Wheres Fr. Pacwa when we need him? God Bless, memaw
I do not read Hebrew and am not familiar with this prayer. Would you mind translating the whole prayer. One I would like to learn it, and two context is everything. In other words, it would be easier to comment on in it’s entirety.
Yes! A translation can do and we can at least work with context!
This is difficult because I don’t have it in English, and I’m German, so I translate it from Hebrew to German and from there to English…but it means something like this: In your hand are the souls of all living and the dead people, and the soul(s) of all things alive.
Because this is the Non-Catholic department. A Forum where I thought that things that are Non-Catholic could be discussed…
You are correct. You can post here. But I would have had the translation figured out first then posted
Thanks for the translation, but what is the full prayer? It would help to better understand the sentence seeing the surrounding context and tone of the prayer!
Hi 504Katrin,
Thank you for your kind contribution and your time of research.Hi 504Katrin,
It’s a verse from the Book of Job 12:10
In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.
mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt2712.htm
"[T]he context of the verse will often indicate whether the noun should be translated as a plural or a singular."
ancient-hebrew.org/emagazine/014.html
**Question of the Month – Plurals? **By: Jeff A. Benner
Q: Why are some Hebrew words plural but translated in the singular?
A: Hebrew plurals can be either quantitative (more than one) or qualitative (great, large, prominent). For example the singular word “elo’ah” means God (or more literally mighty one). The plural form is “elohiym”. This plural form can be more than one god or one great god. In fact, in Genesis 1:1 it says "in the beginning elohiym (plural) created…” In Hebrew the verb matches the verb in number and gender and the Hebrew word behind “created” is “bara” literally meaning “he created” (singular masculine). Therefore, the context of the verse will often indicate whether the noun should be translated as a plural or a singular.
Some Hebrew words are always written in the plural form such as paniym (the plural form of paneh) which means “face” (probably through the idea of the prominent part of the body). The word shamayim (heaven) is another example of a word that is always written in the plural.
ancient-hebrew.org/emagazine/014.html
I hope this sheds some light…
שלום
Probably because the Hebrew word we translate as “soul” actually means “breath”. So when we use it in the sense of soul it makes sense to pluralize it in reference to the souls of men, but when we use it to mean breath (as in the second use in the prayer) it makes sense to use the singular, like we would in English and other languages.
It doesn’t actually mean breath per se. It means soul and it does as well have many different meanings in diverse contexts.
This is a good thought. But then again if this was the case why wouldn’t he rather use נשמה as for instance in the book of Genesis: נשמת רוח חיים (breath of life)? Job uses what we would translate as breath נשם on many other occations, so why didn’t he use it here if he didn’t mean soul of living beings/things? When נפש is used here it’s in the sense of a being, a breathing thing. We also have “ruach” ורוח in that context, the divine spirit that is in all flesh.
