it is given in the common version, and is here subjoined.*

«Shall even he that hateth right govern? And wilt thou condemn him that is most just? Is it fit to say to a King, thou art wicked?

And to Princes, ye are ungodly?

How much less to him that accepteth not the persons of princes, Nor regardeth the rich more than the poor?

For they are all the work of his hands.

In a moment shall they die;

And the people shall be troubled at midnight, and pass away, And the mighty shall be taken away without hand.

For his eyes are upon the ways of man,

And he seeth all his goings.

There is no darkness nor shadow of death,

Where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.
For he will not lay upon man more than right;
That he should enter into judgment with God.
He shall break in pieces mighty men without number,
And set others in their stead.

Therefore he knoweth their works,

And he overturneth them in the night,

So that they are destroyed.

He striketh them as wicked men,

In the open sight of others.

Because they turned back from him,

And would not consider any of his ways.

So that they cause the cry of the poor to come unto him;
And he heareth the cry of the afflicted."

I cannot deny myself the pleasure of introducing, in this place, to the reader's acquaintance, a translator of the book of Job, in the person of a young lady; who, adorned with all the accomplishments which distinguish her own sex, devoted herself, at the age of fifteen, to studies the most serious and intense, that are used to occupy the attention of the other: and this, with such surprising success, that although self-taught and nearly deprived of the benefit of books, she left behind her, at the expiration of her twenty-ninth year, a numerous collection of writings, so various and so valuable, as may well make many a literary man look back with a blush upon the labours of a lengthened life.-See Fragments in Prose and Verse, by a young Lady.

Miss Smith's translation of the book of Job, for which she had qualified herself by a close study of the Arabic and Hebrew,

Now what is there here, to lead us to the destruction of the first born in Egypt? Surely, if this were intended, some of the many extraordinary circum

was completed before her twenty-sixth year, two years earlier than the date of the translation by the Bishop of Killalla. It is at this time well known to the public, by a neat edition of the work, which has, since the date of the above observations, been given by Dr. Randolph, who has enhanced its value by a variety of judicious critical observations. I annex this lady's version of the passage above referred to, as it may be to many a matter of curiosity, to compare with our received translation any part of so extraordinary a production.

Shall he who hateth right govern ?

And wilt thou condemn him, who aboundeth in justice?
Who saith to the King, thou art unprofitable;

Wicked, to the Nobles:

Who lifteth not up the faces of Princes,

Nor turneth away from the cry of the Poor;

For they are all the work of his hands.

In a moment they shall die;

At midnight the people shall tremble, and pass away,

And the mighty shall be removed without hand.

For his eyes are on the ways of man,

And he seeth all his steps.

There is no darkness, and no shade of death,

To conceal the workers of iniquity.

For on no man, hath it yet been put,

To walk with God in judgment.

He breaketh the mighty-they cannot be found,

And setteth up others in their stead.

Because he knoweth their works,

They are overturned in the night-they are crushed.

He striketh them like culprits,

In the place of beholders.

Because they turned from behind him,
And would not follow all his ways.

Bringing before him the cry of the poor;
And he heard the cry of the oppressed.

On a comparison with the original, this will be found more faithful, in many parts, than the received version. Particularly,

stances of so extraordinary a transaction would have been glanced at:-the slaying of the lamb;-the blood sprinkled upon the door posts;-the destroy

in that very difficult passage in the 18th and 19th verses, in which the latter demands so large an ellipsis, as is found in Italics in the common bible, our fair translator has, by a close adherence to the original, given excellent sense to the whole. She was not aware, that she coincided with high authorities, in giving this turn to the original :-see Schnurrer Dissert. Philol. p. 279.-"Illum, qui regem adeo compellat hominem nequam ; viros primarios, improbos ? Non respicit principes," &c. &c. The LXX and Vulg. render it in like manner, "qui dicit ;" and one MS. of De Rossi's reads D, fixing it in this sense. The 23d verse too, whose difficulty is so great, that Schultens has reckoned up nineteen different meanings assigned to it, whilst Schnurrer has added several others, (p. 280 ;)—in which also our common version makes out the sense by an ellipsis, and Bishop Stock by introducing a change in the original text, (supposing y to be put for bw)-we have, here, rendered naturally as to the context, and simply and accurately as to the original, without supposing any change in the text, or putting any force upon the words. The sense of the entire passage may, agreeably to this translation, be now thus unfolded. The wicked are at once and suddenly punished; inasmuch as no darkness can conceal them from the all-seeing eye: and as it has not been allotted to man to enter into judgment, and discuss the right of the case, with his God; so, without the delay of any judicial process, he breaketh the mighty at once, because without any such form of judicial discussion he knoweth their works, &c. A marginal reading on the 24th verse in the common bible, goes to strengthen this interpretation; "without searching out," exactly expressing the absence of that formal and inquisitorial examination, which the omniscience of the deity renders unnecessary. Perhaps Miss Smith meant this by the words, "no search," which she has added as another rendering for that which she has paraphrased by the expression," they cannot be found.”

There is another line in the above extract from this lady's version, which deserves to be noticed. "Nor turneth away from the cry of the poor"--verse 19. Here the word yw, which in the common translation is rendered, "the rich," has been taken in its ordinary and familiar acceptation "cry:" and I find that Pagninus, in his version of the passage, has used it in the same sense. To render the original exactly then, according to this meaning of the term, it would be, "Nor turneth away

ing angel; the preservation of the Hebrews, &c. On the contrary, the great power and impartial justice of God, in visiting, with sudden destruction, all, whether people or princes, whose crimes demand vengeance, seems to be the main thing insisted upon, without any discriminating characters to bind down this judicial exercise of his power to any one particular event. As to the circumstance of the destruction being wrought "at midnight," or as it is again more generally stated "in the night," it seems to connect with the idea, that "the workers of iniquity" could, as they imagined, "hide themselves" in the "darkness" and privacy of the night. Grey and Schultens, accordingly, explain the phrase of night, or midnight," in securitate profundissimâ.” The paraphrase of Calvin upon this passage, seems to give the justest notion of it.-"Non opus erit, ut Deus multos milites armet, &c. ad potentissimos et robustissimos evertendos: si modo insufflet, parvi & magni, puncto temporis, rapientur, et media nocte quum omnes quiescunt atque nihil minus expectant, exterminabuntur; sine manu hominis auxiliove; quin sine conatu aut molimine ullo."-Spanheim, in his history of Job, gives the same explanation.--Munster, Vatablus, Clarius, Drusius, Patrick, Holden, Scott, and Dathe, likewise concur in this view of the case. Upon the whole, it must be clear to every

from the cry at the face of the poor."--"The cry at the face of the poor," for "the cry of the poor," certainly appears a harsh construction, but yet is not irreconcilable with the Hebrew idiom. The parallelism in the 19th verse is undoubtedly better preserved by this translation, than by the common one; the poor in the second line being contrasted with the princes in the first; whereas, in the usual way of rendering, (w being taken to signify the rich,) the same description of persons that are spoken of in the first line, are again introduced into the second, so as to disturb the simplicity of the contrast, by naming twice over one of the subjects of the opposition.

unprejudiced reader, that nothing but the creative eye of an hypothesis could have discovered, in this passage of Job, the appropriate mark of time which the Bishop and Heath have descried in it.

We pass on, then, to the next and only remaining allusion to the Books of Moses; which, his Lordship informs us, is to be found in ch. xxxi. 33. compared with Gen. iii. 8. 12. The words in Job are, "If I covered my transgressions, as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom."-Now, independently of the probability, that the general outline of the story of Adam's transgression had been handed down so as to be generally known to those who lived near the patriarchal age,—it must be observed, that this translation is by no means generally acquiesced in, either by the ancient or by the modern interpreters of Job. The Arabic and Syriac render the phrase, generally, "as men." The LXX render, or rather paraphrase it axovous, involuntarily," or through the infirmity* which belongs to man:-the Vulgate, "quasi homo:"-Pagninus, in like manner, "ut homo:"-J. Tr. and Pisc. "more hominum :"-Mercer, "sicut homines:"-Tindal, "before men :"-Dathe, "more humano," and subjoins to his translation the following remark: "Many interpreters think that is here the

proper name of the first man. But since, in the whole book of Job, there is no one evident allusion to the sacred history, I rather agree with those, who render the word, as men, after the manner of men."+

* See p. 262, of this vol. for this sense of axxon, as used by the LXX. See also, in addition to what is there said, the remarks of Fischer in his Clavis Reliquiarum Versionum Græcarum, &c. p. 219-222. Velthusen Comment. Theol. tom. iv.

↑ Miss Smith's translation of the word has run into a freedom, which seems not justified by the original-"as a mean man.”