Art. III. The Book of the Prophet Isaiah translated from the Hebrew with Critical and Explanatory Notes, and Practical Remarks: To which is prefixed, a Preliminary Dissertation on the nature and use of Prophecy. By the Rev. Alfred Jenour, Curate of Seaton and Harringworth, Northamptonshire. 8vo. 2 vols. pp. 1024. London, 1830.

THE publication of Bishop Lowth's "New Translation of Isaiah" was an era in the history and progress of Biblical literature. It wakened attention to the study of the original Hebrew Scriptures, and excited the emulation of Hebrew scholars, who, following the example which its accomplished author had set them, have supplied improved versions of other portions of the prophetic writings. None of the learned Prelate's imitators, however, have been equally fortunate in obtaining for their productions a circulation so extensive as that which his well-known Version has met with, and which has procured for his name a high reputation, not only among scholars, but among other intelligent readers who could appre ciate its merits only by a comparison of its readings with those of the Common Version. No other example, probably, can be produced, of a work intended to transfer the sense of a single book of Scripture into a modern language, which has attained so great a popularity. The name of Bishop Lowth is better known as connected with his Isaiah, than as designating the Author of the Prelections on Hebrew Poetry. The latter is, however, the basis on which his fame as a Biblical scholar must permanently rest. It is a production of rare excellence and of original character. Other versions of the Prophet's ' Vision' may supersede the Translation of Lowth, or depreciate its value; but a more beautiful and classic book than the 'Pra'lectiones,' is not to be expected, nor is it likely that any writer will attempt the task which he has so admirably executed.

With all its merits, the 'Translation of Isaiah' has many faults. Its deviations from the Common Version are, in many instances, unauthorized departures from the Hebrew text; the readings of the Septuagint are too frequently followed; and the adoption of conjectural emendations, is not the least exceptionable feature of the labours of the learned Prelate. The manuscript authority on which he depends for some of the alterations which his text exhibits, is, in many cases, altogether insufficient to warrant them. Nor is it merely defective as a representation of the original: its style is by no means entitled to all the praise which has been bestowed upon it. The expressions are frequently devoid of the simplicity which should distinguish translations of the Scriptures, and the construction of the sentences is not seldom inferior to the verbal forms of the Common English

Bible. Yet, with all its blemishes, it is a very valuable contribution to Biblical literature, and has enabled us, in many passages, to apprehend more clearly the prophet's meaning, both by freeing the text itself from obscurities, and by the light which the numerous illustrations and observations contained in the Notes have thrown on the figurative language and allusions. The learned Prelate occasionally offers us his guidance as an Expositor of some parts of the book; but it was not his purpose to furnish a commentary on Isaiah.

The object of the present Author is, to combine in one work, the advantages of a critical and devotional commentary, together with a new version and a metrical arrangement. He retains the common division of chapters and verses, but distributes the text into such portions as, according to his views, include entire subjects or connected prophecies; subjoining to each section, Explanatory Notes,' in which are given elucidations of the language and historical and doctrinal interpretations of the text. These are followed by practical and devotional Remarks;' and a series of Critical Notes concludes the several divisions into which the Author has distributed the contents of these volumes.

Mr. Jenour's expositions are strictly and highly evangelical: he never loses sight of the great principles which are assumed and embodied in the revelation to which we are indebted for the knowledge of the Divine perfections and government, and of the gracious mediation established with the Messiah, for the relief and happiness of creatures who owe their miseries to ignorance and sin. He has not in every instance, perhaps, limited his comments to the statements and explications which the language of Isaiah would suggest; but, as an evangelical instructor, he stands far apart from that class of interpreters whose indiscreet obtrusion of the most hallowed subjects into positions and connexions to which they have no relation or adaptation, are as offensive as they are mischievous. If we find occasion at any time to dissent from his comments, or to hesitate in receiving his interpretations, we are never displeased with his manner of stating them. He is neither presumptuous nor ostentatious; he makes no parade of learning; his criticisms are never laboured, and they are scarcely ever frivolous or irrelevant. In conjectural emendations, he is very sparing; and proposes them only on such occasions as afford the means of suggesting probable readings. His practical remarks are always edifying.

Mr. Jenour is an advocate for the double sense of prophecy. Most of the prophecies, he thinks, respecting Christ and his kingdom, admit of a twofold interpretation and application; a figurative and a literal; an incipient, and a plenary accomplishment. In the selection of his examples, however, he is not, we

presume to remark, very felicitous. The prediction recorded 1 Sam. ii. 35, primarily and literally refers, he alleges, to Samuel, who succeeded Eli in the priesthood, but whosoever reads what is said of Christ, Heb. ii. 17, and iii. 1-6, will, he imagines, immediately perceive that he is emphatically the Priest whom God promised to raise up. In Chap. iii. 1—6, the comparison is between Moses and Christ; and whosoever reads Chap. ii. 17, will scarcely find reason for being of the Author's opinion. The lxxiid Psalm is more to his purpose. In his Preliminary Dissertation,' Section VI., the Author has briefly treated Of the Poetical style of the Prophets.' Besides the devotional portions of the Old Testament, some other parts of the writings which it contains, have been long regarded as poetical compositions, though the instances are but few in which the printed Hebrew Bible has preserved them in a form different from prose. Prose composition may be truly and highly poetical, as it may reflect the boldest and the brightest images, and may present the most animated forms of diction, to delight as well as to instruct the reader; and in this sense, the books of the prophets had long been described as imbued with the poetic spirit. But that the language in which the predictions of the Hebrew seers are preserved, is poetic in its structure, was scarcely imagined, till Lowth examined the whole subject, and produced such evidence of the artificial arrangement of the diction in which they are delivered, as satisfactorily determined the question. In his Prælectiones,' and particularly in his Preliminary Dissertation' prefixed to his Translation of Isaiah, he has copiously discussed the subject, proving that the writings of the evangelical prophet have all the characteristics of Hebrew poetry. Of the species of poetic composition which Lowth has designated as 'responsive song,' and in which persons are introduced who speak alternately and answer each other, Mr. Jenour remarks, (p. 26,) that attention to it materially assists in the understanding of the Bible: unless the change of speakers be observed, the meaning of passages will be obscured, ' and their beauty in a great measure be lost.' In a treatise of Hebrew poetry, or in explanatory and illustrative notes, it may be quite proper to notice peculiarities of this kind; but it may be doubted, whether a translator is at liberty to model the text in conformity to assumptions of this description. The true sense may be obscured by erroneous or arbitrary distribution of the text; and there is so much scope for the operations of fancy in the appropriation of sentences to the supposed interlocutors, in arrangements of this kind, as to induce us to hesitate in respect to the adoption of them. Both Bishop Lowth and the present Author have attempted to model some portions of their translations on this assumed principle; but their versions do not correspond in the appearance which they present, nor do

they give exactly the same sense in the passages which they have thus treated. Lowth, indeed, is very sparing in the examples of responsive song which his text exhibits. Mr. Jenour has furnished many more specimens; and to some of these we shall extend our notice, for the purpose of shewing how uncertainly his judgement or his taste has guided him in the distributions of the text. The xxvith and xxviith Chapters are examples of responsive song, according to Mr. Jenour, who, in his notes, assigns the several portions to the different speakers; the text, however, is without breaks or divisions, and presents no alternative appellations at the commencement of paragraphs; whereas in other chapters, as in the xxxiiid, liid, and liiid, and in the lxiid and lxiiid, the divisions are distinct and formal, and the names of the speakers are regularly introduced. We may as well extract, in support of our remarks, and as a specimen of the Version, the whole of the liiid Chapter.

CHAP. LIII.-1.

WATCHMEN.

Who hath believed our report?

And to whom hath the arm of Jehovah been revealed?

'JEHOVAH.

2. And he groweth up before them as a shoot, And as a tender plant from the dry ground.

3.

4.

'CHURCH.

He hath no form, nor comeliness, that we should regard him.
Nor any beauty that we should desire him.

And as one that hideth his face, he is despised by us, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows;

Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God. 5. But he was pierced for our transgressions, bruised for our sins: The chastisement by which we have peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed:

6. (We all have strayed like sheep, we have each one taken his own path,)

And Jehovah hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all.

'JEHOVAH.

7. He is oppressed and afflicted, yet he openeth not his mouth; As a lamb led to the slaughter, or a sheep before her shearers, Is dumb, and openeth not its mouth.

8.

From help and from justice is he taken away; and who testifieth to his way of life?

For he is cut off from the land of the living, for the transgression of my people is he smitten.

'CHURCH.

9. And his grave was appointed with the wicked, but with the

rich was his tomb.

10.

Because he had done no violence, neither was guile found in

his mouth:

Yet it pleased Jehovah to bruise him with affliction.
When thou shalt have made his soul an offering for sin,
He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days;

And the purpose of Jehovah shall prosper in his hands.

JEHOVAH.

11. Of the travail of his soul shall he see, and be satisfied. By the knowledge of himself shall my righteous servant justify

12.

many;

Yea, their iniquities he shall bear.

Therefore I will appoint him a portion among the mighty,
And with the strong shall he divide the spoil.

Because he poured out his soul unto death, and was numbered
with transgressors,

And he bare the sin of many, and maketh intercession for transgressors.'

As there is no authority for such an arrangement of the text as this, and as the interlocutors are introduced merely at the option of the Translator, we must prefer reading the prophecy in the form in which it has been transmitted to us. We do not perceive that either the solemnity or the propriety of the sentiments delivered in this very important and striking chapter, is displayed to advantage by the responsive forms of the preceding division. That the arrangement is purely arbitrary, must be obvious to every reader; for what reason can be assigned for distributing the portions to the several speakers who are made to bear their parts in the prophetic declarations of the Messiah's humiliation and reward?-Why is the seventh verse, for example, separated from the sixth, and given to a different speaker?

Mr. Jenour renders the introductory sentence of the original book in the following manner; and he offers, in his Notes, the remarks which we subjoin, in justification of the sense assigned to the passage.

The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, who saw visions concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.'

If any one should object to the translation .חזון ישעיהו אשר חזה *

I have given of this title, on the ground that, the name of the prophet being in the genitive, the relative x cannot belong to it, and be the nominative to the verb, he has only to refer to the title of the prophecy Here, there

דברי עמוס אשר היה בנקדים : of Amoz, which runs thus

can be no doubt as to which is the antecedent to the relative, or the nominative to the verb. It is evidently the prophet who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa, not the words. Then follows another

in as in the title we are considering. Now as the first ¬ untedly has for its antecedent the name of the prophet, what reason