Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageHe feeds on ashes — a deceived heart has led him off the path. He cannot save his own soul, and he cannot bring himself to ask, 'Isn't what I'm clutching in my right hand a lie?'
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.GHe is a feeder on ash — a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot rescue his own nephesh, nor even bring himself to ask, 'Is there not a lie in my right hand?'
KJV
King James VersionHe feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?
BSB
Berean Standard BibleHe feeds on ashes. His deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?”
Footnotes
*Nephesh* (נֶפֶשׁ) is one of the richest and most untranslatable words in Biblical Hebrew. Literally 'throat' or 'gullet,' it extends to mean breath, life, self, desire, and whole being — the living person in their full embodied vitality. 'He cannot deliver his *nephesh*' means he cannot save his very life and self — the bitter irony being that the idol he cried 'deliver me!' to (v. 17) is equally powerless. FOG retains *nephesh* to preserve the embodied resonance; FOG Message uses 'soul' as the closest English approximation of the whole person.
