Using Young's Literal Translation Bible Readings 365 for serious Bible students

What trouble our imaginations can make for us. The Pharoah who ruled Egypt many years after Joseph imagined that the Hebrews, who had become very numerous, could join with an enemy and attack Egypt where they were living. As a result he brought great suffering to the Hebrews, making them work as slaves harder and harder, and then killing the baby boys. In the time of Noah, God sees "that every ima...

There is a confusion which has arisen in the church since its inception which is to do with the words that Jesus says: "and I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church" Matthew 16:18 KJV Young is the only translator as far as I know who uses the words: "thou art a rock" instead of 'thou art Peter.' acknowledging that Peter should be translated for its meanin...

There is a confusion which has arisen in the church from its inception which is a misunderstanding of the words that Jesus speaks: "You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church". (Matthew 16:18). We do well to put in parenthesis after "Peter" the word: (pebble) and after the words "this rock" the words: (of your prophesy) The Scripture would then read as: You are Peter (pebble) and upon...

Jesus says to Satan when tested after 40 days of fasting to turn the stones into bread, that human beings "do not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." God's word is more important in our living than our eating is. Our bodies may die but our soul will live. Yet God uses the word 'alone', we do not live by bread alone but we do live by bread also. God provides...

"and live doth the spirit of Jacob their father" The years of mourning for his son Joseph, refusing to be comforted because Jacob believed him to be dead, end with the good news he hears, which must have been scarcely believable, so astonishing is it. The Bible says, 'doth live the spirit of Jacob.' So too with us, when our hearts are open to hear and to believe the good, indeed the astonishing, n...

I am moved by wonder at the goodness of Jesus who, having heard the terrible news that his cousin and the one who had gone ahead of Him to prepare His way, had been killed in prison, and having left in order to be on his own "withdrew thence in a boat to a desolate place by himself " sees the great multitude which has come after him and is "moved with compassion" So great is his love! It is so cen...

God speaks to people in diverse ways. It is evidence that He is God, that He is a living God and not one made by the hands of people out of stone or wood which cannot speak or move. God is the only God. He has created the heavens and the earth and everything in them. God desires to be with his people whom he has created for his own pleasure because God is love and love desires to have others to lo...

See how easily a lie works! Potipher's wife, having been rejected by Joseph and being left with his garment when he fled from her, easily tells a lie with a story supported by the evidence of the garment. Joseph, she says, had come in to lie with her and when she called out with a loud voice, "he leaveth his garment and fleeth." What reason would Potipher have to doubt her words? And could he have...

There is something shocking about the way the brothers of Joseph, having cast him into a pit, sit down and eat bread. The everyday-ness of it all is in such contrast to the violence they intend against their brother. No guilt or consideration of Joseph in the pit, just carrying on as if nothing has happened, as if they have not done anything wrong. Such is the way of hate. It blocks the heart and...

Though Young's Literal Translation is difficult at times to read and to understand, there are many times when I am so grateful for it and the understanding it gives to me. Consider these words which Jacob spoke to all who were with him "and we rise and go up to Bethel and I make there an altar to God, who is answering in the day of my distress and is with me in the way that I have gone". The verb...

"Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath" Matthew 12:12 I am amazed by the Pharisees' response to Jesus healing the man in the synagogue - they went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus. How horrific human beings can be. How wrong in their responses, their reactions. Proverbs 3:21 My son! Do not let them turn from your eyes, "Keep wisdom and thoughtfulness" Our thinking needs to be t...

There are two ways in which we may be corrected by God: by changing our mind and following Hos instruction or by continuing in our own way and learning by experience. Jacob grabs from his brother Esau and learns by experience with Laban what this means: he serves his time in the service of Laban for 14 years and experiences his wages changed 10 times. The power of life or death is in the tongue. R...

"It is given for human beings to live once and then to face judgement." In fact the Bible shows that there will be two judgements which constitute this judgement. For those who believe God and follow Jesus, their judgement is not for sin, as the act of believing God and living according to His teaching, has saved these from judgement: Jesus having paid the price of our sin that we should walk free...

How terrible that there will be a time when "brother will deliver up brother to death and father child and children shall rise up against parents and shall put them to death". When I think of my family and their love for one another, I cannot imagine such a change of heart to hatred and cruelty which might come in the place of love. Jesus says, the one who endures to the end shall be saved and not...

Did Jacob need to deceive Isaac in order to receive the blessing of his father before he died? When Rebekah said to Isaac that she was disgusted with the daughters of Heth whom Esau had married and that if Jacob did likewise, "what good will my life be to me", Isaac calls Jacob and blessed him and sent him to Padan-Aram to take a wife there from the daughters of Laban, his mother's brother. The bl...

I have a question about today's reading from Genesis: why did Abraham take another wife after Sarah died? Particularly as one of the sons was Midian whose offspring, the Midianites, later in the history of the Israelites was an enemy to Israel? There is no word from God to tell him to take another wife. This is a decision made 'in the flesh' without asking God. The sons of Isaac and Rebekah are na...

It struck me how the truth of the narration given by the servant of Abraham is evident in the repetition which does not vary in its telling each time. I am reminded of the end of the book of Revelation: Chapter 22 verses 18 and 19 where we are warned neither to add to nor to take away from from the words of the book of this prophesy. We can note that Eve adds to the command which God had given not...

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding." Proverbs 3:5 Many times I hear a thought, a prompting in my head to do something and almost immediately I find myself giving myself a good reason why that is not necessary, only to find out later why it was necessary. I am learning to obey the prompting and to do so promptly so that it doesn't get lost in the busy-ness...

Jesus says of the Centurion, a Roman commander, "Not even in Israel so great faith have I found". The Centurion has an understanding of Jesus's authority which is, as his own is, both being under authority and having authority of his own given to him by that higher authority: so that when Jesus speaks the word, it must be obeyed. "But only say the word and my servant shall be healed" Jesus respond...

Note the way in which Abram deals with the warring which has broken out between the keepers of his cattle and those of Lot because there is not enough land for both these herds which are very large! He graciously pleads not to war with Lot because they are men - brethren. He courteously offers Lot the choice of the land before them, even though Abram is the elder and would therefore have the right...

I am pleased that Young's Literal Translation translates the word usually translated as "angel", with the word "messenger", because so much art and therefore people's understanding is that an angel is a being looking human but having wings. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that an angel has wings. The cherubim have wings which cover the ark of God in the tabernacle, and Isaiah sees in a vision ser...

God appears to Abraham in person, three persons appear before him and he greets them with such honour, gracious hospitality and humility. Do we honour our God in such a way? His negotiation with God as an advocate for the people of Sodom is likewise an example to us. Is our heart to pray for them, to plead for them, even when their wickedness is so great? That they may be saved from the judgement...

Jehovah speaks to Abram to leave the land, Charan, and his kindred and the house of his father and to go where Jehovah shows him and Abram obeys. When Abram passes over the land and comes to Shechem, to the oak of Mamre and the Canaanite is then in the land, Jehovah appears to him. This is the first instance of God appearing to a person on the earth since he walked in the garden of Eden with the o...

When I ponder the "births of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth", three in total, and those sons had 16 sons, and the increase continues at least double in the next generation, I cannot think that humanity has been very long upon the earth as the numbers would be astronomic. Even between the 1920's and now, about 100 years, there has been an increase in world population from 2 billion to over...

As we read the Bible, God brings to our attention by his Holy Spirit in us, words that he wants us to take note of. As I was reading the three verses from Proverbs Chapter 1, verses 20-22, my attention was drawn to the words: "Wisdom in an out-place crieth aloud, in broad places she giveth forth her voice,". Firstly, because the word "out-place" is as new word and so I pondered what it meant. Wisd...