I won't speak for my Dad, but here's my preferred translation:
"Enter God's gates with thanksgiving, God's courts with praise."
Even your translation inserts the word "and." :-) That doesn't bug me much -- if I were doing a rigorous textual analysis of this passage I'd be reading it in Hebrew anyway, so it's OK with me if they change the grammar for the English to sound more, well, English.
"God" isn't a gendered word in the same way that, say, "Elohim" is. In English we have a gender-neutral option that isn't available in Hebrew, and I don't have any problem exercising that option. If there were a personal neuter pronoun, that would be better, but I don't think "Enter its gates" really works. :-D
I'm curious: would you prefer to preserve the gendered nature of all Hebrew words in English, or just ones referring to the Divine? Should we translate the verse "Enter his male-gates with female-thanksgiving, his male-courts with female-praise"?
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timeasmymeasure
Re: I'm curious
Date: 2005-10-23 12:00 pm (UTC)"Enter God's gates with thanksgiving, God's courts with praise."
Even your translation inserts the word "and." :-) That doesn't bug me much -- if I were doing a rigorous textual analysis of this passage I'd be reading it in Hebrew anyway, so it's OK with me if they change the grammar for the English to sound more, well, English.
"God" isn't a gendered word in the same way that, say, "Elohim" is. In English we have a gender-neutral option that isn't available in Hebrew, and I don't have any problem exercising that option. If there were a personal neuter pronoun, that would be better, but I don't think "Enter its gates" really works. :-D
I'm curious: would you prefer to preserve the gendered nature of all Hebrew words in English, or just ones referring to the Divine? Should we translate the verse "Enter his male-gates with female-thanksgiving, his male-courts with female-praise"?