Handling displaced verses

Question

During a workshop, someone brought up the interesting case of Isaiah 38:21-22 in French versions PDV (Parole de Vie) and FRC97 (Français courant 1997). In these versions, 38:21-22 has been moved between 38:6-7:

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Basic checks helpfully flags this as “Verse out of order” when it finds vv. 6, 21, 22, 7 in that order.

Question is what’s the best way to handle this error in Paratext: 1) deny the error or 2) is it possible to add this order to a custom versification? If so, how? (I didn’t find this case listed in the Help.)

(Just to note in passing that Nouvelle Français courant has reverted to the normal verse order.)

Answer 1

I would say it is fine to deny the error since it only applies to very few verses. In addition, when it is denied, it is easy to see which verses have been denied. Transparency is important. I knew we had reordered some verses, but I could not remember exactly where it was. By running the verse check and showing denied errors it was easy to see where they were.

We did it 6 places in the Danish Bible. Apart from Isa 38 we reordered in Exo 16 moving 9-11 in between 3 and 4. We reordered 3 places in Prov 31 in order to make the translation acrostic so the verse order is 19, 21, 20, 23, 22, 25, 24, 26. In Job 31 we moved 36-37 down to the end of the chapter. In every place there is a footnote explaining the reasons. This is quite a free translation, and for many projects such reordering might not be acceptable.

Iver+Larsen

Answer 2

I agree with @Iver+Larsen. Denying the error is best practice.
Putting the verses out of order results in one error:

 ISA 38:7 Verse out of order 

This is of course true and Paratext picks that up. But since that is what you want, you deny the error.