Queries and Answers by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 26, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 13.

Queries and Answers

By Editor

WILL the Ladies' Silk Culture Society of California please give us its address?

S. B., Myrtle Creek, Oregon.—If you will observe the marginal reference in the inscription of Psalms 73, you will see that there is ground for attributing that psalm to David.

To J. C. F.—Gesenius does not give “holy” as a definition of the word so rendered in Ps. 86:2. He defines it thus: “1. Kind, merciful, benevolent. 2. Pious towards God, godly. 3. Of God, kind, merciful, gracious.” The verbal root he defines: “To be zealous towards any one, i. e., to feel desire, kindness, love towards him.” Dr. Clarke speaks thus on the text: “For I am holy] ki chasid ani, for I am merciful. The spirit of this prayer is, “‘That mercy I to others show, That mercy show to me.’”

Though Gesenius does not give “holy” as a definition of the original, we have no doubt, from its use in the Scriptures, that it was sometimes construed to mean so. Yet its usual use is in the sense of “merciful,” or pious, or “godly.” See Jer. 3:12, for the same phrase—“I am merciful.” Your friend has no just ground for his claim on the text in question.