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2 Comments

  1. Joel Lingenfelter
    July 13, 2010 @ 12:38 pm

    Mike,

    Great thoughts! Taking the time to understand the full meaning of a word can often provide a level of clarity and illumination to scripture that is lost in translation. As I ponder this passage with you, I think encrusted is probably the best english translation because it implies something that happens over time. Scum can build up quickly and usually can be cleaned. Encrusted makes me think of shipwrecks, and items that will never be the same. We are impacted by our sin. The saving grace of Jesus can wipe it away, but the scarring remains.

    The other translation used is rust, but with modern metals we really don’t experience rust (except on cars) like people did then. Even with cars modern rustproofing and such has really changed how that term would impact the modern reader. Encrusted forces the reader to think of something different than their daily experience, and brings them closer to the meaning behind the original Hebrew than the other translations.

    Joel

  2. George
    September 18, 2010 @ 9:37 am

    notice verse 12 that their corrosion had “frustrated every effort” of God to scrub it off. there was no recourse but to throw the pot in the fire and burn it off. this true of nations, churches, and individual Christians. sometimes we allow rust to form in our hearts. do we frustrate God’s efforts to scrub it off? if so, into the fire we go. i wonder if in some cases we are in that fire now.

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