And so it came to pass that Barack Obama visited himself on a prayer breakfast and decided to quote the Old Testament. Obama apparently did not researcheth the Bible before offering a quote, however, which yea verily madeth Obama look a bit foolish:

President Obama misquoted a familiar Bible verse during a faith-based address at the National Prayer Breakfast.

“Those who wait on the Lord will soar on wings like eagles, and they will run and not be weary, and they will walk and not faint,” the president said during a speech to several thousand people at the breakfast.

But the actual passage, from Isaiah 40:31, states: “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”

Ace notes that the folly didn’t stoppeth with Obama, either:

But what is Media Matters being paid for? In spinning for the Divine One who can Maketh No Error, they claim, gee whiz, these winguts apparently don’t know there is more than one version of the Bible, and Obama was quoting accurately from the New International Version.

Media Matters opines:

“This would be funny if it weren’t so pathetic.”

And to prove Obama accurately quoted the New International Version they link the passage in question, which confirms the “renews their strength” part is absent in that translation which also contains the “renews their strength” part, proving that Obama did indeed botch this version of the quotation as well.

They are linking that to prove he accurately quoted from it, apparently not bothering to click on the link themselves and discover, nope, he was wrong according to that version, too.

Let’s check a few of the versions, shall we?

• New American Standard: “Yet those who wait for the LORD will ^(A)gain new strength; They will ^(B)mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired,They will walk and not become weary.”
• New Living Translation: “But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.  They will soar high on wings like eagles.  They will run and not grow weary.
  They will walk and not faint.”
• New King James: “But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary,
  They shall walk and not faint.”
• English Standard: “but^(A) they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings^(B) like eagles; they shall run and not be weary;
  they shall walk and not faint.”
• American Standard: “but they that wait for Jehovah shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.”

Maybe the White House learned their research techniques from Media Matters.

Update: I forgot the link to Ace; it’s now added.

Got an Obamateurism of the Day? If you see a foul-up by Barack Obama, e-mail it to me at [email protected] with the quote and the link to the Obamateurism. I’ll post the best Obamateurisms on a daily basis, depending on how many I receive. Include a link to your blog, and I’ll give some link love as well. And unlike Slate, I promise to end the feature when Barack Obama leaves office.

Illustrations by Chris Muir of Day by Day. Be sure to read the adventures of Sam, Zed, Damon, and Jan every day!