Page:The Emphasised Bible - Vol 1.djvu/15

Rh Hebrew is Eloah (principally confined to the Book of Job). It is not, perhaps, to be assumed that these discriminations are of supreme importance; nevertheless, when connected with other things, they are certainly invested with considerable interest. For the word Elohim, see note on Gen. i. 1. Êl will be readily remembered as entering into the composition of proper names, such as "Beth-el," "Immanu-el," and many others. It may also be discovered—the evidence would seem to point that way—that in the use of the independent monosyllable Êl, just where the moral feeling is most intense, there Êl shows an aptitude to step in, in preference to Elohim. The ordinary reader can now judge of this for himself. Without imagining anything less sacred in Eloah than in its longer or shorter companions, this at least is clear, that Eloah—as compared with the most sacred Name (the Tetragrammaton—see Chapter IV.)—is held to be good enough for the controversial spirit which undeniably pervades all the middle portion of the Book of Job.

4. Section-headings, Footnotes, References, and Appendices.—These may be left to speak for themselves, when once two or three needful explanations have been offered.

b. The Footnotes include both "alternative renderings" and "various readings," the difference between which, being partly technical, is worth a moment's attention. An "alternative rendering," then, comes of the process of translating, and merely expresses the translator's feeling that some other English word than that adopted in the text might have given the sense of the original nearly or quite as well; and that for the reader to know this may be of practical service. It is well for the reader to be aware that oft-times no one word wholly and absolutely and alone says precisely what is conveyed by the Hebrew or Greek. It is no question of variance between one