Quick Change Artists

(Pro 24:21 KJV)  My son, fear thou the LORD and the king: and meddle not with them that are given to change:

Think of the two kinds of people represented here.  It would seem that one fears the Lord and the other doesn’t.  The one who doesn’t is always changing things to suit his purposes.  This is one reason I look at new translations of the Bible with a bit of skepticism.  I accept that over the centuries language changes.  Words fall out of meaning.  There might even be some new scholarship that gives us a better understanding.  That does not excuse the travesty of paraphrasing the word and words of God.  

Beware of people who try to “change” (8132) the message of God by making it more modern or contemporary.  A great example of this earlier in this chapter.  Notice the difference between two translations,

(Pro 24:5 KJV)  A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength.

(Pro 24:5 CEV) Wisdom brings strength, and knowledge gives power.

I will accept the general truth of the CEV but in this case both times you see “man” the word is in the Hebrew.  In fact there are two different words for “man” (1397 and 376) which use synonyms to reinforce the ideas of wisdom and knowledge.  The problem, as I see, is that the paraphrasers made the changes to keep the feminists on the committee happy.  They don’t seem to sense the frown on God’s face.

So?  God ahead and change froward to twisted or perverted.  That is updating.  Don’t drop out words that make you uncomfortable or might be controversial.  That is sin.