have thought it better to discuss each case on its merits, without
referring expressly and continually to the opinions of English and
foreign scholars. 

In order to bring the discussion within the range of those who have
no special linguistic equipment, I have hardly ever cited Greek or
Hebrew words, and never in the original alphabets.  For a similar
reason, the verses are numbered, not as in the Hebrew, but as in the
English Bible.  I have sought to make the discussion read continuously,
without distracting the attention--excepting very occasionally-by
foot-notes or other devices. 

Above all things, I have tried to be interesting.  Critical
discussions are too apt to divert those who pursue them from the
absorbing human interest of the Old Testament.  Its writers were men
of like hopes and fears and passions with ourselves, and not the
least important task of a sympathetic scholarship is to recover that
humanity which speaks to us in so many portions and so many ways
from the pages of the Old Testament.  While we must never allow
ourselves to forget that the Old Testament is a voice from the