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stand first, followed by Proverbs and Job. That this was the ancient order is at least a probable inference from Luke xxiv. 44 where "the Psalms" stands by the side of "the Law" and "the Prophets" as the title of the Hagiographa in general1.

The order of the books of the O.T. in our English Bibles is that which had come to be adopted in the Vulgate by the sixteenth century. It corresponds more nearly to the arrangement of the LXX found in the Vatican MS. than to that of the Hebrew, but differs from it in placing Job before the Psalter instead of after the Song of Songs, and in placing the Minor Prophets after instead of before the Major Prophets, and arranging them as they stand in the Hebrew text.

2. Names of the Psalter. The Septuagint translators employed the word aλμós2, psalm, to render the Heb. word mizmōr, which was the technical term for a song with musical accompaniment (see p. xix). The collection was styled simply Psalms, as in the Vatican MS. (yaλμoi, cp. Luke xxiv. 44), or The Book of Psalms (Luke xx. 42; Acts i. 20), or in later times The Psalter, ψαλτήρ οι ψαλτήριον. The Greek words have come down to us through the Latin psalmus, psalterium.

In the Hebrew Bible the title of the collection is Book of Praises, or simply, Praises: Sepher Tehillim abbreviated into Tillim or Tillin. This title was known to Hippolytus and

1 Comp. too Philo (B. C. 20-A.D. 50) de vita contempl. (ii. 475): νόμους καὶ λόγια θεσπισθέντα διὰ προφητῶν καὶ ὕμνους καὶ τὰ ἄλλα οἷς ἐπιστήμη καὶ εὐσέβεια συναύξονται καὶ τελειοῦνται. "Laws and oracles delivered by prophets and hymns and the other writings by which knowledge and piety are increased and perfected."

2 yaλubs denotes (1) the music of a stringed instrument; (2) a song sung to the accompaniment of such music.

arpio meant originally a stringed instrument, a psaltery (frequently in the LXX), and was afterwards applied to a collection of psalms, a psalter. In this sense it is used by Hippolytus, Athanasius, Epiphanius, and stands as the title of the Psalms in the Alexandrine Ms.

The word is derived from the same root as Hallelujah, and the verb is frequently used in connexion with the Temple Service (1 Chron. xvi. 4 &c.).

5 p. 188, ed. Lagarde. 'Εβραίοι περιέγραψαν τὴν βίβλον Σέφρα θελείμ. The genuineness of the fragment of Hippolytus which treats of the inscriptions, authorship, divisions, and order of the Psalms, is however doubtful. See Dr Salmon in the Dict. of Christian Biography, iii. 103.

Origen1 in the first half of the third century A.D., and to Jerome'. Though the word praise occurs frequently in the Psalter, only one Psalm (cxlv) bears the title A Praise, and the name Book of Praises probably originated in the use of the collection as the hymn-book of the Second Temple3. Many indeed of the Psalms cannot be so designated, but no more fitting name could be found for a book, of which praise and thanksgiving are predominant characteristics, and which ends with a diapason of Hallelujahs.

Another title, apparently that of an early collection of Davidic Psalms, was Tephilloth or Prayers (lxxii. 20). Only five Psalms, xvii, lxxxvi, xc, cii, cxlii, are so entitled; but again, although some Psalms (e.g. i, ii) contain no direct address to God, the title is a suitable one. Prayer in its widest sense includes all elevation of the mind to God". Hannah's thanksgiving and Habakkuk's ode are both described as prayer (1 Sam. ii. 1; Hab. iii. 1).

3. Numbering of the Psalms. The Massoretic Text and the LXX both reckon a total of 150 Psalms. The 151st Psalm, which is added in the LXX, is expressly said to be "outside the number." But this reckoning has not been uniformly

1 In Euseb. Hist. Eccl. vi. 25 (ed. Burton) Epapeλelμ.

* In the Preface to his Psalterium iuxta Hebraeos (p. 2, ed. Lagarde): "titulus ipse Hebraicus sephar tallim, quod interpretatur volumen hymnorum."

Cp. Neh. xii. 46.

The LXX rendering buvo however may point to another reading mban, praises.

"Lege totum Psalterium...nihil erit nisi ad Deum in cunctis operibus deprecatio." S. Jerome contra Pelag. i. 5.

This Psalm appears to have been translated from a Hebrew original, but the contrast between it and the canonical Psalms is so noteworthy that it seems worth while to append a version of it.

"This Psalm was written by David with his own hand (and it is out

side the number) when he fought in single combat with Goliath.

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observed. Some ancient Jewish authorities reckon 149, others 147 Psalms', the latter number, as the Jerusalem Talmud says, "according to the years of our father Jacob." These totals are obtained by uniting one or all of the pairs i, ii: ix, x: cxiv, cxv: or other Psalms. Although the Hebrew and the LXX agree in the total, they differ in the details of the numeration. The LXX unites ix and x, cxiv and cxv, and divides cxvi and cxlvii. It may be useful to subjoin a comparative table, for while our modern English versions follow the Hebrew reckoning, the Vulgate and the older English Versions (e.g. Wycliffe and Coverdale) and modern Roman Catholic versions based upon it, follow that of the LXX.

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Thus for the greater part of the Psalter the numeration of the LXX is one behind that of the Hebrew.

The English reader should also remember that the title of a Psalm, when it consists of more than one or two words, is reckoned as a verse, and sometimes (e.g. in Ps. li) as two verses, in the Hebrew text. Attention to this is necessary in using the

He sent His angel,

and took me from my father's sheep,

and anointed me with the oil of his anointing.

5. My brethren were comely and tall,

6.

and in them the Lord had no pleasure.

I went forth to meet the Philistine,

and he cursed me by his idols.

7. But I drew the sword from his side, and beheaded him, and took away the reproach from the children of Israel."

1 So in a MS. described in Ginsburg's Introduction to the Hebrew

Bible, p. 777. He mentions other unusual numerations of 159 and

170 Psalms, pp. 536, 725.

references of commentaries which, like that of Delitzsch, follow the numbering of the verses in the original.

4. Divisions of the Psalter. The Psalter has from ancient times been divided into five books:

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These divisions are indicated by doxologies of a liturgical character, differing slightly in form, at the close of the first four books (xli. 13, lxxii. 18, 19, lxxxix. 52, cvi. 48). The first three of these doxologies obviously form no part of the Psalms to which they are appended. The fourth however (see note on Ps. cvi. 48) appears to belong to the Psalm, and not to be merely an editor's addition to mark the end of a book. It came however to be regarded (somewhat inappropriately, for Pss. cvi and cvii are closely connected) as marking the division between Books iv and v. No special doxology is added to Ps. cl. It is in itself an appropriate concluding doxology for the whole Psalter.

This five-fold division is earlier than the LXX, which contains the doxologies. It is often referred to by Jewish and Christian authorities, and compared to the five books of the Pentateuch.

Thus the Midrash1 on Ps. i. 1: "Moses gave the Israelites the five books of the Law, and to correspond to these David gave them the Book of Psalms containing five books."

Hippolytus [?] (ed. Lagarde, p. 193): "Let it not escape. your notice...that the Hebrews divided the Psalter also into five books, that it might be a second Pentateuch."

Jerome, in the Prologus Galeatus: "Tertius ordo Hagiographa possidet. Et primus liber incipit a Job. Secundus a

1 An ancient Jewish commentary, probably however in its present form not earlier than the 10th century A.D. But older Jewish authorities recognise the division. See Robertson Smith, Old Test. in Jewish Church, p. 195.

PSALMS

b

David, quem quinque incisionibus (sections) et uno Psalmorum volumine comprehendunt." No doubt he chose this form of expression carefully, for in his preface to the Psalter he somewhat passionately affirms the unity of the Book1.

The division is referred to by most of the Fathers, some of whom, as Ambrose, explain it allegorically; others, as Gregory of Nyssa, find in the several books so many steps rising to moral perfection. As will be shewn presently, the division of the books in part corresponds to older collections out of which the Psalter was formed, in part is purely artificial, and probably had its origin in the wish to compare the Psalter with the Pentateuch.

CHAPTER III.

THE TITLES OF THE PSALMS.

To nearly all the Psalms in the first three Books, and to some of those in the fourth and fifth Books, are prefixed titles, designating either (1) the character of the poem, or (2) matters connected with its musical setting, or (3) its liturgical use, or (4) the author, or perhaps more strictly, the collection from which the Psalm was taken, or (5) the historical occasion for which it was written or which it illustrates. Only 34 Psalms have no title, namely Pss. i, ii, x, xxxiii, xliii, lxxi, xci, xciii-xcvii, xcix, civ-cvii, cxi-cxix, cxxxv-cxxxvii, cxlvi-cl.

Such titles may occur separately or in combination. Many of them are extremely obscure, and their meanings can only be conjectured. All that will be attempted here is to give the most probable explanations. An elaborate discussion of the innumerable interpretations which have been proposed would be mere waste of time. Some special titles which occur but once will be

1 "Scio quosdam putare psalterium in quinque libros esse divisum... nos Hebraeorum auctoritatem secuti et maxime apostolorum, qui semper in novo testamento psalmorum librum nominant, unum volumen adserimus."

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