Criticisms

 •  2 min. read  •  grade level: 10
To the Editor of the Present Testimony.
Dear Sir,-I have been struck with the apparent connection between the two following passages of Scripture, Isa. 63:9,9In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old. (Isaiah 63:9) and 2 Cor. 6:1212Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels. (2 Corinthians 6:12). I will first assume that there are reasons for a new rendering of the Hebrew, and give the rendering, and then state the grounds on which I would deviate from the authorized version.
Let us look at the verse in 2 Cor. 6-" Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels." I would propose considering this as a reference to Isa. 63:9,9In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old. (Isaiah 63:9) the first words of which I would read as follows: " In all their straitening he was not straitened." I do not know what reasons our translators had for adopting the keri reading "to him" instead of "not." They may have been good ones. But it is remarkable that the textual reading לא falls in very closely with the sense of the verse quoted above from 2 Cor. The difficulty with many will probably consist in finding " he was straitened" as a meaning of צׇר. Retaining the kamets, there may be a difficulty; but I suppose, in investigations of this sort, we are free to consider what the meaning may be, unfettered by points. Now I find one meaning of צׇר (and even צׇר in a pause) to be arctus, angustus. We have only then to supply that most frequent of Hebrew omissions, the verb substantive, and we have the sense I am pleading for-" In all their straitening He (God) was not straitened." I may add, that if this supposition is correct, it furnishes an additional instance, and an interesting one, of what sometimes occurs with the New Testament writers-their taking up the words of the Old Testament descriptive of Gad, and applying them to themselves, i.e., to the Church-(compare Eph. 6 with Isa. 59:1717For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke. (Isaiah 59:17); Rom. 8, last verses, with Isa. 1:88And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. (Isaiah 1:8); 2 Cor. 7 with Isa. 49:88Thus saith the Lord, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; (Isaiah 49:8); also Acts 13:47,47For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. (Acts 13:47) with Isa. 49:66And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth. (Isaiah 49:6).