Article May 13, 1939 Issue

Bible Notes

"If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry" (Isa. 58:10)—It is of interest to discover from certain manuscripts of the Septuagint, Old Latin, and Syriac Versions that those who prepared these versions found at this point, in the very early Hebrew text which was available to them, the form "lachmeka," meaning "thy bread," instead of "naphsheka" (thy soul), which is in the text as we have it today. Kittel, and other Biblical scholars, consider that "lachmeka" (thy bread) most probably represents the original and correct reading at this point. In Bagster's rendering of the Septuagint, we find a combination of both readings: "If thou give bread to the hungry from thy heart;" while Smith has simply: "If you ... share your bread with the hungry;" and Moffatt: "If you bestow your bread upon the hungry."

"Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts" (Ps. 42:7)—The rather rare Hebrew word "tsinnorim" does mean literally "spouts or pipes," and some suppose it to be figuratively used of the opening of "the sluices of heaven" (see Brown, Driver and Briggs: Hebrew Lexicon, p. 857; cf. Gen. 7:11). Moffatt, however, suggests the translation (Ps. 42:9): "Flood follows flood, as thy cataracts thunder;" and Smith: "Deep calls to deep to the sound of thy waterfalls." Kent, who supports the rendering "cataracts," contends that the primary reference is "to the rushing streams which break out from the rock on the southern side of Mount Hermon" (compare verse 6).

"The health of my countenance" (Ps. 42:11)—The word which is rendered "health" in this verse means more literally "salvation," but also was used in the sense of "welfare, prosperity, deliverance," as well as of "health" (Brown, etc., op. cit., p. 477). The term as used here is in the plural, and this, in Hebrew idiom, intensifies the meaning of the singular (ibid.). The Hebrew word which is here translated "countenance" is often employed in the sense of "person," or simply as an equivalent of the possessive, "the salvation of my person," that is, "my salvation." Thus Smith translates: "my help."