# Trust in God



## Fidget91

Hey,
I'd love your help with this senctence. I'd like a correct hebrew translation;

"Trust in God"

By Trust, i mean as in, "put your faith in, count on" as opposed to "believe what he is saying" (if you get the difference).

It should also not be translated as a concept, "the trust in god" but rather as an imperative telling you to "trust in god"

- as an added thing, if anyone would be able to translate it to DSS Hebrew (Late Semitic), i would appreciate it aswell!

Thanks a lot in advance!


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## Egmont

'בְּטַ֣ח אֶל־ה is one old Hebrew version, from Proverbs 3:5. The verse goes on to say "... with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding."

In the Bible one would write out the name of God, sometimes rendered in English as "Yahweh," but one does not usually do that for secular purposes in Hebrew. The abbreviation ה is pronounced "Adonai," so the whole phrase is "B'tach el Adonai." You can find the full version with God's name spelled out easily by Googling "Proverbs 3:5 Hebrew" (without the quotation marks). 

In modern Hebrew, one would usually use the preposition בַּֽ before God's name rather than אֶל. That is how it's found in Psalms 37:3 ("Trust the Lord and do good ..."). I don't know which would have been used in late Semitic, or if they might have used a third version. Both Biblical versions, of course, would have been the same all along.


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## Albert Schlef

Another possibility is "האמן בשם" (Genesis 15:6, "והאמן בשם ויחשבה לו צדקה"). Nowadays we translate אמונה as "belief" (which is weaker than "trust"), but in the past it had a stronger meaning, closer to "knowledge".

As for the preposition (אל vs ב): Another place where אל is used is in Psalm 27:14, "קוה אל השם". I've heard that "קוה" and "קו" are of the same meaning: when you מקווה you're connecting yourself with a line to the object. So אל makes sense here.


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## origumi

According to the Bible you can say (for masc. sing.):

* בטח באלהים betakh be-elohim, literally: trust in God
* בטח אל אלהים betakh el elohim, literally: trust to God
* בטח על אלהים betakh `al elohim, literally: trust on God

The word for God may vary.

The first is the only alternative in Modern Hebrew. Not sure about the Dead Sea Scrolls - I don't have the Hebrew text in front of me (digitalized script transcription).

What's Late Semitic (as a language for translation)?


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## Fidget91

Hey again - thanks alot all of you!

So if i was to hang up a note in hebrew in - say my room - telling me to trust in god / have faith in god, which one would make most sense in terms of its intended meaning?

I know nothing of hebrew, unfortunately, but the language intrigues me - and id like it to be 'contextually correct' as i know theres often hebrew words with the same basic meaning but yet different.

Its masculine by the way 

Egmont - would your version make sense on its own if you dont include the rest of the verse?

Origumi - that means #1 in this case would be most correct?


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## origumi

Fidget91 said:


> Origumi - that means #1 in this case would be most correct?


If you happen to meet King David (1000 BC) or King Herod (nearly the time of DSS) or a medieval or a modern Hebrew guy - all will understand #1, all are likely to prefer it over other alternatives. It's not more correct, it's more natural.


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## Egmont

Fidget91 said:


> ... Egmont - would your version make sense on its own if you dont include the rest of the verse? ...


Yes, either of them would. I prefer the Psalms 37:3 version, since it uses the same preposition one would use today.

That's the same as Origumi's #1, except that it uses a different word for God. For your purposes they're probably all equally good, and his/her choice avoids the issue of writing out the holy name, so all things considered I'd go with that. (Even if writing it out doesn't bother you, and even if all of us here can agree that it probably doesn't bother God, it may still bother some Jews who see it in your room.)


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## Fidget91

So to be perfectly clear - which version is god (by name) and 'the lord'?

thanks alot so far though


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## Abu Rashid

origumi said:


> What's Late Semitic (as a language for translation)?



This is Edenics pseudo-linguistic terminology for ktuv ashuri. As they consider Hebrew to be the Semitic language, and they don't actually distinguish between languages and writing systems, they consider ktav ivrit to be "ancient Semitic" or "proto Semitic" and ktav ashuri to be "late Semitic".


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