“Do not gaze about!”

slimboyfat

So many changes in the 2013 NWT seem needless and spoil familiar phrases.
Take Isaiah 41:10 in the NWT classic rendering:

Do not be afraid, for I am with you. Do not gaze about, for I am your God. I will fortify you. I will really help you. I will really keep fast hold of you with my right hand of righteousness.’

and the 2013 version it reads:

Do not be afraid, for I am with you. Do not be anxious, for I am your God.I will fortify you, yes, I will help you, I will really hold on to you with my right hand of righteousness.’

What happened to “do not gaze about”? “Do not be anxious” hardly conveys the same picture. Literal versions such as Young’s Literal Translation and, perhaps crucially, Rotherham’s version read “look not around”, which probably influenced the classic NWT’s literal translation. Most modern translation offer “do not be afraid” or equivalent.

Why did the 2013 revisers remove “do not gaze about” and replace it with the bland “do not be anxious”?

waton

I guess that like Paul remarking that the law made him aware of the finer points in sinning, so wt probably fears that suggesting to readers that there is such a thing as looking around (for better understandings) could lead jwa to realize how fragile their house of cards doctrinal beliefs are.

"gazing about" suggestd there is an avenue to really escape , rather than to just smother your fears.

slimboyfat

I took the phrase to imply an extended metaphor of a parent leading a child through danger by the hand and saying: don’t look around and be afraid, just hold my hand and follow me. A picture somewhat spoiled by removing the key phrase “do not gaze about”.

dropoffyourkeylee

I am always curious about questions like this, though I don't know Hebrew at all. I do have some reference books, where I see that the same Hebrew word appears later in the same chapter at 41:23. There the classic NWT read "that we may gaze about and see [it] at the same time" , whereas the 2013 version reads "So that we may be amazed when we see it", which seems quite a departure from the literal reading, even more than verse 10.

Just glancing at a few of the translations on my shelf, most of them read 'be not dismayed' or something like that in verse 10.

I would guess that the literal wording in verse 23 was excessively awkward and a change was definitely called for, and they changed the wording in verse 10 in sync.

FFGhost

The most egregious tampering, IMHO, was Micah 6:8.

Original NWT:

He has told you, O earthling man, what is good. And what is Jehovah asking back from you but to exercise justice and to love kindness and to be modest in walking with your God?

Revised NWT:

He has told you, O man, what is good.
And what is Jehovah requiring of you?
Only to exercise justice, to cherish loyalty,
And to walk in modesty with your God!

Just absolutely butchered. What a beautiful thought, to "love kindness". And now it is rendered as "cherish loyalty" which as you can imagine, they have already used repeatedly to underline their core message of "OBEY US or die".

Even the exclamation point at the end irks me. "I'm sure the original Hebrew writer would have put an exclamation point in there, if he would have been writing a thousand years in the future when they actually, you know, existed."

Sea Breeze

Compare to KJV:

“Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

neat blue dog

This one is relatively harmless, but what it implies isn't: It sets the precident that if they think a scripture means a certain thing, they'll have no problem taking liberties, and they have many times.

Achille

The Italian translation is even worse. For example, the passage at Matthew 27:51-53 is translated as follows:

“51Then the curtain of the sanctuary was torn in two, from top to bottom; the earth trembled and the rocks split. 52The tombs opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were thrown out 53 (and after he was resurrected people from burial places entered the holy city) and became visible to many.

The NWT in English says "they were raised" not "they were thrown out".

slimboyfat

FFGhost, much agreed, Micah 6:8 was much more pleasing in the classic NWT. The “modernisation” is not an improvement.

The revised 2013 NWT version of Isaiah 41:10 isn’t wrong. It’s just less literal, less poetic, and led impactful in my view,

carla

"Do not gaze about"- What? sounds very strange to me though I am not a fan of any jw/NWT versions.

NIV- So do not fear, for I am with you;

do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

NKJV-Fear not, for I am with you;

Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you,
Yes, I will help you,
I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

“Do not gaze about!”

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