> Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.
> By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.
> These are the sons of Shem, after their families, after their tongues, in their lands, after their nations.
(from the KJV)
I realize this is an obsolete use of after, maybe meaning something like according to, but I can't really understand its exact meaning.
The last verse quoted is thus translated in the NIV, one of the modern translations:
> These are the sons of Shem by their clans and languages, in their territories and nations.
@Færd yes, just replace with 'according to'. Frankly 'according to' also sounds a little archaic. 'by their kind' sounds more modernly idiomatic to me, but I've nver actually heard that.
@Færd This is not bible chat, but I thought I would let you know that I think the NRSV is the most scholarly translation and not the KJV. It's what the biblical scholars recommend.
@Færd I would guess that the names listed in the passage are related to names of ethnic groups and languages that would have been familiar to the audience at the time.
For example, "Aram" was an ancient nation in the Middle East; we call the associated people "Aramaeans" and the associated language "Aramaic."
"Elam" was also a nation, associated with the Elamite people and language.
@WillHunting @Færd Shakespeare used the Geneva Bible, which makes since because despite being a contemporary of the 1611 King James Version, he died shortly after that in 1616.
@Tonepoet I am very, very happy with my AHD. It is very, very good.
It is raining heavily here in Antarctica. I am waiting for the rain to stop before going out. I think I will have a huge dinner on my own tonight, since there is no Maria to join me this Friday evening.
@WillHunting I think you already know the ones I usually use are the older dictionaries. The C.D.C., some of Merriam-Webster's older works and their progenitor work The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. Do note that if Merriam-Webster used the same degree of scrutiny that they had used for their Second New International Dictionary, WIlliam Morris might not have ever bothered to create the A.H.D.
@Robusto I don't think I've ever heard that before. Like, not once.
Poles are generally not liked too much, but it's that "they take away our jobs" kind of thing, which if you think about it is sort of the exact opposite of being crap at jobs, innit.
There's a couple idioms, sayings and rhymes involving Poland or the Poles, but I've not come across this particular one.
Oh and yeah. All Poles are thieves. Especially when it comes to cars.
