I surely do know my REDEEMER, the LIVING ONE; And after the disease has cut down my skin, Even from my flesh I shall see God. CHAPTER XXII. "He shall deliver the island of the innocent: and it is delivered by the pureness of thine hands."-Ver. 30. No one can read this verse, as it stands in the English Bible, and understand it. What is "the island of the innocent," and where is it? Not in this world, surely; but it is of this world and of the men in it that Eliphaz is speaking. Nor is the marginal reading any better-"The innocent shall deliver the island." Here are still the "innocent,” and the "island." Many of the translators are as much at fault as the commentators. The word rendered island is ai, which the English translators, with others, have taken as the singular of ajim, islands; but Schultens finds several other and more intelligible meanings for the word; and Lee takes it for the particle a, usually pointed ai, in an indefinite sense, whosoever, and the verb, jemelet, personally, and to be translated passively, in which case the same word in the next clause, in niphal will afford a good explanation of it. His version of the verse is, "Whoso is pure, him shall God deliver; yea, thou shalt be delivered by the cleanness of thine hands." No doubt the passage is very obscure, and we ought not to insist upon any particular translation of the words. Parkhurst, taking ai to denote a settlement, or an habitation, as in Ezek. xxvi. 18, renders the first clause of the verse, "He [God] shall deliver the habitation of the innocent," which is, after all, perhaps, as good as we can have, and is closer to the Hebrew than Lee's. THE BOOK OF PSALMS. PSALM I. THERE is great probability in the opinion of those who suppose, with Calvin, that this Psalm, found somewhere else, was placed by him who collected the Psalms as an introduction to the whole. Basilius calls it a "short preface" to the Psalms, and that this view is of great antiquity, says Hengstenberg, may be gathered from Acts xiii. 33, where Paul, according to the correct text, as is agreed by the most approved critics,* quotes as the first Psalm that which, in our collection, occupies the second place. If the first were considered as only a sort of preface, the numbering consequently would take its commencement at the one following, as, indeed, is the case in some manuscripts. And the matter of the first Psalm is admirably suited to this application of it, for, along with its admonitory tendency, the consolatory is also brought prominently out. the latter respect, it may be regarded as, in fact, a short compendium of the main subject of the Psalms.† PSALM XIX. "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple."Ver. 7. MANY expositors, perplexed by the declarations of * Erasmus, Mill, Bengel, Griesbach, etc. + Hengstenberg. the Apostle concerning the law, in the Epistle to the Romans and elsewhere, would understand by Torah, here, the gospel, or the whole idea of religion, the original meaning of the word being instruction. But this notion, as Hengstenberg observes, is altogether untenable. Torah, although certainly it meant instruction generally, is always employed in the existing usage, which was formed under the influence of the Pentateuch, of that instruction only, which stands in commands; it always means law, not excepting Isa. i. 10; viii. 16. But even if its meaning were doubtful, he adds, the synonyms would be sufficient to remove all doubt. The difficulty is set aside by the remark, that David only speaks of what the law is for those who, like himself, are in a state of grace, and in whom, consequently, the inmost disposition of the heart coincides with the law, of that, therefore, which theologians call the third use of the law, or its use to the regenerate. In this respect, it is a source of internal joy, that he has in the law a pure mirror of divine holiness, a sure directory for his actions. Paul, on the other hand, has to do with the relation of the law to the fleshly, those sold under sin. PSALM XLIX. "Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about!"-Ver. 5. TAKING the Hebrew word akebi, which we render my heels, as the contracted plural of akebim, supplanters, Dr. Kennicott translates the passage "Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil? Though surrounded by the wickedness of my enemies." PSALM LXII. "God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God. Also unto thee, O LORD, belongeth mercy: for thou renderest to every man according to his work."Ver. 11, 12. EXCEPT some of the ancient versions, almost every version, translation, and commentary, says Dr. A. Clarke, has missed the sense and meaning of this verse. Of the former verse the doctor offers the following translation : "Once hath God spoken; these two things have I heard." But what are the two things the Psalmist had heard? (1.) Ki oz lealehim, "That strength is the Lord's ;" that is, He is the origin of power. (2.) Velech adoni chesed, "and to thee, Lord, is mercy;" that is, He is the Fountain of mercy. These, then, are the two grand truths that the law, yea, the whole revelation of God, declare through every page. He is the Almighty-He is the most merciful; and hence the inference, the powerful, just, and holy God, the most merciful and compassionate Lord, will by and bye judge the world, and will render to man according to his works. How this beautiful meaning, adds the doctor, should have been unseen by almost every interpreter is hard to say; but these verses contain one of the most instructive truths in the Bible. PSALM LXVIII. "Though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold."-Ver. 13. SEE vol. ii. pp. 197, 198. X. SCRIPTURE DIFFICULTIES EXAMINED. THE POETIC AND PROPHETIC BOOKS AND THE GOSPELS. BY WILLIAM CARPENTER, AUTHOR OF A POPULAR INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF THE SCRIPTURES; A HARMONY OF THE GOSPELS; THE ABRIDGMENT OF CALMET'S DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE; AND OTHER WORKS ON BIBLICAL CRITICISM AND INTERPRETATION. Many and painful are the researches, usually necessary to be made for settling these difficulties. Pertness and ignorance may ask a question in three lines, which it will cost learning and ingenuity thirty pages to answer. When this is done, the same question shall be triumphantly asked again the next year, as if nothing had ever been written on the subject. Hence the odds must ever be against us; and we must be content with those for our friends who have honesty and erudition, candour and patience, to study both sides of the question.-BISHOP HORNE. LONDON: HEYWOOD & CO., 335, STRAND, W.C., AND S. W. PARTRIDGE & CO., 9, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. 9. 213. (2) д. |