and
difficult clause in regard of the tree in the neighbourhood of the
besieged city is made at any rate intelligible.

In the historical books attention may be particularly called to the Song
of Deborah and Barak, in which there are several important and
elucidatory corrections, and in which the rhythmic arrangement will be
felt to bear force and impressiveness both to reader and to hearer. In
the remaining Books changes will be found fewer in number and less
striking; but occasionally, as for example in 1 Kings xx. 27, we come
across changes that startle us by their unlooked-for character, but
which, if correct, add a deeper degradation to the outpoured blood of
Ahab in the pool of Samaria.

Of the poetical Books, I have already alluded to the Book of Job and to
the high character of the Revision. The changes in this noble poem are
many, and were especially needed, for the rendering of the Book of Job
has always been felt to be one of the weakest portions of the great work
of the Revisers of 1611. Illustrations I am unable to give, in a cursory
notice like the present, but I may again press the Revisers' version of
this deeply interesting Book on the serious attention of every earnest
student of the Old Testament.

It is difficult to say much on the Revised Version of the Book of Psalms,
as Coverdale's Version, as we have it in our Prayer Book, so completely
occupies the foreground of memory and devotional interest, that I fear
comparatively few study the Bible Version or the careful and conservative
work of the Revisers. This Revision, however, of the version of the Book
of Psalms deserves more attention than it appears to have received. Not
only will the faithful reader find in it the necessary corrections of the
version of 1611, but clear guidance as to the meaning of the sometimes
utterly unintelligible renderings of the version of the Great Bible which
still holds its place in our Prayer Books. To take two examples: let the
reader look at the Authorised Version and Prayer Book Version of Psalm
lxviii. 16, and of lxxxiv. 5, 6, and contrast with both the rendering of
the Revised Version. This last-mentioned rendering will be found, as I
have said, to correct the Authorised Version, and (especially in the
second passage) to remove what is unintelligible in the Prayer Book
version. It may thus be used by the Prayer Book reader of the Psalms as
a ready and easily accessible means of arriving at the real mean