The use of the word “rend” here well illustrates both the denotation, that is the dictionary meaning of the word, as well as its connotation, that is, the emotional baggage which accompanies it. Genesis 37, reading from The Message. It is generally not at all a good translation, but here it actually rises to the occasion.
Notice the idea that Jacob’s firstborn was beside himself. Other translations render the prepositional phrase “in despair” with such terms as in “grief or in sorrow.” The Voice actually has it that he was “in agony and despair.”
The emotional superstructure, the connotation, around the rending of clothing is despair, the emotion which underlies such exclamations as, “Woe is me!” or such questions as, “What am I going to do now?”
