ingly undertaken to introduce it wherever the Hebrew word plainly has this abstract sense. For the same reason we have substituted "ordinance" for "judgment" in the numerous passages, like Lev. xviii. 4, where the word denotes, not a judicial sentence, threatened or inflicted, but a law of action. This rendering of the Hebrew word is found in the Authorized Version in some instances, and has been introduced by the Revised Version in a few more; but, since the English word "judgment" in common use never denotes a statute or command, it is manifestly desirable that "ordinance" should be used wherever the Hebrew word has this meaning.
Similarly, the English Revision in a few cases, and the Old Testament Appendix in a few more, put "despoil" for "spoil." But the same reason which holds for those few is equally good for the numerous others in which this word occurs. The word "spoil" in the Authorized Version represents a great number of Hebrew words, some of which denote "lay waste," "ruin," or "destroy," rather than "despoil"; and as "spoil" has nearly lost in popular use its original meaning, and is liable to occasion misconception, we have replaced it by "despoil," "plunder," "ravage," and other terms, each as best adapted to the connection.
In like manner we have carried out another alteration which was made to a limited extent by the English Revisers—the distinction between the words "stranger" ("strange"), "foreigner" ("foreign"), and "sojourner." These renderings correspond fairly well to three distinct Hebrew words; there is no good reason why the correspondence should not be made uniform throughout. Likewise we have carried out consistently the substitution of "false," "falsehood," and other terms, for "vain," "vanity," where the meaning of the original requires it. Here too a beginning was made by us in the Appendix. Many other examples might be adduced.
Here may be mentioned also that changes made for the sake of euphemism have been considerably increased. It has not been possible in every case to find an appropriate substitute for terms which in modern times have become offensive; but when it has been possible, we have deemed it wise to make the change. Some of the words, as, for example, "bowels," are tolerable when used in their literal sense, but offensive when employed in a psychological sense. Thus, no other word would be appropriate in 2 Sam. xx. 10; but in Jer. iv. 19 or Lam. i. 20 to retain that term would be both unpleasant and incorrect. The conception of the writer is not really reproduced by a literal translation. The Hebrews were accustomed to attribute mental actions or emotions to various physical organs, whereas in English such a trope is limited almost entirely to "heart" and "brain." There is nowhere any occasion for using the latter of these in the Bible; consequently it is almost unavoidable that "heart" should often be used as the translation of different Hebrew words. All scholars know that the Hebrew word commonly rendered "heart" is used very largely to denote not so much the seat of the emotions, as the seat of thought. It is rendered in the Authorized Version more than twenty times by "mind," and might well be so rendered much oftener.
The word "reins" is one of those which in the Old Testament is used
