Translations
The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
The sun will not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
The sun will not strike you down by day, nor the moon by night.
The sun will not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
Footnotes
The verb yakeh ("strike") is the same word used for a blow in combat—sun and moon are personified as potential assailants. Sunstroke was a genuine and deadly threat for pilgrims travelling open roads in the Levantine heat (cf. 2 Kings 4:19; Jon. 4:8). Lunar influence on health was also widely assumed in the ancient world—the English "lunatic" preserves this folk belief. Together, sun and moon form a merism for round-the-clock danger: no hour lies outside Yahweh's protective reach. Both translations preserve this total-coverage merism, with F.O.G.M. adding "down" to sharpen the violence of the verb.
