The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-10-25
A new BIBLE REVISION.
Internationally Conducted by Eminent Scholars
4 Specimen From ECGleSiaSteS.

A new revision of the Bible is under way
1t will be edited by the ablest scholars in
| Europe and the United States. Professor
Haupt of Johns Hopkins University is
prominent in the work. Professor Harper
and Professor Curtis, late of Chicago. whI
takes Professor Harpers place at Yale,
are other editors. The Baltimore American
furnishes an interesting scrap of the now
translation. The American says, speaking
of the Book OF Ecclesiastes, which Pro-
fessor Haupt has translated:
Some of the new translatiOns are very
striking The motto of the Kings Daughters,
whatsoever thy hand fndeth to do, that
do with all thy might" is rendered accord
ing to The eXiPencies Of literal translation:
But whatsoever thy hand findeth to do
within thy power-dO it," Again, the
familiar passage, Cast thy bread upon the
waters and 1t will return after many days."
becomes very striking bit of wisdom.
Send forth thy bread-curn over the water;
| though many days may pass thou witt re-
cover 1t. But give a share TO seven ships
or even to eight, for thou knOweSt not what
evil may come upon the earth" "Remem-
Der thy Creator IN the days of thy youth,
is alsU rendered i'll different manner.
Most persons have been at the sea to find
the meaning Of the passage ending with the
nOluo dOOuI GhO silSSL CUIu uclLS CuJ anu
the golden bowl broken" This passage
in the new Bible, with its fo0t-notes, be-
comes beautiful piece OF poetry descriptive
of old age and decaying yigOr, and the warm
ing in the Introductory passage TO cleave to
God becomes all the more striking. The
passage reads as follows:
Ere there come the days Of evil,
And the years draw nigh
In which thou wilt say have no pleasure
Ere is darSened the sun and the light of the Gay,
And the moon, and the stars,
A nd the clouds return alter the rain:
When tho keepers OF the house tremble,
And the men of power bend themselves:
Tie grinding maids then cease,
And the ladies that look out through the Iattices
darkencd;
The doors are shut toward the street
He riseth at The voice OF the birds,
and all the daughters ot song are brought low,
lie is AFRAID OF that VIII. en- is high,
And fears are IN the way;
The almond tree blOssoneth,
The locust craweth along with dimculty
The c.perberry Oreaketh up,
The silver cord is snapped asunder,
The golden bowl crushed iu
! he bucket at the well Shivered.
And the wheel breaketh down at the pit.
Man is going to his eternal house,
And the mOurners 60 about in the street.
1.-The keepers Of the house" are the hands
the linen Of power" the bones, especially
back bone. When the grinding maids"
cease, the teeth are lost, while the next line
refers to eyes losing their luster and to be-
dimmed vision. The doors shut refer to ill.,
sufficiency of secretions and suffering from
constipation. When a man rises at the
sound of the bird, his sleep is short, and. as
the next line shows, his hearing is udis-
tiuct; then lie hates to climb hill and to
walk upstairs is difficult; the chTysalis does
not crawl along with ease, and so the soul is
freed from the body as the butterfly emerges
from it. The silver cord snapped is the
spinal cord the golden bowl, the brain; and
when the water wheel is broken the whole
machinery is STOPPED, aud dissolution sets
in. Finally the picture is presented OF the
hired mOurners carrying the body TO the
grave.
This specimen" says distinguished
English Hebrew scholar, on examining
proofs OF the above translation of Ecce-
States. will give one an idea of what is in
store for the readers Of the Forthcoming
work. 1t is a real new translation. literal
In the higher sense, Yet without the painful
anxiety of most trapslatUrs to give one Eug-
lish word fer one Hebrew, 10 conform to the
Hebrew rather than to the English Laws Of
syntactical c Instruction, entirely free from
the trammels of the authorized version, and
possessing all the merits that flow from this
new freedom aud the greater enlightenment
in the critical school in this age. "-Ex.