For the preservation of the name of this “ righteous Branch,” wWPTY Ti, “ Jehovah our righteousness,” we may bless God for the
SECT. 43, 44.] MESSIAH VINDICATED. 211
original; for the old translations are either mistaken, or corrupt, or perverted in this place. The Vulgar Latin is the best of them, which reads, “ Dominus justus noster,’—“ Our righteous Lord ;” which yet corrupts the sense, and gives us an expression that may be assigned unto any righteous king.
The LXX., far worse, Ka) rodro +) tvoma abrod, 6 xurtoer adrdy Kipios, Iwozdéx-— And this is the name that the Lord shall call him, Josedec:”—a corrupt word formed out of the two Hebrew words in the original, signifying nothing, but perverted as it were on purpose to despoil the Messiah of his glorious name, the evidence of his eternal deity. Symmachus, Kdpie, dixaswoov jués,—“ Lord, justify us.” He seems, as one observes, to have read ¥P7¥ in Pihel; but yet this also obscures the text.
The Chaldee, according unto its usual manner when any thing occurs which its author ideetaod not, gives us a gloss of its own sufficiently perverting the sense of the place. np yo par soo asym ‘myo » ;—“ Let righteousness come forth to us from before the Lord in his days.” Let them consider this instance,—which is but one of many that may be given,—who are ready to despise the original text, to prefer translations before it, and to cherish suspicions of its being corrupted by the Jews, or of their arbitrary invention of its points or vowels, whereby the sense of the words is fixed and limited. Can there be any clearer acquitment of them in this matter than this certain observation, that every place almost which bears testi- mony unto any thing concerning the Messiah whic is denied by them, is far more clear in the original than in any old translation whatever? And hereof we have an eminent instance in this place, where this name, denoting undeniably the divine nature of the Messiah, is preserved entire only in the original, and that as it is pointed, as some fancy, by some Jewish Masoretes, who lived they know not where nor when. And those amongst ourselves who are ready to give countenance unto such opinions, or to admire the pro- moters of them, may do well to consider what reflection they cast thereby on that translation which is in use among us by the-com- mand of authority; than which there is no one extant in the world that is more religiously observant of the Hebrew text, and that as pointed in their Bibles; nor hath it any regard unto any or all trans- lations, where they differ from the original, as may be seen with especial respect unto that of the LXX., the stream that feeds most of the rest, in above a thousand places. But this by the way.
One of late hath applied this name unto the people of Israel, and interprets the words, “ Deus nobis bene fecit;”—“ God hath done well unto us.” But we have had too much of such bold and groundless conjectures about the fundamentals of our faith and wor- ship. The Jews seek to evade this testimony by instances of the
212 PROMISES OF THE [EXERCO. IX.
application of this name to other things, as the altar built by Moses, the ark, and the city of Jerusalem. But it is one thing to have the name of God called on a place or thing, to bring the occa- sion of it unto remembrance; another, to say that this is the name of such a person, “Jehovah our righteousness.” And whereas the Holy Ghost says expressly that this is his name, the Jews must give us leave to call him so and to believe him so; which is all we con- tend for. Of the same importance with this prophecy is that of Ezek. xxxvi. 24.
45. Jer. xxx. 21, “Their nobles shall be of themselves, and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them.” Targum, Poin psa hnwn] -—“Their king shall be anointed from amongst them, and their Messiah shall be revealed unto them.” And upon his account it is that God enters into a new covenant with his people, verse 22.
Jer. xxxiii. 138, 15, For these words, “ Flocks shall pass again under the hands of bin that telleth them,” the Targum reads, Ty smo oy Sy soy pman’ mn);—“ And the pe eople shall be yet gathered by the Messiah.” And a prophecy of him it is, no doubt, as the 15th verse makes it evident, where all the Jews acknowledge him to be intended by the “ Branch of righteousness” which shall spring up unto David; who also is promised in the 6th verse as the “abun- dance” (or “ crown”) “of peace and truth.” Yet one of late hath wrested this place also to Zerubbabel.
46. Hos. it. 5, “Seek the Lorp their God, and David their king.” Targum, ansdy a1 3a amend pyonen;—“ And shall obey the Messiah, the son of David, their King.” ‘The rabbins are di- vided about this place, some af them acknowledging the Messiah to be intended, others referring the prophecy unto the temple, or house of the sanctuary, built by the son of David; but the words themselves, with the denotation of the time for the accomplishment of this prophecy in the end of the verse, will allow of no application unto any other, and plainly discovers his mistake who would wrest this text also to Zerubbabel.