![]() Words have meaning when used in sentences, and sentences have meaning when used in paragraphs, and paragraphs tell a story or give a message, so it is important that we don’t just look at a word or a sentence but rather the whole story or discourse. Unfortunately, in this situation, I don’t think the other translations help us – if anything,they make it more confusing since some use the term “evil” as opposed to “harmful.” So where else do we turn? There are other translations you could look at as well, but you probably only need to look at a few, as they will largely sound the same. One could also look at the most “literal” translation of the Bible, the New American Standard Bible (NASB), which translates the verse this way: “ Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord terrorized him.” The New Living Translation (NLT) is translation done by top scholars that is less literal, trying to get at the idea rather than word-for-word equivalence, and pus it a little differently:“Now the Spirit of the Lord had left Saul, and the Lord sent a tormenting spirit that filled him with depression and fear” (a footnote also notes that it can be translated as “evil spirit”). There is a footnote on the NIV saying that “evil” can also be rendered “harmful” (which is what we saw in the ESV). There are many different translations (and they are easy to find online at Bible Gateway), so which ones would I encourage you to look at? T wo of the more popular, recent translations are the NIV and the CSB, and they respectively put the verse this way: “Now the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him” (NIV), and “Now the Spirit of the Lord had left Saul, and an evil spirit sent from the Lord began to torment him” (CSB). ![]() Just as there are times we understand something when when someone says it again in a slightly different way, so sometimes reading a different translation makes the passage more clear. Good steps to take in looking at a difficult verse such as this one are to compare it in multiple translations, examine the context of the passage, and consider what other Bible passages say about the subject. This passage is difficult in that it says that God sent a harmful, tormenting spirit upon King Saul. After we recently had a sermon on 1 Samuel 16:1-13, a church member asked me about 1 Samuel 16:14: “ Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him” (ESV). What do you do when this happens? One solution people employ is to ask me! When answering these questions, the teacher in me wants to give insights to help you when you come across these sort of verses in the future (trying to teach you to fish and not just give you a fish!). When you read through the Bible, you will come across verses that are difficult to understand. ![]()
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