ALPHABETIC POEM IN NAHUM 257
letters than those required by the acrostich.
In line 23, however, the initial word is fdyv;
the acrostich is at once satisfied by the simple
omission of v, which leaves fdy. That v was
constantly added through dittography or over-
looked before another v or y with which latter
letter it is frequently confused, becomes clear
from a comparison of the LXX and Hebrew
texts. In assuming then that the v at the
beginning of line 23 is intrusive, we are simply
assuming what we know for certain frequently
happened in similar cases.
The recovery of the initial d and z requires us
to assume two^1 cases of transposition of words
in the course of the transcription of the Hebrew
text prior to the Greek translation. Once again
no one questions that transpositions have taken
place in the course of transcription. That the
three initial letters wanting in the present text
1 In lines 11, 12 we must assume that the verbs of the two lines
became transposed [see p. 296] and that the original Hebrew ran Nwb lld
llmx Nvnbl Hrpv lmrkv. In line 17 the fourth word of the line (vynpl) became
transposed (having lost its final letter) to the beginning ; for the present
text rmfy ym vmfv ynpl read therefore nynpl rmfy ym vmfz. The sense remains the
same, but the Hebrew becomes more idiomatic ; cf. Driver, Tenses,
§§ 196 f. [The last clause is an overstatement. I should have said :
the sense remains the same, and the Hebrew quite grammatical. The
order of the emended text is rather, as Driver puts it (Minor Prophets,
p. 26, n., 7), " less easy and natural than the existing order." The
author of the acrostich adopted a possible, though less easy, order for
his words in the interests of his alphabetic scheme, just as the author
of Ps. cxix. uses htx in v. 4, and places 1,pn-rx at the beginning of v. 8,
to satisfy the conditions of his alphabetic scheme rather than because
he wished to express any real emphasis. An objection taken to the
emendation by Arnold is entirely lacking in force, and is completely
answered by Powis Smith.]