If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me; Yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth; And lay mine honor in the dust. Arise, O Lord, in thine anger, Lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies, And awake for me, Thou who hast ordained judgment."1 The day will come when we shall learn not to dislocate the Imprecatory Psalms from their appropriate junctures. That will be the day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Then we shall look upon his purposes as the inspired Psalmists looked upon them. We ourselves shall be, as it were, inspired. Then we shall see with our eyes whom God intends to save, and whom he intends to punish. Then we shall be able to comprehend the spirit of the songs, a few of which were sung on Mount Moriah,2 and the same may be sung again in the upper temple. We shall see drawn out, in attractive lines, all the lowly graces of redeemed men, and of Christ their Redeemer; all the patience and sympathy and forgiving love of the children of God and of God himself; both his and their willingness to do all and to yield all that could be reasonably done or yielded; and when the Judge stands forth an impersonation of every winning virtue, of the self-denying spirit which God himself has exercised in behalf of creatures and of enemies, then will 'Psalm vii. 3-6. See also Psalm cix. 3-6; cxxix. 21-24; 2 Tim. iv. 14-16. Hupfeld acknowledges that the Old Testament here and there rises above its ordinary standard of benevolence, and he specifies Psalm vii. 4 as one example of its kindly spirit. See his Com. on Psalm xli. 10.—It is worthy of remark, that in Psalm vii. 5 the poet employs the same forms of speech for imprecating (if we may use this infelicitous term) evil on himself, provided that he is guilty, which he employs for invoking evil on his enemies, provided that they remain impenitent (see p. 179 above). It should seem more natural, however, to as words of cordial resignation, than וְיִרמם and וְיַבֵּן וְרַף interpret the words as words of positive request. 2 We are careful not to affirm that all the Imprecatory Psalms were sung, either in the service of the Jewish temple, or the synagogue. Perhaps the lxxxii., xciv., cv., cxviii., cxx., cxxv., cxxxv., cxxxvi., may be considered as belonging, more or less fully, to the genus of the Imprecatory Psalms, and these were sung in the Jewish temple. See Bibliotheca Sacra, Vol. XVI. p. 202. Hymns and Choirs, p. 26. shine out, resplendent as the face of him who shineth like the sun, the love of God, which cannot secure the well-being of the universe unless the spirit of the Imprecatory Psalms be fulfilled. "Let justice be done," or the universe can have no quiet. "Let justice be done," or heaven itself will be despoiled by traitors. "Justice must be done," or the wicked will never cease from troubling, nor the weary be at rest. On that day these oft-repeated Psalms will strike up a blaze of light, illumining the justice and the grace of God; that justice to the few which is benevolence to the many; those retributions on ten thousand which are essential to the safety of ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands. The whole genius of these abused Psalms will then be unfolded by the final event, and will be recognized as compressed in the two words which we use so idly and vainly on earth: Amen, Alleluiah. That sound which the beloved apostle heard in Patmos, was the resonance of these old Psalms "I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying Alleluiah: for true and righteous are his judgments, for he hath avenged the blood of his servants.-And again they said, Alleluiah. And her smoke rose up forever and ever. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen, Alleluiah. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluiah; for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him." There shall be no joy in heaven at the misery of rebels; no joy at their sin in resisting so kindly a government; no joy at the necessity of penal woe. But there shall be joy that the battle at length is fought; the victory at length is won; the loyal citizens of the empire may now have peace. There shall be joy, because Love, Mercy, and Grace will now reign unmolested; because there will never be again one single act of successful injustice; never again one single triumph of fraud, or envy, or malice, or revenge; and there shall be no more harm to the good man; neither sin nor temptation; neither shall there be any more peril to the cause of truth and charity. ARTICLE VII. REMARKS ON RENDERINGS OF THE COMMON VERSION (IN THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS). BY H. B. HACKETT, PROFESSOR IN NEWTON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. THE object in the following remarks is not to revise the translation of this epistle, in course or minutely; but to point out some of the more obvious changes, which are regarded by interpreters as due to the sense, or to a clearer representation of the sense, of the original text. It may not be out of place to take occasion, in a few instances, to uphold the received rendering against a different view of the meaning from that adopted in our English version. Some of the changes, in the corrected translation, it will be seen, are required by the progress in textual criticism which has taken place during the two hundred and fifty years since the earlier English versions were wrought over by the revisers of A. D. 1611. An attempt has been made, in the corrections suggested, to disturb the familiar phraseology of the English scriptures as little as possible. In what follows, the current translation of the passages to be examined is presented first; and the altered form is then given, with brief explanations. The Greek has been cited, to some extent; but the force of the remarks may not always be understood without referring to the Greek Testament. CHAPTER I. Verse 6. Imarvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ, unto another gospel (orw ταχέως μετατίθεσθε ἀπὸ τοῦ καλέσαντος ὑμᾶς ἐν χάριτι Χριστοῦ εἰς ἕτερον εὐαγγέλιον). ‘I marvel that ye are so soon removing from him that called you in the grace of Christ, unto a different gospel.' In this passage μeTaτideo de means are removing, turning aside (lit. transfer oneself); and implies, first, that the change was voluntary on their part; and, secondly, that the defection was not yet complete, but in progress, and might be arrested. This form, as middle, was in common use to denote the act of renouncing one set of views and feelings for another, or of passing from one political party or philosophical sect to another party or sect. For this usage, see Wetstein, Nov. Test. vol. II., p. 216, and Kypke, Obs., vol. II., p. 273. The examples are abundant, and need not be adduced here. Hence the greater familiarity of Greek readers with this sense of the expression, and the manifest pertinence of the thought, require that we so understand it in this instance. The passive form, are turned aside, or removed, implies that they acted not so much from their own choice as from the instigation of others, and thus suggests an apology for their conduct. But such an exculpation is not only at variance with the general tone of the epistle, but especially out of place just here, at the outset of the discussion. The common version makes the present act a past one, and confounds the middle with the passive. In the grace of Christ” (ἐν χάριτι Χριστοῦ) denotes the medium through which God extends to men the blessings of the gospel. See Rom. iii. 24-26. The ground of the call, which makes the believer an heir of salvation, is found in the love of the Son who was sent, as well as of the Father who sent him. The other rendering, unto the grace,' can be justified only as called you to be partakers in the grace, etc., which is needlessly periphrastic. Besides, we have commonly not ev, but eis or Tepi, after this verb in speaking of the privileges to which Christians are called; see v. 13; 1 Cor. i. 9; 1 Thess. ii. 14; 1 Tim. vi. 12; 1 Pet. ii. 9, 21; v. 10. Again, we should translate εἰς ἕτερον εὐαγγέλιον, unto a different gospel, i.e. different from that which he preached. The change of the pronouns (see d ovк čσтiv äλλo in the next verse) cannot be accidental, and the translation should notify the reader of the variation. Scholars agree in this force of eтepov, whether they express it by another, or different. Compare the use of erepov in Mark xvi. 12 and = Luke ix. 29. Verse 8. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you. 'But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you any other gospel contrary to that which we preached.' Kaì táv is even if; not although, which would be làv xai, or ei kai (compare Mark xiv. 29). See Klotz, Devarius, II., p. 519; and Hartung, Lehre von den Partikeln, I., p. 139. The supposition is viewed as one but remotely possible. The translation of evayyeλintai should mark the future contingency involved in éáv with the subjunctive. In παρ ὁ εὐηγγελισάμεθα, the preposition has the stronger sense, and not the weaker, as denoting what is merely additional or supplementary. It is worth mentioning that, at the time of the Reformation, the Protestants contended for the latter meaning, and declared that those incurred the anathema pronounced in this place who insisted upon traditions, decrees of councils, and the like, in addition to the written word; while the Catholics replied that the passage forbids nothing except what can be shown to set aside or contravene the teaching of holy scripture. The aorist of the verb goes back to the time when Paul was among the Galatians. Verse 9. As we said before,... if any man preach any other gospel contrary to that which ye have received. As we have said before (πроeiрńκаμev). . . if any one (Ts only in the Greek) preaches to you any other gospel contrary to that which ye received.' Wiclif, Coverdale, and the authors of the Rheims version, render the perfect correctly here. I suppose the apostle to repeat the asseveration in the previous verse; but we must render the verbal form in the same way, if, according to others, we understand that he would recall a declaration made at the time of his last visit. As Ellicott suggests, we must change preach' to 'preaches,' in conformity with the different moods in the original. The apostle deals here with the concrete case, which had arisen among the Galatians. The aorist in Tapéλaßere refers to the definite time when the readers of the letter professed to believe. Verse 10. If I yet pleased men. If I were still pleasing (йpeσkov) men.' We have here a marked instance of the con |