§ 172. Psalms inscribed to the Korahites and to Jeduthun.

445

Several of the Psalms (xlii-xlix, lxxxiv, lxxxv, lxxxvii, lxxxviii.) are inscribed to the sons or descendants of Korah, not as the authors, but as musicians who performed them in the temple. In the titles of some therefore (xlv, xlvi, lxxxviii.) the musical instruments to be used are also named, and in one (lxxxviii) the name of the author, Heman, is added.[a] These compositions are generally sublime, It is not cerbut they do not breathe the sweetness of David. tain by whom they were composed. [b]- -The word Jeduthun, which occurs in some of the titles, is not the name of the author of these psalms, but that of a musical instrument so called from the musician of the same name, who is mentioned in I Chron. xvi. 38, 41. xxv. 1, 3. This is evident from Ps. Ixii. 1. lxxvii. 1, compared with Ps. xxxix. 1.[c]

[a) DE WETTE, Einleit. § 269. anm. f.) considers it probable that the ascription of these psalms to the sons of Korah may be intended to designate their authors. He considers Ps. lxxxviii. 1. as affording no objection to this view, as Heman the Esrahite may have been one of the sons of Korah, or the mention of him in the title may have arisen from the amalgamation of contradictory titles. BERTHOLDT, S. 1774, and EICHHORN, 622, agree with Jahn, whose opinion is, upon the whole, the most probable. Tr.]

[6) EICHHORN, ( 622, 4.) gives them the highest character for poetical worth, and says that "they abound with the loftiest and the most affecting passages." Tr.]

[c) Jahn's opinion is that of JARCHI. But there is no mention of a musical instrument of this name, and in Ps. xxxix. 1. the inscription is

For these reasons RosENMUELLER, Prol, ad .על ידותון not לידותון

:

Schol. p. xli. s. considers the word as designating in Ps. xxxix. the musi cian himself of that name, and in Ps. lxii. lxxvii, where by is used, a

choir formed by him, and governed by rules of his framing; comp. II Chron, xxxv. 15. This is also the opinion of DE WETTE. Tr.]

§ 173. Psalms of Asaph.

Twelve of the Psalms (1. lxxiii-lxxxiii.) are attributed to Asaph, a very distinguished Levite. See I Chron. vi. 24 (39.) xvi. 5, 7, 37. xxv. 1. But the 74th and 79th mention the destruction of Jeru

salem and the burning of the temple, and are more in character with the Lamentations of Jeremiah. They cannot therefore be Asaph's. But there is not sufficient reason to deny him to be the author of the 77th and 80th, as some do, for these poems may have been composed in David's time, at the commencement of the war with the kings of Zoba or Nesibis, when the Hebrews lost many battles ;[a] and this is indeed quite probable, since the 83d Psalm also mentions a combination of the neighbouring people to destroy the Hebrews. Ps. lxxviii. does not reach the sublimity of Asaph; v. 69 speaks of the building of the temple, and v. 67, 68, 70 refer to the division of the kingdom; events which Asaph can hardly be supposed to have lived to see. It is, no doubt, of the age of Rehoboam or Abijah.[b]—But perhaps some of those psalms which are without the author's name were written by Asaph, as the 91st and 97th; certainly Hezekiah's command that the Psalms of David and Asaph should be sung in the temple intimates that there were more of the latter than are ascribed to him.

-This Psalmist excels in poems of an instructive kind ;[c]' he is far superior in sublimity to David, and does not yield to Isaiah and Habakkuk. His compositions are finely arranged and beautifully written, less sweet indeed than those of David, but more vehement. No suspicion therefore can arise that these psalms were composed by David and were intended to be performed by Asaph.

[a) The author probably refers to II Sam. viii. 3. ss. ix. But these passages scarcely contain sufficient traces of ill success to warrant the strong expression used in the text. Tr.]

[6) DE WETTE, Einleit. 269 asserts positively that of all the Psalms ascribed to Asaph, only Ps. 1. is certainly his, Ps. lxxiii. lxxv. having merely some features which seem to belong to him. EICHHORN, Einleit. 622. S. 19. inclines to the same opinion, attributing Ps. lxxiii. lxxiv. lxxv. lxxvii. lxxix. lxxx. lxxxii. to the time of the captivity, and Ps. lxxxi. to that of the return. Of Ps. lxxvi. lxxviii. lxxxiii. he thinks it impossible to determine the date with accuracy, but considers it certain that they could not have been composed by a contemporary of David, and probable that they belong to the time of the captivity. ROSENMUELLER, Prol. ad. Schol. p. xv., is of the same opinion. Tr.]

[c)" He was one of those ancient wise men who felt the insufficiency of external religious usages, and urged the necessity of cultivating virtue and purity of mind. The 50th psalm is a beautiful illustration of this.” EICHH. S. 622. 2. Tr.1

§ 174. The Psalms of Heman and Ethan.

The titles ascribe the 88th Psalm to Heman and the 89th to Ethan, both called Ezrahites. In this appellative there is some difficulty, (comp. I Kings v. 11. (iv. 31.) with I Chron. ii. 6. vi. 18, 29, (33, 44.) which however has no connexion with the subject before us, for the contents of these psalms show that they are of a more recent date than the age of the persons mentioned in the places referred to.[a] In the 88th we hear the complaints of a person of whose preservation there was scarcely any hope, such as Hezekiah in his pestilential disorder (Isa. xxxviii.), or the leprous king Uzziah might have uttered. The 89th appears like an answer to the complaints of the preceding, speaks of David as a person who had long been dead, dwells upon the great promise which had been given to David, and represents the state of things as if its accomplishment were in great danger, as affairs really stood in the time of Hezekiah's sickness. Some refer this psalm to the last periods of the kingdom of Judah.[b]

[a) In the Germ. Introd. p. 612, 613, the author expresses his opinion that most probably the titles are incorrect, but that the two Levites who are mentioned in I Chron. vi. 18, 29. (33, 44) are undoubtedly the persons intended. Such is also the opinion of DE WETTE. Tr.]

[6) Comp. EICHH. Einleit. § 622. S. 23. f. DATHE. Arg. in Ps. lxxxviii. lxxxix. Tr.]

But his

The 72d and 127th Psalms are ascribed to Solomon. name seems to have been prefixed to the latter, for no other reason than because the first verse mentions the building of a house, which was understood of the temple. Even the Alexandrine version, which is generally fuller in the titles of the psalms than the Hebrew text, omits the title of this psalm.-Ps. lxxii. consists of prayers, composed for the inauguration of Solomon, who could not have said all that is therein contained of himself.

§ 176. Of the anonymous Psalms.

The Hebrew text does not mention the authors of the other psalms. The Alexandrine version names some, but scarcely ever such as agree with the contents of the psalms themselves. Thus it attributes the 137th to Jeremiah, whereas its author was a returned exile; the 146th and 147th it ascribes to Haggai and Zechariah, on the mere conjecture that they were the production of one or other of those prophets.

§ 177.

Collection and division of the Psalms.

The division of the Psalter into five books existed as early as the date of the Alexandrine version.* This appears from the fact that that version contains the doxologies appended to the first four books; Ps. xl. 13. (xli. 14.) lxxi. 18, 19. (lxxii. 18-20.) lxxxviii. 52. (lxxxix. 53.) cv. (cvi.) 48. The reason of this division may be gathered from the character of the psalms contained in each book. Almost all the psalms of the first book are the work of David. In the second there are twenty-two of David, one of Asaph, and eight anonymous inscribed to the Korahites. The third contains one, the 86th, ascribed to David, and this doubtful; the remainder are partly Asaph's, partly the work of an uncertain author, and partly anonymous. Two only in the fourth book are ascribed to David, and one, the 90th, to Moses, the others being anonymous. In the fifth, fifteen are assigned to David, one is ascribed conjecturally to Solomon, and the rest are anonymous. -These five books of the Psalms, therefore, are evidently so many different collections, following each other in the order in which they were made. The first person who began the collection put together the psalms of David; the second, those psalms of David which it was still in his power to glean, admitting a few others ;[a] the third had no psalms of David in view, and when he wished to join his own collection to the former, he added the note at the end of the second book: "the prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended," lxxii. 20. The fourth collected anonymous psalms,

* [EICHHORN divides the Psalms into two parts and five books, the first part ending with the 72d Psalm. 623. Tr.]

and therefore his book exhibits only one of Moses, the 90th, and two of David, the 101st and 103d, the latter of which however is certainly not his. The last made a collection of whatever sacred poems he could gather; he has therefore fifteen of David, and thirty anonymous. This view of the subject readily accounts for the fact, that some psalms contained in an earlier collection again occur in a later, as the 14th and 53d, the 57th and 108th.

It is hardly possible to determine the age of these collections. All, or at least the two last, which contain Chaldaisms, were made after the return from Babylon, at the time of the re-establishment of the temple worship. The 18th Psalm occurs entire in II Sam. xxii.; and therefore it may be inferred that in the author's age the collection of Psalms had not been formed.[b] It is doubted on good grounds, whether smaller collections existed in David's time, for divine service at the tabernacle and afterwards in the temple. Such collections were unnecessary, as several copies of single psalms would be sufficient for the Levite singers. The command of Hezekiah to sing the Psalms of David and Asaph in the temple, is no proof of their having been collected together; for they could be sung without any such collection being made. [c]

1. In the Alexandrine and Vulgate versions, the 9th and 10th Psalms are connected, and therefore the subsequent numbers are one less than in the Hebrew, as far as the 114th, which again is united with the 115th. The 116th is divided into two, which still continues a deficiency of one in the following numbers; but the division of the 147th into two, completes the number 150.[d] These remarks are founded on the Hebrew text. But in seven manuscripts the first Psalm is without a number, being considered as introductory; and Jerome declares, that the Hebrews did not number it. Hence it is that the second Psalm is called the first in Acts xiii. 33.*

2. The word or letters

plained by learned men.

which occurs so often, are variously ex

The most probable opinion is, that it denotes

some musical mark equivalent, perhaps, to our da capo.[e]

[a) DE WETTE supposes this book to be formed of still smaller collections, perhaps 1st, Ps. xlii-l.; 2d, Ps. li-lxv.; enlarged by subsequent additions. He thinks the same of all the three succeeding books. Einleit. 271. See more in BERTHOLDT, S. 2009. ff.

Tr.]

*[See the critical editions. Tr.]