Various methods were adopted to avoid con- fusion between 'his' mas. and neut. (1) The use of 'it' for the poss. is regarded as a dialectic peculiarity, belonging to the North - Western counties. Its single occuiTence in AV (Lv 25') comes from the Geneva version.* Its pre.sence in Shaks. is sometimes due to imitation of the language of childhood ; thus King John II. i. 160 —
' Go to it grandam, child : Give grandam kingdom, and it {n*andara will Give it a plum, a cherrj', and a fig.'
But this is not always the case ; and examples " The L.XX is t« atircijuLTtt «va;3a/vc*Ta. In Ac 1210 the same
Gr. word (rr^e awTB,tMtr,i ys^oix^-r [edd. ignj.y*]] (tiToli) is tri in AV
* the iron gute . . . whicJi opened to them of his own accord.' In Luther's Rihie Lv *25^' is von ihm setber ; Ac 1210 ron ihr utbgt. The Gen. NT has in Ac 1210 ' which opened to them by It owne accorde.'
may be quoted from other authors, as Judgement of Synode of Dort (1619), p. 9, ' Election . . . u to bee propounded with the spirit of discretion, religiously, and holily, in it place and time.' Indeed the often occurring 'it self in AV 1611, is an example just as good as 'it own' : cf. Up. Hall, Works, ii. 79 (' Contein plat ions,' bk. iii.), ' Why may wee not di.stinguisli of tire, as it is it selfe, a bodily creature, and as it is an instrument of God's justice, so working, not by any niateriall vertiie, or power of it owne, but by a certain height of supernaturall elficacie, to which it la ex.alted by the omnipotence of tliat supreme and righteous Judge ? ' ('J) Occasionally the was used for ' his,' as in Robynson's tr" of More's Uturiia (Lumby's ed. p. 101), 'They marveile also that golde, whych of the owne nature is a thing so un- profytable, is nowe anionge all people in so hyghe estimation.' (3) Sometimes the noun was per- sonified and the fem. /ter then used. This is Milton's favourite device, as in Ilumn on Nativity, 140—
* And Hell it self will poos away, And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day.*
Cf. Tindale's tr° of Nu 4»- '» ' And they shall take a cloth of lacyncte and cover the cmdelsticke of light and hir lampes and hir snollers and fyre pannes and all hir oylc vessels which they oci-ujiye aboute it, and shall put apon her and on all hir instrumentes, a coverj'nge of taxus skynnes, and put it apon staves.' So in AV, Jon 1'° ' the sea ceased from her ragin" ' ; Rev 22- ' the tree of life, which . . . yielded her fruit every month.' (4) Occasionally 'of it' was adopted, as Dn 7° 'it had three ribs in the mouth of it, between the teeth of it.' (5) Very often the phrase was slightly turned, and 'thereof used, as by Fuller, y'w'/'i/i Sifiht, p. 40, 'Twice was it [Solomon's Temple] pillaged by foreign foes, and four times by lier own friends before the final destruction tliereof.' But ' the most curious thing of all in the history of the word "its" is the extent to wliich, before its recognition as a word admissible in serious composition, even the occasion for its employment was avoided or eluded. This is very remarkable in Shakespeare. The very conception whidi we express by " its " probably does not occur once in his works for ten times that it is to be found in any modern writer. So that we may say the invention, or adoption, of this form has changed not only our English style, but even our manner of thinking.' — Craik, Eng. of SImIci. p. 103.
J. Hastings. ITTAI (•!?!<, perh. 'companionable'). — 1. A native of Gath, whence he was banished (?) (2 S 15") with 600 followers, who witli their families (v.-'^) joined David not long (v.-°) before the revolt of Absalom. (' After him,' etc., in v." refers to Ittai, wliose name has probably dropped out. So Wellhau.sen in Driver, Heb. Text of Sam. ad loc). Ewald, follow- ing Jos. (Ant. VII. ix. 2), identifies tliis band with the 600 whom David commanded when an outlaw (1 S 23" 25" 27= 30'), and these, again, witli the gibborim (mighty men), reading, after Thenius, in V.'* gibborim for Git dm. The LXX and Vulg. are cited as supporting this emendation ; but the LXX here is at once conflated and defective. The genuine LXX (ace. to Wellhausen) and the Vulg. interpolationare merely explanatory of 'Cheretliites — Gittites.' The gibburitn of 2 S 16' included the Cherethites, etc. ; see also 2 S 23*. David's original followers were Hebrews (1 S 22"), but Ittai's 000 were Philistines (2 S 15'" ' from Gath,' ^o • thy brethren ') ; on the other hand tliey were dilferent from the Cherethites, etc., whose captain was Benaiah. It may be added that the phrase ' the Gittith ' (titles of Ps 8. 81. 84) is rendered by Hit- zig and Delitzsch 'a march of the Gittite guari.'
ITUE.EA
1TUK.EA
521
The scene in which we first meet Ittai (2 S 15'»-^) ilniost 8urj)asse8 the partiuf; of Naomi and her daughters-in-law as a portraj-al of noble unselfish- ness, and of intense personal devotion. David, never so kingly as when in aflliction, urges Ittai, as a stranger ("!?;). to retire from a desperate cause, bids liira either engage in the service of the new king, or return home to Gath, and dismisses him with a gracious benediction. Ittai in reply, •wearing by tlie God of Israel, alBnus an undying loyalty, ui tlie battle with Absalom, Ittai was cne of David's three generals (2 S 18-°-"). It is possible that he fell in the engagement, as we hear of him no more. Jerome {Qu. Heb. on I Ch 20-) cites a tradition that it was not David but Ittai that took the crown otithe head of tlie Ammonite idol Milcom, it being forbidden to a Hebrew to take, with his own liands, gold or silver from an idol. 2. 2 S 23-« (1 Ch IP' Ithai 'cik) one of David's heroes. N. J. D. White.