Judges xv. 19. “But God clave an hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water thereout.” A strange misrepresentation of the meaning of the original. The hollow place was not in the jaw-bone with which Sampson had slain the Philistines, but in some cliff in the neighbourhood, and which derived its name, Ramath-lehi, or more briefly Lehi, from this memorable exploit. The words should be rendered, “But God clave the hollow place which is in Lehi.”
1 Sam. ix. 20. “And as for thine asses that were lost three days ago, set not thy mind on them, for they are found. And on whom is all the desire of Israel? Is it not on thee and on all thy father’s house?” A needless difficulty is here created by suggesting that already the hearts of the people had been set upon Saul for their future king, whereas his future elevation to that office was as yet known to Samuel only. This is removed by the right rendering: “Whose are all the desirable things of Israel? Are they not for thee, and for thy father’s house.”[69]
2 Sam. v. 6. “Except thou take away the blind and the lame thou shalt not come in hither;” a statement to which the reader finds it difficult to attach any appropriate sense. The verse is correctly rendered by Coverdale, who reads, “Thou shalt not come hither, but the blynde and lame shall dryve thee awaie.”
2 Sam. xiv. 14. “For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him.” The statement that God doth not respect any person, however true in itself, has here no relation to the context. The natural meaning of the original words is very different, “God doth not take away life,” that is, as shown by what immediately follows, does not at once and without mercy inflict punishment as soon as guilt is incurred, but “deviseth means,” &c.
2 Kings viii. 13. “And Hazael said, But what, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing?” Thus read, the words imply that Hazael shrank indignantly from the actions described in the preceding verse; whereas the sense of the passage is that he viewed himself as too insignificant a person to do what he clearly regarded as a great exploit. “But what is thy servant, the [or this] dog, that he should do this great thing?”
1 Chron. xvi. 7. “Then on that day David delivered first this psalm to thank the Lord into the hand of Asaph and his brethren.” This conveys the impression that the psalm which follows is the first psalm that David published, whereas the statement is that on this memorable day—the day on which David brought up the ark from the house of Obed-edom—he formally appointed Asaph and his brethren to the office of superintending the service of praise. (Compare verse 37.) “Then on that day David first gave the praising of the Lord into the hand of Asaph and his brethren.”[70]
Job iv. 6. “Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways?” By the insertion of “this,” a wrong complexion is given to the passage. Eliphaz, in reference to Job’s fainting under his sufferings, calls attention to the confidence he had formerly professed on the ground of his fear of God and of the uprightness of his conduct; and so indirectly suggests that Job’s piety and uprightness had been unreal. “Is not thy fear [i.e. thy fear of God, thy piety] thy confidence; and thy hope, is it not even the integrity of thy ways?”
Job xix. 26. “And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.” As the italics show, the original contains nothing corresponding to the words “though,” “worms,” and “body.” Their insertion does not indeed change radically the meaning of the verse, but they weaken its force, and in a measure alter its imagery. The picture presented by the original is a very vivid one. The patriarch, pointing to his body wasting away under disease, says, “After my skin is destroyed thus, yet from my flesh shall I see God.”
Job xxiv. 16. “In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime; they know not the light.” Here the meaning of the second clause has been altogether missed, and the whole passage is thereby greatly obscured. The writer is describing the deeds of those who rebel against the light and love the darkness: as with the murderer (v. 14) and the adulterer (v. 15), so is it with the robber. “In the dark they dig through houses; in the daytime they shut themselves up; they know not the light.”
Job xxxi. 35. “Oh that one would hear me! behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me, and that mine adversary had written a book.” Job, having asserted his innocence, expresses his strong desire that the charges against him might be brought for decision before the divine tribunal. He, on his part, is quite prepared for the trial; there, he says, is his statement, signed and sealed; let the adversary in like manner present his indictment; he would then be sure of a triumphant issue. “Oh that I had one who would hear me! Behold my mark! May the Almighty answer me, and that I had the accusation that my adversary had written. Surely, I would carry it on my shoulder, I would bind it as chaplets upon me.”