1 Chron. xvi. 7. “Then on that day David delivered first _this psalm_ to thank the Lord into the hand of Asaph and his brethren.” This conveys the impression that the psalm which follows is the first psalm that David published, whereas the statement is that on this memorable day--the day on which David brought up the ark from the house of Obed-edom--he formally appointed Asaph and his brethren to the office of superintending the service of praise. (Compare verse 37.) “Then on that day David first gave the praising of the Lord into the hand of Asaph and his brethren.”[70]
Job iv. 6. “Is not _this_ thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways?” By the insertion of “_this_,” a wrong complexion is given to the passage. Eliphaz, in reference to Job’s fainting under his sufferings, calls attention to the confidence he had formerly professed on the ground of his fear of God and of the uprightness of his conduct; and so indirectly suggests that Job’s piety and uprightness had been unreal. “Is not thy fear [_i.e._ thy fear of God, thy piety] thy confidence; and thy hope, _is it not_ even the integrity of thy ways?”
Job xix. 26. “And _though_ after my skin _worms_ destroy this _body_, yet in my flesh shall I see God.” As the italics show, the original contains nothing corresponding to the words “though,” “worms,” and “body.” Their insertion does not indeed change radically the meaning of the verse, but they weaken its force, and in a measure alter its imagery. The picture presented by the original is a very vivid one. The patriarch, pointing to his body wasting away under disease, says, “After my skin is destroyed thus, yet from my flesh shall I see God.”
Job xxiv. 16. “In the dark they dig through houses, _which_ they had marked for themselves in the daytime; they know not the light.” Here the meaning of the second clause has been altogether missed, and the whole passage is thereby greatly obscured. The writer is describing the deeds of those who rebel against the light and love the darkness: as with the murderer (_v._ 14) and the adulterer (_v._ 15), so is it with the robber. “In the dark they dig through houses; in the daytime they shut themselves up; they know not the light.”