What is the Hebrew translation of "The Joy of the Lord is my
Strength"? I would prefer the translation in ancient Hebrew, if there
is really such a thing. I am not an expert at all. Please provide the
answer in the proper unicode font so that it appears in Hebrew, such
as this:

??????, ????? ???? ????

I don't know what that says, I just copied and pasted it from a hebrew
web site. Also, please provide the answer in English letters for
pronunciation purposes.

I'm only putting $5.00 because I'm sure that a Hebrew person could
answer this question in less than 10 minutes.

Dear solrac149, 

The phrase Pinkfreud refered to, from Nehemiah is : 
???? ??????? ?????? ???? ??????????
but its translation is "the Joy of *Jehovah* is YOUR stregth" (not
"my"). This would be pronounced :
"ki chedvat *yehova* hi me'ozchem"
(* yehova - religious Jews as well as some other groups do not
pronounce this word and use "HASHEM" instead).

If we follow the Biblical high language (as modern Hebrew and Biblical
Hebrew, or high and low language are different):
?? ????? ???? ??? ????
(Instead of the ?? for "your strength", you have a ? suffix for a "my strength"). 
You pronounce that: 
"ki chedvat *yehova* hi me'ozi" 

However, all words in this sentence have other translations in Hebrew:
it is not that simple to translate again a text.

Joy means not only ????? but also :
????????, ??????, ?????????? ; (????? ??????) ???????, ???????, ????? 

The name of the Lord is expressed in many words. Actually, when I saw
the word "Lord" I though of the word "??" ("el") or the word "elohim"
(?????).

"My strength" is also :
?????, ????? 

Therefore, theoretically, this sentence could be also: 
???? ??? ??? ????
Pronounciation: simchat ha'el hi kochi. 

You could see transltions from English to Hebrew and vice versa in the
Morphix Dictionary
<http://milon.morfix.co.il/> 

However, I strongly recommend you'll read an answer I gave on a
similar matter (Biblical translations) to understand the complexity of
the issue: it is not that easy to translate into and from Hebrew
basing yourself on the Bible!
Gender of personal pronouns in ancient languages 
<http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=255089> 

I hope this answered your question. Please contact me if you need any
clarification on this answer before you rate it.

---

Request for Answer Clarification by solrac149-ga on 24 Mar 2004 14:15 PST

Thanks politicalguru!

Please clarify:

"The Joy of Jehovah is your strength", written in ancient Hebrew (low language)
???? ??????? ?????? ???? ??????????

"The Joy of Jehovah is my strength", written in modern or bible Hebrew
(high language)
?? ????? ???? ??? ????

Is this correct?

Which would be better to use, or more official, or proper? Or
biblical? The modern or ancient one? (Assuming I understood you
correctly.)

Thanks for the info on the other similar words, but that won't be a
problem. Thanks again!

---

Request for Answer Clarification by solrac149-ga on 24 Mar 2004 14:24 PST

Also, both of your examples have the ???? for "my strength" instead of
the ?? for "your strength". Please confirm...

---

Clarification of Answer by politicalguru-ga on 24 Mar 2004 16:03 PST

Dear solrac149, 

The first sentence, is exactly what is written in the Bible, that is -
with "your" and not with "my"; the second (the one you asked about in
your request for clarification) is written exactly in the same
biblical style - but with "my", as you asked in your question. So - in
other words - both are in ancient Hebrew (it should be noted that
there is no great difference between the two, but the Biblical term is
"higher", not everyday, language).

What is better? If you want to use something that sounds respectful to
the original text - I would have used the this one I gave:
====
?? ????? ???? ??? ????
(Instead of the ?? for "your strength", you have a ? suffix for a "my strength"). 
You pronounce that: 
"ki chedvat *yehova* hi me'ozi" 
====

If you want to speak with someone who is a Hebrew speaker, and want
them to understand you, you may want to use a more modern form, such
as:
====
???? ??? ??? ????
Pronounciation: simchat ha'el hi kochi. 
=====

As for your second Request for Clarification: 
In Hebrew, genitive possessive form of nouns is pronominal. The suffix
X-i for nouns in these cases indicates an "I" ("my") - singular first
person (male and female). The suffix X-chem indicates an "you"
("your") - plural masculine second person.

Therefore, in first person singular, the correct way is with "i" at
the end of "me'oz" : Me'ozi.

You could see Hebrew suffixes for possessive at Rabbi Scheinerman's
homepage: <http://scheinerman.net/judaism/education/possessives.html>

Both examples have the form ???? - but this has nothing to do with the
abovementioned explanation. ???? in this case is similar to the words
"since", "so", etc. Hebrew is read from right to left. The last part -
with the strength - is at the left side of the sentence (and not like
you and I are used to read) and there - you could see the difference
between ?? and ?? as you'll see here:
(1) ?? ???? ???? ??? ?????
(2) ?? ???? ???? ??? ???? 

===
PS : The Hebrew words you copy-pasted into the question are from news
about two Arab-Israeli terrorists caught today.
<http://www.maarivintl.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&articleID=5145>

Good answer and good clarification. Thanks!

This doesn't exactly answer your question, but you can find Nehemiah
8:10 in Hebrew on this page:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/tan/neh008.htm

Thanks!
That bible translation might come in handy later, if I'm trying to compare answers.

In the context of Nehemiah 9 and 10, Nehemiah was speaking to and
teaching the people to not only enjoy themselves..."Go, eat the fatty
things and drink the sweet things"....but to remember those who were
poor.... "and send portions to the one for whom nothing has been
prepared"....and was pointing out that the day was Holy to their God
[Jehovah/ Yehova]and by following His requirements [ his laws] would
make God joyful and He would be "YOUR' stronghold. That is the
stronghold of all the people, not Nehemiah himself. The scripture does
not translate "my stronghold" because this would relate the comment to
only Nehemiah. The four character Hebrew word YHWH, all consonants and
no vowels, is the TETRAGRAMMATON, meaning " He causes to become". The
true pronunciation of the word has been lost and YAHWEH is the nearest
we can come to saying it. It is still God`s personal name. Religion
has ceased to use His name under the mis-conception that it is TOO
holy, and replaced it in many translations with the title LORD, all
capitals. This has caused great confusion when Jesus is respectfully
addressed also as Lord. To differentiate, where the title is used in
relation to Jesus, it is always in lower case. A very good example is
at Psalms 110;1.. The utterance of Jehovah [ YHWH] to my Lord [ Jesus]
is 'Sit at my right hand, until I place your enemies as a stool for
your feet'. This reads correctly. By translating the tetragrammaton
with LORD, the same scripture reads ' The utterance of my LORD to my
Lord is... and as such is com pletely confusing. It also adds to the
confusion that Jesus is God, which he is not!. But he is God`s son and
is our example to follow. A good bit of advice is here at Second
Timothy 2;14..' Keep reminding them of these things, charging them
before God as witness, not to fight about words, a thing of no
usefulness at all because it overturns those listening".

This answer is fine, except for two things.

1) The transliteration of the verse's fifth word isn't me'ozchem but
ma'ozchem (as any Hebrew reader can see, the vowel is a kamatz, which
is pronounced "ah").

2)The transliteration of God's name as Yehovah is simply wrong. As the
commentary explains in Etz Hayim, the Torah volume put out by the
Conservative Movement (p. 330)--

>
During the Second Temple period the Tetragrammaton (Shem ha-M'forash)
came to be regarded as charged with sanctity and magical potency.
Therefore its pronunciation ceased. It was replaced in speech by
Adonai, "Lord." Often the vowels of "Adonai" would accompany the
letters of "YHVH" in written texts, which gave rise to the mistaken
form "Jehovah" found in some Christian translations. The original
pronunciation of "YHVH" was lost; modern attempts at recovery, such as
"Yahweh," are conjectural and have no support from tradition.
>

So the correct transliteration of the phrase above is "kee chedvat
Adonai hee ma'ozchem." Though politicalguru-ga is correct that
observant Jews would prefer saying Hashem to saying Adonai.