* ny, literally rendered in the LXX by &a6 cay zaxdiy adrov.
+ See Lord Arthur Hervey’s note, ad loc., in The Speaker's Commentary. F :
t As Ps 162, Ps 2216, 1 Ch 628, See the article in the Church Quarterly Review, before referred to, pp. 186, 187, where these
passages are discussed. § See the marginal reading of Is 42,
men’ for ‘traders’ (2 Ch 914), ‘sith: for ‘since.’ In 18 17” ‘carriage’ is properly changed to ‘baggage,’ as in Is 10 and elsewhere; and in 2K 23" ‘title’ (from the Vulgate) is in like manner replaced by ‘monument.’* Yet the house in which the leper king Azariah dies is still called a ‘several,’ instead of a ‘separate,’ house (2 K 15°) ; and, yet more strangely, the Latinism ‘desired’ for ‘regretted’ is still found in the description of the death of Jehoram (2 Ch 21°),
In spite, however, of defects and inconsistencies, of which only a very few specimens have been given, it is but just to the OT Revisers to admit that they have corrected many a faulty rendering, and by so doing have thrown light on a multitude ofobscure passages. In 28 1'8, for instance, David’s bidding ‘the use of the bow’ to be taught to the children of Judah has always been felt to be out of place at the beginning of the dirge. By the simple change of wse to song, as the word to be supplied, it is seen that the dirge itself, ‘ the song of the bow,’ was the thing enjoined to be taught. The inconsequent statement in Is 10, ‘though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return,’ is made logical by reading ‘only’ for ‘yet’; both words being alike in italics. Much improved also is the rendering of the next verse. In the AV it stands: ‘For the Lord God of hosts shall make a consumption, even determined....’ Inthe RV itis: ‘Fora consum- mation, and that determined, shall the Lord... .’ ‘The ships of Tarshish,’ in the older rendering of Ezk 27, by a poetical but not very intelligible metaphor, ‘did sing of thee in thy market.’ Now, in simple prose it is: ‘were thy caravans for thy merchandise.’ In a very obscure passage, Hos 5? ~ ‘the revolters are gone deep in making slaughter’ ean at least be understood, which is more than can be truly said of the earlier version: ‘are pro- found to make slaughter.’ Hab 17! gains much in terseness, not to say fidelity, by the rendering ‘whose might is his god,’ in place of ‘imputing this his power unto his god.’ Other examples crowd upon the memory, but these will suffice.
As we try to view the work of the Revisers upon the two Testaments asa finished whole, the question inevitably arises: Is their work a failure or a success? Will the Bible, in the form in which they leave it to us, become the Bible of the English- speaking people, or will it be quietly laid aside, to be referred to occasionally as a useful commentary on the older version? Fortunately, we are spared the necessity of replying, as time alone can give the answer. We do not forget how slowly, for a long while, the AV itself won its way to general acceptance ; and how the Psalter it contains has not even yet displaced the older version in the Book of Common Prayer.t| Knowing as we do the long and unselfish labour bestowed by the Revisers upon their task, we cannot but sympathize with the aspirations with which their Pretaces close. But as it is a hazardous undertaking to attempt to restore—not renovate—an ancient building, so is it perilous to apply the touch of any but the most loving and cautious, as well as skilful, hands to the venerable structure of the Version of 1611. For its ‘marvellous English,’ to recall a familiar
*The Hebrew word j¥¥, here so rendered, is translated ‘sion’ in Ezk 3915 (AV and RY), while in Jer 3121 its plural is ‘waymarks.’ See Edgar, as before, p. 319 n. a
+ See some remarks on this by Scrivener, Authorized Edition, p. 139. Professor Cheyne, who quotes the passage (Hapositor, 3rd ser. vol.-v. p. 304), justly urges in reply the claims of sense as against sound. But in a translation of poetical books both must be studied. Asa passing illustration, let the reader call to mind two sentences from the older version of Ps 1479. 18 ‘Who giveth fodder unto the cattle,’ and ‘He bloweth with his wind and the waters flow’; and ask himself what has been gained by the alteration of these in the RV.
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VERSIONS (ENGLISH)
passage of F. W. Faber, ‘lives on in the ear like a music that never can be forgotten. . . . Its feli- cities seem often to be almost things rather than mere words.’ The makers of that version erred, no doubt, in many places. Small credit is ours, if, with the added knowledge of nearly three centuries, we can discern their faults. But great will be the praise of that scholar, or that band of scholars, who shall be judged to have removed the blemishes of their handiwork, without marring its beauties. *
The revision of the Apocrypha was, as before said, an afterthought. It was simply a matter of agreement between the Revisers and the repre- sentatives of the University Presses of Oxford and Cambridge. Moreover, whilst, in the Speaker's Commentary, the Apocr., issued in 1888, was in- cluded under the general title of ‘The Holy Bible,’ the title-page of the revised edition of 1895 makes no such claim. The Preface ends simply with the unassuming hope ‘ that it will be found helpful to the student, and acceptable to the general reader of the Apocrypha.’ This seems to make a few words desirable on the position held by the Apocrypha in our English Bibles. +