Oxford.
TRENCH ON PROVERBS.
(Vol. viii., pp. 387. 519.)
The error, which Luther was the first to fall into, in departing from the anciently received version of Ps. cxxvii. 2., Mendelsohn adopted; but no translator of eminence has followed these two Hebraists; although some critics have been carried away by their authority to the proper Jewish notion of "gain," and not sleep, being the subject. Luther's version—"Denn seinen Freunden gibt er es schlafend"—was certainly before the revisers of our authorised version of James I.; but was rejected, I consider, as ungrammatical and false: ungrammatical, because the transitive verb "give" (gibt) has no accusative noun; and false, because he supplies, without authority, the place of the missing noun by the pronoun "it" (es), there being no antecedent to which this it refers. Mendelsohn omits the it in his Hebrew comment, supplied however unauthorisedly by Mr. Margoliouth in his translation of such comment. But Mendelsohn introduces the "es" (it), in his German version (Berlin, 1788, dedicated to Ramler), without however any authority from the Hebrew original of this Psalm. He is therefore at variance with himself. And, farther, he has omitted altogether the important word
כֵּן
(so or thus), rendered "denn" (for) by Luther.
As to the "unintelligible authorised version," I must premise that no version has yet had so large an amount of learning bestowed on it as the English one; indeed it has fairly beaten out of the field all the versions of all other sections of Christians. The difficulty of the English version arises from its close adherence to the oriental letter; but if we put the scope of this Psalm into the vernacular, such difficulty is eliminated.
Solomon says, in this Psalm: "Without Jehovah's support, my house will fall: if He keep this city, the watch, with its early-risings, late-resting, and ill-feeding, is useless: thus He (by so keeping or watching the city himself) gives sleep to him whom He loves." The remainder of the Psalm refers to the increase of population as Jehovah's gift, wherein Solomon considers the strength of the city to consist. The words in Italics correspond precisely in sense with those of the authorised version—"For so He giveth His beloved sleep;" and the latter is supported fully by all the ancient versions, and, as far as I can at present ascertain, by all the best modern ones.
T. J. Buckton.