Introduction

Shalom,
I'm Katie. I am a student at BYU-Idaho. I am studying Hebrew just for fun, it has nothing to do with my major, I just really enjoy it. Now I know that everyone does not love studying languages and that is okay. I just thought that I learn so many interesting and neat things in this class and from translating that others might find it fascinating too. There is so much lost in translation on the Old Testament that I have just been astounded and thought you might like to learn a bit too. So no matter what religion you are, I hope that this can help you with your Bible study. Or I suppose if you didn't go to Hebrew school and you are Jewish then maybe it can help you with your study of the Tanakh (this is what the Jews call the Old Testament. And it turns out that old testament is a mis-translation anyways its supposed to be everlasting covenant.)
In this post I would like to tell you a little bit about me and then from there we can get into some translations. I am a junior this year studying horticulture. I love being outdoors and indoors. I like being in the mountains, camping, floating down the river, and just enjoying lovely little nature walks. Indoors I enjoy baking, reading, movies, writing, crafts of all sorts, and having dinner parties. I am currently single and despite what my grandma would lead you to believe, no, I am not a lesbian. I just haven't found the right guy yet. (I am twenty-six, and at BYU-I that means I am an old spinster. Don't worry though, I already have my first cat so I am well on my way to becoming the crazy old cat lady. He has to live with my parents though because we aren't allowed pets in our apartments.)
I started studying Biblical Hebrew about 7 months ago, so I would be the first to tell you I am not fluent or anything. So if there are any mistakes you see please feel free to point them out to me. I would hate to be adding to all the falsehoods on the internet these days. And there are differences in Biblical and Modern Hebrew so I couldn't have a normal conversation either. But the most important part, I can do. I can translate the Old Testament. :) I have studied a few languages before but Hebrew has by far captured my heart as far as I love doing it everyday. In my class we are kind of jumping all over to different stories because the narratives are a little easier to translate than things like Isaiah. The guy was sarcastic and funny and a beautiful writer, but man was he confusing at times. Oy Vey! Oh that reminds me, I should also warn you that as I have been studying a little Yiddish has been slipping into my vernacular. I will try to keep it to a minimum.
If you are any religion other than Latter Day Saint I suppose a few other phrases may slip into my posts but if they do I will try to explain them as far as my own personal beliefs. It is a part of who I am and at times I don't even realize that it may not sound normal if you are not LDS. I have been impressed that in my studies I have also been comparing the Jewish culture to the LDS culture and there have been a lot of similarities so I may mirror these at times too. Also I will be giving some cross references and these may often go along with the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price or Doctrine and Covenants.  If you have any questions about these sources let me know.
If you are Jewish I will apoligize right now, I will try to use G-d or Adonai as much as possible but I know I will probably slip up at least once  because I was not raised to say the Lord's name this way. I don't mean any disrespect to Him or to offend you in any way.
 If anyone has any questions or comments please feel free to post them on here or you can email me at ste05004@byui.edu . I will try to get back to you as soon as possible. Let's get on to some translating shall we?