what is a station? (Shep. 54:1-2)

Bill Barton phos at prodigy.net
Fri Sep 15 02:39:06 EDT 2000


Bart Ehrman wrote:

BE>I'm leaning toward a translation something like this "Why have you come
out so early?"  "Because, Lord," I replied, " I have a duty."  "And what,"
he asked, "is
the duty?">

In context the shepherd seems to be answering the question "what is the
duty" rather than "what is a duty?"  So one could reason on that basis that
the question is "what is the duty."

Lightfoot and Harmer apparently don't agree with this reasoning, however,
since they translate this as "what is a station."

One might opt to retain the vagueness in the original via something like,
"What do you mean, 'duty' ?"


Bill Barton



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