Spearmen

1. Incorrectly for njp /aineh, ' reeds,' in the phrase njij n;- hayyath kcineh ' the company Df spearmen," Ps 68=" [G7-"] AV (similarly Pj. Bk.) ; RV ' the wild beast of the reeds' [LXX tois flTjpiois ToO Ka\i,xov], i.e. probably the crocodUe or the hipitopotamus (cf. Job 40-') as the symbol of t-gypt. 2. For 5e^oXd;3ow (Ac 23'^ EV ; \ ulg. laiiccnru), Lachmann, following cod. A and the Peshitta (1 1 . Vn . o ^^), reads here SeJio^dXout, 'right- handed slingers.' E. Egli {ZWTh xxvii. pp. 20, 21) proposes to take the word in a passive sense (o^'o- XaSos, sic proparoxytone, ' recta captus ), lelt- handed slingers ' (cf . Jg 20>»). See Blass in loc. " \V. Emery Barnes. SPECKLED BIRD Jer 12' (only). If the MT of this passage (.7-!?^ 3-39 ^'^'^ '7 'f^HJ 5!'3> B-y:t) is correct, the tr. can hardly be other than ' Is niine heritage unto me (i.e. to my sorrow, a datinus ethicus [Cheyne, ad loc.]) (as) a speckled bird of prev ? Are (the) birds of prey against her round about?' (so, substantially, KV). The people of Israel is compared to a bird of prey, just as, on account of its hostility to Jehovah, it is compared in v » to a lion. But as a speckled (yiny, cf. Jg 5*') bird attracU the hostile attention of other birds (Tac. Ann. vi. 28; Suet. Casar, 81; Pliny, U^ X 19) Israel becomes a prey to the heathen (so Cheyne, Eeuss, et al.). Cornill (in SBOT) alters the text slightly, changing •'? into •? (originally proposed by Graf) and pointing the n of the second D-yn as the art. instead of the interrogative particle. This does not seriously affect the tr., which would now be ' Is niv heritage a speckled bird of prey, that the birds of prey are against her round about ? It need scarcely be said that the rendering ' mine herita"e ia unto me t/u. ravenons hycena (see art. Hy.En'a) cannot be obtained from the present text. It is a fair question, however, whether the M 1 is correct. The LXX has, B ari,\o.ioo i-a(^7,s (' liyiena s den'? = i''3» mj;?), A <riri)\aioi' XTjcrTiii- ('robbers den''). Siegfried, Stade suggest viK nsio 'torn (prey) of the hyiena.' J- A. SELlilE. • C(. Pauaanias, ix. 40. 11, where it 1» said that Agamemnon's fcncestnil cKY.Trftt waa also called iipv.