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XX. Remarks on Mr. Drummond Hay's Observations on the 

 Gopher- wood of the received Version of the Scriptures. By 

 Charles T. Beek, Esq. 



To the Editors of the Philosophical Magazine and Journal of 



Science. 

 Gentlemen, 



T N a paper which appears in your Magazine for June, headed 

 *■ " Notices of certain Plants of Marocco," Mr. Drummond 

 Hay supports the opinion, that the Cedar was the wood of which 

 Noah built the Ark, on the authority of the Chaldee Para- 

 phrase, in which the word of the Hebrew text IDJi (Gopher), 

 Gen. vi. 14, is represented by the word D"n*Tj3 (Kadros), which 

 is usually rendered cedrus. 



I am not aware, however, that the Targum is of itself en- 

 titled to greater deference than the various authorities which 

 exist in favour of other descriptions of wood. The whole of 

 these authorities are cited in Dr. Rees's Cyclopaedia, in the 

 article " Ark." 



But my object in addressing you is neither to dispute the 

 claims of the Cedar, nor to advocate those of any other tree; 

 but simply to show what is the literal meaning of the words 

 of the text ^fii^jfjj (hatze-gopher), which the translators of 

 our authorized version have written Gopher-wood. 



Now the interchange between the letters ^ and 3 beino- 

 common in the Hebrew and cognate languages, owing to their 

 being letters of the same organ, and of nearly the same sound 

 (see Lee's Hebrew Grammar, 2nd Edit. p. 35. Art 78.), 

 I consider the word *1D^ (Gopher) to be in fact identical with 



1M (Kopher), which occurs with it in the same verse, and of 

 which the meaning is Pitch. Should it be objected that it is 

 hardly likely that these letters are thus convertible in the same 

 passage, another instance of the like interchange may be ad- 

 duced from this very account of the Deluge : 1"7V3 HliT 13D*"! 

 (Vayisgdr yehovah bahado). 'And God shut up (the Ark) on 

 him.' Gen. vii. 16. tt\T\FS D^VD V"pD>] (Vayissakheru mah. 



yenoth tehom). J And the fountains of the deep — were shut up.' 

 Gen. viii. 2. 



Isaac Delgado, a learned Jew, who in 1789 published an 

 English translation of the Pentateuch, in like manner consi- 

 ders IQi to be equivalent to ^D3. He accordingly reads 



