The arrangement of books in the Latin Vulgate agrees with that of the Septuagint with the following exceptions:  the two canonical books of Ezra and Nehemiah appear together, as in the Septuagint, but under the titles of 1 Esdras and 2 Esdras.  Next follow the two apocryphal books of Esdras (the latter wanting in the Septuagint), under the titles of 3 Esdras and 4 Esdras.  The Greater Prophets, with Lamentations after Jeremiah and Daniel after Ezekiel, are inserted before the twelve Minor Prophets, which last stand in the order followed in our version.  Throwing out of account, therefore, the apocryphal books, the order of the Vulgate is that followed by our English Bible.

From the above it is manifest that in neither the Hebrew, the Greek, nor the Latin arrangement is the order of time strictly followed.  The Hebrew, for example, to say nothing of the Psalms, which were written in different ages, throws into the Hagiographa Ruth, Job, Proverbs, etc., which are older than any of the so-called latter prophets.  The Hebrew places the books of Kings, and the Greek and Latin not only these, but also the books of Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, before all the proper prophetical books, though it is well known that several of these were much earlier.  In the Hebrew arrangement, the three Greater Prophets precede all the Minor Prophets, though several of the latter were earlier than Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and even Isaiah.  In the Greek, on the contrary, Isaiah and Jeremiah, as well as Ezekiel, are placed after even the prophets of the Restoration.  The biblical student should carefully remember these facts.  He must not hastily assume that the books of the Old Testament stand in the order in which they were written, but must determine the age of each for itself, according to the best light that he can obtain.  See further in the introductions to the several books.

5.  In high antiquity, the continuous mode of writing, (scriptio continua,) without divisions between the words, was common.  We cannot indeed infer, from the continuous writing of the oldest manuscripts of the New Testament, that the same method prevailed in the ancient Hebrew writing; for in very ancient inscriptions and manuscripts, belonging to different languages, the words are distinguished from each other more or less completely by points.  Yet the neglect of these is common.  In most Greek and Phoenician inscriptions there is no division of words.  The translators of the Septuagint may be reasonably supposed to have employed the best manuscripts at their command.  Yet their version shows that in these the words were either not separated at all, or only partially.  The complete separation of words by intervening spaces did not take place till after the introduction of the Assyrian, or square character.  Ch. 14, No. 2.  With the separation is connected the use of the so-called final letters, that is, forms of certain letters employed exclusively at the ends of words.