.

Vul. ecce ego facio nova et nunc orientur utique cognoscetis ea ponam in deserto viam et in invio flumina

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