‘ The archdeacon hath divided it Into three limits very equally.”
The verb occurs twice: In Ps 78“ it means to set limits to, restrict, ‘they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel’ (nnn, LXX παρώξυναν, RV ‘provoked,’ RVm ‘ limited’).
The tr. ‘limited’ comes from the Gen. Bible, which explains its meaning in the marg., ‘As thei all do that measure the power of God by their capacitie.’ But it is usually taken in another sense : thus in JQR iv. 441, Dr. Friedlander says, ‘My conception of God is based on the teaching of the Scriptures, God is the Creator and the Ruler of the Universe, and by His decree phenomena appear and events occur which are contrary to human expectation, t.¢e. miracles are wrought by Him. Ac- cording to the idea of Mr. Montefiore, the Divine Being is bound to act according to certain laws established by human reason. This is by no means a new theory. Asaph in Ps 784, speaking of the Israelites in the wilderness, says, Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.’ The translation is due to the fact that the same Heb. form occurs in Ezk 94 along with the word tdw (which is the name of the last letter of the Heb. alphabet, and was originally in the shape of a cross), where it is trd ‘set a mark.’ But most follow the LXX
[2 παρώξυναν, Syr. ἸοΖ, Vulg. exacerbaverunt, and Jerome con- citaverunt, and translate ‘grieved,’ or as RV ‘provoked,’ Kautzsch krankten.*
The Amer. RV introduces ‘limit’ in this sense into Job 158. Cf. Adams, Works, i. 26, ‘ being an infinite and illimited God.’
The other occurrence of the verb is He 4? ‘Again, he limiteth a certain day.’ where the meaning is ‘fix as a limit’ (ὁρίζει, RV ‘defineth’). So Berners’ Froissart, xxiv. ‘It was not long after but that the king came to his palace of West- minster and all his council was commanded to be there at a certain day limited’; Bradford, Plym. Plant. p. 82, ‘Their time limited them being ex pired, they returned to the ship.’
J. HASTINGS.
LINE.—1. The word most freq. translated ‘line in AVis 1p kaw or pkaw. The kaw is a marking off or measuring line, asit is fully defined in Jer 31°, but is usually called simply the ‘line.’ It is especially the builder’s measuring line, as Zee 115 ‘I am re- turned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it, saith the Lord of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem’; and so it comes to be used of the line that marks off the part that is to be taken down and destroyed, as 2 K 21" “And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab,
* Burgess (Notes on Heb. Pas) adopts the tr. ‘set a mark, and has the interesting suggestion that the Israelites proposed to put God to the test: if He provides flesh in the wilderness
then we shall acknowledge Him; somewhat after the manner of Caliban—‘ That’s 6 brave god, and beare celestia! liquor; t
will kneel to him.’
LINE
t.c. the line that marked them off for their destruc- tion ; Is 2817 ‘ Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet’ (RV ‘And 1 will make judgement the line’); Is 34" ‘ the line of confusion.” Then the word comes into use meta- phorically for whatever goes by line or measure- ment, a rule of life: thus in Is 28” the drunkards of Ephraim mock Isaiah’s Eesahing as ‘precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, and there a little,’ showing by their use of a series of monosyllables (zaw la-zaw, zaw la-zaw, kaw la-kaw, kaw la-kaw, φῦ ὅν sham, z&ér shim) both their drunkenness and their disgust. For the Eng. word here ef. Archbp. Hamilton's Catechism (Mitchell’s ed. fol. v), ‘ For as ane biggare [= builder] can nocht make ane evin up wal without direction of his lyne, a mason can nocht heu ane evin aislair staine without directioun of his rewill, ane skyppar can nocht gyde his schip to gud hevin without direction of his compas, sa a man or & woman can nocht ordour or gyd his lyif evin and strecht to the plesour of GoD with- out direction of his commandis.’
The only passage of difficulty is Ps 194 ‘Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.’ AVm suggests as alternative translations ‘their rule’ or ‘direction’; RV accepts the tr. of AV (which comes from the Gen.) without margin. The same verb is found with the measuring line in Ezk 473, and perhaps the majority of mod. expositors accept this tr., the meaning then being that the heavens send out their line to mark off and take possession of the whole earth, an idea suggested by the line of the horizon running round the earth. So Del., Per., De Witt, Kirkp., Kautzsch. But the oldest translators thought of the line as Hatta a bowstring that gives forth a sound. So φθόγγος,
ymm. ἦχος, Jer. and Vulg. sonus, Wyc. ‘soun,’ Cov. ‘ sounde,’ Dou. ‘sound,’ Segond retentissement, King ‘strain.’ Prac- tically the same meaning is got by Cheyne and Wellh. in another way. They read ὈΡῚΡ for O32, and trans. ‘ their voice.’