Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G Message"So now—when I go back to your servant my father without the boy—for his very soul is knit to the boy's soul—"
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.G"So now, when I come to your servant my father and the lad is not with us—seeing that his very being is bound up with the lad's very being—"
KJV
King James VersionNow therefore when I come to thy servant my father, and the lad be not with us; seeing that his life is bound up in the lad's life;
BSB
Berean Standard BibleSo if the boy is not with us when I return to your servant, and if my father, whose life is wrapped up in the boy’s life,
Footnotes
נַפְשׁוֹ קְשׁוּרָה בְנַפְשׁוֹ (nafsho qeshurah benafsho) — "his nephesh is bound/knit to his nephesh." The word נֶפֶשׁ (nephesh) encompasses the whole self: breath, throat, life-force, inner being, and soul — the full range of a person's existence. The image is of two lives so entwined that severing one tears the other. F.O.G renders "being" to honour the comprehensive Hebraic sense; F.O.G Message renders "soul" to draw out the emotional and spiritual depth of the bond. Both are linguistically defensible. The same verbal root appears in 1 Samuel 18:1, where Jonathan's soul is "knit" to David's.
