THE

BOOK OF PSALMS.

A NEW TRANSLATION,

WITH

NOTES, EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL.

BY

WILLIAM WALFORD,

LATE CLASSICAL AND HEBREW TUTOR IN THE ACADEMY

AT HOMERTON.

"Librum hunc non abs re vocare soleo avaτoμny omnium animæ partium: quando
nullum in se affectum quisquam reperiet, cujus in hoc speculo non reluceat imago.
Imo omnes hic dolores, tristitias, metus, dubitationes, spes, curas, anxietates, turbu-
lentos denique motus, quibus jactari solent humanæ mentes, Spiritus Sanctus ad
vivum repræsentavit."-CALVIN, Prol. in Psal.

LONDON:

JACKSON AND WALFORD, 18, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD.

M DCCC XXXVII.

LONDON:

R. CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD-STREET-HILL.

PREFAC E.

So many translations of the Book of Psalms have been presented to the public within the last fifty years, that it becomes indispensable for one who attempts to add to the number, to assign the reasons which have induced him to undertake what may appear to be a needless and superfluous labour.

I may, I hope, without presumption observe, that this book has been an object of my attentive consideration for many years, and that I have sincerely endeavoured to discover the true sense of these sacred and interesting compositions. My first object was to explain them for my own satisfaction, and for the purposes of private improvement. A conviction of the obvious truth, that nothing which is not clearly understood can be conducive to edification, was deeply felt at an early period of my life, when I was in possession but of few and inadequate means for the attainment of clear conceptions respecting this most attractive part of the Old Testament writings. I know not what may be the feelings of other readers of the Psalms, but I am constrained to own, that many parts of them long appeared to me to be extremely obscure, and that my efforts to remove this obscurity, by a frequent perusal of the common version, assisted by such helps as I could command, left me still in great uncertainty, not only in relation to many individual passages, but also respecting