Can someone translate this antique german sign for me?

Question

Befiehl dem Hern

deine Wege

und

hoffe auf Ihn

Er Wird's

wohl machen

some of the first letters could be wrong, it's in old english font.

Answer 1

It's psalm 37,5 and there are many ways to translate it:

http://bible.cc/psalms/37-5.htm

Answer 2

You got all the letters right. As Fabian already said, it's hard to translate. It's like

"Command your ways to the Lord

and put your hopes on him

He'll probably make it"

What I find important is the "probably" ("wohl") in the last line. It means, he might do it or not. Sounds Bavarian to me (where I'm from); they take their catholic religion with a tad of humor.

--

Alright, Heinz, I really didn't see the missing r in "Herrn". But did I write anything different than you. Your grammatical solution is quite right, although I would have kept it more simple: The Dativ translates with "to".

Answer 3

Fabian and Alwin are not quite right. Grammatically correct is not

"Command your ways to the Lord ...." but "Command the Lord to your ways...." Beside the way "Herr" dative "Herrn" is spelled with double "r".

Grammatical solution "Befiehl --> Command" (imperative) ("wem oder was? whom ?" (dative "dem Herrn ---> the Lord")  (" wen oder what ? -- who or what ?" do you command to the Lord? (accusative) "deine Wege --- your ways").

Greetings from Hamburg, Germany

Heinz

Answer 4

Come to Hern for vegetarian dining and sleep at the Wird's inn in comfort

Answer 5

In addition to the other answers, let me add that the word "wohl" can mean "probably" but it also can mean "well". In present-day German, the meaning "probably" would be much more likely, but in old-fashioned German, the meaning "well" is much more likely. In this case, when it's an antique sign, I'd go for the translation "He will do (it) well" even though it sounds very different for a modern German.

Answer 6

Meaning translation:

Do as the Lord(God) commands

In your actions

and

have faith in him

He will make everything alright

Literal translation

Command the Father

you way

and

hope on him

He will

make alright

Ist a prayer written in old german script (very common to find knick knacks, sayings and prayer like this, especially on wood, but it's not old german. If this were to be written in old german it wouldn't be so clear and written in high German. Old German is similar to low German..

This is old german:

Fater unser, thū thār bist in himile,

sī geheilagōt thīn namo,

queme thīn rīhhi,

sī thīn uuillo,

sō her in himile ist, sō sī her in erdu,

unsar brōt tagalīhhaz gib uns hiutu,

inti furlāz uns unsara sculdi

sō uuir furlāzemēs unsarēn sculdīgōn,

inti ni gileitēst unsih in costunga,

ūzouh arlōsi unsih fon ubile.

For those of you who can figure it out it's the Vater Unser (or Our Father)

Answer 7

It's religious and from the bible and written in an old fashioned German as it used to be spoken in the Middle Age. It's good to understand but hard to translate into English if you're not used to the old fashioned English.

Fabian and Alwin are quite right in translation.

Answer 8

I don't speak German, but my guess would be that the word 'Hern', if it was misspelled, was 'Heim' (Home).

Could be wrong.

Here is a machine translation with that changed, but being a machine it isn't 100% correct:

Instruct to the home your ways and hope for it it will probably make

Answer 9

It's any Christian sign meaning something like

"Command your ways to the lord (God) and hope that he will do it"

Something like that, it's not really easy to translate but thats the basic meaning of the sign you mean.

Answer 10

Command your ways

to the lord

and

have faith in him

He will

do well

Answer 11

You mean it's in Frankfurter Font where the F and the S are almost indistinguishable.

______ to the ______

and your hope in him will make your ways better.