Mosiah 4:9
Contents
English
- 9 Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.
Korean
- 9 하나님을 믿으라. 그가 계신 것과 그가 하늘과 땅의 만물을 창조하셨음을 믿으라. 그가 하늘과 땅의 모든 지혜와 모든 권능을 가지셨음을 믿으라. 사람은 주께서 이해하실 수 있는 모든 것을 다 이해하지는 못함을 믿으라.
Explanation
하나님을 믿으라.
When translating a sentence, it is often easiest to start with the verbs. Here, stripping everything away, we have "믿으라". That means, "believe!" or "put your trust in something!"
The "하나님을" part tells us what to believe or trust because of the "을" part. If it were a topic marker or a subject marker, then it would tell us who should do the believing.
So, translated, this is "Believe in God!"
This is a really common phrase among Christians in Korea. They like to shout it to people on the streets in a really combative tone. Be careful not to do the same. It is really a gentle commandment coming from a very gentle man, King Benjamin.
Note that the English semi-colon ';' is really a weak period '.'. It signifies that the previous and following sentence really are talking about the same thing. Korean has no such thing.
그가 계신 것과 그가 하늘과 땅의 만물을 창조하셨음을 믿으라.
Looking at this from the end, we see our friend "믿으라". However, looking back in the sentence, we see two "을". Only the last one matters. "을" phrases, representing the object of the sentence, then thing that has something done to it, are usually before the verb. Only adverbs seem to get between the verb and her prey.
At the front of the sentence, we see "그가"--"he" + subject marker. Is this the subject of the sentence? Perhaps. It appears again halfway through, so it's now obvious that there is a sentence buried inside this one.
Really, the "창조하셨음을" and "계신 것" are other verbs buried in this sentence.
"과" is "and" which connects two nouns together. That means the thing on the left is a noun, and the thing on the right is a noun. "하늘과 땅" means "heaven and earth". We see "계신 것과 ..." and that leads us to believe that there are two big things that are joined with that final "과".
Let's dive in from the beginning and translate.
- 그가 계신 것
- 그 "He / that thing" + 가 (subject marker), 계시다 (to be/exist, polite) + AS+ㄴ/은 (adjective) + 것 (thing) => "That He (God) is / exists / lives / is real"
- Note that 그 can mean a number of things, usually "that". Here, it means "that", but the "that" referred to is 하나님 (God), so it is better translated as "He".
- Adjective + AS+ㄴ/은 + 것 is really, really common. Sometimes a different "thing" word is used instead of 것, but it's not nearly as common. This is translated roughly as "thing that is ~" or more smoothly as "that is ~".
- Here, instead of "살아 계시다" the verb is simply "계시다". This means the author is emphasizing his existence more than his living.
- 그가 계신 것과
- The "과" at the end means we're joining this phrase with the next phrase with an "and".
- 그가 하늘과 땅의 만물을 창조하셨음
-
- 그 (that/he) + 가 (subject marker) => "He"
- 하늘 (heaven) + 과 (and) + 땅 (earth) => "heaven and earth"
- 하늘과 땅의 만물: Heaven and earth + 의 ("'s", possessive) + 만물 (everything) => "everything of heaven and earth". Note that this is really, really, expansive, the definition of the universe type stuff here.
- 창조하셨음: 창조하다 (to create) + VS + (으)시다 (honorific infix) + G + ㅆ (past tense) + VS + ㅁ/음 (~ing, gerund) => "that (he) created".
- Why "ㅁ" and not "~ 것"? Perhaps it would be two repetitive with the previous phrase. It always surprises me how Koreans are so flexible with "ㅁ", but then I realize, we do the same thing. The gerund is that magical form that fills in the really hard spots of grammar, when you need a verb to act like a noun, when you want to talk about doing something rather than actually doing it. (Note "doing" is the gerund of "to do"!)
- So here, King Benjamin wants to talk about God creating (gerund!) everything, not tell you that he created it.
- Altogether, this is "that He created everything of heaven and earth".
- ~을 믿으라: "Believe ~".
- Altogether, this is, "Believe that he is / exists and that he created everything of heaven and earth."
그가 하늘과 땅의 모든 지혜와 모든 권능을 가지셨음을 믿으라.
- 그가
- He + (subject marker)
- 하늘과 땅의 모든 지혜와 모든 권능을
- Heaven + and + earth + 's (possessive) + all + wisdom + and + all + power + (object marker). This can be reordered to "all power and all wisdom of heaven and earth."
- 가지셨음을
- 가지다 (to have) + 시다 (honorific infix) + G + ㅆ (past tense) + VS + ㅁ/음 (gerund) + 을 (object marker). "That (he) had (something)" (as the object of the sentence.)
- 믿으라
- Believe!
Altogether, "Believe that He had all wisdom and power in heaven and earth." Note that in English, the past tense has the connotation of "... but not anymore!". This is absent from Korean. This actually means something more like "He had, and still has, ..."
사람은 주께서 이해하실 수 있는 모든 것을 다 이해하지는 못함을 믿으라.
- 사람은
- People + (topic marker). The thing we are really focused on here are people.
- 주께서 이해하실 수 있는 모든 것을
- 주 Lord + 께서 (honorific subject marker) + 이해하다to understand + 시다 (honorific infix) + ㄹ/을 수 있다 to be able to + 는 (present adjective clause marker) + 모든 all + 것 thing + 을 (object marker). "all things (모든 것) that (는) the Lord (주께서) can understand (이해하실 수 있~)" as the object of the sentence.
- 다 이해하지는 못함을
- 다 all + 이해하다 to understand + VS + 지는 못하다 cannot (emphatically) + ㅁ/음 (gerund) + 을 (object marker)
- 믿으라
- Believe
"Believe that people cannot understand completely all things that the Lord can understand."
