268 



Charles C. Torrey, 



proposed there to cancel vss. 3—6 1 As a specimen of present-day 

 " criticism " this is worthy of attention. 



4 : 7 ^linv This is the only natural reading here. The program laid 

 down in the preceding verse is now carried out ; first the dream, then 

 (see vs. 15) the interpretation. The suspended construction, resulting 

 in a sort of paragraph-heading, is the regular thing ; cf. for example 

 2:42^ 



4:8 nrHTH' "the sight of it." This word, which has troubled 

 some scholars, is quite right as it stands. The second part of the 

 verse describes, in a ver>' picturesque and effective way, the stupendous 

 size of the tree. Its top encroached on the heavens, and there was no 

 part of the earth where it could not be seen.' Marti, who thinks that 

 the ividth of the tree ought to be described, says of this word: " Fiir 

 die Bedeutung Weitc, Aiisdehnung darf viell. an KTin!2 Gehiet im 

 Midr. Echa bei Dalman aram. Textjiroben S. 15 erinnert werden." 

 But the word XlinSS is simply a borrowing of the Assyr. mahdzu, just 

 as ^T\fl (Dalman, op. cit., p. 5, line 5) is the Assyr. mahi. 



4 : 11 "^ninnri- This form has generally been pronounced a Hebra- 

 ism. Noldeke, for example, in the Giiit. gel. A/rzeigen, 1884, 1. c, 

 pointed to the disagreement between the vocalization here and that in 

 ^nlnnri) vss. 9 and is, as an instance of the unstrustworthiness of our 

 massoretic punctuation ; and many scholars in recent times have pro- 

 posed to emend the form in vs. 11, or at least have denied that it is 

 Aramaic. But the pronunciation riPiri belongs also to Aramaic ; of this 



the Syriac adverb U»^y»^ (found also, apparently, in Palmyrenei is 

 sufficient evidence ; and as for the twofold pronunciation in these verses, 

 has any one taken due account of the rhythm here ? It is perfectly 

 obvious, as soon as the question is raised, that the form ninflj and 

 not rinfl, suits the rhythm in vss. 9 and 18 ; while the pointing Xinfl? 

 and not ninri) is demanded in vs. 11. And this rhythm is not a creation 

 of the massoretes, but a part of the literary art of the original author 

 himself. Would any one have been more likely than he to care for 



* Whoever speaks of the phrase to >iutoc at>Tou, in the Greek translations 

 of this verse, as " Theodotion's " rendering of "IfllTil (thus e. g. Marti in 

 loc), ought to add, that phrase originated in the <?/</ Greek version ; see not 

 only vs. 8 but also vs. 19. " The top of the tree reached the sky, and its 

 circumference (?) touched the clouds." It is not by any means certain that 

 the word rendered y.uto; was j^^'H) ®®^ especially vs. 19 (old Greek). On 

 the other hand, it is certain that the older translator had fTi|n before him 

 in vs. 17, where he rendered it by opaj',;. As for Theodotion, he proceeds 

 here in his usual timid way, adopting the phrase from the older version. 



