Bible Question (short): "bless God" vs. "curse God" translation? |
Question (full): The Hebrew word "barak" is translated everywhere as "bless" or "praise" (more than 300 times) but in Job, it's translated "curse" (as in Job's wife telling him to "barak" God and get it over with). This got me really confused. Why was it translated this way only in Job? The best I can come up with (and that I've found in commentaries) is that it's some sort of euphemism, but that seems pretty weak to me. The author of Job uses "naqab" (which is regularly translated as "curse" or "blaspheme") elsewhere, so it's a personal choice on the part of the author to use "barak" and an odd choice on the part of the translator to translate it as "curse". Can anybody shed some light on this for me? Thanks |