Nah 1:5 in the KJV and RSV reads as
follows:
The mountains quake
at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the
world, and all that dwell therein. (KJV)
The mountains quake
before him, the hills melt, the earth is laid waste before him, the world and
all that dwell therein. (RSV)
Commenting on the conjectural emendation
behind the RSV, Richard Coggins’ noted:
The RSV translates
the next phrase “the earth is laid waste” though there is no marginal note,
that is presumably dependent upon emending MT tissa to tishsha,
from the root shah (“to be ruined”). If the Hebrew text is retained, the
sense would be that “the earth lifts up (its voice),” that is, in distress. Whichever
text is read, the general sense is clear: the picture of desolation extends
from specific places, through all the main natural features, to embrace the
world itself and its inhabitants. (Richard J. Coggins, “In Wrath Remember
Mercy: A Commentary on the Book of Nahum” in Richard J. Coggins and S. Paul
Re'Emi, Nahum, Obadiah, Esther: Israel Among the Nations [International
Theological Commentary; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1985], 24-25)
In Nah 3:4, we read:
Because of the
multitude of the whoredoms of the wellfavoured harlot, the mistress of
witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through
her witchcrafts. (KJV)
And all for the
countless harlotries of the harlot, graceful and of deadly charms, who betrays
nations with her harlotries, and peoples with her charms. (RSV)
On the justification (or really, lack
thereof) for the emendation behind the RSV in this verse, Coggins wrote:
Of the
general sense of the verse there is little doubt, but one word has caused
difficulty. Hebrew hammakeret is translated in the RSV as “who betrays”; but
this sense of the root m-k-r (“to sell”) is very forced and attempts to
achieve a meaning by postulating a different root are not very satisfactory.
Here it seems better to follow Wilhelm Rudolph (Micha, etc., 175) and
other commentators and to suppose that the “k” and the “m” have been transposed
to give a form hakkomeret (“who ensnares”). (Ibid., 49)
