For example, Isaiah 57:8 where the NRSV demurely translates yad as “nakedness.” Isaiah 57:8 becomes positively raunchy in Hebrew: NRSV has “your desire (yad) rekindled.” In Canaanite mythology, the “hand” of the god El (from whom Biblical scholars think Yahweh evolved) is—in certain poetic contexts—clearly his penis.

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