B-Hebrew: The Biblical Hebrew Forum

31.3:

(3) And Jacob blessed his sons before his death and he said: ‘Reuben, thou art my firstborn, thine enemies shall fall before thee and thy hand shall rule over them’.

My submission:

Hidden Text

(3) וַיְבָ֫רֶךְ יַעֲקֹב אֶת־בָּנָיו לִפְנֵי מוֹתוֹ וַיֹּאמַר רְאוּבֵן בְּכוֹרִי אַתָּה אֹיְבֶ֫יךָ לְפָנֶ֫יךָ יִפֹּ֫לוּ וּמָֽשְׁלָה יָֽדְךָ בָּהֶם׃

Here is mine!

(3) And Jacob blessed his sons before his death and he said: ‘Reuben, thou art my firstborn, thine enemies shall fall before thee and thy hand shall rule over them’.

Hidden Text

וַיְבָרֶךְ יַעֲקֹב אֶת־בֵּנָיו לִפְנֵי מוֹתוֹ וַיּאֹמֶר יַעֲקֹב רְאוּבֵן אַתָּה בָכֳרִי וְאֹיְבֶיךָ יִפְּלוּ לְפָנֶיךָ וּמָלְכָה יָדְךָ עֲלֵיהֶם׃

I just thought I'd give it a try:

Hidden Text

וברך יעקב בני לפני מותו ואמר ראובן בכור איביך יאפלו לפניך ויד ימלך עליהם

Glenn Dean wrote:I just thought I'd give it a try:

Hey, Glenn! Is it your first time doing a translation into Hebrew?!

Glenn Dean wrote:

Hidden Text

וברך יעקב בני לפני מותו ואמר ראובן בכור איביך יאפלו לפניך ויד ימלך עליהם

(3) And Jacob blessed his sons before his death and he said: ‘Reuben, thou art my firstborn, thine enemies shall fall before thee and thy hand shall rule over them’.

To render the narrative past, you should first create the imperfect (actually, the jussive, but most of the time they are the same). The word לְבָרֵךְ takes its imperfect as יְבָרֵךְ. The narrative past is וַיְבָ֫רֶךְ with an accent shift (which you don't have to mark if you aren't doing vowels). (The dagesh after the vav is lost due to Skin 'Em Levy.)

Rather than בני, which might mean "my sons" בָּנַי or "sons of" בְּנֵי, we need to say "his sons" בָּנָיו, and it should have the object marker: אֶת־בָּנָיו.

ואמר would normally be rendered with the future (as if vav-consecutive). It should follow an imperfect or an imperative and will normally function in a non-real mood. To make it narrative past, you first put it in the imperfect and then attach the vav conjunction with patach and dagesh (like above). Thus, we should have "and he said" וַיֹּ֫אמֶר.

As you've written it, ראובן בכור איביך would mean "Reuben is the firstborn of your enemies." You need to insert the personal pronoun אתה and the 1cs suffix ("my firstborn" בכורי) to get "you are my first born" בְּכוֹרִי אַתָּה.

The root of "fall" is נפל, and the nun assimilates in the imperfect. So, we have יִפְּלוּ (or יִפֹּ֫לוּ in pause).

Your ויד ימלך עליהם doesn't specify whose hand. It should be "your hand" יָֽדְךָ, and since יד is feminine, the verb should become תִּמְלֹךְ.

For a first attempt, this is great. Be aware that I'm a detail person, so I notice lots of things. I do it to everyone (ask Jonathan!). Don't take anything personally or as a failure. This is a project and a kind-of game. I'm glad that you're joining in!

Jonathan Beck wrote:Here is mine!

(3) And Jacob blessed his sons before his death and he said: ‘Reuben, thou art my firstborn, thine enemies shall fall before thee and thy hand shall rule over them’.

Hidden Text

וַיְבָרֶךְ יַעֲקֹב אֶת־בֵּנָיו לִפְנֵי מוֹתוֹ וַיּאֹמֶר יַעֲקֹב רְאוּבֵן אַתָּה בָכֳרִי וְאֹיְבֶיךָ יִפְּלוּ לְפָנֶיךָ וּמָלְכָה יָדְךָ עֲלֵיהֶם׃

בניו should have kamats in the first syllable.
The pointing is "my firstborn" בְּכֹרִי.

That's it!!

Thanxs Jason for the great feedback!! (I do see that I need to be much more careful!!)

I've always been somewhat unclear on how you wrote "my firstborn are you" (I would of written "You (are) my firstborn") - how did you decide on which way??

Ah, the word order in such a case is flexible. Modern Hebrew would rightly say אתה בכורי, but I think it seems more natural in the biblical tongue to switch it up. Either way is fine. The point is the need for the pronoun.

Thanxs Jason for the info!

So, we're going to go ahead and proceed to composition 31.4.