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The Land of Nod

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

I came across an interesting translation issue in Genesis. Chapter 4 describes Cain's murder of Abel and his subsequent punishment by God. Part of his punishment was to wander over the earth for the rest of his life: “You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” After this pronouncement, Cain leaves and settles in the land of Nod. I guess Cain never was very good at listening. The ESV translates verse 16 as

Then Cain went out from the presence of the LORD and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden.

The interesting item to note here is that the Hebrew words translated as Nod (in verse 16) and wanderer (in verse 12) have the same root. The ESV mentions in a footnote that Nod means wandering. I checked the Latin Vulgate and it translates this as approximately

Then Cain went out from the face of the LORD and dwelt as a wanderer on the east side of Eden.

John Wycliffe, in the first English version of the Bible, translated it the same way. The “land of Nod” rendering entered the English translation stream through Tyndale. His work served as the basis for the KJV which has had a tremendous influence on all following English translations. I checked all the major versions currently available and they all had “land of Nod”. Tyndale's Cain found a loophole while Jerome and Wycliffe's Cain appears to have received his punishment. Which one is the true Cain?

Comments

I also checked Luther's translation and it had Land of Nod. I haven't checked the Septuagint or Targum yet (probably can't figure out the Aramaic in the Targum).

For reference, here is Wycliffe's translation: And Cayn yede out fro the face of the Lord, and dwellide fleynge aboute in erthe, at the eest coost of Eden.

And Tyndale's: And Cain went out fro the face of the LORde and dwelt in the lande Nod on the east syde of Eden.

Posted by: CJ Costello on Wednesday, September 20, 2006

I'm sure he got his punishment...being removed from God's presence is punishment enough, no matter where he ended up. Interesting, though; I'm always fascinated by translation issues

Posted by: jess on Saturday, September 23, 2006

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