THE
PULPIT COMMENTARY, EDITED BY THE
VERY REV. H. D. M. SPENCE, D.D., DEAN OF GLOUCESTER;
AND BY THE
REV. JOSEPH S. EXELL, M.A.
WITH
INTRODUCTIONS BY THE
VERY REV. F. W. FARRAR, D.D., F.R.S., DEAN OF CAl.~TERBURY. RIGHT REV. H. COTTERILL, D.D., F.R.S.E. VERY REV. PRINCIPAL J. TULLOCH, D.D. REV. CANON G. RAWLINSON, M.A. REV. A. PLUMMER, M.A., D.D.
NEW EDITION.
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMP.A.NY LONDON AND NEW YORK 1907 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCL&S.
(Tiu rigltt, lj tnuislati1»1 a,ul of reprlkluet11»1 are r-llnTJtd,) THE
PULPIT BDJTED BT TB1I
VERY REV. H. D. M. SPENCE, D.D., l>BAll 01' GLOUOUl'BB,
.llm BT Tm!
REV. JOSEPH S. EXELL, M.A.
PSALMS. @xposftfon BY REV. G. RAWLINSON, M.A.., 0.6.liON 01' OANTEBBUBY,
1tlomfletfcs BY REV. E. R. CONDER, D.D.
~om(l{es b11 1:7atfous ~utbors. REV, O. OLEMANCE, D.D. REV. W. FORSYTH, D.D. REV. O. SHORT, D.D.
VOL. L NEW EDITION.
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY LONDON AND NEW YORK 1907 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
INTRODUCTION.
§ t. TITLES OF THE WORK, A.ND GENERAL CIIA.RACTER, THE usual Hebrew title of the work is Tehillim (c 1~nn), or Sepher Tehillim (01~;,n i;ic); literally, "Praises," or "Book of Praises "-a title which expresses well the general character of the pieces whereof the book is composed, but which cannot be said to be universally applicable to them. Another Hebrew title, and one which has crept into the text itself, is Tephilloth (n\~Eln), "Prayers," which is given at the close of the second section of the work (Ps. lxxii. 20), as a general designation of the pieces contained in the first and second sections. The same word appears, in the. singular, as the special heading of the seventeenth, eighty-sixth, ninetieth, hundred and second, and hundred and forty-second psalms. But, like Tehillim, this term is only applicable, in strictness, to a certain number of the compositions which the work contains. Conjointly, however, the two terms, which come to us with the greatest amount of authority, are fairly descriptive of the general character of the work, which is at once highly devotional and specially intended to set forth the praises of God. It is manifest, on the face of it, that the work is a collection. A number of separate poems, the production of different persoos,1 and belonging to different periods, have been brought together, either by a single editor, or perhaps by several distinct editors, and have been united into a volume, which has been accepted by the Jewish, and, lat~r on, by the Christian, Church, as one of the "books" of Holy Scripture. The poems seem 01·iginally to have been, for the most part, quite separate and distinct; each is a whole in itself; and most of them appear to have been composed for a special object, and on a speoial occasion, Occasionally, but very seldom, one psalm seems linked on to another; and in a few instances 1 Bee the titles of Pss. iii., xiii., lxxii., lx:i:iii., lxxxviii., luxix., xo., in the Hebrew,
o.nd of Pas. ouxvi., o:u:xvii., oxlv.-oxlviii., in the Septuagint, PSALMS. II INTRODUC'rION TO
there are groups of psalms intentionally attached together, a.s the group from Ps. lxxiii. t.o h:xxiii., ascribed to Asa.ph, and, again, the" Hallelujah" group-from Ps. cxlvi. to cl. But generally no connection is apparent, and the sequence seems, so to speak, accidental. Our own title of the work-" Psalms," "The Psalm~," "The Book of Psalms" 1-has come to us, th1ough the Vulgate, from the Septuagint. '¥aAJLos meant, in the Alexandrian Greek, "a poem to bo sung to a stringed instrument;" 1 and as the poems of the Psalter were thus sung in the Jewish worship, the name '¥0.AJLo{ appeared appropriate. It is not, however, a translation of either Tehillim or Tephilloth, and it has tho disadvantage of dropping altogether the spiritual character of the compositions. As, however, it was applied to them, certainly by St. Luke (xx. 42; Acts i. 20) and St. Paul (Acts xiii. 33), and possibly by our Lord 8 (Luke xxiv. 44), we may rest content with the appellation. It is, at any rate, one which is equally applicable to all the pieces whereof the" book" is composed.
§ 2. DIVISIONS OF THE ·wORK, AND PROBABLE GRADUAL FORMATION OF THE COLLECTION.
A Hebrew tradition divided the Psalter into five books. The Midrash or comment on the first verse of Ps. i. says, "Moses gave to the Israelites the five books of the Law, and as a counterpart to these, David gave them the Psalms, which consist of five books." Hippolytus, a Christian Father of the third century, confirms the statement in these words, which are quoted and accepted by Epipha.nius,' TovTO 0"£ JL~ 7ra.pl>..0or., © <l>w\oAoy£, on Kol To Wa.ATTjpwv £1, 7r£VT£ Ot£'iAov /Jif3>..{a. o, 'E/Jpa.'ioi, wuT£ £lvat Kal a1h?i lliov r.£VTaT£Vxov: i.e. "Be sure, too, that this does not escape you, 0 studious one, that the Hebrews divided the Psalter also into five books, so that that likewise was another Pentateuch." A modern writer, accepting this view, observes, "The Psalter is also a Pentateuch, the echo of the Mosaic Pe:nta- teuch from the heart of Israel; it is the fivefold book of the congregation to Jeho"\"ah, as the Law is the fivefold book of Jehovah to the congre- gation." 6 The "bo.,ks " are severally terminated by a doxology, not exactly the same in eYery instance, but of a similar character, which in no case forms any part of the psalm whereto it i8 attached, but is simply a mark ot division (see Pss. xli. 13; lxxii. 18, 19; lxxxix. 52; cvi. 48). The books are of irregular length. The first book contains forty-one psalms; the 1 '· Psclms" is the title in the list prefixed to the Authorized Version of the Old
Testawent; "The Psalms" is the title given in the Sixth Article; "The Book of Psalms" appears as the heading to the collection itself io the Authorized Version. In the Prayer- bo,,k colltclioo, on the other hand, the title given is "Tile Paalme of D.i.vid," whioh is misleading. • See Liddell and Scott's • Lexicon,' sub i,oce. • It is still disputed whether the language used by our Lord ordin11rily was Aramaic or Greek. • 'De Mens. et Pond.,' c. 6. • Delltzsch. TUE BOOK OF PSALMS. iii