Expert: LEBoyd - 3/23/2009

Question
I have read in Psalms 83:18 that Almigthy GOD personal name 'Stands Alone' - and in some bibles it reads different than most as in the Douay-Rheims;: " Let them know that you alone, whose name is the LORD, are the Most High over all the earth. But in these Bibles as for English: American Standard Version, English: King James - Version, English: Darby Version, and the English: Webster's Bible, it reads;  That they may know that thou alone, whose name is Jehovah, art the Most High over all the earth.

It give us a personal name for GOD Almighty (JEHOVAH) - and also in Exodus 6:3 and Isaiah 12:2 -  Is we to believe that many of these Bibles are in error?  I KNOW THAT the Title Name "THE LORD" is just that a TITLE NAME not a PERSONAL as like 'JEHOVAH'

Answer
D,

The problem in translating the OT Hebrew to any other language is that the text is written without punctuation or word spacing, in all "upper case" letters and words are divided at the end of line simply based on the last character.  Each line of text had the exact same number of characters.

One advantage of this type of writing is that when someone makes a copy of the text (the scribes) it is easy to tell if you are off or not.  Your last few characters on the line have to match exactly with the original or you are off.

The biggest disadvantage is translating can be difficult, as you see in the Psa 83 passage.  Should the "LBADEKEE" (alone) be applied to the name "YHWH" (Jehovah) or applied to "ELYOWN" (Most High)?

Both ideas (that God is alone most high and He is alone named Jehovah) are taught in other areas of the OT (see 2 Kings 19:19 and Psa 148:13).  Therefore, the rendering of either way presents biblical concepts and truths.

My personal opinion is that the context of Psa 83 would indicate that the "alone" would best apply to ELYOWN - That YHWH, LBADEKEE, is ELYOWN.  I'm not generally a big fan of the NIV or RSV versions of the English Bible, but these two do an excellent job with this verse.

BTW, the KJV (and related such as NKJV) actually apply LBADEKEE to YHWH, unlike the ASV (and related such as NASU) which applies LBADEKEE to ELYOWN.

Hope this helps