speeches which are the kernel of the work! True; but the heading of Ps. xc. is far from possessing the authority of the titles which introduce these splendid pieces of deeply felt oratory.

NOTE ss, p. 75.

See Appendix II. The allusions in Ps. xc. to these poems (or, to this poem) are not studied, but involuntary. Time must therefore be allowed for them (or, for it) to have gained such a popularity. The date of the Song may be fixed in the reign of Josiah; that of the Blessing, probably, in that of Jeroboam II. (cf. my Jeremiah (1888), p. 84).

LECTURE III.

My soul is among lions; if I lay me down, 'tis among firebrands— the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.-Ps. lvii. 5 (Kay's translation).

LECTURE III.

PART I. Survey of results of Lects. I. and II.-Two more minor Psalters, Books II. and III.; chiefly Elohistic.-Three groups of Elohistic psalms,-Davidic, Korahite, and Asaphite, besides three anonymous psalms, and a Solomonic one. Why the majority must be assumed to be pre-Maccabæan. - Yet a study of Pss. xliv., lxxiv., and lxxix. shows that these at least must be Maccabæan. Reply to à priori objections to Maccabæan psalms. Can these three psalms be the entire lyric record of such a stirring period?- A study of Pss. lx., lxi., lxiii., and lxxxiii. shows that these four psalms are also Maccabæan.- Ps. lxxxiii. contrasted with Ps. cix.-Objection to Maccabean royal psalms; the answer reserved.-Anachronisms in the titles of these psalms (if Maccabæan) accounted

for.

PART II.—Are there any psalms of the pre-Maccabæan, Greek, and of the Persian period in Books II. and III. ?—Ps. lxviii. was written either towards the close of the Exile, or in the third century; the latter date is to be preferred.— Pss. xlii. and xliii. (properly one psalm) are also of the Greek period; this follows from the necessity of finding a captivity in the post-Exile period in which captives were carried to the N. E. of Palestine.-Pss. lxxxix. and lxxxviii. discussed in connexion with the Psalm of Hezekiah in Isa. xxxviii. The subject of all three poems is, not Hezekiah, but the Jewish Church of the Persian period, and Ps. lxxxix. in particular was written in the calamitous reign either of the second or of the third Artaxerxes. Date of Pss. lxxxvii.-lxxxiv. discussed. The first, a noble specimen of Jewish catholicity, may be early Greek; so also Ps. lxxxvi. The two last, and so also Pss. Ixxxii. and Iviii. (strange but interesting works), belong to the Persian period. Pss. lii., liv., Iv.-lvii., lix., lxii., and lxiv. form another group of vigorous church-songs. The picture is definite enough; persecution is in progress. But who is the speaker? In particular, is Ps. Iv. by Jeremiah? or by Onias III.? Safer to leave this uncertain; the speaker may even be Israel personified. None of these psalms require to be Greek. Thus far Books II. and III. are a collection of church-historical records, chiefly, but not entirely, of the Persian period.

PART I.

MACCABEAN PSALMS IN BOOKS II. AND III.

LET us now survey the course that we have been taking. These sixty-one psalms-all of them, even Ps. cx., churchhymns-come to us as a collection from the age of Simon the Maccabee. It is not surprising, therefore, that Maccabæan psalm-literature should be represented in it. It is equally certain, however, that the bulk of the collection represents the various stages of the pre-Maccabæan part of the postExile period. No single psalm in it is either pre-Exilic or Exilic. Could I enter here into linguistic details,' it would be plain that the language of the psalms is, on the whole, favourable to this view. It is true that even the 139th psalm can hardly be said to be written in a ‘jargon,' but Aramaisms and peculiar words and forms are characteristically frequent. The relative purity of the Hebrew of these psalms is explained by the sanctity already attaching to the earlier writings, which became literary models to the temple poets. The collection was originally meant as a separate work, and nobly was it introduced by Ps. xc., which seems to cry aloud that 'upon this rock'-the rock of the foundation truths which it sums up-' God will build His Church.' When, however, it was united to Books I.-III. it seemed appropriate to break it in two. In the Law the demands of Jehovah were expressed in a five-fold form; ought not the response of the believing community to have a similar division? Ought there not, in fact, to be a Davidic Pentateuch? The new plan, however, injured the right appreciation of the Psalter. The short book which closes at Ps. cvi. has no right of existence by itself, and the jubilant thanksgiving of the Maccabæan period (Pss.

1 On this subject see Appendix II.

cxlvi.-cl.) is rooted in the grave earnestness and chastened joy of the previous age.

I now pass on to Books II. and III. These minor Psalters contain forty-eight psalms, of which only four are Yahvistic, i.e. evince a predilection for the name Yahveh; the others being Elohistic, i.e. characterized by the predominant use of Elohim.' The Elohistic phraseology, however, is at any rate not always due to the authors of the psalms, but sometimes (indeed, in my opinion, often) to an editor, as will be clear from a comparison of Ps. liii. with the recension of the same poem in Ps. xiv., and of Ps. lxx. with the recension of the same passage in Ps. xl. 14-18. The six Yahvistic psalms (lxxxiv.-lxxxix.), of which four (lxxxiv., lxxxv., lxxxvii., lxxxviii.) are traditionally Korahite, one (lxxxvi.) Davidic, and one (lxxxix.) Ethanite, are appended to the Elohistic, proving that the editor who ventured on the alteration only had before him Pss. xlii.-lxxxiii. These psalms, then, formed a great Elohistic collection, and upon examining the titles we are able to analyze the collection into three groups, viz. a Davidic (li.-lxx.), a Korahited (xlii.-xlix.), and an Asaphite (1., lxxiii.-lxxxiii.), besides the three anonymous psalms (lxvi., lxvii., and lxxi., of which the two latter are ascribed to David in the Septuagint), and the Solomonic 72nd psalm. We may assume that the majority at least of these psalms are pre-Maccabæan, for the terms Korahite,' 'Asaphite,' and 'Ethanite' had evidently gone out of use when the Fourth and Fifth Books were collected. I say 'the majority,' because there was nothing to prevent a reviser, or 'diaskeuast,' from inserting Elohistic Maccabæan psalms even in Books II. and III., and giving each of them the same title, however anachronistically, as the neighbouring psalms. We know that such a reviser added the Yahvistic Pss. lxxxiv.-lxxxix. as a supplement, and there is no reason why an Elohistic reviser should not have been only a trifle bolder. Can we convert this possibility into a probability? That depends

e

upon our being able to show that none but a Maccabæan date will adequately account for the exegetical phenomena of a group of interesting psalms. Let us take the 44th psalm first, and read vv. 18, 19, and 21-23 in Kay's translation—

1 See Lecture VI., p. 287.