Note 21 — Chapter XI

A Hebrew scholar, of high reputation, makes the following remarks upon the word: “The verb chathak (in the Niphal form, passive, nechtak), is found only in Daniel 9:24. Not another instance of its use can be traced in the entire Hebrew Testament. As Chaldaic and Rabbinical usage must give us the true sense of the word: if we are guided by these, it has the single signification of cutting or cutting off. In the Chaldeo-Rabbinic dictionary of Stockius, the word ‘chathak’ is thus defined:—

“‘Scidit, abscidit, conscidit, inscidit, excidit.’—To cut, to cut away, to cut in pieces, to cut or engrave, to cut off.

“Mercerus, in his ‘Thesaurus,’ furnishes a specimen of Rabbinical usage in the phrase chathikah shelbasar—‘a piece of flesh,’ or ‘a cut of flesh.’ He translates the word as it occurs in Daniel 9:24, by ‘præcisa est’—was cut off.

“In the literal version of Arias Montanus it is translated ‘decisa est’—was cut off; in the marginal reading, which is grammatically correct, it is rendered by the plural ‘decisæ sunt’—were cut off.

“In the Latin version of Junius and Tremellius, nechtak is rendered ‘decisæ sunt.’—were cut off.

“Again: in Theodotion’s Greek version of Daniel (which is the version used in the Vatican copy of the Septuagint as being the most faithful), it is rendered by συνετμἡθησαν—were cut off; and in the Venetian copy by τετμήνται—have been cut. The idea of cutting off is pursued in the Vulgate, where the phrase is ‘abbreviatæ sunt,’ have been shortened.

“Thus Chaldaic and Rabbinical authority, and that of the earliest versions,—the Septuagint and Vulgate,—give the single signification of cutting off to this verb.”