In Hebrew: Stranger Women And Foreign Women, Nokhreyoat And Zaroat
This is the twelfth article of the series: “The Foreigner woman in Bible versus Quran”
In the previous articles, we have seen that from the Language point of view, the “foreign” woman is the alien or the exotic or the outsider woman. However, the Bible has another notion.
As confirmed by the Bible, the “foreign” woman is the non-Israelite woman or the non-Jewish woman.
As a result, any non-Israelite or any non-Jewish woman is a “foreign” woman.
This indicates that the women in the Bible are but one of two categories; they are either Legitimate (genuine) or Foreign (strange).
In the present article, we will analyze and discuss the translation of one verse that talks about the “strange women” in 18 different versions of the Bible. Although this issue needs some patience and watchfulness; however, it deserves studying to prove how enormously the translators of some Biblical versions did their Job in reference to the original Hebrew Scripture.
Very simply, the verse, Ezra 10:2, says “…we had betrayed our God and we have taken strange women of the peoples of the land…” This is the unembroidered translation of the original Hebrew verse
Herein, we will talk about the translation of the above 12 words.
These 12 words make up a very simple and easy phrase that is composed of four parts ” we had betrayed our God + we have taken + strange women + of the peoples of the land”.
Now, let us see how do 18 Biblical versions translate the above 12 words of the verse?
(1) How do 18 Biblical versions translate we had betrayed our God?
We betrayed our God in one version (The Message).
We have been unfaithful to our God (in seven