Notes & Queries Archive
NOTE1850

Misquotation—"He who runs may read."

By MANLEIUS.

No such passage exists in the Scriptures, though it is constantly quoted as from them. It is usually the accompaniment of expressions relative to the clearness of meaning or direction, the supposititious allusion being to an inscription written in very large characters. The text in the prophet Habakkuk is the following: "Write the vision and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it." (Ch. ii. 2.) Here, plainly, the meaning is, that every one reading the vision should be alarmed by it, and should fly from the impending calamity: and although this involves the notion of legibil…

Topics: Misquotation, Scriptural Interpretation