my rock' in xlii. 10, as well as of the fine title of Jehovah in lxxiii. 20, the rock of my heart.' The painful transition in v. 10 suggests the similar one in lxxiii. 27. Notice also the affinity between lxi. 1-9 and xxvii. 1-6 (a far finer lyric utterance).

NOTE 3, p. 99.

Comp. especially lxi. 6-8 with xxi. 2, 3, 5, 7; lxi. 66 may be corrected from xxi. 36. A less satisfactory view is that of Giesebrecht, who maintains that lxi. 7, 8, and 1 in lxiii. 12 were inserted in the time of the Asmonæan kings (in which case the original psalms may belong to the time of Zerubbabel), unless both psalms are altogether Maccabæan (in which case lxi. 66, reading , may refer to the desire of Aristobulus 'to change the government into a kingdom,' Jos., Ant. xiii. 11, 1; but see below on Ps. xx.). Stade's Zeitschr., 1881, p. 326.

NOTE kk, p. 100.

By the beginning of the Greek period the two guilds of singers had, as we have seen, developed into three; for evidently in 1 Chron. xxv., as elsewhere, the Chronicler antedates the temple arrangements of his own day.

PART II.

PSALMS OF THE PRE-MACCABEAN GREEK AND OF THE PERSIAN PERIOD IN BOOKS II. AND III.

IN the history of psalm-composition the Maccabæan age cannot be separated by any hard and fast line from that which precedes it. We shall presently see that to the preMaccabean Greek age not only Korahite but Asaphite and Davidic psalms most probably belong. Take for instance Ps. lxviii., once called the most difficult in the Psalter, but now, thanks to the exegesis of the last half-century, easier than many which may appear far simpler-easier, that is, to understand as a historical product, not easier to interpret in all its peculiarities of phrase. I will not pause to develop the argument from the names of God," but will assert that two periods, and two only, can now be defended for its composition. It was written either towards the close of the Exile, or during one of the dynastic wars between Egypt and Syria, for the possession of Palestine; either in the sixth century (more precisely, a little before the defeat of Croesus at Sardis, B.C. 549), or in the third (probably between 220 and 217, or between 203 and 198 B.C.). It is the work of a poet who is not less learned than patriotic, and delights to refer to the Restoration-prophecy, and to various popular as well as cultured lyric poems of various dates. Its literary reminiscences, however, whether allusive or in the way of quotation, reveal no contemptible degree of art, and are vivified with a true lyric sentiment. The psalm as a whole has a wonderful power and range, and is in this, as in other respects, easier to understand in the Greek than at the dawn of the Persian period. Time was needed for the Second Isaiah to become a mine of learned suggestion. All the other psalms which are dependent on the Restoration-pro

phecy are subsequent to the Return; why should this be an exception? Above all; read vv. 20-28 consecutively, and tell me if you think it reasonable to take vv. 20-24 and 25-28 as referring to different periods. No; if, as I have said, the psalm divides at v. 20-if, 'strengthened in his faith by the foregoing pictures of the past, the poet [now] throws himself into the interests and prospects of the present ---why should we burden him with a gratuitous inconsistency in vv. 25-28, as if he all at once glanced backward at the religious usages of the first temple? Indeed, how can we do so, considering that the four tribes mentioned are precisely those which correspond to the two orthodox post-Exile provinces, Judæa and Galilee? Pre-Exilic the poem cannot be; and, I may add, Maccabæan it cannot be. Not yet has Israel been faithful unto death for his religion; not yet has he been driven to take up arms in self-defence; his modest part as yet is to recall God's ancient wonders, and to intone the chant of waiting faith,—

Lord, in our cause make sure and strong

Thy word and gracious will,

Thou Watcher of Jerusalem,

From Thy most holy hill.—(vv. 28b, 29a, Keble.)

But when Keble introduces into the closing verse the words, 'Tis Israel's God who gives

Might to His own, and deeds of war,—

he plainly violates the spirit of his author. The divine gift which Israel implores-what is it? Not the ability to bind their kings in chains, and their nobles with links of iron,' for the psalmist himself will presently utter the prayer,

Rebuke him that bemires himself for gain of money,
Scatter the peoples that delight in wars.-(v. 31.)

Not 'deeds of war,' exploits Davidic or Maccabæan, but that bulwark of inviolable peace which Jehovah unaided can produce for His waiting people.

In spite of its literary indebtedness, there is no greater ode in Hebrew literature than the 68th psalm. Now, can we believe that it stands alone in the period to which we have referred it? The psalm which I have been led to couple with it is the

I

42nd, of which the 43rd is the conclusion, tastelessly separated by the latest editor from the body of the poem. Not because both psalms (the 68th and the 42nd) express a passionate love of the temple; psalms not belonging to the Greek period have this characteristic, and the language of the 42nd psalm has a deeper spirituality than that of the 68th. But for two reasons—(1) that only in the Greek period can I find circumstances like those presupposed by the 42nd psalm; and (2) that according to a probable view of v. 7,8 there is a striking allusion in Ps. xlii. to Ps. lxviii. That the 42nd psalm is post-Exile, must be clear to all who are accustomed as critics to range freely over the Old Testament, and to be ever giving more definiteness of outline to their picture of Israel's history. I need not therefore discuss the theory of Ewald that Ps. xlii. is the melodious farewell of the royal exile Jehoiachin, as in 597 B.C. he was being carried away beyond the ridge of Hermon." The writer is no king but a templemusician (cf. xlii. 5, 9), and the problem before us is to find out a captivity either of the nation or of a part of the nation in the post-Exile period of Jewish history, the scene of which was the north-east of Palestine, on the border of Syria. Now the particular moment which (following Hitzig in all but his dogmatism) I am about to select, may or may not be right, but it is difficult to resist the impression that this captivity. is subsequent to the division of Alexander's empire, by which Syria fell to the Seleucidæ and Egypt to the Ptolemies. Is there a time when Jerusalem was taken, and its inhabitants ill-treated by a foreign foe? Certainly; but neither of the two occupations of the Holy City by Ptolemy Lagi is the occasion of which we are in search.

It was not until B.C. 199-198 that an event took place, the sequel of which will account for the 42nd psalm (see Jos., Ant. xii. 3, 3). The enemy this time was the Ætolian mercenary Scopas, who, in the enforced absence of Antiochus the Great, sought to reattach Syria to Egypt, and among other cities captured those of Judæa. The Book of Daniel seems to refer to this, when it states that a party of 'young high-minded' Jews, who had risen against the 'king of the south,' should meet with a fall (Dan. xi. 14). Probably this. means that Scopas punished the Seleucid party severely, after

which is it not fair to presume that he carried away some Jewish captives? It was in the winter-time, as Josephus tells us, and it was to the northern highlands that the conqueror bent his way. But Antiochus, returning from Asia Minor, was at hand. Not long afterwards, amidst the scenes so vividly described in the 42nd psalm, the two warriors met at the sources of the Jordan.' It must have been at Bāniās, from the hill above which so glorious, but to a captive, so melancholy, a prospect is visible. The Ætolian was defeated, and nearly all his army destroyed. Thus the Jewish captives were delivered; they returned of course with Antiochus to Jerusalem, where the supreme council, to make up for its recent compulsory defection, gave a splendid reception to the Syrian king. Do we not now understand the complaints of the psalmist better? He does but hint at the severity of the rainstorms of the Hermon district in winter (xlii. 8). It is from the 'oppression' of the 'loveless nation' (the unscrupulous Egyptian mercenaries), and bitter heathen railleries, that he prays so earnestly to be delivered, and swiftly and surely was the prayer answered. The bringing back of Jewish captives was one of Antiochus's chief cares, though of course the captive psalmist looks behind 'second causes,' and trusts, not in princes, but in his faithful God. We need not, however, suppose that this beautiful poem is a literal transcript of the thoughts of the captive at Bāniās. It is more probable, comparing the phenomena of Ps. lxxvii., that it received its present form after the psalmist's happy return to Jerusalem.

And what of the allusion to Ps. lxviii. ? I have not forgotten it. Ps. xlii. 7 is variously explained, but unless we too boldly omit the two last words altogether, there

must, I think, be a contrast between the lofty Hermonsummits (the Hermonim') and 'the mount of insignificance' (cf. Gen. xix. 20, where Zoar is, and therefore not worth destroying); hence Jerome's rendering 'de monte minimo' is a good one. This consideration is not affected by the reported discovery of a high mountain in West Jordan-land, called Miç'ar; is not this name merely κar' ἀντίφρασιν, according to an usage more Arabic than Hebrew? At any rate in this context a poet would hardly single out a mountain with this particular name. Now, if