Hello,
The issue often become our understanding of the inerrancy of the Scriptures as many people attribute the inerrancy to the translations written by men where the "tradition" of the understanding of the inerrant source texts used, is incorporated into the translations the we use today as "our bibles" and hold dearly in our hearts. Sadly all of our translations are fallible and contain many error which have been compounded throughout the various translations.
Let us consider Hannah's prayer in 1 Samuel 2: -
1 Samuel 2:6-10: -
6 "The Lord kills and makes alive;
He brings down to the grave and brings up.
7 The Lord makes poor and makes rich;
He brings low and lifts up.
8 He raises the poor from the dust
And lifts the beggar from the ash heap,
To set them among princes
And make them inherit the throne of glory.
"For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's,
And He has set the world upon them.
9 He will guard the feet of His saints,
But the wicked shall be silent in darkness.
"For by strength no man shall prevail.
10 The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken in pieces;
From heaven He will thunder against them.
The Lord will judge the ends of the earth.
"He will give strength to His king,
And exalt the horn of His anointed."
This is very much a prophetic prayer by Hannah and it mentions the time of judgement in verse 10, but does the translation above give a clear indication of when that will be or does it leave us confused as to what the intent of the original Hebrew text is conveying.
Should the Hebrew text be translated as, "
The Lord will judge the ends of the earth." which give the sense of the judgement being given at number of places on the earth, or should the same Hebrew text be translated as, "
The lord will judge the earth at its end." which gives the sense of the timing of the judgement of the earth at the end of the allocated time for all of mankind to chose whether they will or will not worship the Lord God.
In check a number of translations only two translations versions gave a different sense in their respective translations, and they were: -
1 Sam 2:10: - the Lord judges throughout the earth. New Living Translation
1 Sam 2:10: - The Lord will judge the whole world; Good News Translation
Now the question is, "Is the blue highlighted line above to be understood 'literally' as it is usually translated with the concept that the Lord's judgement will take place at a number of places scattered over the face of the earth, or with the sense of "the end of time with respect to the earth," when the judgement will take place.
Also of interest in the above passage is the verse, which does not make sense either and perhaps it should be understood to read thus in our translations: -
8 He raises the poor from the dust
And lifts the beggar from the ash heap,
To set them among princes
And make them/To inherit the throne of glory.
"For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's,
And He has set the world upon them.
Perhaps in speaking of Interpretation Methods we should consider whether or not the translations that we like to refer to in our daily reading have already side tracked us from the truth that is already in the source text in the original language texts that have been used to compile the various translations.
When we read widely to come to an understanding of what the "truth" of a particular verse is, then perhaps we need to seek out God's understanding and abide in that.
Shalom