Here I’ve collected a few thoughts in general on the process going forward with Exodus.

What is “phase three”? Phase 3 doesn't mean very much anymore. Back when I started I had a plan of attack, where I would change the archaic language of the KJV, compare the KJV to other public domain translations such as Doughay-Rheims, add sermon notes and a cross reference, and come up with interesting and applicable section headings. What I found out is that this process works but is un-necessarily slow; what would be better is a “pass” system where I read what I've come up with and look for parts that just don't read very well, then change them to try and fit the general candor of the text I am hoping to produce.

How this will play out for Exodus is I will simply copy the text of the KJV into the project as 'Exodus', and just start making changes as I read-through. I will record the major ideas behind each pass below.

In general, I think the project will go a little quicker from here on in. I've come to some major conclusions about what I want to get done first. One conclusion is that the main concern is getting an actual text – notes, Rashi, cross-reference etc. is a secondary concern. That being said, Rashi provides a very convenient “notes” section (and again, is public domain according to the license which was published on sefaria.org).

The text is being copied in and during this process minor changes will be made; approx. I expect to change around 10 words per chapter during this phase, in order to bring the text into a more modern language and to smooth out any unreasonable phrasings. No other major changes will be made.

The idea I want to express here is that I am reading through the book of Exodus and trying to smooth out what I feel is “unsmooth” English – language that sticks out as specifically archaic, or difficult – especially from the standpoint that I am an English as a second language teacher in Asia. I want this to read well as well as feel somewhat familiar to KJV readers.

I really want to retain some usages of archaic language as “royal speech” but I fear it would not appear as endearing to some readers as it does to me. This is a struggle I will endure as I go through Exodus and re-read some passages in Genesis to maintain “continuity” of use of archaic language. It will be important to set the tone here quickly before any other books have been completed, or else the translation may feel choppy. It must read well as a whole and not just verse by verse. This is an issue where I need to read and re-read the books many times and not just compare verse by verse – even though a verse by verse analysis is going to be required for the project to be truly complete.

When cutting and pasting the text of the KJV into the program, I experienced the issue of having the small caps copy as lowercase. This wasn't as much of an issue during Genesis because I used the ASV text and manually replaced “Jehovah.” with “LORD”. However, this may cause an issue in the NSV for certain passages. If it is an issue I will change the translation or at least include a note. In any case there are more Hebrew names for Hashem than there are in English, so it may be an unavoidable loss in translation unless I want to ensure all small caps becomes uppercase in the NSV. Another issue to ponder as I go through Exodus; and an issue which is bound to be very difficult to fix over time.

During the process of working on Exodus I discovered a merged version of Sefaria Community Edition, and will begin reintegrating that version of Rashi throughout the work.

Verse numbering on rashi will be with level 4 headings. This may actually be done with all verses; I don't know; numbering them on a line by itself is equivalent for all intents and purposes, and easier to read. But for Rashi it makes a little more sense to just use markup to make them heading level 4.

In any case this can be done automatically and needs to be done anyways since the old version of Rashi (ex. used for Genesis) will be replaced.

Hebrew text markers (the h. on rashi) are used to pull the text over to the left when editing. These are useful in other ways too, such as for cutting and pasting, and marking the hebrew text (which may also be useful later).

I've somewhat rushed the edit in the second half of Exodus; I've changed out some of the archaic words only, due to the necessity of actually using this, and edits will be made in retrospect (or in some future second pass). The goal now is to simply get a usable if not salable product, and a slower second pass will be done later. The goal here is to make at least five changes per chapter and then move on.

Especially the latter chapters of Exodus (35-40) did not require many changes since there was little or no conversation in them.

After midnight of Monday July 13th, actually July 14th, 2020. Once again I am reminded of the incredible scope of this project and the tradeoff between quality and time I am facing. But despite the apparent futility of the project I feel compelled to continue. At least if I had the five books of Moses done, that would be something.

I've considered once again just copying the entire KJV into the project and to begin using it, but the consistency would suffer. I would need some way of highlighting which passages should be changed first – this would be easy with a database. It may very well be that a database is the way to go foreward.