Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

ther, in the sense of a herd, be ever used otherwise than literally for a herd of cattle. Dr Kennicott's translation of this line supposes a figurative use of it, equivalent to the English word herd, used figuratively as a term of contempt.

[P] ——and their beauty." For, at the end of the verse, read .

Their beauty, is to be taken, figuratively, for the elegance and splendour of their appearance in the present life.

Dr Kennicott's notion, that may signify their soul, seems quite visionary.

Dr. Sturges's interpretation of this 14th verse is founded on more than one unauthorised emendation, and an unexampled sense, I fear, of the word pa. It deserves attention however.-See Merrick's Annotations.

[ocr errors]

[Q] Ver. 19. He shall go."

Either read with the LXX,

Ac אבותיך read אבותיו or, for ויבוא,and Houbigant

cording to the first reading, this verse is the Psalmist's judgement concerning the future doom of the atheist. According to the second, it is the atheist's impious decision concerning the vanity of our future hopes. But the first emendation is to be preferred, because it has the authority of the LXX.

[ocr errors]

[R] ——light.” Although the Atheist shall rise, yet he shall never see that light which emphatically deserves the

name;—that light, of which created light is but a faint image; the light of God's glory." He shall have no share in the beatific vision.

PSALM L.

[A] Ver. 11.is by my side;" Ty, juxta me, stands by me.

[ocr errors]

[B] Ver. 18. —-thou becamest his accomplice." Teixes auτ. LXX; i. e. you helped him to carry off his booty, and to make his escape.

[C] Ver. 19. Thy mouth hath been fruitful in mischief.” -Thou givest thy mouth to evil.” E. T.

;תשלח had probably in their copies ,שלחת The LXX, for

for they render 5 as the nominative to the verb. "Thy mouth hath abounded in iniquity," i. e. hath abundantly brought it forth. In this way, the parallelism between this and the next line is more exact.

[D] Ver. 20. Thou sittest, &c."

"Semel et iterum," says Houbigant; conceiving the verb an to be derived from the root 2, and remarking, very justly, that the force of the verb a, followed by another verb, is to signify the repetition of that which the other verb VOL. I.

T

predicates. But the LXX, and Jerome, with our English translators, formed a from the root . Kanuevos xatà tỡ ådeλgõ 08 nataλáλes. LXX. "Sedens adversus fratrem tuum loquebaris." Jerome. And this is very good sense.

"When

you are sitting still, and have nothing else to do, you are ever injuring your neighbour with your slanderous speech. Your table-talk is abuse of your nearest friends." Bishop Hare very properly refers to Psalm cxix, 23, for an instance of a similar use of the verb . And, "to sit in the seat of the scorner," in Psalm i, is to join in the profane jokes and ribaldry of idle circles.

[E] Ver. 21. Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself.” E. T.

"Existimasti futurum esse similem me tibi," is Houbigant's version, without any remark upon the singularity of the construction if the one be the infinitive, and the other the first person future, of the verb substantive, as must have been supposed by Houbigant, Bishop Hare, and our English translators. But the LXX, and the Vulgate, were strangers to any such construction. For the LXX render as a noun substantive, and the author of the Vulgate must have taken it for a noun substantive used adverbially. Ὑπέλαβες ἀνομίαν, ὅτι ἔσομαι σοι ὅμοιος. LXX. “Existimasti iniquè quod ero tibi similis." Vulg. All interpreters seem to have forgotten, that TN is the name which God takes to himself in the third chapter of Exodus. It is

[ocr errors]

with particular propriety, that God, in a personal expostulation with his people, about their infringement of their covenant with him in its most essential parts, calls himself by the name, by which he was pleased to describe himself to that same people, when he first called them by his servant Moses. The passage, therefore, should be rendered as in my transla

tion.

[F]-I will be thy adversary to thy face."

in order before thine eyes." E. T.

-set them

Set what in order ? Παρατήσω κατὰ πρόσωπόν σου. LXX. "Statuam contra faciem tuam." Vulg. "Adversabor in oculis tuis." Hare. "I will be thy adversary to thy face." Thy adversary, in a forensic sense. I will set myself to a regular pleading with thee upon the merits.

[G] Ver. 22. He, instead of I, is found in most of the versions; but Jerome and the Targum have I.

[H] Ver. 23. to him that ordereth his conversation aright." E. T. Bishop Hare's conjecture, D for D, is ingenious; but the alteration is unnecessary. The ancient versions support the received reading. The LXX, indeed, and Vulgate, render 777 as an adverb; "in that way.' "And in that way will I shew him the salvation of God." And this interpretation Dr Durell adopts, and Bishop Lowth in Merrick.

PSALM LI.

THE PENITENTIAL CONFESSION OF THE CONVERTED JEWS.

TITLE.

למנצח מזמור לדוד

בבוא אליו נתן הנביא כאשר בא אל בת שבע

Εἰς τὸ τέλος, ψαλμὸς τῷ Δαβίδ, ἐν τῷ ἐλθεῖν πρὸς αὐτὸν Νάθαν τὸν προφήτην, ἡνίκα εἰσῆλθε πρὸς Βηρσαβεε. LXX.

[ocr errors][ocr errors]

That this Psalm was not written upon the occasion to which the title refers, is evident from the 4th and 18th verses. The 4th verse ill suits the case of David, who laid a successful plot against Uriah's life, after he had defiled his bed; and the 18th verse refers the Psalm to the times of the captivity, when Jerusalem lay in ruins.

Ver. 2. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin."

Houbigant would join to this verse the latter part of the 4th; "that thou mayest be justified in what thou hast spoken, and clear when thou art judged." in that which

« PreviousContinue »