On a certain day I witnessed two adversaries aimlessly arguing on Ezekiel 24:7 concerning changes either made or not by Benjamin Blayney, while befuddled bystanders breathlessly hovered nearby. They were gasping at glimpses unseen to others and needing a word from a gentle true spirit to make a reply.
Unfortunately, such angry antagonists and bitter belligerents would not welcome a word of either hello or good-bye. I am placing a record here of what I found about the text of Ezekiel 24:7. There was a simple typographical error in Ezekiel 24:7 that was quickly corrected with no help from Benjamin Blayney, who was not even born until 1728.
For her blood is in the middest of her: she set it upon the toppe of a rocke, she powred it upon the ground, to couer it with dust:
Ezekiel 24:7, 1611 printing by Robert Barker
For her blood is in the midst of her: shee set it upon the top of a rocke, shee powred it not upon the ground, to couer it with dust:
Ezekiel 24:7, 1613 printing by Robert Barker
The word “not” was omitted, then shortly corrected by inclusion, and the text still stands today.[i] The old printings I have found online demonstrate that it was fixed at least by 1613, though it possibly happened even sooner.
[i] With the exception of spellings that have become more “fixed” as the English language progressed through the years. Notice even some variant spellings from 1611 to 1613. Some of this is because printers/typesetters would often choose the variant that would best help them justify a line of type. (In printing, to justify is to fit exactly into a desired length – so that each line of type is the same length.) Note that the the negative participle לֹ֤א is in the Hebrew text. It is obvious that this is not a translation issue, but a mistake made by the printers which they quickly corrected.
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