Psalms of Solomon

Historical printed page 648

THE PSALMS OF SOLOMON 17. 3-16 For the might of our God is for ever with mercy, 4 And the kingdom of our God is for ever over the nations in judgement. 5 (4) Thou, O Lord, didst choose David (to be) king over Israel, And swaredst to him touching his seed that never should his kingdom fail before Thee. 6 (5) But, for our sins, sinners rose up against us; They assailed us and thrust us out ; What Thou hadst not promised to them, they took away (from us) with violence. 7 They in no wise glorified Thy honourable name ; (6) They set a (worldly) monarchy in place of (that which was) their excellency ; 8 They laid waste the throne of David in tumultuous arrogance. (7) But Thou, O God, didst cast them down, and remove their seed from the earth, 9 In that there rose up against them a man that was alien to our race. το (8) According to their sins didst Thou recompense them, O God; So that it befell them according to their deeds. 11 (9) God showed them no pity ; He sought out their seed and let not one of them go free. 12 (ro) Faithful is the Lord in all His judgements Which He doeth upon the earth. 13 (11) The lawless one laid waste our land so that none inhabited it, They destroyed young and old and their children together. 14 (12) In the heat of His anger He sent them away even unto the west, And (He exposed) the rulers of the land unsparingly to derision. 15 (13) Being an alien the enemy acted proudly, And his heart was alien from our God. 16 (14) And all . . . Jerusalem, As also the nations . . 6. sinners. Jews, not foreigners (cp. v.9). The Hasmonaeans are probably intended ; the first pers. plur. then refers to the Pharisees, or (Ryle and James) the priests. Frankenberg explains the verse of the Babylonian assault on Jerusalem, &c., treating ‘us’ as equivalent to ‘our fathers ’. What... tothem. &‘towhom’. ® (ond + +.» WS) would admit of either rendering. The allusion appears to be to the assumption of the royal dignity by the non-Davidic Aristobulus I and later Hasmonaeans, and of the high-priestly dignity by these same persons, though they did not belong to the high-priestly lines. 7. in no wise glorified. Lit. ‘they glorified not with (ἐν) glory’; for the construction representing probably the Hebrew infin. abs., cp. i. 8. In spite of the punctuation of the Greek MSS., ‘in glory’ is better taken with v. 7 (so clearly 3) than with v. 74. 7 6. They preferred to use the title, and enjoy the position, of kings, than to recognize the sovereignty of God which was the true ‘excellency’ of the Jews. But this meaning is by no means certain; assuming that ἀντί may = 2 or 12, others render ‘they set up a monarchy’, i.e. made themselves kings, ‘in their pride.’ 8 6-12. In vv. ὃ ὁ, loa, 11a, the verbs in Greek are in the future tense ; they represent Hebrew imperfects referring to the past. 8. in tumultuous arrogance. So H and perhaps 33. RJ L (cp. 3) ‘in pride of price’, which seems senseless. 84. from the earth, or, /N being ambiguous, ‘from the land’ (cp. v. 30), a specific allusion to Pompey’s carrying captive to Rome Aristobulus and his children (see v. 14, note). - 9. a man that was alien. Pompey. 1o. Sothat. 38: ‘And’. 11. Obviously through dittography, there stand in J L H at the beginning of this verse, as well as at the end of v. 10, the words ‘according to their deeds’. In SR the words are absent from v. 11. The verbs throughout the verse are in 96 2nd pers. sing. imperative (or imperfect with imperative force). In H the negative in τ΄ 11 @ has been lost. 13. The lawless one. So RJ LS; H ‘the tempest’. The sing. (ct. v. 20) throughout vv. 13-16 ‘except in 13 δ) is used collectively of the enemy (cp. v. 15) or specifically of their leader (Pompey). Whether the change to the plur. (of the enemies distributively) in τ". 13 ὁ (3 and all MSS. of &) is original may be doubted. 14. the heat of His anger. & ‘the wrath of His beauty’; 3 ‘the beauty of His wrath’. An original Ἰδὲ, or (Ryle and James) Y5N, was probably misread 5’. The pronouns probably refer to God. unto the west. Pompey carried Aristobulus and his children captive to Rome (Jos. “127. xiv. 4. 5, 5. 4, 6. 13 BL: 7575, Ss. 6}. 15. Being an alien, ἐν ἀλλοτριότητι perhaps = "1323, which might be an error for 7322 ‘like an alien’. acted proudly. Cp. Ps. xxxi. 24 (23). And his heart, or, rather, ‘seeing that his heart’, if, as Ryle and James suggest, v. 15 ὁ is not a simple parallel to 15 a, but an explanation that proud doing was due to the excusable ignorance (in a foreigner) of the true God. 16. Very uncertain. According to the text of & the verse continues the description of what the enemy did (ἐποίησεν) in Jerusalem : ‘ all things whatsoever he did in Jerusalem, (he did) as also the nations (do).’ According to 3 it rather opens the description continued in v. 17 of the evil conduct of the Jews : ‘And every thing did Jerusalem, as also the peoples do 648 Al Aa. χοτβηνδιν. τος νος, συν Se =