Article August 1, 1936 Issue

Bible Notes

"Thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness" (Ps. 143:10)—The word "is" is not represented in the original, which may be rendered: "May thy good spirit lead me," as in the margin of the Revised Version. In certain manuscripts of the original, the term for "land" is replaced by that which means "path," and which closely resembles it in appearance; while the term translated "uprightness" can refer either to moral or spiritual rectitude, or else to "a level place" (free from obstacles), and so, figuratively, "a place of safety, comfort, prosperity" (Brown, Driver, Briggs: Hebrew Lexicon, p. 449). Moffatt suggests: "Guide me by thy good Spirit on a straight road;" and Smith: "Let thy good spirit guide me in a straight path;" while Kent prefers: "May thy gracious Spirit ever lead me in a way that is straight."

"God is a Spirit" (John 4:24)—It may be noted that Dr. Westcott, who prepared a well-known edition of the Greek New Testament, preferred to give the strictly literal rendering "God is Spirit" (see Commentary on St. John, Vol. I, p. 161); as do Weymouth (fifth edition), Moffatt, Goodspeed, and many other authorities.

"If I make my bed in hell" (Ps. 139:8)—The Hebrew word rendered "hell" is "she'ol," which did not of necessity imply "an abode of punishment." The Jews used the term "she'ol" in a general sense to designate the "realm of the dead" or "the underworld" (Brown, etc., op. cit., p. 982); and it appears that in Old English the word "hell" possessed the same neutral meaning (cf. Hastings: Bible Dictionary, Vol. II, p. 343).

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