"And in their days, even of those kings, the God of heaven shall set up A KINGDOM which shall never perish, and A DOMINION that shall not be left to another people. It shall grind to powder and bring to an end all these kingdoms, and itself shall stand for ever."—DANIEL.

JOHN THOMAS, Editor. NEW YORK, February, 1855—

Volume 5—No. 2

Jehovah delivered many oracles or announcements concerning the future, through David, the chief of the mighty men of Israel, whom He had exalted to the throne of His terrestrial kingdom. There was one oracle, however, in particular, styled, in Samuel, "The Last Words of David," inserted as an introduction to the list of David’s thirty-seven heroes, who, though casting into the shade the most daring exploits of after ages, the present not excepted, did not attain the military renown of their king, whose feats of arms were celebrated in the songs of Israel, saying, "Saul hath slain his thousands, but David his ten thousands!"

David’s roll of the mighty is registered in 2 Samuel 23. The record begins with his own named as "the mighty man enthroned"—haggever hukkam. But, being himself only a patriarch of a MIGHTIER HERO, to spring from his royal line, he places on the roll an oracle concerning Him, and the fate of the enemies with whom He shall contend in battle, before he proceeds to inscribe the names and some of the mightiest deeds of the most renowned of the armies of Israel.

David uttered no more oracles after this. He had himself been a man of war; but he foresaw a mightier man always before him, even the Meshiach, or Anointed One, whom Jehovah had promised to raise up from among the dead to sit upon his throne. His own deliverance from death he regarded as involved in this event; for Jehovah had promised that his house or family, his kingdom, and his throne should be established for the AGE BEFORE HIS FACE—lephanecha. But if this one of his deceased posterity should not be resurrected, then was his hope in vain; for, no resurrection of Messiah, there would be no house, no kingdom, no throne for any one of David’s sons in David’s presence in the Age to Come. David knew this; and therefore he placed on record among the archives of his nation, his last words upon the subject, declaring his own prophetic character; that he had no hope of any other salvation than that to be obtained through the establishment of his Immortal Son’s kingdom; and that he had no other delight in the far-off future short of the realisation of what Jehovah had covenanted to him concerning it. This being all his salvation and all his joy, he registered his faith and hope on the roll of the mighty, and having laid down his prophetic pen, which had long been, upon this theme, "the pen of a ready writer," his days were ere long fulfilled; when he fell asleep and was laid with his fathers, to rest until Jehovah’s trumpet should be blown to awake His warriors to the battle under the standard of His Anointed, when he shall appear to smite the sons of Belial, and to consume them as crackling thorns upon the spot.

The attention of the reader, however, is not at present invited so much to the consideration of David’s faith in "the Hope of the Gospel," which Paul styles "the Hope of Israel," for which he was in chains, as to that of the rendering of David’s last words into English by the translators of our Common Version of the Scriptures. The oracle, as it stands there, is very obscure, and but vaguely expressive of the mind of the Spirit which spoke through the prophet-king. For the convenience of comparing it with a new translation I have carefully prepared, I will transfer it to our columns. It reads thus: —

In this quotation the emboldened (JT has italic) words are those supplied by the translators to make out what they conceive to be the sense of the original text. The rendering above makes David style himself the Anointed of the God of Jacob, and as such the medium through which this oracle is spoken; but the Hebrew makes the oracle spoken by David to be ol meshiach elohai, "CONCERNING an anointed of the Gods." The ol is not taken any account of in the Common Version; which is one cause of the error. But if they had even translated it, it is apparent that they would have been brought back to David as the anointed one, for they go on to style the meshiach "the sweet psalmist of Israel," which certainly cannot apply to a future anointed one. In this, however, they err again; for the writer of the Book of Samuel did not style David "the sweet psalmist of Israel." In the words he used, he was still speaking of a certain anointed one, the things concerning whom were pleasant themes, and the subject-matter of Israel’s praises; whereof he was about to discourse in brief in the forthcoming oracle. The words uniem zemiroth Yisrael, do not signify "sweet psalmist of Israel;" but are in apposition with neum, "oracle," and signify, even the pleasant (theme) of Israel’s songs. All the kings and priests of David and Aaron’s families were anointed ones. David was the Lord or Jehovah’s anointed; but his oracle was not concerning himself nor an Aaronic person, but concerning that ANOINTED HERO, who is the illustrious burden of Hebrew poetry, and who, in the Forty-fifth Psalm, is exhorted to gird his sword upon his thigh with glory and majesty, that his right hand may do terrible things, whereby the people shall fall under him.

One of the most enigmatical passages of the Common Version is that about the Belialites. "But the sons of Belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away." This is clear enough. They are the seed of the serpent, whose chief is to be bruised by the Woman’s Seed; but the reason given is not so clear—"Because they cannot be taken with hands:" how, then, are they to be thrust away? A more literal rendering points us to the solution: —khi-lo beyad yikkakhu—literally, "though not with hand shall they be taken;" which is equivalent to, they shall be taken without hand, that is, without human aid or interference—a phrase which places us in juxtaposition with Daniel 8: 25; 2: 34-35, which reveal that the sons of Belial, whose power in the Latter Days is symbolised by the Belial Image of Nebuchadnezzar, and the Little Horn of the Goat, "shall be broken without hand," by the stone "not in hands"—that is, by the Hero of the last words of David.

And here, again, is another obscurity. After telling us that Belial’s sons shall all of them be thrust away, because they cannot be taken with hands, the translators (not David) say that a man shall touch them who shall be fenced with iron and armed with a spear! Which is as much to say that, if a warrior be well cased in iron armour, and armed with a spear, he will be more than a match for the Belialites of the latter days, and may take them with hand; which is as absurd as it is contradictory. It is evident to all the living that the sons of Belial are still a vigorous and growing thorn-bush, obstructing every thing holy, just, and good, and filling the world with their deeds of violence and hypocrisy. They knock granite rocks about like skittles with their iron hail, and shake the earth with their deadly explosions. What chance would a man "fenced with iron and the staff of a spear" have of touching them, so as to thrust them into a fiery furnace in the place of their power? Let such an old-fashioned warrior arise and try his metal upon the Russians and Allies, and he would soon find himself in an extremity from which no iron or spear could save him! But David oraculised no such absurdity. His words are, "But the Man shall smite upon them; yimmalai barzel we-aitz khanith: He shall be filled with iron and the shaft of a spear; but with fire to burn up they shall be consumed while standing." This is intelligible. David declares that the Messiah of the Gods of Jacob is the Man who shall destroy the Belialites; but that before he should gain the victory over them, He should himself be wounded by the thrust of a spear. The reader will readily perceive that this translation is in strict conformity with the fact. Jesus, whom we acknowledge to be the Messiah referred to in David’s oracles, was "filled with iron and the shaft of a spear," when they were thrust into his side by the Roman soldier; the foregoing words are therefore correctly, when freely, rendered, he was wounded with a spear, by which the Jews were enabled to look upon Him whom they had pierced.

The word beliyaal, is often given in the Old Testament as a proper name; but incorrectly. It is compounded of beli, without, and yaal, use, profit, or advantage; hence, properly, unprofitableness, worthlessness, something useless, yielding no profit, or good fruit, bad; also a destroyer. In David’s last words it evidently stands for a plurality as indicated by the word khullaham, all of them; hence sons of worthlessness or the wicked is the proper rendering for "the sons of Belial." "In the same place" is another phrase that imparts no definite idea of David’s meaning. He says, "the wicked shall be consumed basshaveth, in standing;" that is, while they are in position, and are able to stand to arms. When Messiah appears he will not find the power of the wicked broken; on the contrary, he will find their Chief, styled Gog by Ezekiel in possession of Jerusalem, and, in the fulness of pride and power, contending with "the young lions of Tarshish" for the sovereignty of Palestine and Syria. This Gog is the last dynasty of that power, styled "the King of fierce countenance" who "shall stand up against the Prince of princes," or Israel’s Commander-in-Chief. But when this "Commander of the people," surnamed Michael, shall stand up for Israel, "Who," says Malachi, "shall stand when he appeareth?" Here will be two standings—the standing of the fierce king, and the standing of Michael, the great prince; but whose standing shall endure? Messiah’s, certainly, for "at that time Israel shall be delivered," and the armies of the Assyrian Gog shall fall by the sword of the Mighty Man "in standing" against Him; and "their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their orbits, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. And a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them, and they shall slay one another." Thus shall "the wicked be consumed while standing," and their power be broken to pieces, and come to an end without help; as David clearly foresaw, and predicted in the oracle before us.

From the whole, then, it is clearly apparent that a new translation of the Last Words of David is necessary to the comprehension of them by the English reader. Not finding one faithful to the original text, I concluded to attempt its improvement, and to furnish my readers with the result. Without further comment, then, I proceed to submit it for their scrutiny, doctrinally, philologically, or in any other way they may please. Here it is: —

NEW TRANSLATION OF DAVID’S ORACLE.

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In this brief but rich and comprehensive oracle, as presented in the Common Version, the word "God" occurs four times, and "Lord" once. But this does not fairly represent the original. There the writer employs three distinct words which are used in five different phrases, such as,

Besides these, in a sixth phrase, Jehovah is styled the "Rock of Israel," tzur Yisrael. Now, it cannot be supposed that the Spirit, which expresses Jehovah’s mind so precisely as to refuse to speak in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, should, in so important an oracle as David’s last words speak, so laxly as by six different phrases to signify only one thing, represented by God or Lord, in the Gentile sense thereof. Grammarians and lexicographers see the difficulty of translating Hebrew phrases expressive of divine relations to things human into English; but they have been unable to solve it. They do not perceive that THE NAME of Israel’s Rock is incommunicable by the rules of grammar; that is, that the attributes, character, unity, relations, and nature, one or all of them, are not definable or demonstrable upon the principle of a verb agreeing with its nominative in gender, number, and person, with or without exception.

Seeing, then, they cannot doctrinally account for the ONE GOD being designated in Hebrew by a word, or noun, signifying Gods, which is often found in concord with a verb in the singular number, and in apposition with a singular noun, they have invented a rule to cut the knot they are unable to untie. Hence we are told that Elohim is the pluralis majestaticus vel excellentiae for the single individual, "who dwells in light, whom no man hath seen, nor can see," commonly styled God; and that this plural of majesty or excellency is in syntactical agreement with a singular verb, as amar elohim, literally gods he spoke, for God spake. So that by this rule, the Deity is represented as speaking editorially, saying we, when nothing more than I is intended; or majestically, as, we the king.

They have, however, apparently ground for this device in the well-known formula, shema Yisraail Yehowah Elohainu Yehowah ekhad, Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our Gods (is) one Jehovah! This is the literal rendering, from which it is inferred that, as the Jehovah is one, Gods, though in the plural, can only be one person also.

But, when the import of the JEHOVAH, the Memorial Name by which the INVISIBLE ONE is revealed to Israel, is understood, this grammatical apparition soon disappears. Unevangelised Jews and Gentiles, be they ever so learned in philology, cannot penetrate the mystery. Hence they dispose of the doctrinal difficulty by declaring the Name of the Invisible incommunicable. But this is incorrect. The Creator has communicated His plural name to Israel, first by Moses, and afterwards by Christ. The Creator is singular, but His Name is plural; and by that nominal plurality He has revealed himself from the foundation of the world.

Jehovah is a name expressive of divine personal manifestations to Israel. The name Jehovah covers a plurality of persons, who are one in purpose, testimony, and manifestation. "Jehovah our Gods" is not to be sunk into a kingly or editorial we; it is a literal expression of a great doctrinal truth; and imports the two Jehovahs, Father and Son, as the supreme Gods of the people Israel. In considering this matter, we must remember that before Moses recorded the formula before us, the Angel of the Bush had revealed to him the Almighty’s memorial, as I have explained in a former number. On that occasion, he told Moses that HE whose messenger he was, was pleased to announce Himself as the I shall be whom I shall be; so that the name Jehovah, compounded of that phrase, designated Him who sent the angel, and Him through whom HE should at a future time manifest himself to Israel. These two, the Him who sent to Moses, and the Him who came to Judah in the days of Caesar, are both named Jehovah, are both Gods of Israel, yet but "one Jehovah" in manifestation by Spirit. The anointing established the Jehovah-oneness between the Man Jesus and the Eternal Creator of all things. "The burden of the Assyrian, O Israel, shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing." There is "One Spirit" by which oneness is established between the Gods of Israel; and of that one Spirit is the "Holy Oil" with which the Invisible Creator anoints, and by which anointing he establishes the unity of his name. In the absence of this anointing Spirit, Jesus and the Creator would be separate and distinct Jehovahs, the god Jesus and the God Creator; but the anointing of the former with the Spirit of the latter in a preeminent degree, brought them into unity; so that "Jehovah our Gods is one Jehovah," or "God manifest in the flesh" by his Spirit. The formula of Moses, then, proclaimed to Israel, is, "Hear, O Israel, the I was who appeared to Abraham, the I am who feeds us in this wilderness, and the I shall be, who shall deliver you from the Assyrian in the latter days, our Gods, are the one I shall be!" This doctrine of Moses is precisely that of the New Testament. "I and the Father are one," that is, in manifestation and name: and the Jews charged Jesus with blasphemy because, being a man, and saying this, he made himself a God. But Jesus vindicated himself by showing them that they were themselves styled gods in Psalm 82: 6, or, as it is there explained in the parallel, sons of the Highest; "I said, Ye are Elohim, and all of you sons of the Most High." "If he called them gods to whom the word of God came, say ye of him who the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said I am the Son of God?"

"The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself." They do not emanate from me as the Son of Mary unanointed, or unsealed by the Spirit of the Father; "it is He that dwelleth in me"—who took up his abode in me, and overshadows me: who descended upon me in the form of a dove, filling me with his wisdom, knowledge, and power: it is "He doth the miracles;" and "the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me," and to whom I shall return; "for my Father is greater than I."

The verity contained in the phrase "Jehovah our Gods is one Jehovah," obtained in the days of Israel’s sojourn in the wilderness, as is most evident from the following testimony. The Almighty Creator said to Moses:

Here, then, was an Angel, styled in the psalms a God, deputed as the Name-Bearer and Substitute of the Almighty Increate in relation to the Twelve Tribes of Israel. They were to obey his voice as if he were the Almighty One himself; for he would receive His instructions from Him what to speak; so that his voice would be the voice of Him who sent him—"obey his voice, and do all that I shall speak." Israel was warned not to provoke him; for, the Almighty’s Name being in him, he would not pardon, or clear the defiant. He occupied the position of Captain of the Almighty’s host, in its transition from the Wilderness of Egypt to the Holy Land. He was probably Michael, the Angel-Prince of Israel, spoken of in Daniel 10: 13, 21, the Lieutenant of the Almighty in Jewish affairs, until his superior, "Michael the Great Commander,"—Daniel 12: 1, even Jesus of Nazareth, shall appear in power to gather the tribes from their dispersion, and to replant them in the land of their inheritance.

"My Name is in him" established the oneness between the Almighty and the Angel-Prince of Israel, who spake as Jehovah to the people. These were aware of this arrangement; and hence, as they had so strong a propensity to worship other gods than the God of Abraham, Moses continually reminded them, that, though there were Gods superintending their affairs in the Name of Jehovah, there was but one whom only they might serve. This Angel-Prince was not of the human race. His jurisdiction was, therefore, only temporary. But of the Son of man it is said, "The Father hath given him authority to execute judgment, because he is a Son of man." Hence, it is not an alien to our nature that is to rule the human family; but one who is of their flesh, and can therefore sympathise with their infirmities and sorrows, seeing that he has felt the same. Unbegotten of the will of man, though born of sinful flesh, and begotten of the Father by his Spirit from among the dead, He hath given him exaltation above the angel-gods, and equality with Himself. When he comes again, he comes not merely as Israel’s King, but as "the God of the whole earth." His name is Jehovah, and the Name of the Father is in him, so that of the Father and the Son, those who have become citizens of Israel’s Commonwealth through Christ, can say with Moses, "Jehovah our Gods is one Jehovah."

THE GODS OF JACOB.

Now, it will assist us in understanding the Oracle of David to know something about "the gods of Jacob" in the Scripture sense of that phrase. I have already quoted from the Psalms the saying, "I said, Ye are gods; and all of you the children of the Most High." These gods, Jesus says, are they to whom the word of Jehovah came; that is, to whom the law of Moses was delivered for its administration and obedience. Hence, in Exodus 22: 8-9, "the judges," which occurs three times there in the Common Version, is haelohim, "the gods," and not shophaitim, magistrates. The Hebrew root from which the word comes which in English is rendered god, signifies to be first, foremost, chief. Hence, a nation constituted by the Creator, the First-Born of the nations, is a nation of gods; and the individuals of that nation divinely constituted its princes and rulers, these are the gods of the nation, in the sense of the passage referred to. Concerning these Jehovah said to Israel, in verse 28, "Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the Ruler of thy people." In this text, the Hebrew word rendered "gods" is the same as those rendered "judges" in verses 8-9 and ought to have been translated uniformly in both places. In 1 Samuel 2: 25, it is written in the original, "If a man sin against man the gods shall judge him; but if a man sin against I SHALL BE (Yehowah, or Jehovah) who shall intreat for him?"

But the godship of men is not dependent on any immortality they may be supposed to possess. A god may be either mortal or immortal. They to whom the word of Jehovah came under the law, were mortal gods, both princes and people. This is certain from Psalm 82: 6-7—"I have said, Ye are gods, . . . nevertheless ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes." Here is the same distinction made between gods and men under a law of death, as obtained, before the Flood. See Genesis 6: 2, "And the sons of the gods (benai-haelohim) saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all they chose." Here the gods and their sons were the children of Seth, in contradistinction to the children of Cain—all men, and mortal; but the one, children of the Most High by faith and obedience; the other class, the servants of sin.

We have seen from John’s testimony that Jesus, while in the days of his flesh, claimed to be a God on the ground that he was the Son of the Most High. He was mortal; for he died. But, as I have said, some gods are immortal by creation: ONE only in the starry universe is underivedly and essentially so. Above the immortal gods stands the Lord Jesus the Anointed, concerning whom it is declared—with reference to his reappearance in the world, when he shall come in power and great glory—"Worship him all ye gods!" which Paul quotes in his letter to the Hebrews in these words, saying, "Let all the angels of God worship him." He and they have now a corporeality, to which gods under the necessity of "dying like men," have not attained; and He, a rank and dignity next to HIM, "whom no man hath seen nor can see," and whose nature from the beginning alone is deathless.

Here, then, is brought to light by the Scriptures, in relation to this mundane system, a society of gods; some of them immortal, and some of them not: the Anointed One being over all, the Chief, blessed for the ages. This society is invisible to men; but discernible to the eye of faith. When it shall have become visible to the world, then will have come to pass "the manifestation of the sons of God;" which is but another phrase for the saints reigning on earth with Christ a thousand years, or THE KINGDOM OF GOD, of which the gospel treats: Revelation 5: 9-10; 20: 4, 6.

The kingdom of God, established in the land covenanted to the fathers, is this society in manifestation—Jesus and His brethren—He and they, "the Elohim of Jacob," reigning over Israel in the flesh, reconciled to Jehovah for evermore—Jesus and His brethren in the kingdom of God, as He had promised—"Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God;" with many from the east, west, north, and south. These are the Elohim or gods of Jacob, of whom David foretold, that He of whom he wrote, and whom the enemy should "fill with iron and the shaft of a spear," should be "THE ANOINTED"—"an Anointed One of the gods of Jacob," as I have rendered it in his last words. All the former gods of Jacob, under the law, have died like men, and fallen like the princes; but some of them will awake to everlasting life, according to the summons of the psalm quoted, "Arise, O gods, and judge the earth; for Thou (the Mighty One, their Chief) shalt take possession of all the nations."

I have said that some gods are immortal by creation. I use the phrase "by creation," to express that their immortality had a beginning; which cannot be affirmed of the Creator of the Universe. "HE ONLY HATH IMMORTALITY," saith Paul: not that He is the only one in the universe that shall never die henceforth—for the Scriptures affirm that of Jesus, the angels, and the resurrected saints—but that He is the only Being extant, in whose nature the death-principle never existed. This testimony being admitted, it therefore follows that all who are now immortal gods once possessed a nature in which the death-principle reigned unto dissolution or decease, unless, as in the case of Enoch and Elijah, it was neutralised in the twinkling of an eye; and that they have been created immortal, as was Jesus, by the Spirit of Jehovah, in raising them from the dead.

In my translation of David’s last words, I have rendered meshiakh, not the, but "AN anointed one of the gods of Jacob." The circumstances pertaining to those gods require this, as well as the fact that there is no definite article expressed in the Hebrew. If Jesus had been the only anointed one of Jacob’s gods, then it would have been proper to render it, "concerning the Anointed One;" but He was not. The Apostles, who are some of Jacob’s gods, to whom the word of Jehovah came, who believed it and obeyed it, and are hereafter to sit upon the thrones of the house of David, were anointed likewise; and were, therefore, all of them Christs, or Christians, that is Anointed Ones. Jesus, however, as Chief of all the gods of Jacob, was THE Christ, or Anointed One, kar’, or by eminence.

The oneness of Jesus and the resurrected Saints, the immortal gods of this terrestrial system, with each other and the ever-incorruptible Creator, results from the attraction of aggregation, or cohesive influence of the Spirit. Jehovah, Jesus, and his brethren, by the Spirit are a grand and glorious Unity—A UNITY OF THE SPIRIT. This Divine Unity is symbolised in the Scriptures. Let the reader turn to Ezekiel 1, and read from the fourth verse to the end; and the tenth chapter also. In this reading he has a fire and brightness around it; four four-faced living ones of a human appearance, moving with the velocity of lightning, and four wheels, all full of eyes; a crystal canopy above them, with a throne above it, and a man upon it of surpassing brightness, bearing the glory of Jehovah. These symbols are representative of "the gods of Jacob," the noise of whose goings is "like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty; the voice of speech, as the noise of an host." The host is multitudinous; but the combining and moving, directing and operating, principle, or agent, is one; and that unit is the Spirit of Jehovah; for it is written, "Whithersoever the Spirit was to go, thither they went." And here is the reason of the plural noun "gods" being after the apparent nominative to a verb in the singular; because all they do or say is by the Spirit, which is the real nominative, not expressed, indeed, but understood, to the verb. Hence the Spirit of Jehovah is also styled the Spirit of Elohim or Gods; so that the phrase, "the Spirit of Jehovah spake," is synonymous with "Elohim of Israel," or gods of Israel, "spake;" both of which occur in the last words of David.

The "fear of God"—yirath elohim—is another phrase employed by the Spirit in David’s last words, concerning Him who shall rule mankind. The Common Version renders it, "the fear of God;" as, "ruling in the fear of God." This, however, in the Gentile, or theological, acceptation of the words, does not express the mind of the Spirit. The word yirath not only signifies "terror, fear, reverence," but metonymically, the precepts of righteousness: "ruling in the righteous precepts of the gods," to whom the Millennial government of the nations is committed by Ail, THE MIGHTY ONE, who dwells in unapproachable light. I have, therefore, rendered yirath elohim, by the words "righteous precepts of the Gods," which is the same idea as that expressed by Paul in delivering his testimony in the Aeropagus, when he said to the Athenians there, "God will judge the Habitable in righteousness BY A MAN, whom He hath appointed and raised from among the dead." So that, as the twelve tribes of Israel "received the law in precepts of gods"—eis diatagas aggeloon, Acts 7: 53; Hebrews 2: 2—so will the same nation, and after it all other nations, have to receive the law that is to go forth from Jerusalem, in righteous precepts, not of the Angel-gods of Sinai, but of the resurrected "gods of Jacob," of whom the Lord Jesus is the Anointed Chief—the Rock of Israel, discoursed to David by the angel-gods of Israel through his Spirit. They foresaw the end of their terrestrial mission, and by the Spirit of Jehovah declared it to David. The present world, for nearly six thousand years, has been subjected to them as "ministering spirits," whose service has been the preparing of such a situation of human affairs as would afford scope for the enterprise of those who are to inherit salvation—even of Jesus and his companion Gods, into whose hands they shall surrender all authority and power over Israel and the nations, constituting "the world to come," which is subjected to them, because they are the sons of man. The world will be then governed, not by the precepts of the Angel-gods of Israel, but by the righteous mandates of Jacob’s Gods—the righteousness of the Age to Come—Gods, who have descended from his loins, and walked in the steps of the faith of Abraham; with others, also chosen in the Anointed, through the obedience of faith, from all the nations of the habitable.

In conclusion, the perusal of this article will, I think, convince the reader of the propriety of a literal rendering of the Bible words and phrases used by the Spirit in revealing the high thoughts of God to men, especially divine ideas concerning Deity. Gentile tastes and notions may sometimes receive a shock; but that matters not: we want a translation of the Bible that will come as near as possible to the original, and with as few italic words as possible. In the last words of David, the common version supplies twenty-five of these; while in mine there are only eleven. I know not how it may be with others, but for myself I can say, that a literal rendering of the phrases used by David in reference to Deity, has opened up to my mind a view of great interest and magnificence—one which is delightful to contemplate, and calculated, like all the ideas of God, when duly comprehended, to ennoble and elevate the mind and to fortify it against the enticements and oppositions of the Serpent’s seed, who may persecute, and even bruise us in the heel, but, after that, have no more that they can do: a little more patience, and they shall be bruised in their HEAD, who, being hurled from his Dragon-throne by THE ANOINTED, shall be bound for 1000 years, and his dominion under the whole heaven transferred by the Conqueror to his companion gods "for ever, even for ever and ever."—Amen!

December 20, 1854. EDITOR.

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