Strongs tagging question - Deut 32:31

[Daniel Wee]

Hi,

 

I have a question about the Strong's tagging in Deut 32:31.

 

I have NKJVS and NAS95S displayed along with BHS-W4. In the verse, when I highlight in the English "rock" as in "for their rock", I see in the BHS-W4 that the word that is automatically highlighted is כצורנו which, if I am not wrong, translates to "for our rock" [1masc plural]. Similarly when I highlight in the English "Rock" as in "our Rock", I see in BHS-W4 that צורם is highlighted instead, which I believe is translated "their rock" [3masc plural].

 

Now I'm thinking to myself - shouldn't this be the other way round? Can anyone shed some light on this? Thanks.

 

Daniel

[Helen Brown]

This is an interesting question. You are correct that almost all the translations (even the famously literal Darby) reverse the Hebrew phrase. In Hebrew it reads:

For not like our Rock is their rock

whereas almost all the translations read like JPS:

For their rock is not like our Rock

 

Now Accordance cannot track such a reversal. It tries to match the order of occurrence when a word appears more than once in a verse. So it matches the first rock with the first rock, and the second with the second. It cannot take the entire syntax into account. At least not at present. The MOUNCE NT comes closest to doing that for the Greek NT, but we are not aware of such a database for the Hebrew Bible.

 

Accordance is just a tool. The wise user continues to study the text and think for himself, as you did.