It's all in the details

Sometimes I (Misha) feel like my job is one of constant nit-picking details.  Fortunately, my brain tends to naturally tend towards details - "Forest?  What forest?  All I can see is lots of bark and leaves - I think there must be some trees over there!"  Occasionally I find a major exegetical error in a translation draft and we have a lively discussion about what the verse means, but most of my work focuses on finer points.

A few minutes ago I came across a great example in the initial draft of Ikizu Genesis 9 (the chapter where God makes the covenant with Noah about not flooding the earth again).  The NIV says: "Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood."  The Ikizu draft said something like, "Never again will I kill an animal by way of the waters of a flood."  Now, the exegetical part comes in with comparing how the Ikizu have made it explicit that God is killing animals, versus stating that "life will be cut off" without really saying who is cutting it off.  The mistake in the verse (well, 1/3 of a verse - I've trimmed a bit out of Genesis 9:11 here) is more subtle: "all life" versus "an animal".  I'm pretty sure a few animals have died in floods over the years, so the Ikizu doesn't seem quite right!  Changing a singular to plural quite dramatically affects the meaning of God's covenant here.  In Ikizu, it is "ikityɨnyi" for one animal and "ibityɨnyi" for more than one.  When a 'k' accidentally becomes a 'b', the accuracy of a verse can be ruined.

So in case you're wondering what do I really do all day, here's your summary: I examine the patterns in leaves and bark and hope that once in a while I recognize that there is actually a forest.  Or, in more literal terms, I check to make sure no 'k's have turned into 'b's and try to remember that we're actually working on the Word of God and not just proofreading some document!

P.S. I love details, spell-checking, and proofreading, so I'm not complaining here, just explaining.  :-)