The verse in the JW bible says "at babylon" but so does all the King James Versions so what gives, and how does one find the proper translation of this scripture. Also what in your opinions is the most acurate translation of the bible?
Jeremiah 29:10
by Crazyguy 4 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Black Sheep
What is the NNWT 0.1 translation of Jeremiah 25:12? How does it fit with 29:10 in the KJV and NNWT 0.1?
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Bart Belteshassur
Crazyguy,
As far as I am aware all modern translations have this as "for", "of","Babylon's 70 yrs" or or a phrase which means the same, that it is the fulfilment of Babylon,s domination of the Nations, including Judea and Israel. It is evident that the Jewish exiles who recieved this letter were already in the period of the 70 years, and that their return would be within less than 70 years from the date of this reading. The KJV is a translation which very closely follows the latin Volgate which has it as "in" and this is why KJV and NWT have it as "at". I wonder why the NWT follows an appostate translation so closely?
This follows the wording of Jer 25:11 that the nations will serve the King of Babylon for 70 years, and Jer 25:12 states at the fulfilment Babylon will be punished and remove from power perminantly. At this time the Jews would be released to Yahweh and he would ensure their returned to Judea Jer 29:10.
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Londo111
As mentioned above, context matters. This was written to those already in Babylon, Exiled 11 years before the destruction of Jerusalem (the exile started in 597 BC). Therefore, even IF it is 'at', Jeremiah is telling them this period 'at Babylon' would will go 70 years, which had already started. It was not something that was to start in the future. If the 70 years did start in 607 BC, and these exiles were in Babylon 11 years before that, they would be there for about 80 years. That does not compute.
However, look this up in a Hebrew Interlinear. Whether ‘for’ or ‘at’ is supplied is up to the translator. I found this in my notes on this:
Professor Ernst Jenni, a Hebrew scholar says, "The rendering in all modern commentaries and translations is “for Babel” (Babel as world power, not city or land); this is clear from the language as well as also from the context. By the “local meaning” a distinction is to be made between where? (in, at) and where to? (local directional “to, towards”). The basic meaning of l is with reference to, and with a following local specification it can be understood as local or local-directional only in certain adverbial expressions (e.g. Num. 11, 10 [Clines DCH IV, 481b] “at the entrance”, cf. Lamed pp. 256, 260, heading 8151)."
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