So they read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense [sum sekel], so that the people understood the reading.
This marvelous phrase says a mouthful, including at least two principles for this blog:
- Intepreting Scripture goes hand-in-hand with reading Scripture; reading and study should not be separated from each other.
- Translating Scripture has to be more than just an act of inserting lexical correspondences (an approach called "formal equivalance"); we look to the biblical languages to help "give the sense," not just to "give the words."
