TRENCH ON PROVERBS.
(Vol. viii., p. 387.)
I hope that neither Mr. Trench nor his critic E. M. B. will consider me interfering by my making an observation or two on the correct rendering of the latter part of Ps. cxxvii. 2. Mr. Trench is perfectly correct by supposing an ellipsis in the sentence alluded to, and the words
יִתֵּן לִידִידוֹ שֵׁנָא
should have been translated, "He will give to his beloved whilst he [the beloved] is asleep." The translation of the authorised version of that sacred affirmation is unintelligible. Mr. Trench has the support of Luther's version, which has the sentence thus:
"Seinen Freunden giebt er es schlafend."
The celebrated German Jewish translator of the Old Testament agrees with Mr. Trench. The following is Dr. Zunz's rendering:
"Das giebt er seinem Liebling im Schlaf."
The following is the Hebrew annotation in the far-famed Moses Mendelsohn's edition of the Book of Psalms:
יתנהו הקב־ה לידידו אשר הוא חפץ בו בעודנו ישן ובלי מרחה׃
"The holy and blessed One will give it to his beloved, in whom He delights, whilst he is yet asleep and without fatigue."
I need not adduce passages in the Hebrew Psalter, where such ellipsises do occur. E. M. B. evidently knows his Hebrew Bible well, and a legion of examples will immediately occur to him.
Moses Margoliouth.
Wybunbury, Nantwich.
If E. M. B. will refer to Hengstenberg's Commentary on the Psalms, he will find that Mr. Trench is not without authority for his translation of Ps. cxxvii. 2. I quote the passage from Thompson and Fairbairn's translation, in Clark's Theological Library, vol. iii. p. 449.:
"שנא for שנה is not the accusative, but the preposition is omitted, as is frequently the case with words that are in constant use. For example, בקר, ערב, to which שנה here is poetically made like. The exposition He gives sleep, instead of in sleep, gives an unsuitable meaning. For the subject is not about the sleep, but the gain."
C. I. E.
Winkfield.
Has the translation of Ps. cxxvii. 2., which Mr. Trench has adopted, the sanction of any version but that of Luther?
N. B.