ROBERT, LORD BISHOP OF OXFORD, THESE CRITICAL REMARKS ON THE POETICAL BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, WHICH HIS LORDSHIP HAS MOST EMINENTLY ILLUSTRATED IN HIS ACADEMICAL LECTURE S, ARE, WITH THE GREATEST RESPECT, HUMBLY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. PRE FACE. ₹ THE Books which are bere examined are all in Metre; whence fome Difficulties naturally arife. Befides which many great Obfcurities in them owe their Being to enigmatical and proverbial Expressions; or to Allufions to local Usages and popular Sentiments. But the chief Perplexities are derived I am perfuaded from the Hafte and Ignorance of Tranf cribers, who have not given us true Copies of the original Text. To correct thefe Errors, has been my chief Aim; and I flatter myself that not a few Pallages will be found to be restored to their primitive Genuineness To this End, a Method is frequently pursued, which feems to carry with it the frongest Conviction, viz. the Investigation of the natural Limits of each Word and Sentence. In Confirmation of thefe new Lections I cannot alledge the Authority of any MSS. for I have confulted none. That Trouble I thought might be spared, as Dr. Kennicott was preparing bis Collations for the Prefs: but I doubt not but that it will be found, on the Publication of his Work, that fome of his MSS. establish feveral of my various Lections; the fame Thing having already happened in regard to The Parallel Prophecies, as the Dr. has informed me Befides, MSS. can, at moft, but give a better Senfe than that which is found in the Text if that Text, wherever it is erroneous, can be fa improved by a new Combination of the very fame Letters, without the leaft Addition, Tranfpofition, or Alteration whatever, from which emerge other Words perfectly clear and confiftent; in that cafe, I fay, MSS. are not very effential; for we may rationally conclude that, without their Assistance, we have attained to the VERY TEXT. O nota 1955 of 2511 12 ་། Befides that Poetry is more terfe, concife, and lefs fubject to the Rules of Grammar than Profe, it abounds more in all Kinds of Enallages and other Figures of Rhetoric; more frequently wants a Subject to the Sentence, as well as the Prepofitions, the Signs of Cafes, and. N.B. In all, the References here adduced I fhall confine other neceffary Implements myself to the XXX Rrit Chapters that occur: Jpb.X. 21, 22 XIII.14. XV. 19. XVII. 6. XXI. 4. VI. 6. 33. XXIV. 18, 19 XXV58.191..16.. VIII. 17 IX 3. XIII. 25, 27. XIV. 18. XVÍ.. 8.4, VIIX 4. 26 VI. 19. WIĘsig .IX, 330 XV. 26. XXX. IX 9 XL 6, 12. XIV. 4. XXVII. 21. XXIX 124 IV. V. 5. VI. 14. VIII. 12.. IX. XVIKX2 16a XXX3 op 1XXIXX5,65 1Ì1⁄4X ... JA QAT and In determining the Signification of the Words, I have made the English Verfion, now in Ufe, the Standard. In the principal Places which I judged to be faulty, I have taken the Liberty to correct it, or to prefer fome of the other old English Verfions. Thefe I have chiefly fed are Arch-Bishop Parker's Bible, generally known by the Name of the Bishop's Bible, a Folio, dated 1568; and that 4to Edition of the Geneva Tranf- lation, printed by Barker in 1599: which laft, it ought to be noted, is meant when 1 fpeak of the Old Verfion, without Specification. Thefe three Verfions have doubtless their peculiar Merit and Demerit; the two latter ones especially but which of these claims upon the whole the Pre ference, I shall not presume abfolutely to determine. One bould naturally expect that the Version now in Use begun under the Aulpices of James 1. would be entitled to this Diftinction: abben we find that near fifty of of the Puritans, who prefer their new Terms, and Church; and P k Lewis's Hift. of the Tranf. of the Bible, P. 310. Bible. k Ibid. ! VIII. 18. XV. 26. VIII. 17. IX. 3. XVI. 15. XXII. 8. XXIII. 14. XXVII.1-1. XXX.2. 9 VI, 6. XI. 17. XVII. 11. XX. 20. XXII. 2,25. XXIII. 2. XXV.5. XXIX. 4. XXX. 5, 24. P. I. 11. II, 5. VI. 22. VIII. 12, 14. IX. 7, 11. XI. 3.1 9 III. 23. IV. 21. VI. 14 XI. 18. XII. 6. XV. 23. XVI. 5. XVIII, 2. XXII, 18, XXIV. 19. XXIX. 12, XXX, 18, 20, 31. |