The books of Samuel are beset with textual problems. The texts we have are in several places quite corrupt. To me it seems fairly likely that we do not have the "original" text of this poem, nor will we ever. In such circumstances, the translator of biblical literature is stuck between a Rock and a God Place, between having to choose among a dizzying array of possible emendations and paleographic possibilities, or trying to deal with the text as it now is.
I would have liked to be able to accept with confidence the radical emendations proposed by some. For example, those of Hollyday in Form and Word-Play in David's Lament over Saul and Jonathan if for no other reason than that some of his propositions make for interesting poetry. Hollyday and Gurvitz take the entire song to start one line earlier, and emend 2 Sam 1:18 with this in mind. Hollyday for example proposes ????? ??? ?????? ???????? ?????? ????? ????? ???????? ("A howling bitter weep, O Judah! Pangs of a wailing dirge for the upright man!")
Such proposals, though not by any means implausible, don't strike me as very convincing in their totality. The text I give is the Masoretic text. My translation, however, reflects some emendations (for example "the square" of Gath here.)
My reading of lines 1 and 23 here is quite at odds with the traditional reading (most translations begin with something more like "Glory O Israel likes slain on your heights.") At issue is the fraught and labyrinthine question of what ??? actually means. My approach basically follows from the data given and conclusions drawn by W. Boyd Barrick in BMH as Body Language: A Lexical and Iconographical Study of the Word BMH When Not a Reference to Cultic Phenomena in Biblical and Post-Biblical Hebrew. I take ???, when not referring to a cultic site, to have a primarily anatomical sense � as it does elsewhere in Semitic. This poem is actually used as the locus probans for reading the word as meaning "hill." But this seems untenable for reasons Barrick lays out.
David's Lament
(From 2 Samuel 1:19-27)
Translated by A.Z. Foreman
Gazelle of Israel slain on your back!
How the heroes have fallen!
Don't speak of it in the squares of Gath
Don't spread the news in the streets of Ashkelon
Or the daughters of the Philistines will rejoice
Or the daughters of the ungodly will gloat
Mountains of Gilboa!
Be there no dew nor rain on you
And on your slopes no fertile field!
For there was the shield of heroes defiled
The shield of Saul no more anointed
From blood of the slain from the breast of the foe
The bow of Jonathan never recoiled
The blade of Saul never returned undyed
Jonathan and Saul beloved men
Dearly beloved in life they were
Inseparable so in death they are
Swifter than eagles stronger than lions
Now daughters of Israel weep for Saul
Who clothed you in scarlet who robed you in finery
Who adorned all the folds of your garments with gold
How the heroes are fallen in the thick of battle
Jonathan laid low slain on your back!
Oh I grieve for you Jonathan, brother
Dear to me you were, and for me
More wonderful your love than the love of women
How the heroes have fallen
How the arms of war are lost!
The Original:
I would have liked to be able to accept with confidence the radical emendations proposed by some. For example, those of Hollyday in Form and Word-Play in David's Lament over Saul and Jonathan if for no other reason than that some of his propositions make for interesting poetry. Hollyday and Gurvitz take the entire song to start one line earlier, and emend 2 Sam 1:18 with this in mind. Hollyday for example proposes ????? ??? ?????? ???????? ?????? ????? ????? ???????? ("A howling bitter weep, O Judah! Pangs of a wailing dirge for the upright man!")
Such proposals, though not by any means implausible, don't strike me as very convincing in their totality. The text I give is the Masoretic text. My translation, however, reflects some emendations (for example "the square" of Gath here.)
My reading of lines 1 and 23 here is quite at odds with the traditional reading (most translations begin with something more like "Glory O Israel likes slain on your heights.") At issue is the fraught and labyrinthine question of what ??? actually means. My approach basically follows from the data given and conclusions drawn by W. Boyd Barrick in BMH as Body Language: A Lexical and Iconographical Study of the Word BMH When Not a Reference to Cultic Phenomena in Biblical and Post-Biblical Hebrew. I take ???, when not referring to a cultic site, to have a primarily anatomical sense � as it does elsewhere in Semitic. This poem is actually used as the locus probans for reading the word as meaning "hill." But this seems untenable for reasons Barrick lays out.
David's Lament
(From 2 Samuel 1:19-27)
Translated by A.Z. Foreman
Gazelle of Israel slain on your back!
How the heroes have fallen!
Don't speak of it in the squares of Gath
Don't spread the news in the streets of Ashkelon
Or the daughters of the Philistines will rejoice
Or the daughters of the ungodly will gloat
Mountains of Gilboa!
Be there no dew nor rain on you
And on your slopes no fertile field!
For there was the shield of heroes defiled
The shield of Saul no more anointed
From blood of the slain from the breast of the foe
The bow of Jonathan never recoiled
The blade of Saul never returned undyed
Jonathan and Saul beloved men
Dearly beloved in life they were
Inseparable so in death they are
Swifter than eagles stronger than lions
Now daughters of Israel weep for Saul
Who clothed you in scarlet who robed you in finery
Who adorned all the folds of your garments with gold
How the heroes are fallen in the thick of battle
Jonathan laid low slain on your back!
Oh I grieve for you Jonathan, brother
Dear to me you were, and for me
More wonderful your love than the love of women
How the heroes have fallen
How the arms of war are lost!
The Original:
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???????? ?????????? ???-??????????? ?????
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??????? ?????????? ???-??????? ?????????
???????????????? ?????? ???-????????
?????????? ????? ????? ??? ???????????
????? ??????? ????????? ???????? ????????????
?????????? ???-??????????? ?????
???-??? ??????? ????? ??????????
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