Incorrect Translations of Scripture.
By Bible Union
Exodus iii, 22.—"Borrow."—The common version represents God as directing the Hebrew women to borrow from the Egyptians what they never designed to repay. The same deception is inculcated in respect to the men in Exodus xi, 2. The original means to demand. They demanded part of the pay for their unrequited labor. 2 Samuel xii, 31; 1 Chron. xx, 3.—David, a man after God's own heart, is represented as sawing up the Ammonites, hacking them with axes, and burning them in brick-kilns; thus inhumanly destroying a whole nation related to the Israelites, because their king had offended him. A correct translation would show that he put them to saws, and axes, and brick-kilns, etc.; that is, taught them mechanical and agricultural arts, and made them a peaceful and useful people. Jeremiah xx, 7.—Jeremiah is made to say, "O Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived," instead of, as the original declares, "Thou hast persuaded me and I was persuaded." One of the objections brought by infidels against the Bible is, that Moses declares of himself, Numbers xii, 3, "Now the man Moses was very meek above all the men which were upon the face of the earth." Dr. Horne, the celebrated author of the Introduction to the Critical Study of the Bible, vindicates the inspired penman from the egotism charged upon him, by proving that this passage is "mistranslated" "in our English version," and that it ought to be, "Now the man Moses was depressed or afflicted more than any man of that land." This affliction was caused by "the great burthen he had to sustain in the care and government of the Israelites, and also on account of their ingratitude and rebellion, both against God and himself."—Bible Union.