Article December 8, 1934 Issue

Bible Notes

"I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill" (ps. 3:4)—Most modern translators are agreed that the verbs used in this verse should be rendered in the present rather than in the past tense; moreover, the Hebrew verb here rendered "heard," means literally answered" (Brown, Driver, Briggs: Hebrew Lexicon, p. 772). Thus Smith translates: "I cry aloud to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy hill;" and Moffatt: "When I call out to the Eternal, he answers me from his sacred hill" (cf. also Kent and the Revised Version).

"He leadeth me beside the still waters" (Ps. 23:2)—A literal translation translation of the original would be: "He leads me beside the waters of rest." (Compare the margin of the Authorized Version: "Waters of quietness.")

"The valley of the shadow of death" (Ps. 23:4)—The somewhat unusual Hebrew word "tsalmaweth," here rendered "shadow of death," can also mean "deep shadow, deep darkness" or "terror" (cf. Feyerabend: Hebrew Dictionary; and Brown, etc., op. cit., p. 853). Hence Smith translates: "The darkest valley"; Moffatt: "A glen of gloom;" and Kent: "The valley of gloom." Tristram notes that sheep districts (in Palestine) consist of wide open wolds or downs, reft here and there by deep ravines, in whose sides lurks many a wild beast, the enemy of the flocks" (Natural History of Palestine, p. 138; Kirkpatrick: Psalms, Vol. I, P. 126).

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