(c) On the other hand, it might appear strange that we still meet in the Psalms with traces of a theologumenon with which we have already (above, ». 684°) made acquaintance in Dt 4! as well as in
n 10 (see above, p. 714). We refer to the idea of under-gods (béé ’@ohim or, shortly, ’éléhim or ’élim ‘gods’; even béné *éldhim does not mean ‘sons of gods,’ but ‘those who belong to the cate- gory of ’élohim’), who, either independently,
* Cf. the articles of Sellin on ‘ Das Subject der altisraelitischen Religion’ in Neue kirchliche Zeitschrift, iv. (1893) Heft 6, and y. (1895) Heft 4.
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although commissioned by Jahweh, rule over the heathen peoples (so with the star-gods in Dt 4” *), or under the zgis of Jahweh take their part as a kind of vassal kings in the government of the world. Only in this sense are we to explain not only the ony or ‘princes’ of Dn 10, but also the o>x [so read for the corrupt oy] of Ps 58? and the ods of 82) [v.8> tby ya ‘sons of the highest’). In both passages the injustice and partiality of their rule are complained of,—alluding, of course, to the treatment of Israel by heathen peoples,— and in 827 they are even threatened with death after the manner of man, by way of punishment for their conduct. This last passage shatters all
ossibility of explaining these ows as human judges ; to ‘die like men’ is possible only to those who in themselves are immortal. ow, even although it cannot be denied that in the whole conception of these under-gods we have a manifest after-etfect of the belief in the reality of the former gods of the nations, yet the idea is so incorporated with and subordinated to Jahwism that it is im- possible to regard it as a survival of the once prevailing Henotheism or even of a former Poly- theism. The same complete welding of origin- ally heathen mythologumena with Jahwism is met with also in 74° and 104%5, with their allusions to the subduing of Leviathan ; and in 89%), with its crushing of Rahab.t
These same under-gods of Ps 58 and 82 are, beyond doubt, intended also by the o7>y of 86° 95° 96! 977-9 1355 138! and the o7>y ‘32 of 29! and 897, over whom Jahweh is absolutely exalted. Dis- tinguished from them, we have in 103° 148? the angels (D’2N?D, lit. ‘messengers’), who surround the throne of God offering praise, or, sent by Him, stand by the side of the godly to protect him (34% 35°, both times ‘the angel of Jahweh,’ but cer- tainly not now in the sense of a self-manifestation of Jahweh [cf. above, p. 639*]; 914*-). The idea of a heavenly council includes also ‘the holy ones’ (i.e., as elsewhere, those who stand in the closest relation to God, not those who are morally perfect) of Ps 897. The angels, again, who bring mis- fortune (78*), being sent by God to punish, are not morally wicked beings or even hostile to God, but are simply ‘ angels of evils’ (my '2xd), i.e. such as are sent by God to bring trouble upon sinners.
(d) The so-called attributes of God, or, to be more correct, the various sides on which His one being displays itself, are never with the Psalmists the subject of metaphysical speculation, but are always put forward only with a specifically religious in- terest—at one time for the warning, at another for the consolation, of the godly. The Eternity of God is the pledge that He can be a true refuge to His pecnle (904: 4). His Omnipotence has proved itself alike in creation and in the directing of his- tory (115° 135°). His Unchangeableness sets the nothingness of all created things in its true light : heaven and earth shall decay, and He shall change them like a garment, but He Himself remains un- changeably the same (10275), His Wisdom has manifested itself, above all, in the work of crea- tion (1044), but in other matters too the depth of His thoughts awakens wondering admiration (92° () 13917), His Omniscience extends to every action, however trifling, and every thought of man (139!) —a salutary warning to him; for even the most secret depth of the heart is open to Him (7!) 4472), And when it is said in 139°* that He takes cog- nizance even of the embryo in the womb, and that
* The same idea is certainly present when we read of the fixing of the bounds of the peoples according to the number of
the béné *élohim (Dt 328, reading, with the LXX, ody 132 for the ?N7¥? ‘32 of MT). + Cf. above, p. 670>f.
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the span of life and perhaps also the fortunes of the individual in question are written in His book, this is certainly to be understood not in the sense of a rigid predestination, but only as implying that absolutely nothing can evade the knowledge or thwart the will of God. Similarly, His Omni- presence (1397) is described not (pantheistically) as that of His substance, but of His knowledge and His power, in order to check at the outset all thought of escape from Him. His moral Per- fection comes to view in His horror of sin (5), His Righteousness in His attitude not only to His own people (7? 117 33° etc.) but to heathen nations as well (98). But, naturally, the largest space is occupied in the psalmists’ descriptions by such attributes of God as His Love, by the praise of His inexhaustible Grace and Compassion, His Long- suffering and Truth (86% 103° 368). In His Goodness all His creatures may take comfort (33°) 1458) ; but, above all, He shows Himself ‘the Father of the orphan and the Provider of the widow’ (68°) 146%). It is noteworthy that, apart from this application of the name ‘ Father,’ the idea of the Fatherly love of God, which forms the central point of the NT conception of God, meets us only once more (Ps 103%), and there only in the form of a comparison, not to speak of its being manifestly restricted to Jsrael—another of the evidences that the OT conception of God was capable of enlargement in one very important direction.