Blessed is the Nation
Vanna, I’d like to buy a vowel. What is YHWH? Well it’s not a dating app abbreviation for Young Healthy White Heterosexual. No, back in the early days of Judaism, they hadn’t invented vowels yet, so the name for their god was pronounced using four consonants: Yod, Heh, Waw, and Heh.
Don’t ask me why the name of their consonants use vowels. Makes no sense. Anyways those four consonants became known as the tetragrammaton, which sounds like some kind of early machine used to play Tetris on.
Later on as the Masoretes were trying to make sense of the early Jewish scripts, they added some vowels, spelling it Yahweh. Next, early Latin speaking Christians changed it again, since their language didn’t have that letter that couldn’t decide if it was a vowel or a consonant. They swapped out the Y for a J, and it became JeHoWaH.
At some point that morphed into Jehovah.
But before you could sit in the pew of a Lutheran church in Ferndale and read your bible, it went through even more translations before finally making it’s way to English.
Out of the many bible translations that are out there, I have no idea which one is used at St. Mark’s. But below is a table with a few different bible translations we can look at to see if their sign matches any of them.
If you read through all the translations below you’ll note quite a few differences, the least of what name they apply to what is supposed to be the same god.
Are you blessed or are you happy? I know people who are blessed and they’re not happy, so those two words are hardly synonymous.
Is it an inheritance, a possesion or a heritage? Those are completely different ideas.
Further, if you just look at how the word inheritance is used in these various translations, you can get pretty confused. In some, you are the inheritance from god but in others, you will inherit something from god.
You’d think that if there was a Hebrew character that showed excitement, all of the translations would end with an exclamation point. But obviously some translators were more excited by their work than others.
And what’s with the DRA and MSG translations? Were they even looking at the right verse when they did their translations? (Note: the DRA is the Douay–Rheims American Version, which is an 1899 American translation based on a 1790 American translation that was based on a 1749 English translation that was based on a 1502 translation from Latin that was made by English Catholics working in France. MSG is The Message, a version of the bible written in 2002 by Eugene Peterson. I have to question his translation. Why does god have a will if he’s immortal?)
If there ever was an original biblical document that truly was the word of god, it has since been bastardized by men with agendas over the last 2500 years. It is such a muddled mess by now, that if there really was a god, I’m sure he would see the need to clean up the mess and issue a completely modernized, easy to read and understand, comprehensive handbook for what we’re supposed to do to make him happy. Or blessed. Or whatever.
KJ21 | Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, and the people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance. |
ASV | Blessed is the nation whose God is Jehovah, The people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. |
AMP | Blessed [fortunate, prosperous, and favored by God] is the nation whose God is the Lord, The people whom He has chosen as His own inheritance. |
AMPC | Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He has chosen as His heritage. |
BRG | Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. |
CSB | Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord— the people he has chosen to be his own possession! |
CEB | The nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom God has chosen as his possession, is truly happy! |
CJB | How blessed is the nation whose God is Adonai, the people he chose as his heritage! |
CEV | The Lord blesses each nation that worships only him. He blesses his chosen ones. |
DARBY | Blessed is the nation whose God is Jehovah, the people that he hath chosen for his inheritance! |
DRA | Come, children, hearken to me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord. |
ERV | Great blessings belong to those who have the Lord as their God! He chose them to be his own special people. |
EHV | How blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose to be his possession. |
ESV | Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage! |
ESVUK | Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage! |
EXB | Happy [Blessed] is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his very own inheritance; |
GNV | Blessed is that nation, whose God is the Lord: even the people that he hath chosen for his inheritance. |
GW | Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. Blessed are the people he has chosen as his own. |
GNT | Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord; happy are the people he has chosen for his own! |
HCSB | Happy is the nation whose God is Yahweh— the people He has chosen to be His own possession! |
ICB | Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord. Happy are the people he chose for his very own. |
ISV | How blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he has chosen as his own inheritance. |
JUB | Blessed is the people whose God is the LORD; the people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance. |
KJV | Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. |
AKJV | Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. |
LEB | Blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh, the people he has chosen for his inheritance. |
TLB | Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, whose people he has chosen as his own. |
MSG | God takes the wind out of Babel pretense, he shoots down the world’s power-schemes. God’s plan for the world stands up, all his designs are made to last. Blessed is the country with God for God; blessed are the people he’s put in his will. |
MEV | Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom He has chosen as His inheritance. |
NOG | Blessed is the nation whose Elohim is Yahweh. Blessed are the people he has chosen as his own. |
NABRE | Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people chosen as his inheritance. |
NASB | Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, The people He has chosen for His own inheritance. |
NASB1995 | Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, The people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance. |
NCB | Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage. |
NCV | Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his very own. |
NET | How blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen to be his special possession. |
NIRV | Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. Blessed are the people he chose to be his own. |
NIV | Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance. |
NIVUK | Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance. |
NKJV | Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, The people He has chosen as His own inheritance. |
NLV | Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord. Happy are the people He has chosen for His own. |
NLT | What joy for the nation whose God is the Lord, whose people he has chosen as his inheritance. |
NRSVA | Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage. |
NRSVACE | Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage. |
NRSVCE | Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage. |
NRSVUE | Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage. |
OJB | Ashrei is the Goy whose Elohav is Hashem; and HaAm whom He hath chosen for His own nachalah. |
RSV | Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage! |
RSVCE | Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage! |
TLV | Blessed is the nation whose God is Adonai, the people He chose for His own inheritance. |
VOICE | The nation whose True God is the Eternal is truly blessed; fortunate are all whom He chooses to inherit His legacy. |
WEB | Blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh, the people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance. |
WYC | Blessed is the folk, whose Lord is his God; the people which he chose into heritage to himself. (Happy is the nation, whose God is the Lord; the people whom he chose for his own inheritance.) |
YLT | O the happiness of the nation whose God [is] Jehovah, Of the people He did choose, For an inheritance to Him. |
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