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different, that the translators introduced words, according to their judgment, to assist the English reader. Thus, Psalms civ., 16, 17, "The cedars of Lebanon, where the birds make their nests:as for the stork, the fir trees are her house:" while in the Prayer Book version we have—"and the fir trees are a dwelling for the stork."
Thus in Leviticus, chapter xviii., 18, we have, "to vex her in her life time": but I consider the word time to be both superfluous and erroneous; and the expression, "to vex her in her life," to be only incidental; to shew the natural result of jealousy; which must necessarily arise between a married woman and her sister, in any country where such subsequent marriage is allowable, whether it will certainly take place or not: the feeling expressible in the words "he may some day marry my sister" will be quite sufficient "to vex her in her life," and to preclude all possibility of her welcome to the sister; and thus to deprive the latter of that which, as the law now stands, may often afford to her a peaceful and happy home; and of the opportunities of being a comfort and help to her married sister, and a blessing to her children.
A rendering to embody the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, should be, "Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister, though one after the other, to commit incest with her, over her, to vex her in her life:" and idiomatically "to worry her out of her life."
The illegality of marriage with a deceased wife's sister, under the Levitical Law, is, moreover, fully shewn by Leviticus xviii., 16, where the breadth of the Law of God, though in this case by no means " exceeding,"[1] becomes manifest, as it is in many other cases. The man is the head of the wife, and the head of the human race; and a command or restriction imposed upon man includes and imposes the like command and restriction upon woman. The Tenth Commandment to man "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife," is equally the command to woman, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's husband;" and, in like manner, in verse 16, the restriction imposed upon man in respect of his brother's wife, whether the brother be alive or dead, with the extreme exception of the injunction imposed upon a deceased husband's brother by the Law of the Yeboom (Deuteronomy xxv., 5-11) in the sole event of the deceased having no child, includes and imposes the like restriction upon woman in respect of her sister's husband, whether the sister be alive or dead. The
- ↑ Note.—Psalm cxix., 96, Thy commandment is exceeding broad.
