cellio | Ki Teitze (translation)

I chanted torah yesterday; the passage was short and didn't have too much difficult vocabulary, so I translated from the scroll instead of reading from the book. (My rabbi was there; I can't remember if I've done that in front of him before. I think so.)

My translation of the sixth aliya of Ki Teitze (Deut 24:5-13):

When a man takes [lit "will take"] a new wife, he will not go out with the army and he will not campaign [lit "cross over"] with it for any reason (lit "thing"); it is an exemption for his house [for] one year, and he will please his wife who he took. Do not take in pawn a handmill or millstone as that is [like] taking life.

When you find [1] a man who steals a soul from among the children of Israel [that is, a kidnapper], to serve or sell, that thief will die, and you will drive out evil from close to you (often translated "from your midst").

Be careful with skin affliction ("leprosy") and carefuly keep [the rules] [lit "guard (intensifier) to do"]; everything that the priests and Levites decide, as I command [2] them you will do. Remember what Adonai your God did to Miriam on the road in your going out from Egypt.

When you make a loan to your fellow, do not go [in]to his house to take his pledge. Outside you will stand, and the man who is the borrower goes and will bring the pledge outside. And if he is a poor man, do not sleep in his pledge. [3] Return the pledge to him as the sun goes [down], and he will sleep in peace and bless you; and this is for you righteousness (tzedakah) before Adonai your God.

[1] The verb is actually third person singular, so not "you find" but more like "a man is found", but that was hard to render coherently with all the dependent clauses.

[2] I'm unclear on the verb form here; it looks like a participle, so maybe "as they are commanded" is better? Most translations make it more active -- "I command" -- which I'm not quite seeing here, but I still struggle with verb forms.

[3] If he's poor, the assumption is that his pledge is probably something like a heavy garment or blanket, which he would need at night.

Some of the "you will" parts are often translated "you shall", which has a different strength. Biblical Hebrew makes no distinction between "will" and "shall", though you can usually work it out from context. When God's giving you instructions, you can infer "shall". :-) It's actually Moshe who's talking here, and I chose consistency over just putting the "shalls" where I think they belong.

Translation requires both knowledge and art, the latter being knowing when to fudge the literal text to make something that's easier to understand without disturbing the core meaning. I am not very practiced in the art (and, of course, limited in the knowledge too), so at least for now, I tend to show my work.