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That our readers may better judge of the qualities of Mr . Gs translation of this book , we shall now lay before them a few successive verses : he dis ~ tin < niifches them , after the manner of Dt * Kennicbft and Bp . Lowth , es possessing a kind of poetical measure ; Cfcxir . 7---1 S .
« There is indeed hope for the plant , When it is cut down , that it will sprout [ ag-ain , \ nd that its tender branches will not fail ; Though its root have grown old in the earth , And Its trunk become dead over the soil , Through the fragraney of-water it may
revive , And put forth young * shoots , as when [ planted . Bait man dieth , and mould ereth r—But the mortal expireth—and where is he ? As the billows pass away with the tides ,
And the floods are exhausted and dried up , So man lieth down , and riseth not : Till the heavens be dissolved they will not [ awake : No—they will not rouse up from their [ sleep . "
Ch . xxviii . < 20—" But whence then cometh Wisdom ? Yea , where is the dwelling-place of Un-[ derstanding ? Since hid from the eyes of every man living " , A ad invisible to the fowls of , the heavens ? Destruction and Death say , ' We have heard of its fame with our ears —
Grod understandeth its track , lea ; he knoweth its dwelling-place : For he seeth to the ends of the earth ; He surveyeth under every part of the hea
[ vens . — When he made a balance for the air , A . nd adjusted the waters by measure ; When he fixed a course for the rain , And a path for the lightning-of the thunder-storm :
Then did he eye * it , and proclaim it ; He established it , and thoroughly proved it : And to man he said , Behold , the fear of the Lom > !— -that is [ Wisdom , And TO DEPART FROM EVIL , UnDERSTAND-[ I 5 G . "
These , with a slight exception , are favourable specimens . That" the present version" of the book of Job " has * s errors , " Mr . G . himself acknowledges . The " direct object" of his jjttempt is , in his own words , " to
of-It * a translation more strict , both to toe letter and spirit of the original , u has hitherto been produced in any language , admitting fewer circuits renderings , and fewer deviations * & > e our Note on Ch . xxlv . 1 .
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from the Hebrew text , to preserve more particularly the real value of certain emphatic particles and to depart as little as possible , and never without an obvious reason , from our established version . " Now we think
that he has generally been successful in giving the force of the particles which he enumerates . Here , indeed , if we mistake not , his principal merit will be found . That we consider him as having in many instances needlessly deviated from the standard translation , the readers of this article will not now
require to be informed : and we are of opinion that where he fails , it is chiefly from an excessive solicitude to be more literal than his predecessors . Like Arias Montanus , * he often sacrifices the English to the Hebrew idiom . Of this blemish we have produced several examples : another occurs to us in Ch . xl . 1 . " And
Jehovah added to Job' * - —« Dr . Geddes , in his highly valuable Prospectus , &c . p . 130 , Jaid down the following rules for the attainment of a just degree of elegance in a translation of the scriptures : " In the first
place , " says he , a <* translator of taste will be careful to make a proper selection of terms- Secondly , he will arrange them in the most natural order . Thirdly , he will reject all meretricious ornaments . " Against the two last of these directions , Mr . G .
we believe , has not very frequently or egregiously offended . His " selection of terms , " however , is ia numerous instances to be censured . Who can approve of such a word and phrase
as this , " he would tempest his words up unto God" ( xxxiv . 37 )? Or of such expressions as forsooth , amainy rabble , levanter , virility , with many others not less inelegant or obscure ?
To the general reader Mr . Gs translation of the book of Job will scarcely make this sublime poem more inviting and perspicuous than it appears in the Public Version . And we fear that the proficient in the study of the Hebrew scriptures will discover in the present volume quite as much to condemn as to admire . Yet we
would not frown upon any sincere attempt to illustrate so interesting a portion of the sacred writings . The pages before us , will not be without * Campbell ' s Preliminary Dissertation ^ ( 4 o . ) Vol . i . 448
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Review . —Good ' s Translation of the Book of Job . 117
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1815, page 117, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1757/page/53/
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