Isaiah 8:6//2 Nephi 18:6: "Rejoice" or "melt [with fear]"?

  

Isaiah 8:6 KJV	2 Nephi 18:6
Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son	Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son

 

Commenting on Isa 8:6 (= 2 Nephi 18:6) in the KJV, David P. Wright wrote:

 

Isa. 8:6//2 Ne. 18:6: “The waters of Shiloah that go softly and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son.” The KJV translation of mĕšôš (root śwś) which KJV translates “rejoice” may be wrong since it does not fit the context. Several read the term as a biform of the root mss and translate “but melt [with fear] before Rezin and Remaliah’s son.” (David P. Wright, “Joseph Smith in Isaiah: Or Joseph Smith in Isaiah,” in American Apocrypha: Essays on the Book of Mormon, ed. Dan Vogel and Brent Lee Metcalfe [Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2002], 170)

 

In his translation of Isa 8:6, Joseph Blenkinsopp rendered the verse in a way reflecting the KJV:

 

Since this people has rejected the waters of Shiloah that flow so softly, rejoicing with Rezin and the son of Remeliah

 

He offered the following justification for rendering מסס in a positive, not negative, manner (i.e., “rejoice” vs. “melt [with fear]”):

 

Ûmĕśôś ʾet … is a crux interpretum to which no entirely satisfactory answer has yet been proposed; see Sweeney 1993 for a survey of ancient versions and modern opinions. Perhaps the favorite option (e.g. Duhm 1892, 80) is to emend to ûmĕsôs, a verbal form from mss, in Qal “faint away” (only in Isa 10:18), in Niphal “melt,” but this requires the further emendation of ʾet to lipnê, millipnê or (Wildberger 1991, 340–41) miśśʾet, none of which is supported by the ancient versions (note that 4QIsa^f line 19, is identical with mt: hhlkym lʾt vmśvś ʾet rṣyn vbn r[). The reading adopted here, which goes back to Redak (R. David Kimhi), has support from lxx, Vulg., and Syr. 1QIsa^a offers an alternative that makes little difference to the sense by reading mśyś (Hiphil), “causing Rezin and the son of Remaliah to rejoice.” I find Sweeney’s solution unsatisfactory since the parallelism with Isa 66:10–14 is not very striking and the sexual imagery in 8:5–10 not at all obvious; (Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 1-39: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary [AYB 19; London: Yale University Press, 2008], 240)

 

In his Hermeneia commentary on Isaiah, J. J. M. Roberts rendered the verse as:

 

Because this people have rejected the waters of the canal that flow gently and rejoice with Rezin and the son of Remaliah

 

In a note for “rejoice with,” we read:

 

MT’s וּמְשׂוֹשׂ (ûmĕśôś) is supported by 4QIsa^e and 4QIsa^f. 1QIsa^a reads משׂישׂ (māśîś), perhaps the hiphil participle, though the hiphil is otherwise unattested for this verb, and the reading is probably secondary. The expression וּמְשׂוֹשׂ אֶת־רְצִין (ûmĕśôś ʾetrěṣîn), literally, “and the joy (is) with Rezin,” is a long-standing crux. The versions all appear to have that reading, though they finesse the translation in various ways: LXX has ἀλλὰ βούλεσθαι ἔχειν τὸν Ραασσων καὶ τὸν υἱὸν Ρομελιον βασιλέα ἐφʼ ὑμῶν, “but wishes to have Rezin and the son of Remaliah as king over you”; Vg. has et adsumpsit magis Rasin et filium Romeliae, “and he has chosen rather Rezin and the son of Remaliah”; Syr. has “they have rejoiced in Rezin and the son of Remaliah.” Tg. is particularly interesting: “Because this people despised the kingdom of the house of David which leads them gently as the waters of Shiloah that flow gently and desired Rezin and the son of Remaliah.” The grammatical awkwardness of the nominal phrase or clause has led modern scholars to suggest any number of emendations. The most common is to correct מְשׂוֹשׂ (mĕśôś) to מָסוֹס (māsôs), the infinitive absolute of מסס (māsas), “to melt.” The verb occurs numerous times in the niphal with לבב (lēbāb) in the sense, “to lose heart, to despair out of fear,” including two occurrences in Isaiah (13:17; 19:1). It occurs once in the qal in the sense “to waste away” (כִּמְסֹס נֹסֵס, kimsōs nōsēs), “like a sick man who wastes away” (Isa 10:18), unless one also wants to give this passage the sense of despair: “like a sick man who despairs.” In Isa 8:6 it is assumed to mean, “and they melted in fear.” The verb is never construed as transitive, however, so this emendation requires that one also emend the את (ʾet) before Rezin. Some suggest לפני (lipnê), “before Rezin,” but Wildberger reconstructs מסוס משׂאת רצין (māsôs miśśĕʾēt rĕṣîn), “but they melted before the haughtiness of Rezin.” The emendation is suggestive and possible, but it has no support in the versions. In contrast to מסס, the root שׂושׂ is clearly attested construed with אֶת (ʾet), שִׂישׂוּ אִתָּהּ מָשׂוֹשׂ (śîśû ʾittāh māśôś) “rejoice with her [Jerusalem] in joy” (Isa 66:10). In Isa 8:6 the construction is perhaps due either to haplography or to a poetic ellipsis for ומשׂושׂ [שׂשׂו] את־רצין (ûmāśôś][śāśû][ʾet-rĕṣîn), “and in joy they rejoiced with Rezin.” An alternative is to take the nominal form וּמְשׂוֹשׂ (ûmĕśôś) as being used in place of the infinitive absolute as a substitute for the finite verb or the participle, either “and they rejoiced with Rezin” or “rejoicing instead with Rezin.” (J. J. M. Roberts, First Isaiah: A Commentary [Heremenia; Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 2015], Logos Bible Software edition)

 

The Peshitta also has “rejoice.” The following is taken from The Syriac Peshiṭta Bible with English Translation: Isaiah (trans. Gillian Greenberg and Donald M. Walter; The Antioch Bible; Piscataway, N.J.: Gorgias Press, 2012), 38, 39:

 

. . .

 

Because this people have rejected the waters of Shiloah that flow calmy, and have rejoiced in Rezin and the sons of Remaliah.

 

Targum Jonathan to the Prophets is also positive, not negative:

 

חְלָף דְקָץ עַמָא הָדֵין בְמַלכוּתָא דְבֵית דָוִיד דִמדַבְרָא לְהֹון בִנָיח כְמֵי שִילֹוחָא דְנָגְדִין בִניָח וְאִתרְעִיאוּ בִרצִין וּבַר רְמַליָה׃

 

Because this people despised the kingdom of the house of David which leads them gently as the waters of Shiloah that flow gently, and are pleased with Rezin and the son of Remeliah (The Isaiah Targum [trans. Bruce D. Chilton; The Aramaic Bible 11; Collegeville, Minn.: The Liturgical Press, 1990], Logos Bible Software edition)

 

The Aramaic uses רעי which means “to be well pleased” per TDOT.

 

We see that Wright is potentially in error in claiming that the King James Version of Isa 8:6 (and, by extension, 2 Nephi 18:6) is wrong. There is much to support “rejoice” as a correct translation of the underlying Hebrew.