tin f David; and in l'-a. xoi\. fi the prophet Samuel
is named, which al-o proves that Moms could not he the writer. See Mosi 3.
Jeduthun is sometimes, -without just ground, held to he named a- the author ol l'-a. \x\i\; the ascription there being merely a dedication to the leader of the Levitical orchestra. In the view of others, this, like the superscriptions of I'sa. lxxxviii. lxxxix, "MaschU
PSALMS
•51
PSALMS
of Heman," "Maschil of Ethan," have simply a conven- I —for we shall not here discuss the theories of Hitzig
tional purport— the one psalm having been written, as, iu fact, the rest of its superscription states, by the sons of Korah. the choir of which Heman was the founder ; and the other correspondingly proceeding from the third Levitical choir, which owed its origin to Ethan or Jedu- thun. See Jkduthun.
Many conjectures have been formed respecting other writers, especially of the anonymous psalms. The Sept. seemingly gives, as authors, Jeremiah (Psa. cxxxvii), and Haggai and Zechariah (Psa. cxxxviii). But these conjectures are too uncertain to call for further notice in this place. Hitzig (Comment, iiber die Psalmen) as- cribes to Jeremiah a large number of the elegiac or plaintive psalms.
More particularly, the Psalms may be arranged, ac- cording to the intimations of authorship contained in the titles, as follows :
A. Exclusively Davidic i-xli.
(Only Psa. i, ii, x, xxxiii, are somewhat doubtful.)
B. Exclusively Levitical —
a. Korahites • ■ .xlii-xlix.
b. Asaph I
C. Chiefly Davidic—
a. David li-lxiv.
6. Uncertain lxv-lxvii.
c. David lxviii-lxx.
d. Uncertain lxxi.
e. David (lor Solomou) lxxii.
D. Chiefly Levitical—
a. Asaph . . lxxiii-lxxxm.
b. Korahites lxxxiv-lxxxv.
c. David lxxxvi.
d. Korahites aud Heman lxxxvii, Ixxxviii.
e. Ethan lxxxix.
/.Moses xc.
g. Uncertain xci-c.
h. David ci.
i. Uncertain cii.
j. David . ciii.
k. Uncertain civ-cvii.
1. David cviii-cx.
mi. Uncertain cxi-cxix.
E. " Degrees" —
a. Uncertain cxx-cxxi.
b. David cxxii.
c. Uncertain cxxiii.
d. David cxxiv.
e. Uncertain cxxv, cxxvi.
/. Solomon cxxvii.
g. Uncertain cxxviii-cxxx.
ft. David cxxxi.
i. Uncertain cxxxii.
j. David cxxxiii.
k. Uncertain cxxxiv.
F. Miscellaneous —
a. Uncertain cxxxv-cxxxvii.
6. David cxxxviii-cxlv.
c. Uncertain cxlvi-cl.
VI. Dates and Occasions of the Psalms. — The dates of the Psalms, as must be obvious from what has been stated respecting the authors, are very various, ranging from the time of Moses to that of the captivity — a pe- riod of nearly 1000 years. In the time of king Jehosh- aphat (about B.C. 896) Psa. lxxxiii, setting forth the dangers of the nation, as we read in 2 Chron. xx, 1-25, was composed either by himself, as some suppose, or most likely, according to the title, by Jahaziel, "a Le- vite of the sons of Asaph," who was then an inspired teacher (see ver. 14). In the days of Hezekiah, who was himself a poet (Isa. xxxviii, 9-20), we may date, with great probability, the Korahitic Psalms xlvi and xlviii, which seem to celebrate the deliverance from Sennacherib (2 Kings xix, 35). In the period of the captivity were evidently written such laments as Psa. xliv, lxxix, cii. and cxxxvii ; and after its close, when the captives returned, we must manifestly date Psa. lxxxv and cxxvi.
Some have maintained that several psalms, especially lxxiv, were written even in the days of the Maccabees ; but this is contrary to every probability, for, according to all accounts, the Canon had been closed before that time. See Canon. Moreover, the hypothesis of a Mac- cabcean authorship of any portion of the Psalter can ill be reconciled with the history of the translation of the Septuagint. But the difficulties do not end here. How
and his followers Lengerke and Justus Olshausen, who would represent the greater part of the Psalter as Mac- cabaean — how is it that the psalms which one would most, naturally assign to the Maccab«an period meet us not in the close, but in the middle (i. e. in the second and third books) of the Psalter? The three named by De Wette (Einl. in das A . T. § 270) as bearing appar- ently a Maccabtean impress are Psa. xliv, lx, lxxiv; and, in fact, these, together with Psa. lxxix, are perhaps . all that would, when taken alone, seriously suggest the hypothesis of a Maccabasan date. Whence, then, arise the early places in the Psalter which these occupy? But even in the case of these, the internal evidence, when more narrowly examined, proves to be in favor of an earlier date. In the first place, the superscription of Psa. lx cannot possibly have been invented from the historical books, inasmuch as it disagrees with them in its details. Then the mention by name in that psalm of the Israelitish tribes, and of Moab and Philistia, is unsuited to the Maccabaean epoch. In Psa. xliv the complaint is made that the tree of the nation of Israel was no longer spreading over the territory that God had assigned it. Is it conceivable that a Maccabsean psalmist should have held this language without mak- ing the slightest allusion to the Babylonian captivity, as if the tree's growth were now first seriously impeded by the wild stocks around, notwithstanding that it had once been entirely transplanted, and that, though re- stored to its place, it had been weakly ever since? In Psa. lxxiv it is complained that " there is no more any prophet." Would that be a natural complaint at a time when Jewish prophecy had ceased for more than two centuries? Lastly, in Psa. lxxix, the mention of "kingdoms" in ver. 6 ill suits the Maccabaaan time; while the way in which the psalm is cited by the au- thor of the first book of Maccabees (vii, 16, 17), who omits those words which are foreign to his purpose, is such as would have hardly been adopted in reference to a contemporary composition.