Oh, of song and dance the pride.
It has been discovered by modern theologians, that Jephtha’s daughter was not sacrificed by her father, but only devoted to a recluse and virgin life. The Fathers, however, thought otherwise; and St. Augustine sees in the transaction, a deep spiritual import. Of course I prefer his comment, to Kimchi’s; but when I wrote this poem, the modern notion struck me as a pretty fable, to which I was not unwilling to listen.
Oh the blessings of him.
Such is the more literal rendering of the original Hebrew text, in the first verse of the first Psalm. For the criticism I am indebted to my preceptor, the late Prof. Nordheimer, of the University of New York, whose sudden and early death is so universally regretted by the learned, and lamented by his grateful pupils.
When Israel from the land of Nile.
I cannot forbear to refer the reader, for a much better rendering of the 114th Psalm, to the critical and elegant translation of my friend and brother, the Rev. George Burgess, M. A., of Hartford, whose metrical version of the Psalms is such an honor to American literature and taste. The peculiar beauty of the second verse, which I have sacrificed by introducing the name of God, (which is only elegantly implied in the original,) is in Mr. Burgess’ translation very happily preserved.