264 Charles C Torrey, 



read in some such way as this: ^D"" ^^^vb^ X3n:x ^T tXJhSx PnX ]r\ 



H : 23. In the apparatus of Kittel's Bib/ia Hchraica, the attempt is 

 made to show that the long version of the chapter, containing at this 

 point the Prayer of Azariah and the H)'mn of the Three Men, is the 

 original, and our massoretic recension an abridgment. In the two Greek 

 versions, vs. 91 = Aramaic vs. 24, the king is said to have been " aston- 

 ished " when he heard the men singing their hymn. Accordingly, in 

 a note on pj^ri in vs. 24, the BibJ. Hebr. asks : " cur N. titrhatus ? " 

 Does this question mean to imply that Nebuchadnezzar was accustomed 

 to see men walking about in his burning fier}' furnace, and that only 

 their singing could surprise him ?' And again, the note {ibid.) on vs. 23 

 suggests that it is a later addition, made " in order to fill the gap between 

 vss. 22 and 24 ;" i. e., the gap which resulted from the supposed excision 

 of the long passage. But the answer to this suggestion is as conclusive 

 as it is obvious, namely, that this ver}- same vs. 23 is also found in the 

 text of Theodotion !" Moreover, there is no discrepancy nor incongruity 

 in these verses, 21—25, as they stand in our massoretic recension. The 

 narrative here is both natural and effective, and I see no reason for 

 doubting that its author originally wrote it in just this way. He certainly 

 seems — judging from the manner of his other work — to have been far 

 too good a narrator to spoil his story at this point b)' inserting this 

 intolerable and interminable episode. 



3 : 24 P'nSiSl r3J?- The former of these two participles has been 

 quite generally challenged, in recent years. Noldeke, Gott. gel.Anzeigen, 



edited and printed as though it were literature, and not a mere archaeological 

 curiosum, would be a great blessing. 



' As for the testimony of the Greek itself, it is perfectly evident in the 

 older recension that the episode of the prayer and the hymn has been inserted 

 as a secondary element. Vs. 91 begins as follows : y.ai eysvsTO ev tw izoucat 

 Tov (iaa'Asa upivciuvTwv auxwv y.ai eotms ISEwpst a'Jiroij; ^cavTa?' t6t£ ^ix^OMjjjho^nihp 

 j3aad£u? lba.\i]xaQt, y.al avsatrr] cTi^jaac -/.al et-ev toT; (ptAoi; aOxou, •/.. t. e., the word 

 TOTS beginning an exact rendering of £»i/r Aramaic vs. 24. Here, beyond question, 

 we have the original juncture, with its ill-fitting edges. The insertion was made 

 in an Aramaic text, and the interpolator, as usual, preferred not to alter the 

 original, but simply put his own clause beside the other, in this verse. The 

 Greek is a faithful translation. The Aramaic recension which lay before 

 Theodotion, on the other hand, had been smoothed into shape. 



* It may be remarked here, in passing, that in the Aramaic text of vs. 22 

 which was translated by Theodotion, the whole second half of the verse had 

 fallen out by an accident of transcription, the cause of the error being the 

 twofold occurrence of the words "t'^X X^*1ZJI- 



