Bible. AMERICAN VERSION THE BOOK OF PSALMS TRANSLATED OUT OF THE HEBREW BEING THE VERSION SET FORTH A.D. 1611 COMPARED WITH THE MOST ANCIENT WITH THE READINGS AND RENDERINGS PREFERRED BY THE AMERICAN COMMITTEE OF REVISION INCORPORATED INTO THE TEXT THOSE RETAINED OR ADOPTED BY THE ENGLISH COMMITTEE BEING EDITED BY JOHN G. LANSING, D.D. Professor of Old Testament Languages and Exegesis in the Theological NEW YORK FORDS, HOWARD, & HULBERT Long Primer Crown 8vo 1885 All rights reserved AMERICAN PREFACE. AN acquaintance with the history of the Canterbury Revision of the Authorized Version of the Holy Scriptures may be assumed. The results are before the world in the editions issued by the University Presses of Oxford and Cambridge, appearing in the body of the text, in the marginal renderings, and in the Appendix, showing the instances in which the American Revision Company differed from the English Company. In the present edition of the Psalms the preferences of the American Revision Company expressed in that Appendix, so far as they relate to this portion of the Old Testament, are wrought into the text and margin, while the preferences of the English Company are clearly shown in the Appendix hereto. The work includes nothing more than this, and for this neither the American Company nor any member of it is responsible. Whether this edition should have been produced can scarcely be questioned. It seems to be a simple matter of justice to the American Revisers, inasmuch as it is indispensable to a proper appreciation of their many and valuable suggestions. It should be understood that the Appendix in the British publication represents only a small part of the work of the American Company in connection with the Revised Version of the Old Testament. During the progress of the work, in which there was a constant interchange of views, a very large number of their suggestions were accepted without hesitation, and others were finally acceded to. These accepted results of their scholarship already stand in the editions published at Oxford and Cambridge, which are, therefore, Anglo-American in all parts not referred to in the Appendix. It is only where difference of opinion finally existed, as indicated by the Appendix, that the text is solely British. The preparation of an Appendix was proposed and agreed upon soon after the work of Revision began. It was intended as an offset to the exclusion of the American Company from a vote upon the final adoption of changes from the Authorized Version. It being found, for reasons that appear in the published historical statement of the American Company, that the result must be determined solely by the voice of the British Revisers, the latter righteously conceded that the renderings for which their fellow revisers in America would have voted should be exhibited in an Appendix, which they agreed to publish with all their editions for a period of fourteen years. The time thus indicated is that during which the American Company are to abstain from publishing an edition of their own. The slightest reflection, however, will satisfy every mind that these carefully considered preferences of the scholars selected from among ourselves for this great work appear in their Appendix at a great dis_ advantage. An appendix, as such, is rarely consulted by the great body of readers; and where, as in this case, important changes in the translation are proposed, the effect and value of these cannot be deservedly estimated without serious sacrifice, unless they are exhibited to the eye in their relations and surroundings. Great difficulty, also, will be found in making practical use of that Appendix on account of its extreme condensation. The Revisers, not desiring that their preferences should occupy more space than needful, have included everything possible in their “Classes of Passages," giving a brief direction, whenever a desired change is applicable to the entire Old Testament, or nearly so. When a given substitution is preferred in several instances but not uniformly, all the passages to be included are indicated at its first occurrence, sweeping sometimes from Genesis to Malachi, and are never again mentioned. The changes thus grouped together are of constant occurrence, and of the greatest importance. After the Classes of Passages" single changes are suggested in detail by chapter and verse. It would not be imagined by those who have not examined and made a thorough comparison, that while the "Classes of Passages" occupy as to space only one eighth part of the Appendix, the differences they suggest are not less than five sixths of the whole. 66 Another difficulty in the practical use of the Appendix attached to the Revised Old Testament, lies in the fact that some of its most important renderings cannot be understood and applied, except by those who have some knowledge of the Hebrew language. For example: we find the substitution of "lovingkindness" for "mercy" directed at Genesis xix. 19, "and wherever this rendering stands for the same Hebrew word, when used of God." The Hebrew word thus referred to occurs in the Old Testament nearly two hundred and fifty times. A direction of this kind is entirely useless to most readers. In every case the proposed change should be wrought into the text, or separately noted in the Appendix. In the present edition of the Psalms this aid is furnished in both respects. The distribution in the Appendix will be found particularly serviceable in informing the reader at a glance where the suggested renderings occur, which otherwise could be ascertained only by a laborious comparison of verse by verse. 66 No change proposed by the American Revisers is more noteworthy, and none will be more acceptable to many devout and thoughtful readers, than the substitution of "Jehovah" for the LORD." The Divine name thus substituted occurs six hundred and eighty-nine times in the Psalms. "The LORD," which stands for it almost uniformly in the Revised as in the Authorized Version, is not a translation of “Jehovah,” but of the word which the Jews in their superstitious dread pronounced instead of it. The name thus superstitiously avoided has its special and most important signification, which is not in the slightest degree that of mastery or rule, which lies in the English word "Lord," and in the corresponding Hebrew word, which occurs forty times in the Psalms and is properly so translated. The more glorious name cannot be translated by any single English word, yet ought not, in the opinion of the American Revisers, to be confounded with a name so much lower, and radically different, but should be preserved in the familiar English equivalent, Jehovah. It signifies the personal, independent, immutable, faithful God brought into historical relations with mankind. Jehovah is God devising, carrying forward, perfecting the history of man's redemption. We also notice as of special interest the exclusion of a certain class of marginal references. We cannot doubt that the changes of translation from the Hebrew text in the Revised Version are far more numerous and radical, as well as accurate, through the suggestions of the American Company. The important aid received from them is generously recognized in the Preface to the Revised Old Testament. But the American Revisers were unfavorable to the admission into the margin of various readings from ancient Authorities or Versions which differ from the Hebrew. These, therefore, which have been |