The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1886-04-09
Tho Integrity Of the Old Testi ment.
BY CHARLES NOISE.

70 tae luinliment OF prophesy, all believers
revelation must agree upon one point, viz /:
that the word of God as expressed in the
Old Testament must be pure and perfect.
1--WE believe that God did reveal himself
to Moses aad the Prophets, and that He
promulgated laws for the guidance of His
chosen people, then it seems tc follow, that
such revelation and such laws must be un-
assailablo.
Yet for how many hundreds of years
have persons of both religions been misled BY
improper translations aud imperfect knowl-
edge, to attribute to the Most High, action,
and ordinances which are wholly inconsis-
tent with Divine Justice and Divine Wis.
dom.
Take for example the fmiliar expression,
borrowing from the Egyptians If we
couldbelieve that our Heavenly Father COM
manded His people, when about to leave
tho land ftheir cruel bondage, to act with
Hypocrisy and deception towards their task
masters, our faith in the Divine character
must necessarily be weakened. For, though
God dealt then, as He deals now, with frail
and sinful beings, yet He never did aud
never could sanction, much less command,
departure FROM truth and ,nesty.
What then must be our amazement to find
that tho ordinary English trauslatious of
the Bible make it appear that God Himself
directed the Israelites to "borrow from the
Egyptians
Leaving the land Of oppressinn never to
return, to leave borrowed jewels of silver
and jewels of gold and raimeut, would have
been the grossest and most uujusti6able
deception. But when we remember that
these articles were needed not for the use
of the people, but for the adornment of the
Tabernacle, tho sanctuary in which God
deigned to meet with Moses and there to
manifest Himself aud His glory, how much
greater would have bean the wrong, in pro-
curing by fraud and deception valuabes
for such sacred purpose!
For let it'be remembered, that tho people
could not have had any possible use for the
precious metals in their forty years wan
derings in the wilderness. Nor dill they
need rament +; Tor it is emphaticaly stated,
In the sacred narrative, that their clothing
did not wear out, but served them without
impairment. during their long and weary
march.
But We need feel no uneasiness as to the
subject, if We apply to this portion of Scrip
ture the ordinary rules Of Biblical exegesis
We will then discover that the words and
idea of borrowing from the Egyptians are
confined entirely to the English translation
They can not be found iu the original
Hebrew, nor any of the translatous into
ancient or modern languages, English
alone excepted.) The H sbrew word 'shaal'
signifies in its primary sense asked, reques-
ted, demanded and Roy in his excellent
dictionary refers these meanings to the very
passage in Exodus (111 22), which is trans
lated in the common English version 'bor-
row.
The Septuagint renders it 'aitesei,' (ask)
the vulgate, 'postulabit' (demauded).
Some very old English translations of
the Bible, for example, the Geneva Bible,
and Barker's Bible, 1915, translated the
word 'aske.'
In every modern language the Hebrew
word 'shaaP is translated by a word equiv>
aleut to demand In Spanish it is rendered
'pida ! in Portuguese 'pede,' in French de-
maude in German 'erbitte,' &c.
Besides these, there arc other circum-
stances which confirm the statement that
this erroneous translation is confined to tho
English version Of tho Bible.
The learned work Of Rabbi Manasseh
ben Israel, called the 'Concilator,' was
published in Holland in 1852, twenty-three
years before the author visited England.
In that book there are some six hundred
reconciliatious of apparently contradictory
or difficult passages of Scripture. The sub
jsct Of borrowing from the Egyptians is
not mentioned by that profound scholar.
This shows that he had never heard of it,
because, if he had, there is DO doubt he
would have considered it 10 his very or.
haustive work.
Again, tho learned VoItaire, the most bit.
ter enemy Of Judaism as well as OF all re-
vealed religion, exhausted the resources Of
his great intellect in vain efforts to ipjure
the character Of the OidTss.aa,ent. SO far
did he carry his venomous attacks against