Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
Because the Lord hath sworn - This rendering is incorrect. Our translators regard the expression as a solemn asseveration by the throne of God. However, to this the objections are insuperable; it has no parallel in Scriptural usage: God swears by Himself, not by His Throne. As the Hebrew text now stands the meaning is more satisfactorily given in the margin.
An alteration, slight in form, but considerable in meaning, has been proposed with much confidence, namely, nês , "standard" for kı̂ssê' , "throne" ; thus connecting the name of the altar with the sentence. Conjectural emendations are not to be adopted without necessity, and the obvious a priori probability of such a reading makes it improbable that one so far more difficult should have been substituted for it. One of the surest canons of criticism militates against its reception. As it stands, the text was undoubtedly that which was alone known to the Targumists, the Samaritan, the Syriac, the Latin and the Arabic translators. The Septuagint appears to have had a different reading: ̓ ̀ ́ͅ ͂ en cheiri kruphē polemeō .
Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Exodus 17:16:
Psalms 83:7
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