Translation Surprises, Part 1

I’ve been reading the Bible for decades, so I thought I was beyond getting surprised by Scripture, but nope, God’s Word is deeper than I am! Going over a short passage led me to an unexpected discovery.

Make that two discoveries.

The passage I’m referring to is Proverbs 30:1-3. Here it is in four versions:

• “The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, his utterance. This man declared to Ithiel–to Ithiel and Ucal: ²Surely I am more stupid than any man, and do not have the understanding of a man. ³I neither learned wisdom nor have knowledge of the Holy One.” – Proverbs 30:1-3 (New King James Version)
• “The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, the pronouncement. The man declares to Ithiel, to Ithiel and Ucal: ²I am certainly more stupid than any man, and I do not have the understanding of a man; ³nor have I learned wisdom, nor do I have the knowledge of the Holy One.” – Proverbs 30:1-3 (New American Standard Bible 2020)
• “The sayings of Agur son of Jakeh–an inspired utterance. This man’s utterance to Ithiel: ‘I am weary, God, but I can prevail. ²Surely I am only a brute, not a man; I do not have human understanding. ³I have not learned wisdom, nor have I attained to the knowledge of the Holy One.’” – Proverbs 30:1-3 (New International Version)
• “The words of Agur son of Jakeh. The oracle. The man declares, I am weary, O God; I am weary, O God, and worn out. ²Surely I am too stupid to be a man. I have not the understanding of a man. ³I have not learned wisdom, nor have I knowledge of the Holy One.” – Proverbs 30:1-3 (English Standard Version)

The first discovery concerns the phraseology of verse 1. This verse sets the stage for a collection of wise sayings Solomon gathered from a fellow named Agur. Proverbs 30:1 is the only verse in the Bible that mentions his name, so we don’t know much about Agur, except that he was most likely a sage of some sort.

But he doesn’t present himself that way. Instead, he belittles his own intelligence. It sounds like Agur suffers from a negative self-image, but that’s not the case. He’s following the traditional approach of humility. Because Agur isn’t arrogant, people should pay attention to what he has to say. He’s trying to glorify the Lord, not himself.

But notice the differences of the opening of these four versions of the passage. The first two mention two other people, while the third and fourth refer to weariness. These don’t sound the same! Why do they vary so much?

It has to do with the Hebrew words. Ancient languages used to be written without spaces between words, so it’s possible to come up with different terms based on where a translator decides to put spaces.

Here’s an example: Godisnowhere. This is what a biblical writer would have jotted on a scroll. Modern translators would have to decide where to insert spaces, and in this instance, they would have two options:

• God is nowhere
• God is now here

Which one is right? It depends on the context, doesn’t it? If the writer is lamenting his personal trials, the first option would fit. If the phrase is part of a lady’s song about God’s powerful presence, the second option works. The context helps translators decide.

So what about verse 1 of Proverbs 30? If you read through the whole chapter, you’ll see that neither translation conflicts with the main idea of God’s wisdom in human actions. Whether Agur was addressing two individuals by name or recounting his search for knowledge, the point about the value of wisdom remains the same.

We don’t have to worry about our Bibles! They’re dependable!

But I said there were two discoveries.

The other translation issue I want to highlight occurs at the end of the passage, but it doesn’t look like there’s anything amiss. Reread the four versions of Proverbs 30:1-3 and you’ll see how they all end pretty much the same way. Each one concludes with a reference to “knowledge of the Holy One.” And if you search out other English translations with an online Bible tool like Blue Letter Bible or Bible Gateway, you’ll find that they all use this phrase.

So what’s the problem?

Well, “the Holy One” is singular but the Hebrew phrase ends with a plural adjective (qadosh). In the Hebrew text of Proverbs 30:3, “knowledge” is singular, but “the Holy One” isn’t. Like I said, all English translations use the singular adjective as a noun in this verse.

And it’s not only English Bibles. The Spanish Bible uses the phrase, “del Santo” which according to Google Translate is the singular “of the Holy” in English.

Here’s the verse in Arabic: “walam ‘ataealam alhikmat walam ‘aerif maerifat alquduws.” Google Translate puts it in English like this: “I have not learned wisdom, nor have I known the knowledge of the Holy One.” Again, singular.

And this is what the verse looks like in Mandarin: “Wǒ méiyǒu xuéhǎo zhìhuì. Yě bù rènshí zhì shèng zhě.” With the help of Google Translate, we get these English sentences: “I have not learned wisdom well. Nor does he know the Holy One.” Singular, once again.

But the French Bible is different. The whole verse is “Je n’ai pas appris la sagesse, et je ne connais pas la science des saints.” In English, this is “I have not learned wisdom, nor do I have knowledge of the saints.” This translation opts for the plural ending of the verse. I don’t know how many other foreign language Bible translations go with the plural, but my guess is only a few. It appears that most prefer the singular adjective.

The only other translation I found which ends Proverbs 30:3 with a plural is the Septuagint. This is the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, composed around 250 BC. The New English Translation of the Septuagint (NETS) is an English version, and this is how it renders Proverbs 30:3: “God has taught me wisdom, and I have gained knowledge of holy things.” Unlike the other versions, it has a positive assessment of Agur’s insight. But only it and the French Bible translate the Hebrew adjective “holy” in the plural.

Why do most translators choose the singular?

It might be a question of grammar. That is, it could have something to do with a feature of the Hebrew language that would mandate treating a plural as a singular. But I don’t know of any linguistic rule compelling this translation for Hebrew adjectives.

Then again, it could be a matter of parallelism. In Hebrew poetry, the second line of a verse can either repeat or reverse the meaning of what’s in the first line. So we can identify “wisdom” with “the knowledge of God” in verse 3. And this seems to agree with the general idea of the book of Proverbs. The following verses (from the NASB20) about revering and honoring God support this view:

• “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” – Proverbs 1:7
• “Then you will understand the fear of the LORD, and discover the knowledge of God.” – Proverbs 2:5
• “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” – Proverbs 9:10

Emphasizing the status of God as the source of wisdom is an important aim of this book in the Bible. But I’m not sure it justifies modifying the grammar of the Hebrew text. 

So that brings me to a third reason. The translators had a spiritual and theological concern for treating the plural adjective as a singular. And what might that reason be?

We’ll answer that in the next post!