When Iv. 22, cix. 2, and (Bäthgen) the 12th of the Psalms of Solomon. I Marked. Of the Ishmaelites. Unto Yahwè in my distress | I call, and he will answer me. Rescue me from the false lips, from the deceitful tongue.1 Rescue me from the warriors of Ishmael, | from the people of Jerahmeel.o Weary to exhaustion is my soul with a people which hates peace! And as often as I speak for peace | they are bent+ on war. 4 6 7 (Bi.).-2 Critical Notes. 1. Read 7.3 explains. Cp. Mic. i. 5. .—2. Omit ¡7.—The gloss in 3. On vv. 3, 4 Duhm remarks that the expressions are wanting in naturalness. Of course, for they belong to a clever editor.is ישמעאל a corruption of שנונים ; הצילני probably a corrupt fragment of (cp. 1='v, cxli. 5, 2 S. i. 21, Isa. x. 27). (like, 2 S. xxiii. 30) and D'BAD (like DA in 1 K. xix. 4 f., ♫ in Num. xxxiii. הצילני מגבּוֹרִי ישמ' | מעם ירח' Read ירחמאל f.) both represent 18 -The gloss in v. 5 seems to give two explanations of Jerahmeel. The second is the more important, because the 'Kidrai,' or Kedarites, did as a fact become prominent in N. Arabia in the time of Assurbanipal. ,are corruptions עם אהלי note the improbable form) and) אויה לי כי (23 .Gen. x) גתר comes from גרתי ירחמאל editorially manipulated, of M .4- כְּשָׁן comes from שכנות] כְּשִׁים =,as usual משך גְשׁוּר comes from a אני שלום וְכִי אֲדַבֵּר שָׁלוֹם cp. 2. 3). Read) עַם Point = = , very awkward after 7. Read nya (cxxiii. 4). dittographed . J. P. Peters (JBL, 1884, p. 31) is content with reading (cp. G S E), and illustrates the inverted position of both here and in cxxviii. 2 (but see ad loc.) from Delitzsch's Ass. Gram., p. 358. 1 What is Jerahmeel? and what Ishmael? A deceitful tongue (v. 3). 2 Jerahmeel: Geshur, Cusham [Cushan]. Jerahmeel: Kedar (v. 5). HEXAMET PSALM CXXI. EXAMETERS. Israel amidst the mountains of Judah (or perhaps of Jerahmeel) waits expectantly for the messengers of good tidings (Nah. i. 15, Isa. lii. 7). The psalm may have been sung antiphonally. The change of pronoun (my help,' 'thy foot,' &c.) reminds us of the changes in the form of expression in Ps. xci., which indeed is also the nearest parallel to our psalm in its ideas. Smend (AT. Rel.-gesch.(2), 420) says that in Ps. cxxi. despondent and believing Israel are placed in contrast. This arises from his trusting the traditional v. ib. There is obviously no touch of despondency in the .16 . מאין reading המעלות in the title ; elsewhere למעלות Note psalm as presented here. Marked. Of the Ishmaelites. I lift up mine eyes to the mountains; | I am sure that my help is coming. My help is coming from Yahwè, the maker of heaven. and earth. He cannot suffer thy foot to fail, thy Guardian cannot Surely he slumbers not, he sleeps not, who is the Yahwè is thy Guardian, Yahwè | is thy shade on thy right hand; Cusham shall not smite thee by day, nor Jerahmeel by night. Yahwe will guard thee from all evil, he will guard thy soul; Yahwe will guard thy going out and thy coming in both now and for ever. .מאין יבוא עזרי I. M I 3 -7 Critical Notcs. A crux interpretum. 'If the clause contains a question, the Hebrew is of the choicest, but the context does not render this view very probable. If the mountains about Jerusalem symbolize the dwelling-place of Yahwè, the writer could not be uncertain as to whence his help would come. But if we fall back on the view that the clause is a relative one, we cannot acquit our poet of writing in a rather corrupt style' (Giesebrecht, ZATH', 1881, p. 284). אַאֲמִין כִּי Read 6. M, The expression, the moon shall not strike,' is barely ..T possible, but we cannot separate this passage from Isa. xlix. 10, where it is said, 'šarab and sun shall not strike them.' In both passages Hitzig feels obliged to weaken the usual rendering of . But can we venture to say that šarab' strikes'? The differences of the commentators indicate great uncertainty, and if we further take into consideration Ps. xci. 5 f. (see note) and Cant. iii. 8 (see Crit. Bib.), we may be in ירחמאל as lxxii. 5) and) בְּשָׁם in Isa., and צָרְפַת וְכָשָׁם forced to read our psalm. (Or does come from?) The danger from Jerahmeelite aggression in the Persian period is often referred to.-For G gives ekkaúσel σe, as if (Niph. in Isa. xliii. 2, Prov. vi. 28). Herz. PSALM CXXII. PENTAMETERS. Perhaps a song of returned pilgrims; at any rate, wʊ. 1, 2, 6-9 are very suitable on this theory. Vv. 3-5, however, are obscure, and so far as they are translatable, we can hardly say that the contents are suitable. Why should a pilgrim in post-exilic times bethink himself that formerly the tribes went up to Jerusalem, and that there was the chief seat of the administration of justice? Or if, with Wellh., we take the perfects in vv. 4, 5 to be present in sense, and 'tribes' to be an archaism, it is curious that Jerusalem is here extolled, not as the place of worship, but as the seat of judgment, and that the Sanhedrin, the great council of the Jews, not the house of [Yahwè], is declared to be the object of the pilgrimage' (Psalms, SBOT, p. 211), and that the phrase 'house of David' should have become, as in Zech. xii. 10 (?), a name for the government' (Kl. Proph.), p. 199). It is clear, however, that the text of vv. 3-5 is not in order, and, in order to get further, we must use the experience which we have already gained by digging below the surface of the text. Verses 3-5 are most probably a long gloss, which-in its correct form-states that the city referred to in v. 2 had been rebuilt (.e. by the Israelites) in the Negeb, that the tribes (of Israel) in the Negeb used to go up' thither on the festivals of Yahwè, and that there was the seat of judgment of the ruling Davidic house. The name of the city (to be read so, both in the psalm and in the gloss) was Ishmael. This is a very frequent synonym for Jerahmeel, and refers to a city (Beth- or Gibeath-jerahmeel) where there was a noted sanctuary and where the kings of Israel frequently dwelt (cp. on 1 S. x. 5; 2 S. xv. 11, xxiv. 8). The prophets, both before and after the Exile,' were unfavourable to the cultus here practised (see Crit. Bib., part ii. passim), which was devoted partly to Yahwè, partly to the Jerahmeelite god, but there is nothing rash (having regard to Ezek. xl. 1 f., xlvii. 13, cp. Isa. xix. 18, and see Crit. Bib.) in supposing that psalms and other writings were brought to Jerusalem from such a famous centre as Beth-jerahmeel or Beth-ishmael. Ps. cxxii. can scarcely be the only psalm in the Psalter which, in its original form, was a psalm of Beth-jerahmeel, but it is that which can with most probability be indicated as such, and next to it stand Pss. cxxv. and cxxxiii., cxxxiv. in their earlier forms. Under the hand of the redactor, both the original psalm and the explanatory gloss sustained a few important alterations. Ishmael' of course became Jerusalem (the two names are often confounded, but here probably the alteration was deliberate), and the gloss-already corrupt in parts-was adapted to the use of orthodox adherents of the Jerusalem temple. How the redactor interpreted the second half of v. 3, it is impossible for any one to say. The glossator was of course wrong (as the author of Prov. xxv. I was wrong) if he meant to stamp the work before him as pre-exilic. There is nothing in style or ideas to distinguish our psalm from those which accompany it. The large gloss in vv. 3-5 is parallel to that in Ps. cxxxiii. Even apart from this, the two psalms-cxxii. and cxxxiii.- may fitly be grouped together, as eulogies of the sacred metropolis. Marked. Of the Ishmaelites. Of Arab-ethan. 1 I rejoiced when they said to me, 'Let us go to the house of Yahwè.' Our feet stood in the gates of Ishmael.1 Pray for the peace of Ishmael, | let those who love her pray for it! 6 Peace be within thy castles, | prosperity within thy towers! 7 For the sake of my brethren and neighbours | let me be zealous for peace within thee! 8 For the sake of the house of Yahwè our God I would seek happiness for thee. Critical Notes. I. MD; Géni тois cipηxóσi μoi. Del., Bä. &c. see here a prelude of a Mishnic usage; cp. 7), when one sows,' Mishna, Pea ii. 6 (Kön. § 412a). But ought we to import a Mishnic т: т .-2. ,.Bi) בְּשַׁעֲרֵי Read usage on the ground of a '? Read Du.; metre), and continue by (cp. Crit. Bib. on Zech. xii. 11, xiv. 14). In the gloss (vv. 3−5), besides the initial correction (cp. introd.), for (רחב) חבר Both .בְּאֶרֶץ ירחמאלים read כעיר שחברה לה יחדו and 1 (cp. on lxxxiii. 6) are regular corruptions of . The text-reading has never yet been shown to be intelligible ('very peculiar,' Israel established (partly) in Jerahmeel (i.e. the Negeb); cp. Crit. Bib. i.e. the tribes of,ש' ירחמאל read שבטי יה says Olshausen). For ; עֲדַת ישר' read עדות לישראל For .(עם האלהים) 2 .on Judg. xx cp. Crit. Bit. on) בישמעאל read שָׁמָּה is dittographic. For ליש' in ל Ezek. xlviii., 35); 1 also (like elsewhere; cp. the place-names w and D) represents 'D. Grimme's emendations and interpretations (p. 113 f.) are most unsatisfactory. for 17′ might pass, but 'O du Stadt, mit welcher Juda so eng verkettet ist,' for '")27, is surely not a good specimen of this scholar's exegesis. T\: אֹהָלַיִךְ If this is right, we must read the next word .יִשְׁלָיוּ M .3 (cp. Job xii. 6); so Ew., Du. in the next verse. Read characteristic (cp. Isa. lxvi. But the dwellings are doubly represented The phrase 'those who love her' is 10). Read - Ma ; 1 Ishmael that is built in the land of the Jerahmeelites, whither the tribes went up-the tribes of Jerahmeel, the congregation of Israel-to give thanks to the name of Yahwè. For in Ishmael were the thrones for judgment, the thrones of David's house (vv. 3-5). Bä., 'before thy wall.' But parallelism is opposed. Following the parallels of xlviii. 14, Zech. ix. 4 read 25. N. "To speak peace on some one .—5. M speak that he gets peace, as means so to lxxxvii. 3 is corrupt. Read lxxxvii. 3' (Du.). Is this satisfactory? .אדרשה perhaps T:T PE PSALM CXXIII. ENTAMETERS. A psalm of complaint, to be grouped with cxx. A transposition is necessary both for the sense and for the poetical structure. Marked. Of the Ishmaelites. I 1 To thee lift I up mine eyes, | O thou that art throned in heaven! Have pity on us, O Yahwè! have pity on us, for too much are we filled with contempt. Too much is our soul filled with the mockery of the proud.1 Surely as the eyes of servants | +are fixed+ on their master, As the eyes of a handmaid+are fixed+ on her mistress, So our eyes are fixed on Yahwè our God, | until he have pity on us. Critical Notes. 3. Read ay. In the gloss 4 (like the proper (.so Kt) לגאייונים ישמעאל - איזבל comes from (בען and בוז names comes from □ ay? ; 1=1'='17" (cp. Crit. Bib. T: on Gen. x. 2). PSALM CXXIV. PENTAMETERS. Israel's miraculous escape. The N. Arabians must have made some determined effort to annihilate Israel. This fresh, bright lyric may be grouped with Ps. cxxix. Marked. Of the Ishmaelites. Of Arab-ethan. I 'If Yahwe had not been for us,' | let Israel say, 'If Yahwe had not been for us, | when Aram rose up against us, 1 Ishmael. The mockery of the Jerahmeelites. I |