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Acknowledge

             Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV)

Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6 NASB)

Today’s verse is provided in two translations because there is an interesting difference of word choices. The only difference between them comes in the words acknowledge and submit to. The NIV translators aimed to make the text mean what it meant to the original readers, while the NASB translators tended to be more focused on translating the words. Which is better is a matter of debate. In this case, the NASB agrees with the King James version in its word translation as acknowledge.

But, some places submit is used in Scripture cause some hard feelings. Wives should submit to their husbands, children to their parents, slaves to their masters, and people to their governing officials. In the New Testament, the NASB uses the word subject instead of submit. It might be interesting to read about the translators’ thoughts on this matter if they made notes about them, but that’s a project for when I have nothing else to do and remember. For now, the question on my mind is the choice of acknowledge.

In Exodus and Deuteronomy, with a reminder in Joshua, the Jews committed themselves to a Suzerain agreement with God. They chose to make God their leader and god, and He agreed to care for them and set out the rules by which they would live. They agreed. When two people get married, they commit themselves to an agreement. When someone sold himself or a family member into slavery (as was a custom of that day) they were entering in an agreement for up to seven years (in most cases.) When children were born, their parents took them before the Lord and effectively agreed to care for the child. The child was too young to legally agree, but there was an implicit agreement nonetheless.

In a sense, the notion of submission or subjection is the acknowledgment of a relationship between two people or entities? Shouldn’t we all live up to the agreements we have made? Shouldn’t we all at least acknowledge that those with whom we’ve formed such agreements exist, and consider their thoughts and feelings? The relationships to which Paul refers are some of the most important in our lives, or should be - should we not value that relationship highly enough to weigh what they have to say highly?

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