3. I do not think that the phrase, "the proper Jewish notion of gain," was either called for or relevant to the subject.
4. The reign of James I. was by no means as distinguished for Hebrew scholarship as were the immediate previous reigns. Indeed it would appear that the knowledge of the sacred languages was at a very low ebb in this country during the agitating period of the Reformation, so much so that even the unaccountable Henry VIII. was forced to exclaim, "Vehementer dolere nostratium Theologorum sortem sanctissime linguæ scientia carentium, et linguarum doctrinam fuisse intermissam." (Hody, p. 466.)
When Coverdale made his version of the Bible he was not only aided by Tindale, but also by the celebrated Hebrew, of the Hebrews, Emanuel Tremellius, who was then professor of the sacred tongue in the University of Cambridge, where that English Reformer was educated; and Coverdale translated the latter part of Ps. cxxvii. 2. as follows: "For look, to whom it pleaseth Him, He giveth it in sleep."
When the translation was revised, during the reign of James I., the most accomplished Anglo-Hebraist was, by some caprice of jealousy, forced to leave this country; I mean Hugh Broughton. He communicated many renderings to the revisers, some of which they thoughtlessly rejected, and others, to use Broughton's own phrase, "they thrust into the margin." A perusal of Broughton's works[[6]] gives one an accurate notion of the proceedings of the revisers of the previous versions.
5. Coverdale's translation is not "ungrammatical" as far as the Hebrew language is concerned, notwithstanding that it was rejected in the reign of James I. לחם, "bread," is evidently the accusative noun to the transitive verb יתן, "He shall give." Nor is it "false," for the same noun, לחם, "bread," is no doubt the antecedent to which the word it refers.
6. Mendelsohn does not omit the it in his Hebrew comment; and I am therefore unwarrantably charged with supplying it "unauthorisedly." I should like to see Mr. Buckton's translation of that comment. If any doubt remained upon Mr. B.'s mind as to the intended meaning of the word יתנהו used by Mendelsohn, his German version might have removed such a doubt, as the little word es, "it," indicates pretty clearly what Mendelsohn meant by יתנהו. So that, instead of proving Mendelsohn "at variance with himself," he is proved most satisfactorily to have been in perfect harmony with himself.
7. Mendelsohn does not omit the important word כן; and if Mr. B. will refer once more to his copy of Mendelsohn (we are both using the same edition), he will find two different interpretations proposed for the word כן, viz. thus and rightly. I myself prefer the latter rendering. The word occurs about twenty times in the Hebrew Bible, and in the great majority of instances rightly or certainly is the only correct rendering. Both Mendelsohn and Zunz omit to translate it in their German versions, simply because the sentence is more idiomatic, in the German language, without it than with it.
8. I perfectly agree with Mr. B. "that no version has yet had so large an amount of learning bestowed on it as the English one." But Mr. B. will candidly acknowledge that the largest amount was bestowed on it since the revision of the authorised version closed. Lowth, Newcombe, Horne, Horsley, Lee, &c. wrote since, and they boldly called in question many of the renderings in the authorised version.
Let me not be mistaken; I do most sincerely consider our version superior to all others, but it is not for this reason faultless.
In reply to Mr. Jebb's temperate strictures, I would most respectively submit—