I have rolled up like a weaver my life; he will cut me off from the loom : From day even to night wilt thou make an end of me. I quieted myself until morning; as a lion, so he 12 From day even to night wilt thou make an end of me. The Hebrew word is dôr, which has here the same meaning as the Arabic darun, signifying 'house' or 'dwelling.' Instead of loom, render with R. V. marg. 'thrum,' whereby the woven fabric was fastened to the loom. From day even to night: i. e. in a brief interval. The R. V. renders the verb in Hebrew make an end of me. This is a possible meaning. On the other hand, Duhm and Marti follow the more usual signification of the verbal form in their rendering : 'From day to night dost thou deliver me up' [to my sad dcom]. 13. It is best to follow the Targum rendering, which presupposes a slight emendation of the Hebrew text: 'Until morn have I cried.' In the following clause, for he breaketh read 'it [i. e. the agony] breaketh,' &c. 14. The R.V. rendering swallow ... crane (?) is correct. The A.V. inverts the order. The same combination meets us in Jer. viii. 7. A careful examination of the LXX text of that passage shows that the Greek translators could not understand the word rendered 'crane,' and reproduced the Hebrew in Greek characters (agour). Subsequent copyists corrupted this into 'swallow of the field' (agrou instead of agour), and thus added the word 'sparrows' from some other text1. Klostermann, followed by Guthe, Duhm, and Marti, is therefore wanting in critical insight in supposing that the word for 'crane '(?) was omitted in the Hebrew original of the present passage that stood before the LXX, because no word for 'crane' is found in the Greek rendering. The omission is simply owing to the fact that the Hebrew word was not understood. It is needful to prefix the copula which has been dropped in our Hebrew text (if we assume that the word denotes a bird). For chatter substitute the more descriptive and accurate rendering 'twitter'2. The verb in the Hebrew original is that "Schleusner, in his Lexicon Vet. Test., suspected this long ago. Cf. Aq. and Symm. If the crane is the bird really meant, and its note be, as Cheyne (SBOT.) describes it, a deep, trumpet-like blast,' it is not easy to see the appropriateness of the verb 'twitter,' or perhaps 'squeak,' which 14 15 I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward; O LORD, I am oppressed, be thou my surety. What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it : I shall go softly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul. which is employed to represent the utterance of the necromancer in viii. 19; cf. also xxix. 4 (last clause). For mourn substitute 6 moan.' The following clause is obscure. Probably it is best to leave the text unaltered, and render: 'mine eyes faintly looked on high' (where Yahweh dwells). 15 foll. have been generally regarded (e.g. by Kittel and Dillmann) as beginning another section of the song in which thanksgiving succeeds to the plaint of the sufferer. The rendering as the text stands will be : 'What shall I speak? since He hath said unto me, and likewise hath done it.' This is interpreted to mean that recovery has set in, and the royal sufferer can hardly find words to express his thanksgiving. For the remainder of his years he will be enabled to live in peace and quietness, freed from anxiety or trepidation in consequence of the severe discipline through which he has passed, and the lessons of devout trust which it has taught him. This is a possible explanation, though it must be confessed that it is obscurely expressed, and some of the words in the original are certainly strange. When we turn to the LXX we find ourselves in the presence of an entirely different Hebrew text. Accordingly, Duhm seeks to make a reconstruction of the text, and renders : 'What shall I utter and say to Him, seeing it is He that hath done it? Restless I heave to and fro all my sleeping time... because of my soul's bitterness.' is undoubtedly the meaning of the Hebrew. On the other hand, it must be remembered that the identification of the Heb. 'agûr with crane' by Saadia and Rashi is very doubtful (Enc. Bibl. sub voce 'crane': somewhat uncertain '). The word 'agur may after all be an epithet of sus (sis), 'swallow,' and the copula in Jer. viii. 7 be due to error, as Hitzig long ago surmised. See Giesebrecht's instructive note in his Commentary on Jeremiah. O Lord, by these things men live, And wholly therein is the life of my spirit: 16 Wherefore recover thou me, and make me to live. For thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. For the grave cannot praise thee, death cannot 18 celebrate thee: The poet continues Here the plaint of verse 14 is sustained. to describe his sufferings. Duhm can make nothing of the Hebrew verb rendered 'go softly (or as R. V. marg., based on Ps. xlii. 5 (Heb.), translates: 'go in solemn procession'). He therefore makes a slight change, and reads another Hebrew verb (based on Job vii. 4). The verse thus becomes a continuation of the plaint, and leads on to the prayer for recovery in the following verse (16). But here again the text is reconstructed. Cheyne renders: What shall I say, and what object against Him, when He Himself has done it?' and leaves considerable gaps in his translation of verses 15, 16. 16. Another most obscure and difficult verse. It is very doubtful whether the rendering given by R. V. is possible, the meaning of which is far from clear. The rendering of the LXX is based on a different Hebrew original, and, working on this foundation, Duhm endeavours to restore the text, which he renders in his earlier edition : 'Lord, about it my heart tells Thee (cf. Ps. xxvii. 8): In his later edition he renders: 'Lord, therefore my heart waits on Thee.' 1 17. The opening of this verse is not to be found in the LXX. Certainly there are peculiarities of expression, which render the Hebrew text before us suspicious. It is doubtful in the light of the LXX, and for other reasons, whether the Hebrew original for 'thou hast loved my soul' (R. V. marg. and literal rendering) should be retained. A slight modification in the form yields the meaning of the LXX version: Thou hast withdrawn (or held back) my soul from the pit of destruction' (R. V. 'corruption'). So Houbigant, Lowth, Ewald, &c. cf. Ps. lxxviii. 50; Job xxxiii. 18. 18. For cannot in both clauses read 'doth not.' Parallels to these conceptions of the condition of the dead in Sheôl or Hades 19 20 2 I They that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this The father to the children shall make known thy truth. Therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instru ments All the days of our life in the house of the Lord. [Is.2] Now Isaiah had said, Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a plaister upon the boil, and he shall. 22 recover. Hezekiah also had said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD? 39 At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah: for 2 he heard that he had been sick, and was recovered. And Hezekiah was glad of them, and shewed them the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious oil, and all the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed them not. Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What said these men? and may be found in Ps. vi. 5 (6 Heb.), xxx. 9 (10 Heb.), lxxxviii. 11, 12, cxv. 17. CHAPTER XXXIX. This is a continuation of the same biographical narrative as that of the preceding chapter (Is."). Respecting Merodach-Baladan and his embassy, see Introduction, pp. 29, 30. The date may accordingly be fixed for the year 704 B. C. It is scarcely probable that during Sargon's reign, when Merodach-Baladan was reigning in Babylon, 721 to 710 B.C., Hezekiah would have ventured to receive an embassy from the persistent foe of Assyria. There are strong reasons for rejecting Winckler's theory that this embassy took place in 719 B. C. (see Introd., p. 30 footnote). from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country unto me, even from Babylon. Then said he, What have they seen in thine 4 house? And Hezekiah answered, All that is in mine house have they seen there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shewed them. Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, 5 Hear the word of the LORD of hosts. Behold, the days 6 come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the LORD. And of 7 thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. Then said Hezekiah unto 8 Isaiah, Good is the word of the LORD which thou hast spoken. He said moreover, For there shall be peace and truth in my days. B b |