2 Samuel 14:14
KJB - "NEITHER DOTH GOD RESPECT ANY PERSON"
ESV, NASB, NIV, NKJV, NET - "BUT GOD WILL NOT TAKE AWAY LIFE"
2 Samuel 14:14 - Does God take away life or not? A Theological error in the NKJV, NIV, NASB, ESV, NET, Holman Standard versions.
Proverbs 14:5 tells us: "A faithful witness will not lie: but a false witness will utter lies."
There are many lies found in the new bible versions and it is the accumulation of such lies that reveal them to be false witnesses to the whole truth of God. One such lie is found in 2 Samuel 14:14.
For numerous examples of false or perverted doctrines found in these modern versions see "Fake Bible versions DO teach False Doctrines" here -
http://brandplucked.webs.com/fakebiblesdoctrine.htm
The context is when Absalom had slain Amnon because he raped his sister Tamar. Absalom fled to Geshur and was there for three years, yet the soul of king David longed for his son Absalom. Joab decides to put words in the mouth of a wise woman from Tekoah and he sends her to speak to the king.
In the course of their conversation the woman finally tells king David in 2 Samuel 14: 13 -14: "the king doth speak this thing as one which is faulty, in that the king doth not fetch home again his banished. For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; NEITHER DOTH GOD RESPECT ANY PERSON: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him."
The meaning is pretty straightforward. We all must die and God does not respect any person or show partiality to one more than another in this regard.
John Wesley briefly comments: "Respect - So far as to exempt him from this common law of dying."
John Trapp Commentary (English Puritan) - “Neither doth God respect any person. But whether king or captives, he must die; we all carry our precious souls as precious water in a brittle glass, or as a candle in a paper lantern, soon puffed out.”
Joseph Benson’s Commentary - “For God doth not respect any person — So far as to exempt him from this common lot of dying: but kings and their sons, in this respect, share the same fate with others.”
Other Bible versions that read as the King James Bible are the Geneva Bible of 1599, the Webster Bible 1833, the Longman Version 1841, The Jewish Family Bible 1864 - "NEITHER DOTH GOD RESPECT ANY PERSON", the Jewish Publication Society 1917 translation - "NEITHER DOTH GOD RESPECT ANY PERSON; but let him devise means, that he that is banished be not an outcast from him.", The Revised English Bible 1877, The Sharpe Bible 1883, Young's 1898, The Ancient Hebrew Bible 1907 - "NEITHER DOTH GOD RESPECT ANY PERSON", the KJV 21st Century version 1994, the Third Millennium Bible 1998 and the Jubilee Bible 2010 - "NEITHER DOES GOD RESPECT ANY PERSON; yet he does devise means that his outcasts not be expelled from him."
Other Bibles that read the same way and do not create this theological error are The Word of Yah 1993, The Revised Webster Bible 1995, The Concordant Literal Version 2009 - “and Elohim DOES NOT ACCEPT A PERSON", the Bond Slave Version 2009 - "neither does God RESPECT ANY PERSON", Hebraic Transliteration Scripture 2010 - "neither doth Elohim (אלהים) RESPECT ANY PERSON: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him.", Biblos Interlinear Bible 2011 - "neither does God RESPECT ANY PERSON"
The Ancient Hebrew Bible 1907 - “neither doth God respect any person”
https://archive.org/details/ancienthebrewlit02yyy5uoft/page/88
Jewish Publication Society Old Testament - “neither doth God respect any person”
Interlinear Hebrew Old Testament - "neither respect doth God person"
http://studybible.info/IHOT/2%20Samuel%2014:14
And The Jewish Virtual Library Complete Tanach 1994 - "neither doth G-d respect any person"
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/shmuel-ii-samuel-2-chapter-14
The Bishops' Bible of 1568, and the Geneva Bible of 1599 and The Revised Geneva Bible 2005 have the same basic meaning as that found in the King James Bible, saying: "For we must needes dye, and we are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered vp againe: NEITHER DOTH GOD SPARE ANY PERSON, yet doeth he appoynt meanes, not to cast out from him, him that is expelled."
The Boothroyd Bible 1853 says: "GOD ACCEPTETH NO PERSON"
and Young's 1898 is similar with: "AND GOD DOTH NOT ACCEPT A PERSON"
The Judaica Press Complete Tanach 2004 translation done by Rabbi Rosenburg says: "For die we must, and are as water that is spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up again; AND GOD FAVORS NOT A SOUL, but He devises means that he that is banished be not cast from Him."
This rendering agrees with the sense found in the King James Bible.
The Complete Jewish Bible 1998 has the same meaning, with: "For we will all die someday; we’ll be like water spilled on the ground that can’t be gathered up again; and GOD MAKES NO EXCEPTION FOR ANYONE."
Foreign language Bible that agree with the meaning found in the King James Bible are the Spanish Sagradas Escrituras 1569 - "ni Dios hace acepción de personas, mas busca la manera para no echar de si al desechado.", the Spanish Biblia Jubilee 2010, and the Spanish Reina Valera Gómez Bible 2010 - "y Dios no hace acepción de personas, sino que provee los medios para que su desterrado no quede alejado de Él." = "and God is no respecter of persons, but also provides the means for his banished not stay away from him", the Italian Diodati 1649 - "e Iddio non ha riguardo ad lacuna persona" = "and God has no regard for any person", and the Romanian Fidela Bible 2009 - "nici Dumnezeu nu se uită la vreo persoană; totuşi plănuieşte mijloace, încât cel alungat al său să nu fie scos de la el."
However when we get to the New KJV, RSV, ESV, NET, Holman Standard, NIV 1984 edition, The Message, Green's MKJV, and the NASB instead of "neither doth God respect any person" they read "YET GOD DOES NOT TAKE AWAY LIFE". Jehovah Witness NWT - "GOD WILL NOT TAKE AWAY A SOUL". This is a lie and a contradiction.
Just two chapters before this event we read of the child born to David, in his adulterous affair with Bathsheba, that "the LORD struck the child, and it was very sick" and on the seventh day it died. 2 Samuel 12:15.
In Deuteronomy 32:39 God Himself says: "I KILL, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand."
In Genesis 38:7 and 10 we read of two wicked sons of Judah, Er and Onan "and the LORD SLEW him", and "wherefore he slew him also." 1 Samuel 2:6 tells us: "The LORD killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up."
And 2 Samuel 6:7 says: "And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah. and God smote him there for his error: and there he died by the ark of God."
In the New Testament the Lord Jesus Christ says in Luke 12:5 "But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him."
God obviously does take away life, and the NKJV, NIV, ESV, NET and NASB are all in error here in 2 Samuel 14:14 where they say that He doesn't take away life.
The same Hebrew words used in 2 Samuel 14: 14 are also translated as "not RESPECT PERSONS" in other places in the NKJV, NIV and NASB. The word RESPECT is # 5375 nah-sah, and has many meanings such as "to accept, to respect, to regard, to take up, take, lift up, carry away, to pardon, to set up and to bear."
PERSONS is # 5315 nephesh and the NASB itself has translated this word as "persons" some 90 times. It also can mean spirit, soul, life, ghost, heart, breath, and himself or herself. Both words have multiple meanings and the context and sound theology must determine how they are to be translated correctly.
The NKJV has translated this same verb as "to respect" in Lamentations 4:16 "they do not respect the priests" and as "you shall not be partial to the poor" in Leviticus 19:15.
Likewise the NASB and NIV have translated the verb as "respect, accept and show partiality" many times. The NASB has "the LORD accepted Job" in Job 42:8, and in 2 Kings 5:1 says that "Naaman was a great man with his master and highly RESPECTED." The NIV has "without RESPECT for the old" Deut. 28:50 and in 2 Kings 3:14 "If I did not HAVE RESPECT for the presence of Jehoshaphat I would not look at you."
At least eight times the NIV, NKJV and NASB translate this verb as "to show partiality". For example, in Deuteronomy 10:17 the KJB, the ASV, Young's, Darby and the Jewish translations say: "For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty and a terrible, WHICH REGARDETH NOT PERSONS, nor taketh reward." Here the NIV, NKJV and NASB say: "God..who SHOWS NO PARTIALITY."
The word "respect" is #5375 and many times it is translated as "to accept" as well as "to respect". Like "the Lord also accepted Job" (Job 42:9) or "not good to accept the person of the wicked" (Proverbs 18:5) or "How much less to him that accepteth not the persons of princes" (Job 34:19)
And "they respected not the persons of the priests" (Lamentations 4:16), "thou shalt not respect the person of the poor" (Lev. 19:15)
The verb has multiple meanings, some of them radically different from the others. Besides "to respect" and "to accept" it can also mean "to forgive, to take up, to lift up, to bear, to spare, to stir up, to contain, and to carry". Lots of meanings for this one verb.
The KJB got it right in 2 Samuel 14:14 and lots of other bible translators in both English and foreign languages did it the same way as the KJB has it.."
So it is not a case of the Hebrew not being able to carry the meaning as found in the King James Bible and all the others, but the modern bible translators were blinded to an obvious truth of Scripture - "Neither doth God respect any person". God does indeed take away life.
The "new" NIV of 2011 has now come out and, perhaps because their false and contradictory teaching was pointed out to them, they have now changed their text and the new one reads quite differently than the old NIV.
2 Samuel 14:14 NIV 1984 - “Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die. BUT GOD DOES NOT TAKE AWAY LIFE; INSTEAD, he devises ways so that a banished person MAY not remain ESTRANGED from him.”
2 Samuel 14:14 NIV 2011 - “Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die. But THAT IS NOT WHAT GOD DESIRES; RATHER, he devises ways so that a banished person DOES not remain BANISHED from him.”
It still isn't right. God obviously willingly and deliberately does take away life, but at least it is not as bad as before.
Commentators are not inspired. They all differ from each other. What one affirms, another denies. Lexicons are not inspired. And any bible version that contains a falsehood is not inspired. Only the true Holy Bible providentially given to us by God Almighty is the inspired, inerrant word of God. I firmly believe all the true words of God are found in the King James Bible, and not the others.
The Bible Babble Buffet
I thought it would be instructive to show just how the Bible Babel is going in regards to other translations of this phrase "neither doth God respect persons".
One of the mindless mantras the bible agnostic crowd frequently tosses out is that all the bible versions say the same thing, but just with different words. Well, let's see if this is even remotely true, OK?
The New English Bible 1979 & REB 1989 - "God WILL SPARE THE MAN WHO DOES NOT SET HIMSELF TO KEEP THE LAWLESS IN BANISHMENT."
Ancient Roots Translinear Bible 2008 - “For we die as water cascading to the ground, which none can gather. GOD NEVER DEFRAUDS A SOUL, BUT CONSIDERS THOUGHTS: NO OUTCAST IS OUTCAST FROM HIM."
Complete Apostle's Bible 2005 - "and God SHALL TAKE THE LIFE, EVEN AS HE DEVISES TO THRUST FORTH FROM HIM HIS OUTCAST." (Yeah, that's pretty much the same thing, right? ;-)
Today's English Version, and the Good News Translation 1992: "We will all die; we are like water spilled on the ground, which can't be gathered again. Even God DOES NOT BRING THE DEAD BACK TO LIFE". (He doesn't?)
The Translators’ Translation 2012 - “Even GOD DOES NOT CAUSE PEOPLE WHO HAVE DIED TO BECOME ALIVE AGAIN."
The New Brenton Translation 2012 - “For we shall surely die, and be as water poured upon the earth, which shall not be gathered up, AND GOD SHALL TAKE THE LIFE, even as he devises to thrust forth from him his outcast.” (The opposite meaning to that in the NKJV, NASB, ESV)
The Greek Septuagint is little help here to the modern versionists. It says: και λημψεται ο θεος ψυχην - "God shall receive a soul"
*The Catholic Versions - None of which even agrees with each other in meaning!
*Douay-Rheims 1610 - "NEITHER WILL GOD HAVE A SOUL TO PERISH, but recalleth, meaning that he that is cast off should not altogether perish. "
*St. Joseph New American bible 1970 - "Yet, though GOD DOES NOT BRING BACK LIFE, HE DOES TAKE THOUGHT HOW TO BANISH ANYONE FROM HIM."
*The New Jerusalem bible 1985 - "NOR DOES GOD RAISE UP A CORPSE; let the king therefore make plans for his banished son not to remain far away from him in exile."
*Catholic Public Domain Version 2009 - "We are all dying, and we are all like waters that flow into the ground and do not return. GOD DOES NOT WILL TO LOSE A SOUL. INSTEAD, HE RENEWS HIS EFFORTS, THINKING THAT WHAT HAS BEEN REJECTED MIGHT NOT PERISH ALTOGETHER."
Living Bible 1971 - "But God WILL BLESS YOU WITH A LONGER LIFE IF YOU FIND A WAY TO BRING YOUR SON BACK FROM HIS EXILE." (Huh?)
Jehovah Witness New World Translation 2013 - "We will surely die and be like waters that are poured out on the ground, which cannot be recovered. BUT GOD WOULD NOT TAKE AWAY A LIFE, and he considers reasons why the banished one should not always be banished from him."
New Living Bible - "that is why God TRIES TO BRING US BACK when we have been separated from him."
God's Word translation 1995: "But DOESN'T GOD FORGIVE A PERSON?"
The Easy To Read Version 2006 - "YOU KNOW GOD FORGIVES PEOPLE."
Good News Translation 1992 - "EVEN GOD DOES NOT BRING THE DEAD BACK TO LIFE."
Bible in Basic English 1961: "God WILL NOT TAKE AWAY THE LIFE OF THE MAN WHOSE PURPOSE IS THAT THAT HE WHO HAS BEEN SENT AWAY MAY NOT BE COMPLETELY CUT OFF FROM HIM." - say what?
Easy To Read Version 2001 - " No person can gather this water back from the ground. YOU KNOW GOD FORGIVES PEOPLE. God made plans for people who are forced to run away for safety--God doesn't force them to run away from him!"
Names of God Bible 2011 - "BUT DOESN'T ELOHIM FORGIVE A PERSON? He never plans to keep a banished person in exile."
The Voice 2012 - "But God WILL NOT WASTE A LIFE—He won’t allow the banished one to be exiled permanently from His presence."
The Julia Smith Bible 1855 - "AND GOD WILL NOT LIFT UP A SOUL"
There you have it. All of these are "bibles" written by "scholars" who have gone to seminary, examined "the original languages" and given us the various fruits of their labors.
I hope this clears up everything for you. Remember the famous words of men like James White who tell us: "It is good to have a variety of translations so you can get a better understanding of what it says."
“Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.” Jeremiah 6:16
Will Kinney
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