Entered according the the Act of Congress in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-three, by Charles Bowen, in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

PREFACE

No subject of theology is more overshadowed with darkness than that of the prophecies of the Old Testament. To what English writer can the theological student be referred, as a competent guide in his investigations into the general character, design, meaning, and application of the writings of the Hebrew prophets? Without undertaking to account for the present state of the subject, I may just hint that it is not wholly to be attributed to its intrinsic difficulty, but in part to false views of the nature of language, and of the principles of interpretation, which have prevailed in the theological world, until within a recent period. The notion that the language of the prophets was designed to be understood in more senses than one, so that it might be applied with equal correctness to two or more entirely distinct events or subjects, has led many an inquirer into a wilderness of false interpretations. Some, who have abandoned the theory of a double sense, have adopted the most extravagant views of the nature of prophecy, maintaining that the Prophets were mere instruments for the expression of lan. guage, which they did not themselves understand, and producing arbitrary expositions, without regard to the circumstances under which the Prophets wrote, and to the fact, that their writings, as well as their unrecorded labors, were designed for the special benefit of their contemporaries. It has been forgotten, that the principal office of a prophet was to be the religious teacher, and political monitor, of his own age and nation, rather than a mere predicter of future events for the benefit of all ages and all nations. The lover of truth, in looking over the various treatises and controversies upon the subject of prophecy, observes with pain how often language has been tortured to make out the prediction, and history falsified to make out the fulfilment. It is certainly time that something should be done to clear away the false ideas, which have gathered round the prophetic writings of the Old Testament. It is time to inquire how far the unbeliever has been justly scandal

27901

ized by prevalent expositions of them, and how far the Christian revelation has sustained injury from weapons, which have been used in its defence. As the case now stands, perhaps an intelligent inquirer, asking for light upon this subject, may most prudently be directed to study the prophetic writings themselves, making use of those principles and helps of interpretation, which may be supposed to guide him to the meaning of other writings of similar antiquity; to abandon artificial systems, and inquire what meaning a well-informed contemporary of the prophet would have drawn from his writings.

The design of the present work is, not to supply the want to which I have alluded, but to afford in part the means of supplying it. A faithful representation of the literal sense of the original may lead some to a sound exposition and application of it, who have neither inclination nor opportunity for acquiring a knowledge of the Hebrew language. I may at least hope, that my work will be acceptable to the lover of genuine poetry, if not to the theological inquirer.

It is my purpose to continue translations of the prophetical and poetical writings of the Old Testament, as long as health, and leisure, and the patronage of purchasers enable me to do it.

By limiting my labors chiefly to the business of translation I suppose that I can do more good, consistently with the paramount duties of my present situation, than by attempting a commentary upon one or more books. There are many valuable commentaries on the Old Testament, but no satisfactory translation of it in the English language. There are, moreover, many unsettled questions respecting the genuineness, and the nature, design, and application of the writings of the Prophets, and the use made of them by wri ters of the New Testament, embracing an immense and imperfectly explored field of inquiry, which need not engage, at least in a great degree, the attention of the translator, but which ought to be newly and thoroughly investigated and discussed, by one who would make an exposition of the prophetic writings, at all satisfactory to the present race of inquirers.

I believe that more may be done to make the sacred writings understood and respected, by a revised translation of them, than in any other single mode. I would by no means undervalue commentaries. Considerable portions of the Scriptures cannot be fully understood without their aid at the present day, however intelligible they may have been to the contemporaries of the writers. But for one reader of commentaries there are probably more than ten thou

sand, who read only the simple text of the Scriptures. And those who occasionally consult an exposition, ordinarily read their Bible without note or comment. When one goes to the sacred writings in order to find nourishment for his piety, and strength for his virtuous resolutions, it is an irksome interruption to be obliged to wade through pages of exposition in order to find the light and help, which he needs. Hence all possible light ought to be afforded by the translation itself. Now it is not too much to assert, that hundreds of passages in the common version, which are now misunderstood, or imperfectly understood, may be made intelligible by a new translation of only the particles, which connect sentences together; to say nothing of the errors which those sentences contain.

A good translation is the legitimate expression and result of a great portion of philological investigation. Such a translation would make a considerable part of existing commentaries unnecessary, or transfer it to grammars and lexicons. No small portion of the labors of English commentators, from the time of the profoundly learned and judicious Pococke to the present day, has had for its object to show what the received translation ought to be. Now why not make it what it ought to be, and end the matter?

There has been a palpable inconsistency in the Christian community in England and this country in relation to the subject of biblical translations; an inconsistency resembling that of a man, who should take unwearied pains to collect timber, bricks, and mortar, and then let them lie a useless heap, for want of inclination, or resolution, to form them into an edifice. The Christian community have founded colleges, established professorships for the study of the Oriental languages, and honored the learned men who have filled them. But it has ever manifested a jealousy and fear of the results of their learned labors. It has practically willed, that these labors should be limited to the providing of intellectual luxuries for a few studious men, readers of folios and quartos, and should terminate just at the point, when they might be most useful to the mass of the people. Almost every one, who has undertaken to translate a portion of the Scriptures, has found it necessary to apologize for his audacity, or vindicate himself from the imputation of being a corrupter of the Bible. Not a few have endeavored to gain the reputation of being friends to the Scriptures by condemning those, who, without the hope of pecuniary emolument, have given their days and their nights, their health and their strength, to the business of making them understood by the community.⚫

When we consider what has been published respecting the er rors and faults of the common version by such men as Lowth, Newcome, Blayney, and Campbell, may not the contented reception of it be said to be a disgrace and scandal to the Christian church. Every one will admit, I presume, that intentionally to corrupt the text, or introduce error into the translation, of the Scriptures, would be a great crime. I cannot perceive that the toleration and patronage of acknowledged corruptions and errors, already there, is a much lighter crime. I cannot perceive so very great a difference between causing an evil, and tolerating, acquiescing in, and encouraging one, which it is in our power to avoid or to remedy. It may be asked, indeed, and with some degree of reason, Where is the version, which deserves on the whole to be substituted for the present? But is not the deficiency alluded to in such a question, in a great measure, the consequence of the public feeling, to which I have referred. It is not so much the mere fact of the present reception of the common version, which I maintain to be dishonorable to the Christian church, but that so little inclination and exertion have been manifested to procure a better, and so little encouragement given, or rather so much discouragement offered, to those, who have engaged in the work of biblical translation. If it were for no other reason than to produce a respectful attention to the Scriptures from unbelievers, a new translation is highly desirable. It would do more for the cause of revealed religion than many an elaborate argument in its defence.

that

It is an idle fear unworthy of this age and of this country, the respect of the people for the Scriptures will be lessened by making them more true to the original, and, at the same time,more intelligible. It is a fear of the same nature as that, which in England has led to the cry, that the church was in danger, whenever one of its almost intolerable abuses was corrected, which branded the leaders of the Protestant reformation as impious heretics, and which led a celebrated writer to deprecate doubts concerning witchcraft, as leading directly to infidelity and atheism. I have long been convinced, that ignorance of the true character and meaning of the Scriptures is one of the principal causes of the infidelity of modern times. It is not by withholding, but by imparting light, that we may hope to stay its progress. Away with the notion, that the truth is endangered by separating from it the errors which have been associated with it.

The character of a version will depend more upon the judgment and taste of the translator, than upon the principles and rules of in