One verse (psalms 133:1) – many translations – one exact meaning!

When the psalmist wants to reunite the universe, he doesn’t have to do so much; he just need to say , let us all sit together , my brothers, people of the world, let us all sit , and this is the best feeling and pleasantness ever as written in The Scriptures:

 

“…  הִנֵּה מַה-טּוֹב, וּמַה-נָּעִים–    שֶׁבֶת אַחִים גַּם-יָחַד

let us all brothers sit together!

The problems with the translation of this verse and the solution

however, my dearest readers, the translations of this verse is a little bit difficult and I didn’t find any translation that will share with the English readers the correct massage of this verse, in order to do it we will have to look at the second part of the verse, but first let’s see some translations:

“How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity” (New International Version)

“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brothers to dwell together in unity! (New American Standard Bible)

“look, how good and how pleasant The dwelling of brethren even together! (Young’s Literal Translation)

The problems is not the massage of the unity, that’s great and very important; the problem is the way that the brothers will achieve this unity, not by dwelling together, not by living together, only by sitting ( around a table , in a street, in a bar, in the nature ) one side by one , feeling great because of this shared sitting , without being judgmental , just being in the same place, no matter where, after making The Beatles song “come together” to reality!

after the sitting , all the hands will assemble unity

And what is the lesson from all of this? Learn Biblical Hebrew, my friends, and the massage of The Lord will be for everyone, the united world ….

Main phrases of the post + transcription + translation

Hebrew

Transcription

Translation

בְּעָיָה  

bə’āyāh

Problem

פִּתְרוֹן

pitrôn

Solution

תִּרְגּוּם

tirgûm

Translation

יָשַׁב

yāšab

Set (past)

אָח

āh              

Brother

טוֹב 

tôb

Good

נָעִים 

Nā’îm

Pleasant

Eli@eteachergroup.com


One Response to One verse (psalms 133:1) – many translations – one exact meaning!

  1. This is another great example of why it is so important to study the Hebrew Bible *in Hebrew* rather than use a translation. Not one of the translations really captures the essential point of the Hebrew, which is that to have unity, we need to sit round a table together and talk. “Living together” does not necessarily bring unity, otherwise Jews and Arabs would be great friends! Studying Hebrew in a class, and sitting round the table together with the Hebrew Bible open, or in a virtual classroom, is the best way to learn and have unity!

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