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predicates. But the LXX, and Jerome, with our English translators, formed from the root . Kabnuevos xata ¿deλpov os xataλaλs. 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 1, 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.

For

"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. the LXX render as a noun substantive, and the author of the Vulgate must have taken it for a noun substantive used adverbially. Ὑπέλαβες ἀνομιῶν, ὅτι ἔσομαι σοι όμοιος. LXX. "Existimasti iniquè quod ero tibi similis." VULG. All interpreters seem to have forgotten, that is the name which God takes to himself in the third chapter of Exodus. It is

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 translation.

[F]

I will be thy adversary to thy face." -set them

in order before thine eyes." E. T.

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Set what in order? Παρατησω κατα πρόσωπον 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, on for DV, is ingenious; but the alteration is unnecessary. The antient 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.

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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

thou hast spoken concerning the prosperity of me and my kingdom; that the purpose of God may not seem to be put by, through the crime of man. But the connection is clear as the passage stands. "Against thee only have I sinned," &c. so that thou mightest be justified in pronouncing sentence, and clear in giving judgment.

Ver. 12.

Spifree spirit.” Πνευματι ἡγεμονικῳ. LXX. ritu potenti. JEROM. Spiritu principali. VULG. Spiritus alacer. Bishop HARE. Spiritus magnanimitatis. HOUBIgant. A plentiful effusion of spirit. Mudge.

PSALM LII.

A BELIEVER'S THANKSGIVING FOR THE FINAL EXTIRPATION

OF PERSECUTING POWER.

Ver. 2. O mighty man, the goodness of God endureth continually."

The LXX had nothing in their copies about the goodness of God, or its continuance. Their version is in these words: Τι ἐγκαυχῷ ἐν κακιᾳ ὁ δυνατος; Ανομίαν όλην την ήμεραν, Αδικιαν ἐλογισατο ή γλώσσα σ8, which Jerome seems to have pointed after this manner; Τι ἐγκαυχα ἐν κακιᾳ ὁ δυνατος ἀνομίαν ; όλην την ήμεραν αδικιαν ἐλογισατο ἡ γλώσσα στο It is evident, that for 10, they had some word which they thought might be

rendered by avoμav. But of all the words, which are rendered by the LXX by the word av, in places where neither the Hebrew nor the Greek text may be suspected of corruption, that which most resembles TD is Dan. What if we read the Hebrew thus:

מה תתהלל ברעה הגבור אל חמס:

כל היום הוות תחשב לשונך כתער מלטש עשה רמיה:

Why exultest thou in wickedness,
O thou that art mighty in injustice?
Continually thou art plotting mischief;
Thy tongue is like a sharpened razor,
An engine of treachery.

גבור אל חמם This is very good sense, if the construction

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mighty in," or for the purpose of, "injustice," may be

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