# God my angel



## beautyqueen33

I would like to know the translation from english to hebrew for:

God my angel.

Thank you.


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## Nunty

It doesn't make much sense in Hebrew, but the literal translation is:

אלוהים מלאכי

which is pronounced: Elohim malaki.


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## maxl

In what language does it make sense?


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## Nunty

I'm assuming it makes sense to the person who asked to have it translated, so I gave a heads-up that the translation doesn't. It could also be a question of punctuation. I can just about see a smitten young man startled by the heavenly vision of his beloved entering the room: "God! My angel!"


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## beautyqueen33

Yes, the punctuation stated above is correct. A sense of praise and wonder. Would the translation change at all in this sense?


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## Nunty

Well, do you mean "God" as an exclamation or are you actually referring to God in heaven? It is not really a phrase that would be said in Hebrew, I'm afraid, even in the case I imagine above. That said, the translation I give is a literal one and could be punctuated like this. If you were to give a little context, maybe we could help you come up with a colloquial Hebrew term, if that is what you want.


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## beautyqueen33

I do not mean God as an exclamation, but Elohim, or God in heaven.  More so meaning God is my angel, but saying so with excitement or praise.  Referring to Elohim as my personal angel.


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## Nunty

I'm afraid that it doesn't make any sense in Hebrew to say "God is my angel". Angels are a different (and lower) order of being. The words I translated above are correct for what you want to say, but it sounds very strange.

By the way, I see that you are new to the forums. I'm sorry I didn't welcome you before, and

 Welcome to the forums! ​


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## maxl

Nun-Translator said:


> I'm afraid that it doesn't make any sense in Hebrew to say "God is my angel". Angels are a different (and lower) order of being. The words I translated above are correct for what you want to say, but it sounds very strange.
> [/center]


 
Once more: the words "in Hebrew" are superfluous. If the expression sounds strange, it is not because of some idiosyncracy of the Hebrew tongue. The strangeness has to do with one's entrenched beliefs about the nature of concepts such as 'God' or 'angel'.

Oops. Should be 'idiosyncrasy'.


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## Nunty

Maxl, I don't quite understand what your issue is. I don't know what language the original poster thinks in. Maybe she has an idea of the meaning of "angel" that is different from mine. At any rate, I try to keep a gentle and neutral tone when answering posted queries. 

The words "in Hebrew" were added because this is a Hebrew forum and she asked for a Hebrew translation. If my use of these two words offends you in some way, I am very sorry. Please pardon me.

If you have some other issue, feel free to contact me by PM.


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## JamesM

maxl said:


> Once more: the words "in Hebrew" are superfluous. If the expression sounds strange, it is not because of some idiosyncracy of the Hebrew tongue. The strangeness has to do with one's entrenched beliefs about the nature of concepts such as 'God' or 'angel'.


 
If one does not have some preconceived notion of what words mean, the words themselves are just noise. "God" and "angel" have distinct meanings, both in Hebrew and in English. 

We can disagree about the nature and definition of God, but when placed in relation to angel, there is a definite distinction. "God" is not "minor deity" or "life force", it is "God"; "Angel" is not "fairy" or "personal spirit." The words have meanings, maxl.

To say this an issue of "entrenched beliefs" is to say that "Life is my turnip" sounds strange only because of my "entrenched beliefs" about the nature of concepts such as "Life" and "turnip."


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## maxl

I stand corrected, James, on "entrenched beliefs". My point however was that our judgments about the well-formedness or awkwardness of the juxtaposition of God and Angle in this utterance (or expression? It apparently was not a sentence!) are not exclusively dependent on the customs of a given language. I'm afraid that my own "entrenched belief" would be that "Life is my turnip" would raise brows in ANY language.


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## JamesM

maxl said:


> I stand corrected, James, on "entrenched beliefs". My point however was that our judgments about the well-formedness or awkwardness of the juxtaposition of God and Angle in this utterance (or expression? It apparently was not a sentence!) are not exclusively dependent on the customs of a given language. I'm afraid that my own "entrenched belief" would be that "Life is my turnip" would raise brows in ANY language.


 
To me, "God is my angel", because of the "standard" definitions of the two words.

Setting religion aside and just using the dictionary, as we would with any other words, here the primary definitions in www.m-w.com for God and angel:

*God*

1 capitalized : the supreme or ultimate reality: as a : the Being perfect in power, wisdom, and goodness who is worshipped as creator and ruler of the universe

*Angel*

*1 a* *:* a spiritual being superior to humans in power and intelligence; _especially_ *:* one in the lowest rank in the celestial hierarchy


This results in an oxymoron: "God (Supreme ruler of the universe) is my Angel (a spiritual being lowest in rank in the celestial hierarchy)."


I don't think it is any more unusual to say that "God is my angel" is strange-sounding than it is to say "Life is my turnip" is strange-sounding. In fact, "God is my angel" has a direct contradiction imbedded in it, where "Life is my turnip" just has an incongruity and apparent unrelatedness between the two words.

It could be taken back a step to discuss the origins of the meanings for "God" and "angel" that appear in the dictionary, but merely from a word-meaning analysis, "God is my angel" has some logical problems as a phrase.


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## maxl

I totally agree. Let's not forget, however, the the original question (put by a native speaker of English) was about the Hebrew equivalent of: God my angel. (not: God is my angel.)


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## JamesM

maxl said:


> I totally agree. Let's not forget, however, the the original question (put by a native speaker of English) was about the Hebrew equivalent of: God my angel. (not: God is my angel.)


 
Good point.  The contradiction still exists in "God my angel", though.  It boils down to "(supreme being) my (not supreme being.)"


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## beautyqueen33

Thank you for your process of evaluating the contradicition of the phrase.  

How then would I say "My angel keeps me" in Hebrew?


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## amikama

?המממ... לא נסחפתם קצת בדיון הזה

For me "God is my angel" _does_ make sense. In this case, "angel" is not understood literally but _figuratively_: God keeps me the same way a מלאך שומר (what's in English?) keeps me. At least this is the way I understand it.


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## beautyqueen33

That is a way to think about it.

Can you write your translation above with an english alphabet? (My angel keeps me.)

Thank you so much for understanding my thought pattern in this matter!


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## amikama

beautyqueen33 said:


> Can you write your translation above with an english alphabet? (My angel keeps me.)


You mean מלאך שומר? It's _mal'akh shomer_.

Or you mean translation of "my angel keeps me"? In Hebrew it would be המלאך שלי שומר עליי, _ha-mal'akh sheli shomer 'alay_.


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## JamesM

amikama said:


> ?המממ... לא נסחפתם קצת בדיון הזה
> 
> For me "God is my angel" _does_ make sense. In this case, "angel" is not understood literally but _figuratively_: God keeps me the same way a מלאך שומר (what's in English?) keeps me. At least this is the way I understand it.


 
This still seems very unclear to me. How could God not keep you in a way far beyond how an angel could keep you? The one created and controls the other, according to the common understanding of the two terms.

I can understand relating God to an attribute - "God my protector", "God my guardian", "God my deliverer" - but "God, my angel" sort of strikes me like "Doctor, my first-aid assistant!" The first-aid assistant can certainly provide some assistance in the event of injury, but would you consider it praise of the doctor's abilities to equate him with a first-aid assistant? Would you want the doctor to be limited to the abilities of a first-aid assistant? To me it's a matter of relative functions and abilities. I am confused by the definition of God in this picture.  (Or perhaps I'm confused by the definition of Angel in this picture.)


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## beautyqueen33

[You mean מלאך שומר? It's _mal'akh shomer]_

_What does this translation mean?_


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## JLanguage

beautyqueen33 said:


> [You mean מלאך שומר? It's _mal'akh shomer]_
> 
> _What does this translation mean?_


 
malakh shomer = guardian angel


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## elroy

*Moderator Intervention:* 

This thread is slowly becoming unwieldy. 

We could spend hours philosophizing on the juxtaposition of "God" and "angel" and the inherent contradictions apparent in the phrase we were presented with (I agree that it's strange, by the way) but ultimately that's not the point of this thread.

Beautyqueen, you wanted a translation.  One of the fundamental rules of this forum is that you provide *context* when asking for a translation.  Please provide a helpful, explanatory, informative context and clearly explain what you mean by "God my angel."  Do you mean "God my guardian angel" or just "God my protector"?  What connotations do you wish to convey?  

For the rest of us, let's just stay put and wait for Beautyqueen to enlighten us as to what she wants.  Any further speculative wanderings will be deleted, and should Beautyqueen fail to provide the requested context, this thread will be closed.

Thank you for understanding.


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## amikama

JLanguage said:


> malakh shomer = guardian angel


Thanks, JLanguage. Long time no see!


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