Ps.lxxxi also would rather seem to have been written in Samuel's time than after the Captivity. There is no reference whatever to the Temple or to Babylon, to Judah or Mount Zion. The expressions in v.4,8,11,13, indicate a time when all Israel was regarded as one people; and v.5, 'This He ordained in Joseph for a testimony, when he went out of the land of Egypt,' could hardly have been written after the Captivity, though it might well have come from the hand of Samuel himself, in an age when this powerful tribe might be taken to represent the whole people, before the tribe of Judah attained the supremacy. So the enemies in v.13,14,15, seem to be the Philistines or Canaanites: and the references to the Exodus in v.5,6,7, are just such as we might expect the Elohist to make. Ps.lxxxii contains no indication of time whatever.

ance.

Ps. lxxxiii, however, must have been written at a time, v.8, when the Assyrian empire was still existing. It is generally supposed to refer to the great confederacy against Jehoshaphat, of which we have an account in 2Ch.xx, on which occasion, we are told, ‘Jahaziel, a Levite, of the sons of Asaph,' prophesied a great deliverThe prominent part, which Jahaziel took in this matter, may throw some light upon the circumstance that this Psalm is found among the Asaph collection. Jehoshaphat came to the throne about a hundred years after the death of David. If, therefore, the above view be correct, it would seem that, even in this age, an Elohistic Psalm such as this could be written. It is not, however, so decidedly Elohistic as those of Book II; nor would it be safe to rely upon this single instance, as an indication of the general character of the Psalms of that age. Besides which, it is impossible not to perceive that there is a strong resemblance between this Psalm and those written at the time of the strong confederacy against Israel in David's time, to which Ps.xliv, Ps.lx, and Ps.lxxx appear to refer. Of the eight confederate nations named in this Psalm, five are actually named in 2S.viii.12, viz. Edom, Moab, Ammon, Amalek, and the Philistines; another, Assur, may very probably express the Syrians beyond the river (Euphrates),' 2S.x.16, whom Hadarezer summoned to his help. Gebal, perhaps, denotes the Giblites, living to the north of Palestine, whom we find hewing stones for Solomon's Temple, 1K.v.18, (E.V. 'stone-squarers'), and who may have been drawn into the great Syrian league. MAUNDRELL writes, Travels from Aleppo to Jerusalem, ch.iv,—‘This (Byblus) was, probably, the city of the Giblites, Jo.xiii.5, whom king Hiram made use of in preparing materials for Solomon's Temple, as appears from 1K.v.18, where the word rendered 'stonesquarers' is in the Heb. 'Giblim' or 'Giblites,' and in the LXX Bißλio, or men of Byblus:' so in Ez.xxvii.9, our translation has 'the ancients of Gebal,' and the LXX 'the elders of Byblus.'' The only difficulty, in fact, is to explain how the 'inhabitants of Tyre' could be engaged in opposition to David, when Hiram, king of Tyre, had already sent friendly messengers to him, 2S.v.11, and, it is said, 'was ever a lover of David.' 1K.v.1. But Tyre was at that time an inconsiderable city, and the king of Tyre may have been one of the kings that were servants to Hadarezer,' 28.x.19, and may have been obliged to send his forces to aid his suzerain, however much against his will. All these kings,' it is said, after Hadarezer's utter defeat, 'made peace with Israel, and served them.'

435. As some of the above are private Psalms, written, it would seem, by some royal personage, and written certainly at a very different age from others of this collection, which refer to the Captivity, it would rather appear that this set is called 'The Psalms of Asaph,' because the collection belonged to the Asaph family, though some of them may have been written by their ancestor in the days of David or Samuel.

We find here, however, in this Asaph collection, some very late Psalms, in which the same occurs as in those Psalms of David which we have just been considering,-viz. a preponderance of the name Elohim, though not in the same degree.

436. This accords also with the fact that, in the book of Ezra we have Elohim 97 times, Jehovah 37 times, and in that of Nehemiah, Elohim 74 times, Jehovah 17 times, contrary to all the data of the other historical books. It is quite possible that some of these later Elohistic Psalms may be Ezra's. It would almost seem as if, after their long sojourn as captives in a strange land, when Israel no longer existed as a nation, they had begun to discontinue the use of the national Name for the Divine Being. However, if so, it must have soon been revived after their return from the Captivity, since we find the later Prophets using the word freely again,-Haggai (J.35, E.3), Zechariah (J.132, E.12), Malachi (J.47, E.8). At a still later date, superstitious scruples prevailed so far, as to prevent the name Jehovah from being used at all. It is not found in the whole book of Ecclesiastes, and only in one chapter of Daniel, chap.ix. In the book of Enoch, composed (according to Archbishop LAWRENCE, p.xliv, note) about 30.B.C., we find the names of the six archangels, chap.xx, Uriel, Raphael, Raguel, Michael, Sarakiel, Gabriel, and a multitude of other names compounded with EL, but not one with Jehovah.

437. There is no reason to suppose that any of these Psalms, or any others in the whole book of Psalms, are later than the time of Nehemiah, who probably first edited them in their

present form, in accordance with the statement in 2Macc.ii.13, that he, founding a library, gathered together the acts of the Kings, and of the Prophets, and of David, &c.'

The later Psalms, which are mostly liturgical, are chiefly found in the last half of the collection, while, of the seventythree ascribed to David, fifty-five are found in the first half. There can be no doubt that the whole collection was formed gradually, Book I having been first formed, and then Book II, &c. This appears from the circumstance that there is some attempt at orderly arrangement in them, (e.g. all the Psalms of Asaph' except one, Ps. 1, are placed together), and yet no regular system of arrangement is carried out, either with regard to the supposed author, or the subject-matter of the Psalms, (e.g. 'Psalms of David' may be found scattered about in all the books).

438. At the end of Book II we find, 'The Psalms of David, the son of Jesse, are ended,' Ps.lxxii.28, which, as BLEEK justly observes, could not have been appended by the editor of the whole collection, since several Psalms of David' are inserted afterwards, nor scarcely by the compiler of the first two books, since seventeen of the Psalms contained in them are not ascribed to David. Rather, these words seem to have been written by the person, who began the collection of Book III by annexing the eleven Psalms of Asaph, to which, subsequently, the other six Psalms of Book III were added, including one of David's. He, probably, meant to draw a line of distinction between the foregoing Psalms, which, looking at them as a whole, he regarded as David's, and the Asaph collection, which he was now appending.

It is remarkable that not one of the Psalms is ascribed to one of the great Prophets, as Samuel, Isaiah, or Jeremiah, the latter of whom must surely have written many in his time.

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CHAPTER XVIII.

THE JEHOVISTIC PSALMS CONSIDERED.

439. WE have seen that all the Psalms in Book II, together with the eleven Psalms of Asaph in Book III, are decidedly Elohistic. All the remaining Psalms appear to be Jehovistic with one single exception, Ps.cviii (E.6,J.1). But this is evidently compounded of parts of the two Elohistic Psalms, lvii and lx, with one or two slight variations, the most noticeable being that Adonai, in Ps.lvii.9, is changed to Jehovah in Ps.cviii.3, that is, in the later edition, since, of course, the two complete Psalms existed before, probably long before, the composite Psalm was constructed.

440. Of the Jehovistic Psalms, fifty-five are ascribed to David; and it will be found that in these the name Jehovah occurs four times to Elohim once, while in twenty of them Elohim does not occur at all.

Now, as already observed, it is incredible, according to the ordinary laws of the human mind, that David should, in the very same part of his life, have written a number of Psalms with Elohim occurring on the average six times to Jehovah once, in several of which Jehovah does not occur at all, and another number of Psalms, in which Jehovah occurs on the average four times to Elohim once, and in many of which Elohim does not occur at all. Even allowing that in either set there may be many Psalms, which have been incorrectly ascribed to David, the argument holds good with regard to the remainder. As we

have certainly some of David's Psalms, written in the earlier and middle parts of his life, which are Elohistic, we may reasonably conclude that, if any of these Jehovistic Psalms really belong to him, they can only have been written in the last part of his life, when, according to our view, the word had become more familiar to himself, and better known to the people.

441. Accordingly, as far as we can depend upon the Titles, supported by the consideration of the contents, we find this to be the case. The following four Psalms are ascribed by their Titles to the latter part of David's life.

(i) Ps.iii (J.6,E. 2) when David fled from Absalom,' in the sixty-third year of his life. HENGSTENBERG, however, agrees with LUTHER in considering, that, from the artificial construction of this Psalm, it must have been written at even a later date than the event to which it is supposed to refer. It speaks in v.4 of 'Jehovah's holy hill,' which points either to the Tabernacle or the Temple on Mount Zion, and, therefore, does not fix the Psalm to David's time.

(ii) Ps.vii (J.8,E.6), 'concerning the words of Cush the Benjamite,' whom LUTHER and others identify with Shimei, the son of Gera, the Benjamite, who insulted David on the same occasion, 2S.xvi.7,8, and whom David charged his son Solomon not to hold guiltless,' but to 'bring down his hoar hair to the grave with blood,' 1K.ii.8,9. HENGSTENBERG, while he agrees with LUTHER, and with most Jewish expositors, in regarding the word Cush as being not a proper name, but an epithet, 'Ethiopian,' used metaphorically of a 'man of a black heart,' understands it, however, of some unknown calumniator of David in the time of Saul. And he supports his view by a 'special reason' of astonishing cogency. The symbolical name for David's persecutor, Cush, vi, is a play upon the name of Saul's father, Kish, p! There is nothing in the Psalm itself to decide the question.

(iii) Ps.xviii (J.16,E.11), when David was delivered from all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.'

The last words of this title might seem to point to an earlier period, when he had only been recently delivered from Saul's hand.

I copy, however, on this point the following note of HENGSTENBERG:

'We are told in the superscription that David sang this Psalm, after that Jehovah had delivered him from all his enemies. The Psalm is thus designated, not as having arisen from some special occasion, but as a general song of praise, for all the grace and the assistance, which he had received from God all his life long, as a collection of the thanksgivings which David had uttered from time to time on particular occasions,—a great Hallelujah, with which he retired from the theatre of life. In 2S.xxii this Psalm is expressly connected with the end of David's life, imme