Comments on: Misled, duped and deceived

By: Swinefigher

Swinefigher — Fri, 01 May 2009 11:06:58 +0000

I was flipping through the prophets a few days ago and couldn’t resist this idiosyncratic rendering in the REB, which I offer compared to examples of traditional, median and functional translation.

Interesting, thanks!

By: Timothy

Timothy — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:47:58 +0000

Here is another rendition of Jer. 20:7 via the Christian Community Bible:

“Yahweh, you have seduced me and I let myself be seduced.
You have taken me by force and prevailed.
I have become a laughingstock all day long:
they all make fun of me.”

Of course, there is also the old Jerusalem Bible:
“You have seduced me, Yahweh, and I have let myself be seduced;
you have overpowered me: you were the stronger.
I am a daily laughing stock, everybody’s butt.”

Hmm…

By: ElShaddai Edwards

ElShaddai Edwards — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:00:32 +0000

Ah, you’ve given me an extra yard of rope on the gibbet – thank thee.

On a different track, perhaps someone from a technology manufacturing context would read that as, “You have copied me, Lord, and I am a copy of you”!

By: Theophrastus

Theophrastus — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:30:39 +0000

I know you would never make this mistake, but perhaps others might.

In the British dialect, particular the Queen’s English of 1970 when the NEB was published, duped was not slacker-talk, but a somewhat formal word. Thus, the NEB doesn’t blink, but mixes the word with rather formal address:

O Lord, thou hast duped me, and I have been thy dupe;
thou hast outwitted me and hast prevailed.
I have been made a laughing-stock all the day long,
everyone mocks me.