h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I am trying to translate the beginning of Psalm 23 in Latin.
ie;"The Lord is my Sheperd: I shall not want"
The best I have come up with is ...
"Dominus reget me et nihil mihi deerit". But that ends up being "The Lord ruleth me: and I shall want nothing"
Is that the closest accurate Latin translation there is? Or is there one closer to... "The Lord is my Sheperd: I shall not want"?
Thanks in advance and Please Hurry!
Kimiko

PS Any symbol that may go with it?

I would say something like "DOMINUS (MEUS) PASTOR EST: NON ABERO/DEFICIAM" but I'm not a bible scholar - I'm sure you can find the 'original' (I know it wasn't originally in Latin, but the English versions were (as far as I know) translated from it) Latin on the web somewhere - which would probably be a safer bet than trying to translate back into Latin something which was translated from Latin!

Thank you for replying.
Any hints on sites to try?
I've gotten a couple different versions and am left a bit beqwildered.

The Latin Vulgate Bible translated by Saint Jerome has:

"Dominus pascit me: nihil mihi deerit."

It took me a while to find this because Jerome for some reason lists it as psalm 22.

That is where I run into the problem...Too many different versions.
I saw that translatiion and when I tried to translate it back to English, it didn't make any sense.
PLEASE HELP!

It makes perfect sense to me and I can read Latin.

The translation given by Porcellus is fine. The verb 'pascere'(= to tend, look after(animals)) used here is the root of the Latin noun pastor(=shepherd). So it means 'The Lord takes care of me: I shall lack nothing.'

If you're not happy with saint Jerome's version you might use instead:

DOMINUS PASTOR MEUS EST: NIHIL MIHI DEERIT.

Which is how I would have translated it if I were Saint Jerome.

Thanks so much for taking the time to look into this for me.
Could you tell me what the version that I found means? (the opening convo)
I'm wondering what I almost had inked on me.

Thank you for taking your time to look into this for me.

"Dominus reget me et nihil mihi deerit"="The Lord will rule/guide/steer me and I shall lack nothing"

I hate to be a bother, but I heard back from a tat site where you can have things translated in Latin.
They have it as... "Dominus est pastor meus: non egebo"
Could you tell me what that means?
I do appreciate all your input. Thanks so much & looking forward to hearing from you soon.
Kimiko

Does anyone know what this means? ...

Dominus est pastor meus: non egebo

I'm possibly leaning towards one of the other translations, but am anxious to see how the one above translates from the tat site I was recommended to. Looking forward to hearing from someone, anyone educated in Latin as soon as possible.

Thanks in advance.

Kimiko

The verb "egere" = to be in want. So:

Dominus est pastor meus: non egebo

literally means

The lord is my shepherd: I shall not be in want.

Which sounds OK to me.

Porcellus,

Thank you so much for getting back to me.

Any input on which translation is the most accurate? Or is it truly a personal choice issue. Thank you again.

Kimiko

You could probably incite a riot with such a question, but for something which is essentially a quote, I would suggest going with the St. Jerome version, as being more 'original' regardless of accuracy - as has been said, they're all reasonably close. Hope that helps!

I personally would go for the Jerome version ("Dominus pascit...") because it has a sort of authenticity through it being from a version of the bible officially used by the church for centuries. It is also nice and short.

Incidentally, I've found that the version "Dominus regit me: nihil mihi deerit"(the Lord rules me etc.) is from an earlier (and less true to the original Hebrew) translation of the psalms by Jerome himself, who produced no fewer than three translations of the psalms. The two versions above were themselves based on Greek translations. His third version, which I have been unable to find, was translated directly from the Hebrew.

The two versions we have here strongly suggest that there was no direct reference to a "shepherd" in the original. For more on this find someone who can read Hebrew.

A thousand thank you's!
You were very kind to take your time to help me with this.
Kimiko

A thousand thank you's to you as well.
Over the years I have posted plenty of messages on different sites for a variety of reasons, and have not gotten the help and kindness I have found here.
Again... Thank you
Kimiko