Reference: Old Testament
Fausets
The conscientious preservation of the discrepancies of parallel passages (as Psalm 14 and Psalm 53; Psalm 18 and 2 Samuel 22; Isaiah 36-39; and 2 Kings 18-20; Jeremiah 52 and 2 Kings 24-25; Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7), notwithstanding the temptation to assimilate them, proves the accuracy of Ezra and his associates in transmitting the Scriptures to us. The Maccabean coins and the similar Samaritan character preserve for us the alphabetical characters in which the text was written, resembling those in use among the Phoenicians. The targums, shortly before Christ, introduced the modern Aramaic or square characters now used for Hebrew.
Keil however attributes these to Ezra. No vowel points were used, but in the later books matres lectionis or vowel letters. The words were separated by spaces, except those closely connected. Sections, parshioth, are marked by commencing a new line or by blank spaces. The greater parshioth are the sabbath lessons marked in the Mishna, and perhaps dating from the introduction of the square letters; distinct from the verse divisions made in Christian times. Pesukim is the term for "verses." The Septuagint and Samaritan Pentateuch are the oldest documents with which to criticize our Hebrew text. Gesenius has shown the inferiority of the Samaritan text to our Hebrew Pentateuch:
(1) it substitutes common for unusual grammatical forms;
(2) it admits glosses into the text;
(3) it emends difficult passages, substituting easier readings;
(4) it corrects and adds words from parallel passages;
(5) it interpolates from them;
(6) it removes historical and other difficulties of the subject matter;
(7) Samaritanisms in language;
(8) passages made to agree with the Samaritan theology.
However, as a help in arriving at the text in difficult passages, it has its use. The Samaritan text agrees with the Septuagint in more than one thousand places where both differ from the Masoretic, yet their independence is shown in that the Septuagint agree with the Masoretic in a thousand places, and both herein differ from the Samaritan text. A revised text existed probably along with our Hebrew one in the centuries just before Christ, and was used by the Septuagint. The Samaritans altered it still more (Gesenius); so it became "the Alexandrian Samaritan text." The Samaritans certainly did not receive their Pentateuch from the Israelite northern kingdom, for they have not received the books of Israel's prophets, Hosea, Jonah, Amos. Being pagan, they probably had the Pentateuch first introduced among them from Judah by Manasseh and other priests who joined them at the time of the building of the Mount Gerizim temple.
Josephus (contra Apion i. 8) boasts that through all past ages none had added to, or taken from, or transposed, aught of the sacred writings. The Greek translation of Aquila mainly agrees with ours. So do the targums of Onkelos and Jonathan. Origen in the Hexapla, and especially Jerome, instructed by Palestinian Jews in preparing the Vulgate, show a text identical with ours in even the traditional unwritten vowel readings. The learning of the schools of Hillel and Shammai in Christ's time was preserved, after Jerusalem's fall, in those of Jabneh, Sepphoris, Caesarea, and Tiberias. R. Judah the Holy compiled the Mishna, the Talmud text, before A. D. 220. The twofold Gemara, or commentary, completed the Talmud; the Jerusalem Gemara of the Jews of Tiberias was written at the end of the fourth century; the Babylonian emanated from the schools on the Euphrates at the end of the fifth century. Their assigning the interpretation to the targumist, as distinguished from the transcriber, secured the text from the conjectural interpolations otherwise to be apprehended.
The Talmudic doctors counted the verses in each book, and which was the middle verse, word, and letter in the Pentateuch, and in the psalms, marking it by a large letter or one raised above the line (Le 11:42; Ps 80:14). The Talmudists have a note, "read, but not written," to mark what ought to be read though not in the text, at 2Sa 8:3; 16:23; Jer 31:38; 50:29; Ru 2:11; 3:5,17; also "written but not (to be) read," 2Ki 5:18; De 6:1; Jer 51:3; Eze 48:16; Ru 3:12. So the Masoretic Qeri's (marginal readings) in Job 13:15; Hag 1:8. Their scrupulous abstinence from introducing what they believed the truer readings guarantees to us both their critical care in examining the text and their reverence in preserving it intact. They rejected manuscripts not agreeing with others (Taanith Hierosol. 68, section 1). Their rules as to transcribing and adopting manuscripts show their carefulness.
The soph-pasuk (":" colon) marking the verse endings, and the maqqeph ("-" hyphen), joining words, were introduced after the Talmudic time and earlier than the accents. The maqqeph embodies the traditional authority for joining or separating words; words joined by it have only one accent. Translate therefore Ps 45:4 without "and," "meekness-righteousness," i.e. righteousness manifesting itself in meekness. The Masorah, i.e. tradition (first digested by the doctors in the fifth century), compiled in writing the thus accumulated traditions and criticisms, and became a kind of "fence of the law." In the post-Talmudic period THE MASORAH (Buxtorf, Tiberias) notes:
(1) as to the verses, how many are in each book, the middle verse in each; how many begin with certain letters, or end with the same word, or had a certain number of words and letters, or certain words a number of times;
(2) as to the words, the Qeri's (marginal readings) and kethib's (readings of the text); also words found so many times in the beginning, middle, or end of a verse, or with a particular meaning; also in particular words where transcribers' mistakes were likely, whether they were to be written with or without the vowel letters; also the accentuation;
(3) as to the letters, how often each occurred in the Old Testament, etc., etc.
The written Masorah was being formed from the sixth century to the tenth century. Its chief value is its collection of Qeri's, of which some are from the Talmud, many from manuscripts, others from the sole authority of the Masoretes. The Bomberg Bible contains 1171. The small number in the Pentateuch, 43, is due to the greater care bestowed on the law as compared with the other Scriptures. The Masorah is distinguished into magna and parva (an abridgment of the magna, including the Qeri's and printed at the foot of the page). The magna is partly at the side of the text commented on, partly at the end. Their inserting the vowel marks in the text records for us the traditional pronunciation. The vowel system was molded after the Arabian system, and that after the Syrian system. The acceders in their logical signification were called "senses"; in their musical signification, "tones." They occur in the Masorah, not in the Talmud. The very difficulties which are left unremoved, in explaining some passages consistently with the accents and the vowel points, show that both embody, not the Masoretes' private judgment, but the traditions of previous generations.
Walton's Polyglot gives readings also of the Palestinian and of the Babylonian Jews; the former printed first in the Bomberg Bible by R. Jacob ben Chaim, 216 in all, concerning the consonants, except two as to the mappik. Aaron ben Asher, a Palestinian, and R. Jacob, a Babylonian Jew, having collated manuscripts in the 11th century, mention 864 different readings of vowels, accents, and makkeph, and (Song 8:6) the division of a word. Our manuscripts generally agree with Ben Asher's readings. The Masorah henceforward settled the text of Jewish manuscripts; older manuscripts were allowed to perish as incorrect. Synagogue rolls and manuscripts for private use are the two classes known to us. Synagogue rolls contain separately the Pentateuch, the haphtaroth (literally, "dismissals," being read just before the congregations departed) or sections of the prophets, and the megilloth, namely, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther: all without vowels, accents, and sophpasuks.
The Sopherim Tract appended to the Babylonian Talmud prescribes as to the preparat
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And I will put hostility between you and between the woman, and between your offspring and between her offspring; he will strike you [on the] head, and you will strike him [on the] heel."
When my angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, I will wipe them out.
You must not eat anything that moves upon its belly or that walks on [all] fours, even any [with] numerous feet [belonging] to any swarmer that swarms on the land, because they [are] detestable.
"Now this [is] the commandment, the rules and the regulations, that Yahweh your God charged to teach [to] you [for you] {to observe} in the land that you [are] about to cross [over] into to take possession of it,
"You shall not muzzle an ox {when he is threshing}.
They [have] behaved corruptly toward him; [they are] not his children; [this is] their flaw, a generation crooked and perverse.
Look! The ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth [is about to] cross [over] ahead of you into the Jordan. So then, take twelve men from the tribes of Israel, {one from each tribe}. read more. When the soles of the feet of the priests carrying the ark of Yahweh, Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan will be cut off {upstream}, and they will stand [still in] one heap. And it happened, when the people set out from their tents to cross [over] the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant were {ahead of the people}. When those carrying the ark came up to the Jordan, and the priests carrying the ark dipped their feet in the edge of the water (the Jordan was flowing over its banks during all the days of harvest),
Then Ehud reached with his left hand for the sword on his right thigh, and he thrust it into his stomach.
"The trees went certainly, to anoint a king over themselves. And they said to the olive tree, 'Rule over us.' And the olive tree replied, 'Should I stop [producing] my oil, which by me gods and men are honored, to go sway over the trees?' read more. Then the trees said to the fig tree, 'You, come rule over us.' But the fig tree said to them, 'Should I stop [producing] my sweetness, and my good crop, to go sway over the trees?' And the trees said to the vine, 'You, come rule over us.' But the vine said to them, 'Should I stop [producing] my wine that makes the gods and men happy, to go sway over the trees?' So all the trees said to the thornbush, 'You, come rule over us.' And the thornbush said to the trees, 'If in good faith you [are] anointing me as king over you, then come and take refuge in my shade; if not, may fire go out from the thornbush and devour the cedars of Lebanon.'
And Boaz answered and said to her, "All that you have done for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband was fully told to me. [How] you left your father and mother and the land of your birth, and you went to a people that you did not know {before}.
Now truly I [am] a redeemer, but there is also a redeemer [of a] closer relationship than me.
And she said, "These six measures of barley he gave to me, for he said, 'You shall not go empty-handed to your mother-in-law.'"
Then David struck down Hadadezer the son of Rehob, king of Zobah, when he went to restore his monument at the Euphrates River.
The counsel that Ahithophel gave in those days [was] regarded as when a man inquired of the word of God, so all the counsel of Ahithophel [was esteemed] both by David and by Absalom.
And the king had decided, so he made two golden calves and he said to them, "{You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough}; here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt." He put one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. read more. This thing became a sin, and the people walked before the one as far as Dan. Then he built the houses on the high places, and he appointed priests {from all walks of life} who were not from the sons of Levi. Jeroboam also inaugurated a religious feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like the religious feast which was in Judah, and he offered [sacrifices] on the altar. Thus he did in Bethel, by sacrificing to the calves that he had made; and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made. He offered [sacrifices] on the altar which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month which his heart had devised. He inaugurated a religious feast for the {Israelites}, and he went up to the altar to offer incense.
As far as this matter, may Yahweh pardon your servant when my master goes [into] the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he [is] leaning himself on my arm, that I also bow down [in] the house of Rimmon: when I bow down [in] the house of Rimmon, may Yahweh please pardon your servant in this matter."
As far as this matter, may Yahweh pardon your servant when my master goes [into] the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he [is] leaning himself on my arm, that I also bow down [in] the house of Rimmon: when I bow down [in] the house of Rimmon, may Yahweh please pardon your servant in this matter." He said to him, "Go in peace," so he went from him {a short distance}.
"Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia: 'Yahweh the God of heaven has given to me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has appointed me to build a house for him at Jerusalem, which [is] in Judah. Whoever [is] among you from all his people, may Yahweh his God go up with him.'"
Look, [though] he kill me, I will hope in him; however, I will defend my ways {before him}.
{And then} after Yahweh spoke these words to Job, Yahweh said to Eliphaz the Temanite, "{My wrath has been kindled} against you and against [the] two of your friends, for you have not spoken to me what is right as my servant Job [has].
Because dogs have surrounded me; a gang of evildoers has encircled me. Like the lion [they are at] my hands and my feet.
The earth is Yahweh's, with its fullness, [the] world and those who live in it,
And [in] your majesty {ride victoriously}, because of truth and humility [and] righteousness. And let your right hand teach you awesome deeds.
Rebuke [the] beasts in [the] reeds, [the] herd of bulls with [the] calves of [the] peoples, trampling the pieces of silver. Scatter [the] nations [who] delight in battles.
For [there is] a cup in the hand of Yahweh with wine [that] foams, fully mixed, and he pours out from this. Surely all [the] wicked of [the] land {will quaff it down [to] its dregs}.
"And all [the] horns of [the] wicked I will cut off. [The] horns of [the] righteous will be lifted up."
For the anger of humankind will praise you. You will put on [the] remnant of anger.
Please return, O God [of] hosts. Observe from heaven and see, and pay attention to this vine,
Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love [is] strong as death; passion [is] fierce as Sheol; its flashes [are] flashes of fire; [it is] a blazing flame.
many peoples shall come. And they shall say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the God of Jacob, and may he teach us part of his ways, and let us walk in his paths." For instruction shall go out from Zion, and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem.
Let me sing for my beloved a song of my love concerning his vineyard: {My beloved had a vineyard} on {a fertile hill}. And he dug it and cleared it of stones, and he planted it [with] choice vines, and he built a watchtower in the middle of it, and he even hewed out a wine vat in it, and he waited for [it] to yield grapes-- but it yielded wild grapes. read more. And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more [was there] to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? Why did I hope for [it] to yield grapes, and it yielded wild grapes? And now let me tell you what I myself am about to do to my vineyard. [I will] remove its hedge, and it shall become a devastation. [I will] break down its wall, and it shall become a trampling. And I will make it a wasteland; it shall not be pruned and hoed, and it shall be overgrown [with] briers and thornbushes. And concerning the clouds, I will command {them not to send} rain down upon it. For the vineyard of Yahweh of hosts [is] the house of Israel, and the man of Judah [is] the plantation of his delight. [And] he waited for justice, but look! Bloodshed! For righteousness, but look! A cry of distress!
You have made the nation numerous; you have not made the joy great. They rejoice in your presence as [with] joy at the harvest, as they rejoice when they divide plunder.
I lie down until morning; like lion, so he breaks all my bones; from day to night you bring me to an end.
Lift your eyes up all around and see; all of them gather; they come to you. {As surely as I live}, {declares} Yahweh, surely you shall put on all of them like [an] ornament, and you shall bind them on like bride.
However, he was the one who lifted up our sicknesses, and he carried our pain, yet we ourselves assumed him stricken, struck down [by] God and afflicted.
"And a redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn away from transgression," {declares} Yahweh.
"Look, days [are] coming," {declares} Yahweh, "and the city will be rebuilt for Yahweh, from the Tower of Hananel [to] the Corner Gate.
Summon archers against Babylon, all those who bend [the] bow. Encamp all around her, there must not be for her an escape. Take revenge on her according to her deeds. According to all that she has done, [so] do to her. For against Yahweh she has behaved insolently, against the Holy One of Israel.
Let not him who bends the bow shoot his bow, and let him not rise high in his body armor. And you must not spare her young men; destroy her whole army.
And these [shall be] its measurements: [on] its side to [the] north, four thousand five hundred [cubits]; and [on] its side to [the] south, four thousand five hundred [cubits]; and [on] {the eastern side}, four thousand five hundred [cubits]; and [on] {the western side}, four thousand five hundred [cubits].
Ephraim is oppressed, crushed [in] judgment, because he was determined to go after filth.
For you have observed the regulations of Omri and all the works of the house of Ahab. And you have walked in their counsels, so that I am making you a desolation and your inhabitants an object of scorn. So you will bear the scorn of my people.
Go up the mountain and bring wood and build the house so that I may be pleased with it and honored,' says Yahweh.
"O sword, awake against my shepherd, against [the] man [who is] my associate," {declares} Yahweh of hosts. "Strike the shepherd, so that the sheep may be scattered, and I will turn my hand against the small [ones].
And he was there until the death of Herod, in order that what was said by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled, saying, "Out of Egypt I called my son."
"A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping [for] her children, and she did not want to be comforted, because {they exist no longer}."
And he came [and] lived in a town called Nazareth, in order that what was said by the prophets would be fulfilled: "He will be called a Nazarene."
"Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, {toward the sea}, on the other side of the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles-- the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, and the ones who sit in the land and shadow of death, a light has dawned on them."
"Do not think that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets. I have not come to destroy [them] but to fulfill [them]. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one tiny letter or one stroke of a letter will pass away from the law until all takes place.
in order that what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah would be fulfilled, who said, "He himself took away our sicknesses, and carried away our diseases."
But go [and] learn what it means, "I want mercy and not sacrifice." For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
and said, 'On account of this a man will leave his father and his mother and will be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, man must not separate."
"Say to the daughter of Zion, 'Behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a pack animal.'"
"I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob"? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living!"
Then Jesus said to them, "You will all fall away because of me during this night, for it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.'
How then would the scriptures be fulfilled that it must happen in this way?"
And Jesus answered [and] said to them, "Have you not read this, what David did when he and those [who were] with him were hungry--
For I tell you that this that is written must be fulfilled in me: 'And he was counted with the criminals.' For indeed, [what is written] about me {is being fulfilled}."
And he said to them, "These [are] my words that I spoke to you [while I] was still with you, that everything that is written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled."
Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, "You are gods" '? If he called them 'gods' to whom the word of God came--and the scripture cannot be broken--
And again another scripture says, "They will look on [the one] whom they have pierced."
'And it will be in the last days,' God says, 'I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. And even on my male slaves and on my female slaves I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. read more. And I will cause wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun will be changed to darkness and the moon to blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes. And it will be [that] everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.'
But the Most High does not live in [houses] made by human hands, just as the prophet says, 'Heaven [is] my throne and earth [is] the footstool for my feet. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what [is the] place of my rest?
not by works but by the one who calls--it was said to her, "The older will serve the younger," just as it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."
just as it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." What then shall we say? [There is] no injustice with God, [is there]? May it never be! read more. For to Moses he says, "I will have mercy on whomever I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I have compassion." Consequently therefore, {it does not depend on the} one who wills or on the one who runs, but on God who shows mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very [reason] I have raised you up, so that I may demonstrate my power in you, and so that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."
For the scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very [reason] I have raised you up, so that I may demonstrate my power in you, and so that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." Consequently therefore, he has mercy on whomever he wishes, and he hardens whomever he wishes. read more. Therefore you will say to me, "Why then does he still find fault? For who has resisted his will? On the contrary, O man, who are you who answers back to God? Will what is molded say to the one who molded [it], "Why did you make me like this"? Or does the potter not have authority over the clay, to make from the same lump a vessel that [is] for {honorable use} and [one] that [is] for {ordinary use}?
just as it is written, "Behold, I am laying in Zion {a stone that causes people to stumble}, and {a rock that causes them to fall}, and the one who believes in him will not be put to shame."
But what does the divine response say to him? "I have left for myself seven thousand people who have not bent the knee to Baal." So in this way also at the present time, there is a remnant {selected by grace}.
and so all Israel will be saved, just as it is written, "The deliverer will come out of Zion; he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. And this [is] the covenant from me with them when I take away their sins."
For in the law of Moses it is written, "You must not muzzle an ox [while it] is threshing." It is not about oxen God is concerned, is it?
For I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all went through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, read more. and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed [them], and the rock was Christ. But God was not pleased with the majority of them, for they were struck down in the desert. Now these [things] happened [as] examples for us, so that we should not be desirers of evil [things], just as those also desired [them], and not become idolaters, as some of them [did], just as it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to play," nor commit sexual immorality, as some of them committed sexual immorality, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day, nor put Christ to the test, as some of them tested [him], and were destroyed by snakes, nor grumble, just as some of them grumbled, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these [things] happened to those [people] as an example, but are written for our instruction, on whom the ends of the ages have come.
for "the earth [is] the Lord's, and its fullness."
But if someone says to you, "This is offered to idols," do not eat [it], for the sake of that one who informed [you] and the conscience.
who also makes us adequate [as] servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. But if the ministry of death in letters carved on stone came with glory, so that the sons of Israel were not able to look intently into the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, which was transitory, read more. how will the ministry of the Spirit not be even more with glory? For if [there was] glory in the ministry of condemnation, by much more will the ministry of righteousness overflow with glory. For indeed what had been glorified has not been glorified in this case, on account of the glory that surpasses [it]. For if what was transitory [came] with glory, by much more what remains [is] with glory. Therefore, [because we] have such a hope, we use much boldness, and not as Moses used to place a veil over his face, in order that the sons of Israel would not stare at the end of what was transitory. But their minds were hardened. For until this very day, the same veil remains upon the reading of the old covenant, not being uncovered, because it is done away with in Christ. But until today, whenever Moses is read aloud, a veil lies upon their heart, but whenever one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord [is, there is] freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory into glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
Tell me, [you] who are wanting to be under the law, do you not understand the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the female slave and one by the free woman. read more. But the one by the female slave was born according to human descent, and the one by the free woman through the promise, which [things] are spoken allegorically, for these [women] are two covenants, one from Mount Sinai, bearing [children] for slavery, who is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is a slave with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, which is our mother. For it is written, "Rejoice, O barren woman, who does not give birth to [children]; burst out and shout, [you] who do not have birth pains, because many [are] the children of the desolate [woman], even more than [those of] the one who has a husband." But you, brothers, are children of the promise, just as Isaac. But just as at that time the [child] born according to human descent persecuted the [child born] according to the Spirit, so also now. But what does the scripture say? "Drive out the female slave and her son, for the son of the female slave will never inherit with the son" of the free woman. Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the female slave but of the free woman.
Therefore do not be sharers with them,
Husbands, love your wives and do not be embittered against them.
Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness, read more. where your fathers tested [me] by trial and saw my works [for] forty years. Therefore I was angry with this generation, and I said, 'They always go astray in their heart, and they do not know my ways.' As I swore in my anger, '{They will never enter} into my rest.'"
who serve a sketch and shadow of the heavenly [things], just as Moses was warned [when he] was about to complete the tabernacle, for he says, "See to it that you make everything according to the pattern which was shown to you on the mountain."
For we know the one who said, "Vengeance [is] mine, I will repay," and again, "The Lord will judge his people."
[By] leaving the straight path, they have gone astray, [because they] followed the way of Balaam the [son of] Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness, but received a rebuke for his own lawlessness: a speechless donkey, speaking with a human voice, restrained {the prophet's madness}.
And I fell down before his feet to worship him, and he said to me, "{Do not do that!} I am a fellow slave of you and of your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."
Hastings
Morish
See BIBLE.
Smith
Old Testament.
I. TEXT OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. --
1. History of the text. -A history of the text of the Old Testament should properly commence from the date of the completion of the canon. As regards the form in which the sacred writings were little doubt that the text was ordinarily were preserved, there can be written on skins, rolled up into volumes, like the modern synagogue rolls.
Ps 40:7; Jer 36:14; Eze 2:9; Zec 5:1
The original character in which the text was expressed is that still preserved to us, with the exception of four letters, on the Maccabaean coins, and having a strong affinity to the Samaritan character. At what date this was exchanged for the present Aramaic or square character is still as undetermined as it is at what the use of the Aramaic language Palestine superseded that of the Hebrew. The old Jewish tradition, repeated by Origen and Jerome, ascribed the change to Ezra. [WRITING] Of any logical division, in the written text, of the rose of the Old Testament into Pesukim or verses, we find in the Tulmud no mention; and even in the existing synagogue rolls such division is generally ignored. In the poetical books, the Pesukim mentioned in the Talmud correspond to the poetical lines, not to our modern verses. Of the documents which directly bear upon the history of the Hebrew text, the earliest two are the Samaritan copy of the Pentateuch and the Greek translation of the LXX. [SAMARITAN PENTATEUCH; SEPTUAGINT] In the (translations of Aquila and the other Greek interpreters, the fragments of whose works remain to us in the Hexapla, we have evidence of the existence of a text differing but little from our own; so also (in the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan. A few centuries later we have, in the Hexapla, additional evidence to the same effect in Origin's transcriptions of the Hebrew text. And yet more important are the proofs of the firm establishment of the text, and of its substantial with our own, supplied by the translation of Jerome, who was instructed by the Palestinian Jews, and mainly relied upon their authority for acquaintance not only with the text itself, but also with the traditional unwritten vocalization of brings us to the middle of the Talmudic period. The care of the Talmudic doctors for the text is shown by the pains with which they counted no the number of verses in the different books and computed which were the middle verses, words and letters in the Pentateuch and in the Psalms. The scrupulousness with which the Talmudists noted what they deemed the truer readings, and yet abstained from introducing them into the text, indicates at once both the diligence with which they scrutinized the text and also the care with which even while knowledging its occasional imperfections, they guarded it. Critical procedure is also evinced in a mention of their rejection of manuscripts which were found not to agree with others in their readings; and the rules given with refer once to the transcription and adoption of manuscripts attest the care bestowed upon them. It is evident from the notices of the Talmud that a number of oral traditions had been gradually accumulating respecting both the integrity of particular passages of the text itself and also the manner in which if was to be read. This vast heterogeneous mass of traditions and criticisms, compiled and embodied in writing, forms what is known as the Masorah, i.e. Tradition. From the end of the Masoretic period onward, the Masorah became the great authority by which the text given in all the Jewish MSS. was settled.
See Writing
See Samaritan Pentateuch
See Pentateuch, The
See Septuagint
2. Manuscripts. --The Old Testament MSS. known to us fall into two main classes: synagogue rolls and MSS. for private use of the latter, some are written in the square, others in the rabbinic or cursive, character. The synagogue rolls contain separate from each other, the Pentateuch, the Haphtaroth or appointed sections of the prophets, and the so-called Megilloth, viz. Canticles, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and Esther. Private MSS. in the square character are in the book form, either on parchment or on paper, and of various sizes, from folio to 12mo. Some contain the Hebrew text alone; others add the Targum, or an Arabic or other translation, either interspersed with the text or in a separate column, occasionally in the margin. The upper and lower margins are generally occupied by the Masorah, sometimes by rabbinical commentaries, etc. The date of a MS. is ordinarily given in the subscription but as the subscriptions are often concealed in the Masorah or elsewhere, it is occasionally difficult to find them: occasionally also it is difficult to decipher them. No satisfactory criteria have been yet established by which the ages of MSS. are to be determined. Few existing MSS. are supposed to be older than the twelfth century. Kennicott and Bruns assigned one of their collation (No. 590) to the tenth century; De Rossi dates if A.D. 1018; on the other hand. one of his own (No. 634) he adjudges to the eighth century. Since the days of Kennicott and De Rossi modern research has discovered various MSS. beyond the limits of Europe. Of many of these there seems no reason to suppose that they will add much to our knowledge of the Hebrew text. It is different with the MSS. examined by Pinner at Odessa. One of these MSS. (A, No. 1), a Pentateuch roll, unpointed, brought from Derbend in Daghestan, appears by the subscription to have been written previous to A.D. 580 and if so is the oldest known biblical Hebrew MS. in existence. The forms of the letters are remarkable. Another MS. (B, No. 3) containing the prophets, on parchment, in small folio, although only dating, according to the inscription, from A.D. 916 and furnished with a Masorah, is a yet greater treasure. Its vowels and accents are wholly different from those now in use, both in form and in position, being all above the letters: they have accordingly been the theme of much discussion among Hebrew scholars.
3. Printed text. --The history of the printed text of the Hebrew Bible commences with the early Jewish editions of the separate books. First appeared the Psalter, in 1477, probably at Bologna, in 4to, with Kimchi's commentary interspersed among the verses. Only the first four psalms had the vowel-points, and these but clumsily expressed. At Bologna, there subsequently appeared in 1482, the Pentateuch, in folio, pointed, with the Targum and the commentary of Rashi; and the five Megilloth (Ruth--Esther), in folio with the commentaries of Rashi and Aben Ezra. From Soncino, near Cremona, issued in 1486 the Prophetae priores (Joshua--Kings), folio, unpointed with Kimchi's commentary. The honor of printing the first entire Hebrew Bible belongs to the above-mentioned town of Soncino. The edition is in folio, pointed and accentuated. Nine copies only of it are now known, of which one belongs to Exeter College, Oxford. This was followed, in 1494, by the 4to or 8vo edition printed by Gersom at Brescia, remarkable as being the edition from which Luther's German translation was made. After the Brescian, the next primary edition was that contained in the Complutensian Polyglot, published at Complutum (Alcala) in Spain, at the expense of Cardinal Ximenes, dated 1514-17 but not issued till 1522. To this succeeded an edition which has had more influence than any on the text of later times the Second Rabbinical Bible, printed by Bomberg al Venice, 4 vols. fol., 1525-6. The editor was the learned Tunisian Jew R. Jacob hen Chaim. The great feature of his work lay in the correction of the text by the precepts of the Masorah, in which he was profoundly skilled, and on which, as well as on the text itself, his labors were employed. The Hebrew Bible which became the standard to subsequent generations was: that of Joseph Athiais, a learned rabbi and printer at Amsterdam. His text Was based on a comparison of the previous editions with two MSS.; one bearing date 1299, the other a Spanish MS. boasting an antiquity of 900 years. It appeared at Amsterdam 2 vols. 8 vo, 1661.
4. Principles of criticism. --The method of procedure required in the criticism of the Old
See Verses Found in Dictionary
But Yahweh has not given to you a heart to understand, or eyes to see, or ears to hear, [even] {to this day}.
Then I said, "Look, I come. In [the] scroll of [the] book it is written concerning me:
For Yahweh has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and he has shut your eyes, the prophets, and he has covered your heads, the seers.
Is this not [the] fast I choose: to release [the] bonds of injustice, to untie [the] ropes of [the] yoke, and to let [the] oppressed go free, and {tear} every yoke to pieces?
[The] Spirit of the Lord Yahweh [is] upon me, because Yahweh has anointed me, he has sent me to bring good news [to the] oppressed, to bind up {the brokenhearted}, to {proclaim} release to [the] captives and liberation to those who are bound,
Then all the officials sent Jehudi, the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to Baruch, {saying}, "The scroll that you read aloud from in the hearing of the people, take it in your hand and come." And Baruch the son of Neriah took the scroll in his hand and he came to them.
And I looked, and look! There was a hand stretched out to me, and look! In it [was] {a scroll with writing}.
Then what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled, who said, "And they took the thirty silver coins, the price of the one who had been priced, [on] whom a price had been set by the sons of Israel,
"The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon me, because of which he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to send out in freedom those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord."
"For it is written in the book of Psalms, 'Let his residence become deserted, and let there be no one to live in it,' and, 'Let another person take his position.'
just as it is written, "God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear, until this very day."