Comments on: I peed my pants!

By: ElShaddai Edwards

ElShaddai Edwards — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 12:25:36 +0000

@Esteban – looking forward to your NEB material… time to get the wheels going again on that project!

@Nathan – thanks for the note on The Message. I’ve heard of “rubber legs”, but not “rubber knees”…

@Nathan/Damian – maybe the HCSB should have used “piss themselves” in their “HCSB for Soldiers” edition! If I were updating the KJV, “pisseth themselves” might very well be an option here. It’s a far better choice than the childish “have an accident”…

By: ElShaddai Edwards

ElShaddai Edwards — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 12:24:44 +0000

@Damian – I agree that “wet their pants” is more colloquial and that the rest of the verse would need to be modified as well to match the tone.

I also wonder if the “in fear” or “in fright” meaning is supplied or suggested by “every spirit becomes faint”, such that those two phrases could be translated together.

“Your men will lose heart, drop their weapons and wet their pants in fear.”

By: Damian

Damian — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 04:35:42 +0000

Nathan,

I believe the KJV says ‘piss themselves’, actually. Ahh, no it doesn’t.

But, in 1 Samuel 25:22:

“So and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.”.

So I think ‘pisseth themselves’ is valid. .

By: Nathan Stitt

Nathan Stitt — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 04:24:19 +0000

In military slang we’d probably say “piss themselves” but that’s probably too idiomatic for holy writ. Also, the Message says “knees turn to rubber” which I can’t relate to.

By: tc robinson

tc robinson — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 17:09:23 +0000

El, this is good stuff. I’ll have to go with the functional:

Every heart will melt and every hand go limp; every spirit will become faint and in fright they will wet their pants.

This captures the Hebrew idiom quite well, in my opinion.

By: Esteban Vázquez

Esteban Vázquez — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 16:06:26 +0000

But of course, as is noted above, they weren’t wearing pants. I would go with “in fright they will wet themselves.” Excellent post, ElShaddai!

PS: I have found a goodly amount of information on the NEB among my long exiled books, so it looks like I’ll finally be able to get to work on that!

By: Damian

Damian — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 13:23:19 +0000

E.S., I think ‘wet their pants’ is the right idiom to use. But maybe, if you were to use that one, you wouldn’t render the rest of the phrase so formally: “Your men will lose heart, drop their weapons, become faint and wet their pants in fear.”