means clear the guilty. These words contain | innocent or holy person shall never be the proper interpretation of the venerable treated as if he were a transgressor, by this and glorious name JEHOVAH. But just and holy God. The Arabic version has it will be necessary to consider them in it, He justifies and is not justified; and the detail. Septuagint is nearly as our English text, kai The different names in this and the fol- ου καθαριεί τον ενοχον, and he doth not purify lowing verse have been considered as so the guilty. The Alexandrian copy of the many attributes of the Divine nature. Com- Septuagint, edited by Dr. Grabe, has kat mentators divide them into eleven, thus: Tov evoxov kabaρiσμa ov Kabapici, and the 1. JEHOVAH. 2. EL, the strong or guilty he will not cleanse with a purificationmighty God. 3D RACHUM, the merciful offering. The Coptic is to the same purpose. Being, who is full of tenderness and com- The Vulgate is a paraphrase: nullusque apud passion. 4. CHANNUN, the gracious te per se innocens est, "and no person is One; he whose nature is goodness itself; the innocent by or of himself before thee." loving God. 5. D'EN TN ERECH APPAYIM, This gives a sound theologic sense, stating a longsuffering; the Being who, because of great truth, That no man can make an atonehis goodness and tenderness, is not easily ment for his own sins, or purify his own irritated, but suffers long and is kind. 6. heart; and that all have sinned and come 27 RAB, the great or mighty one. 7. O short of the glory of God. CHESED, the bountiful Being; he who is Ged.-6, 7 And as he passed before him exuberant in his beneficence. 8. ON EMETH, he again proclaimed: "The LORD! the the truth, or true One; he alone who can LORD! A God compassionate and gracious, neither deceive nor be deceived, who is the slow to anger, but abounding in mercy and fountain of truth, and from whom all wisdom truth; who continueth his mercy to the and knowledge must be derived. 9. thousandth generation, pardoning iniquity, NOTSER CHESED, the preserver of bountiful- transgression, and sin; acquitting even him ness; he whose beneficence never ends, who is not innocent, and punishing the keeping mercy for thousands of generations, iniquity of the fathers in their children and showing compassion and mercy while the grand-children to the third or fourth geneworld endures. ”.ration only | נשא עון ופשע וחטאה .10 (15) NAKKEH lo yenakkeh, the righteous judge, who distributes justice with an impartial hand, with whom no innocent person can ever be condemned. And 11. NOSE avon vaphesha vechattaah, he who Acquitting even him who is not innocent. bears away iniquity and transgression and By Montanus rendered purificando non purisin: properly, the REDEEMER, the Pardoner, ficabit; and by our last English translators, the Forgiver; the Being whose prerogative “And that will by no means clear the guilty.” alone it is to forgive sin and save the soul. The Septuagint took it in the same sense, and so equivalently Onk., Tharg., Erp., and Pers. The Syr. and Saad. may also be understood in the same sense. Gr. Ven. is singular: kaι aðwos our aðwwbŋσerai, and the innocent shall not be deemed innocent. He understood the words in their proper sense, but thought that related to the innocent man, not to God. Nay, so seems Jerom to have done, who thus paraphrases: Nullusque apud te per se innocens est: an unwarrantable version on two accounts; first, because it gives a false nominative to 2 and secondly, because it puts the words in the mouth of Moses, as is done throughout There is a various reading POKED avon, &c.; he who visits iniquity, who punishes transgressors, and from whose justice no sinner can escape. The God of retributive and vindictive justice. These eleven attributes, as they have been termed, are all included in the name JEHOVAH, and are, as we have before seen, the proper interpretation of it; but the meaning of several of these words has been variously understood. 7 That will by no means clear the guilty.] the whole verse. This last clause is rather difficult; literally in the Sam. copy, which changes the translated it signifies, in clearing he will meaning: it has instead of and this not clear. But the Samaritan, reading, forms a consentaneous meaning: And to, or lo, to him, instead of the negative lo, with him, the innocent will be accounted not, renders the clause thus: With whom innocent. Yet I am persuaded it is not the the innocent shall be innocent; i.e., an genuine reading, and suspect that an & has been dropped out of the Samaritan text, not always pardon (the guilty), &c. Numb. which had originally written full. We xiv. 18; also Jer. xxx. 11; xlvi. 28: must then be contented with the present RN NSR Dep, I chastise thee in meareading, and try to make it congruous; for sure, I cannot leave thee unpunished. Nah. every version that I have seen is harsh, un- i. 3: Jehovah is long-suffering, great in analogous, and discordant; that of De Dieu, might,, but will not leave unadopted by Dathe and Rosenmüller, not punished. excepted. For, granting that signifies Rosen., Et impunitum diperdere, which I very much question, where mittendo non dimittet impunitum, i.e., qui is there an example of its also signifying quamvis clemens sit, et peccatorum pœnas impius in any oriental dialect? I am ever remittat, tamen non semper peccatorem loath to wrest a word to a meaning which it impunitum dimittat; hunc enim sensum seemingly cannot bear; and therefore I here importat infinitivus verbo finito junctus, ut take in its common and well-known ac- Jesai. xxx. 19. , העם flendo non ceptation. Then, I think, it will be readily flebis, i.e., non semper flebis. Cf. Gesenii allowed, that is in the same participial, Lehrgeb., p. 779, 2 est pœna vacuum dior gerundive form, as and which mittere, ut Jerem. xxv. 29; xxx. 11. Lud. precede, and that follows; and that de Dieu in Animadverss. ad h. 1. hic has a similar signification. This being vacuum esse a viris, incolis, opibus, vita granted, I consider the words omnique bono, i.e., vastari et succidi notare as equivalent to P. Every putat, ut Zach. v. 3, ut non ad justitiam Dei novice in Hebrew grammar knows that punientem, sed ad ejus misericordiam paris often elegantly suppressed in similar centem, hæc verba, ut ea, quæ præcedunt, phrases. I shall only quote a few from the spectent. Illa igitur notione adscita totus Psalms, in which this ellipsis is frequent, versus ita sit vertendus: qui servat benigPsalm xxiii. 12, The people nitatem in millesimos, qui ignoscit delicto, whom he chose, xci. 6, D, From defectioni et peccato, nec tamen prorsus the arrow which flieth by day. And with perdit, sed tantum animadvertit peccata the negative as here, Psalm xviii. 44, patrum in filiis, nepotibus, pronepotibus et A people whom I knew not; abnepotibus, q. d. tanta est ejus misericordia, lii. 9, 77, The man who putteth not; ut etiam, quando succenset et punit, non lxxxi. 6, now, A tongue which I knew tamen prorsus perdat; animadvertit quidem not. And what is remarkable, our own peccata patrum in filiis, sed in tertiam language often admits a similar mode of tantummodo et quartam progeniem. Quæ phrasing; as, in the last example, we might interpretatio tamen admodum coacta videtur, say, He spoke a tongue I knew not: he is a man I never saw it is a book I have not read and so with regard to the other personal pronouns, both singular and plural. This ellipsis being admitted, and the vowel points changed, the literal version will be mundans eum, qui non mundus est; or, as I have rendered in my version, acquitting him even who is not altogether innocent.-Ged. Booth.-6 And Jehovah passed by before him, and proclaimed, JEHOVAH, JEHOVAH, a God merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth; 7 Keeping mercy to a thousand generations; forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; and not altogether destroying; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, to the third, or to the fourth generation only. Gesen.-7 Who forgiveth iniquity and neque, quod Ludovic. de Dieu contendit, favet ei locus Num. xiv. 18, quam Moses ibi absque controversia de justitia Dei puniente loquatur. Ver. 9. ὁ λαὸς γὰρ σκληροτράχηλός ἐστι, κ.τ.λ. Au. Ver.-9 And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O LORD, let my Lord I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance. For it is a stiffnecked people. Pool, Ged., Booth., Gesen., &c.-Although it is a stiffnecked people. , 5. Notwithstanding, although, Psalm cxvi. 10; Exod v. 11, also and, Eccles. iv. 14.-Gesen. Bp. Patrick. It is a stiff-necked people.] transgression and sin, MP2, No 2, but will If we adhere to this translation, the mean 376 com ing is, they needed such a governor, by probably the same with my, plur. o, Ver. 10. and the context shows, in a few passages ceptation. וַיֹּאמֶר הִנֵּה אָנֹכִי כֹּרֵת בְּרִית נֶגֶד -word occurs, affording ground for its ac כָּל־עַמָּךְ אֶעֶשֶׂה נִפְלָאת אֲשֶׁר לֹא־נִבְרְאוּ the closest connexion with words which אֲשֶׁר אַתָּה בְקִרְבּוֹ אֶת־מַעֲשֶׂה יְהוָה , פְּסִילָה, פָּסֶל מַעֲבָה, הַמָּנִים, עֶצֶב signify statue, as כִּי־נוֹרָא הוּא אֲשֶׁר עֹשֶׂה : 1. It occurs almost without exception in • TAY THY ON ¬WN N καὶ εἶπε κύριος πρὸς Μωυσῆν. ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ τίθημί σοι διαθήκην ἐνώπιον παντὸς τοῦ λαοῦ σου, ποιήσω ἔνδοξα, ἃ οὐ γέγονεν ἐν πάσῃ τῇ γῇ, καὶ ἐν παντὶ ἔθνει. καὶ ὄψεται πᾶς ὁ λαὸς, ἐν οἷς εἶ σὺ, τὰ ἔργα κυρίου, ὅτι θαυμαστά ἐστιν, ἃ ἐγὼ ποιήσω σοι. Au. Ver.-10 And he said, Behold, 1 make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the LORD; for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee. Ged., Booth.-And he said, Behold I make a covenant, that I will do such wonders before all thy people, as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among whom thou art, shall see how awful the work is, which I, Jehovah, will do for their sake. Ver. 11. Au. Ver.-11 and the Hittite, and the Perizzite. So the Heb. Ken., Ged., Booth.-And the Hittite, and the Girgasite [Sam., LXX], and the Periz zite. Ver. 13. and is placed amongst them, Exod. xxxiv. 13 ; 2. 2 Kings xxi. 7, an image of the Ashera 3. In several instances it is joined to, just as elsewhere and my are joined (Judg. ii. 13; x. 6; 1 Sam. vii. 4; xii. 10). 1 Kings xviii. 19, the prophets of Baal and Ashera wait upon Jezebel, 2 Kings xxiii. 4: all vessels made in honour of Baal, of Ashera, and all the host of heaven. Comp. 2 Kings xvii. 16; xxi. 3; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 3; Judg. shipped Baal and the images of Ashera. , וַיַּעַבְדוּ לַבַּעַל וְלָעַשְׁתָּרוֹת ,13 .passages, chap. ii Lewd T 4. The words used for setting up the Ashera are, y, 1 Kings xiv. 15; xv. 13; .3 .xvi. 33; 2 Kings xvii. 16; xxi תְּשַׁבֵּרוּן וְאֶת־אֲשֵׁרָיו תִּכְרֹתוּן : , 1 Kings xiv. 23. τοὺς βωμοὺς αὐτῶν καθελεῖτε, καὶ τὰς 2 Kings xvii. 10. στήλας αὐτῶν συντρίψετε, καὶ τὰ ἄλση αὐτῶν της, 2 Chron. xxxiii. 19; for its standing ¿kkó↓ete, kaì tà yλuntà tŵv beŵv avтŵv (in a place). 2, 2 Kings xiii. 6; words κατακαύσετε ἐν πυρί. which can only be applied to erecting, or setting up a statue, and not to laying out a grove. Deut. xvi. 21: y sonras to erect, to set up. (Comp. Dan. xi. 45; | without any meaning in such passages, as Isai. li: 16.) Very ancient groves were 2 Kings xxiii. 6, and even ni, vid. indeed most frequently fixed on for the Tromm's and Biel's Lexicon. 2 Chron. worship of idols, but to begin by making a grove round the altar of God, and consequently round that of the temple at Jerusalem, would of itself have been a strange undertaking. 5. In speaking of the destroying of the D, words are used, which are peculiar to the overthrowing of the instruments of idolatry, as, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 4; 2, 2 Chron. xiv. 2; xxxi. 1; m, Exod. xxxiv. 13; 2 Chron. xviii. 4; xxiii. 14; yn, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 7. So also , 2 Chron. xvii. 6; xix. 3; , Mic. v. 13, signifies indeed, to pluck up, but also, to destroy, e.g., cities. Of the foregoing collection of passages (there still remain, Isai. xvii. 8; xxvii. 9; Jer. xvii. 2), the context of which I recommend to the most attentive examination of the inquiring reader, No. 1, 2, 4, 5, refer most evidently to an idol-statue : No. 3, makes it very probable, that this idol is Astarte. To this may be added the Syriac translation of Judg. vi. 25, 26, 28, xv. 16, only, they use T'Aσtaρty for T. But when we are convinced that idol-statue is the true meaning, we are then not to deviate from the once established signification, even in the passages, Deut. xvi. 21; Micah v. 13, although they admit of both interpretations. One part of these reasons has been already exhibited by Selden de dis Syris Synt. ii., cap. ii., p. m. 232-37 (ed. Elzevir, Lugd., 1629). He explains himself thus: that the word indeed signifies wood, grove, but was used of the statues of Astarte, to whose name it at the same time alludes. Simulacra igitur lignea Astarte, seu τŷ Astoreth dicata Asherim et Asheroth seu lucos sæpius dicta sentio, ut et ad nomen simul alluderetur, et tam impari Divinitati materiæ contumelia ipso vocabulo exprobraretur. Some suppose the Ashera to be a goddess of fortune (from, No. 2). and i lit. Set up, erected; an erection, &c. Gesenius, Winer, &c., consider this word as equivalent to, pl. nawy; 30, by Am, which indeed is at first ren-been shown by Kimchi, Procopius of Gaza, and signifying, generally, Any idol. It had dered in Castellus agreeably to the Hebrew Castell, Spencer, Selden, Lette, and some signification by Lucus, but which certainly others, long ago, that it could not signify only differs from 20; Am, Venus ortho-a grove in many passages in which it was found. Gesenius, in his Comm. on Is. ch. graphically, as its signification is afterwards lxv. 11, and again, in his Thesaurus, p. 162, expressed by Stella Veneris. The Latin renews the inquiry, as if these his worthy version retains therefore more correctly predecessors had done nothing. And it may Ester. The Arabic also has here, inde- be doubted whether he has at all settled the pendently of the LXX,, Asira, to which idolum fœmineum, is added in ver. 25. In the remaining passages, namely, throughout the books of Kings, the Syriac has, idolum; only a few times, as Deut. xvi. 21; Micah v. 14, AA, a plant. The Arabic has even several times in the book of Kings pio, as 2 Kings question, or, indeed, added any thing to their lucubrations on the subject. If, for example, , and y, really mean the same thing, Why are they completely different words? From the various passages and combinations in which is found, we are sure that it was something that could be made, set up, placed in a building, cut down, put away, burnt, reduced to powder. Hence, as Selden, and after him Gesenius, has well remarked, it could not possibly be a grove. Again, from its occurring with xvii. 16,; xxi. 16; and, statues of,,, me, be, be, dn, My idols, where it otherwise follows the LXX. Den, it should seem to be something differKimchi, in his Lexicon of roots, renders ing from either of them, if, at least, there is by omne lignum, quod colitur. Under any precision in the language. Now, what the circumstances of the case, the aλoos of could this be? Among the important, and the LXX can scarcely serve as an argument almost necessary, parts of an idol was its against it, since they make use of it almost Shrine, or chapel; and this, I think it pro τῆς γῆς, καὶ ἐκπορνεύσωσιν ὀπίσω τῶν θεῶν αὐτῶν, κ.τ.λ. Au. Ver.-15 Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice. Ged., Booth.-Make then no covenant with the inhabitants of the land, lest, &c. Ver. 19. See notes on xiii. 2. Ver. 24. Au. Ver.-Brass. See notes on xxv. 3. Ver. 25. Au. Ver.—Neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left unto the morning. Ged., Booth.-Nor shall any part of the sacrifice, &c. Ver. 28. Au. Ver.-28 And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments [Heb., words]. And he was there. καὶ ἐπειδὴ κατέπαυσε λαλῶν πρὸς αὐτοὺς, επέθηκεν ἐπὶ τὸ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ κάλυμμα. Au. Ver.-33 And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a vail on his face. Rosen., Ged., Booth.-And when he had done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. 33 And when he had done speaking, &c.] Some modern interpreters imagine that there is here a hysteron-proteron, and that the words should be rendered, as in our common version," And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face;" or, as Dathe, Quando Moses ad eos loquebatur, velamen faciei suæ imposuit. They ground this mode of rendering chiefly on the authority of St. Paul, 2 Cor. iii. 13, who says : και ου καθαπερ Μωυσης ετίθει καλυμμα επι το προσωπον ἑαυτου προς το μη ατενίσαι τους υίους Ισραηλ εις το τέλος του καταργουμένου. But Paul is here acting not the part of an interpreter or of an historian, but that of a mere allegorist. It was enough for his purpose that it is said in Exod. xxxiv. 30, that when the children of Israel saw the splendour of Moses's countenance, they were afraid to approach him. Approach him, Ged., Booth.-And Moses [LXX] was however, they did, at his own desire and there. And he wrote. Pool. He wrote, not Moses, but the Lord, as appears from ver. 1, and from Deut. x., the relative pronoun being here referred to the remoter antecedent, of which there are many instances, as Gen. x. 12; 1 Sam. xxi. 14; xxvii. 8; Psal. xcix. 6. So Patrick, &c. But Moses talked with them; during which talk it is not said that he veiled his face. verses 34 and 35 (say Dathe and others) explain this, and put it beyond all doubt that Moses put on his veil as often as he spoke to the people. I am of a very different opinion, and think that it is clear from these very verses, as well as from ver. 33, that his face remained unveiled all the time in which he delivered to the people his Divine oracles, and that it was covered only in common conversation. Not one of the antient interpreters thought of rendering ver. 33 in any other sense. Vulg., Impletisque sermonibus, posuit velamen super faciem Ged., Booth. From his having talked suam. So equivalently all the other versions. With these agree the most learned Jewish Ver. 29. Testimony. See notes on xvi. 34. Au. Ver.-Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. with God. |