his expectation of their return, and went back
to their own country without returning to report to him, because they
had been "warned of God in a dream," not because they despised the
king. To say, as Mr. Sawyer does, that they "despised" him, is neither
warranted by the meaning of [Greek: _enepaichthae_], nor is such a
rendering accordant with the facts of the story or the connections of
the thought. It is a forced and far-fetched translation, and a change
from the common version much for the worse. The same word is of frequent
occurrence in the Scriptures. In the Septuagint, Jer. x. 14, it is used
in the same sense as in Matt. ii. 16. It is worthy of note that in no
other instance does Mr. Sawyer render it by "despised." In Luke xviii.
32 and xxii. 63, and Matt. xx. 19, he translates it "mocked," like the
common version. Mr. Sawyer should be more consistent, if he would have
us put faith in his scholarly pretensions and literal accuracy. The
passage in which he indulges in this variation from his own rule is the
one of all the list where such a translation is particularly fitting,
and where neither force, clearness, nor precision is gained by the
substitution.

Mr. Sawyer renders [Greek: _katha thov chrinon du haekribose_] thus:
"according to the precise time which he had learned."--Is this literal
or correct? [Greek: _'Akriboo_] signifies _to inquire diligently,
assiduously, or accurately_, and has no such signification primarily as
_to learn_. If the reader will now turn to Mr. Sawyer's translation of
the 7th verse of the same chapter of Matthew, he will there find that
he translates [Greek: _haekribose_] "asked"! And yet it stands in that
passage in precisely the same connection of thought as in the 16th
verse; so that we have our translator, who gives us only strictly
literal renderings, translating the same word, occurring in the same
relative connection, in the one instance by "asked," and in the other
by "had learned,"--neither of them legitimate translations, and neither
precisely expressing the thought. The rendering "asked" falls as far
short of the full and forcible meaning of [Greek: _haekribose_], in
the one case, as "had learned" varies from its strictly literal
signification in the other.

We will now examine another passage illustrating Mr. Sawyer's consistent
fidelity to literal renderings. He translates the word [Greek:
_phuchae_], Luke xii. 19, 20, and 23, "soul"; thus, "I will say to my
_soul_,"