1. That considerable examination leads me to take just the reverse view to that of Burkius, that שנא cannot be looked upon as antithetical to surgere, sedere, dolorum. With all my searchings I failed to discover an analogous antithesis. I shall be truly thankful to Mr. Jebb for a case in point. Moreover, Psalms iii. and iv., to which Dr. French and Mr. Skinner refer, prove to my mind that not sleep is the gift, but sustenance and other blessings bestowed upon the Psalmist whilst asleep. I cannot help observing that due reflection makes me look upon the expression, "So He giveth His beloved sleep," as an extraordinary anticlimax.
2. Mr. Jebb challenges the showing strictly analogous instances of ellipses. He acknowledges that there are very numerous ellipses even in the Songs of Degrees themselves, but they are of a very different nature. I might fill the whole of this Number with examples, which the most scrupulous critic would be obliged to acknowledge as being strictly analogous to the passage under review; but such a thing you would not allow. Two instances, however, you will not object to; they will prove a host for Mr. Jebb's purpose, inasmuch as one has the very word שנה elliptically, and the other the transitive verb יתן, minus an accusative noun. Would Messrs. Buckton, Jebb, Walter, and S. D. kindly translate, for the benefit of those who are interested in the question, the following two passages?
זרמתם שנה יהיו בבקר כחציר יחלף׃
Psalm xc. 5.
יתן לפנין גוים ומלכים ירד
יתן כעפר הרבו כקש נזף קשתו׃
Isaiah xli. 2.
The Rev. Henry Walter will see that some of his observations have been anticipated and already replied to. It remains, however, for me to assure him that I never dreamt that any one would suppose that I considered שנא anything else but a noun, minus the ב preposition. The reason why I translated the word "whilst he [the beloved] is asleep," was because I thought the expression more idiomatic.
S. D. attempts to prove nothing; I am exempt therefore from disproving anything as far as he is concerned.
Before I take leave of this lengthy and somewhat elaborate disquisition, let me give my explanation of the scope of the Psalm in dispute, which, I venture to imagine, will commend itself, even to those who differ from me, as the most natural.