common life also, and served the purposes of wine and love. (Amos vi. 5.) But only a few specimens of the amatory poetry have come down to us. § 263. LYRIC LITERATURE. As prophecy was divorced from the living speech by means of the increasing use of writing, and was artificially expressed in books, so, likewise, there are many lyrical productions which had not their origin in living song, and which never were actually sung. In this class must be reckoned the greater part of the Psalms, for they contain prayers, lamentations, contemplations, and the like, and belong to didactic poetry. The free use of the chinnor seems in general to have been lost among the people at a subsequent date. § 264. DIDACTIC POETRY. Among all nations, common sense, wit, and practical wisdom, first express themselves in proverbs." The Hebrew parallelism is its natural form. The Proverb and the Ode were originally distinguished only as Discourse and Song. (Compare Judg. xv. 16, with 1 Sam. xviii. 6.) As the ode was winged by instrumental music, and b See the parallels among the Arabs, Persians, and Greeks, collected in Ziegler, Uebers d. Denksprache Salomos, p. 1, sqq. Rhode, De vet. Poetarum Sapientia gnomica, Hebræorum imprimis Græcorum; Havniæ, 1800, 8vo. thus attained a higher development, so, by the conversation of sages, and by the use of writing, the proverb increased, and became a didactic discourse, or didactic poem. Subsequently it became again the companion of lyric poetry, now expressed in writing. The wisdom of proverbs found its master in Solomon.* "And Jehovah gave Solomon wisdom," and "he spake three thousand proverbs, and his songs were a thousand and five." (1 Kings v. 12, iv. 32.) Proverbs found a genial home at his court. So long as the religious spirit of devotion animated them, they preserved their peculiar beauty; but this was destroyed by the spirit of skepticism, which, however, never passed into philosophy. Afterwards it threw out a vigorous shoot in the proverbs of Jesus the Son of Sirach. § 265. CLASSIFICATION OF THE POETIC BOOKS. The most purely lyrical productions, such as hymns, odes, and prayers, are found in the Psalms. But many of these belong to the class of lyrical elegies. The Lamentations of Jeremiah must be reckoned with these. The Song of Solomon is of the amatory idyllic character. The book of Psalms contains also didactic and gnomological passages. The religious doctrine of retribution • The conduct of the book of Job justifies this assumption. (Comp. Prov. xxv. 1.) Perhaps the prophet-schools had an influence in producing this effect. See Nachtigall, on Samuel's company of singers, in Henke's Magazin, vol. vi., and in Nachtigall's Koheleth, p. 25, sqq. Ewald (Poet. Büch. A. T. vol. i. p. 34, sq.) thinks Solomon was the author thereof, for proverbs do not occur before his time. But this is doubtful. is the most fully developed in Job; that of morals, in Proverbs. The book of Ecclesiastes stands midway between the two, but it is the product of uninspired reflection." § 266. RHYTHMICAL PECULIARITIES. The rhythm of lyric poetry is less periodic, and more bold and easy in its movement, than the prophetic. A peculiar limitation of the verse appears in the Songs of Degrees, as they are called." In the Proverbs, the symmetry of numbers is almost always simple, rigid, and The Lamentations have this peculiarity, that the symmetry, which is merely rhythmical, and not logical, is, in part, regularly formed and uniform. Ecclesiastes is almost entirely prosaic." exact. a Ewald (1. c. p. 38, sqq.) treats of a dramatic poetry of the Hebrews. But there is only a distant approach to it in the alternate songs of Solomon's Song, and speeches in Job, and in the sort of dialogue in Hos. vi. and Mic. vi. . See Gesenius, in A. L. Z. for 1813, No. 205. De Wette, in Bib. Repos. 1. c. For other opinions on these names, see Rosenmüller, Proleg. in Psalm. Bertholdt (p. 1932) on the strophes. See above, § 134. The musical execution of the Psalms lies in great obscurity, but it is probable they were merely cantillated. Bertholdt compares it to the sacred song of the primitive Christians. The favorite opinion of choruses in the Psalms, which Bertholdt favors, can neither be proved to exist from the rhythm nor from exegesis, except, perhaps, in Ps. cxxxvi. See Lowth, Prælect. xxii. p. 453, and De Wette, 1. c. CHAPTER I. THE PSALMS." § 267. THE TITLE, CONTENTS, AND DIVISION, OF THE BOOK. • Psalmorum LL. V. ad Ebr. Veritatem versi et familiari Explanat. elucidati per Aretium Felinum (Mart. Bucerum ;) Arg. 1526, fol., 1529, 4to., and under the author's real name. M. Ant. Flaminii in Libr. Pss. brevis Explanatio; Ven. 1548. Recudi curavit S. Th. Wald; Hal. 1785. Fr. Vatabli Annotatt. in Pss. (in Bibl. R. Stephan.; Par. 1557, fol.) subjunctis H. Grotii Notis, quibus Observatt. adspersit G. J. L. Vogel; Hal. 1767. Libri Psalmorum Paraph. Lat., quæ Oratione soluta breviter exponit Sententias singulorum, ex opt. Interpretum vet. et recent. Rationibus. Addita sunt Argumenta singulorum Pss., et redduntur Rationes Paraphraseos, adspersis alicubi cert. Locorum Explanatiunculis. Excepta omnia e scholis Esromi Rudingeri in Ludo litter. Fratrum Boëm. Evanzizi in Moravis; Gorl. 1580, 1581, 4to. Anton. Agellii Comment. in Psalmos; Par. 1611, fol. Mos. Amyraldi, Paraphrasis in Pss. Davidis una cum Annotatt. et Argg.; Salmur. 1662, ed. 2; Traj. ad Rh. 1769, 4to. Mart. Geieri Comm. in Pss. Dav.; Dresd. 1668, 2 vols. 4to., 1709, fol. J. Chr. Döderlein, Scholia in Librr. V. T. poeticos, Job., Pss. et tres Salom.; Hal. 1779, 4to. Philol. Clavis über das A. T. Die Psalmen. Von H. E. G. Paulus ; Jen. 1791, 2 Ausg. Heidelb. 1815. Psalmi ex Rec. Textus Hebr. et Verss. antt. Latine versi Notisque crit. et philol. illustrati (a N. M. Berlin ;) Ups. 1805. Commentar über die Psalmen von W. M. L. de Wette: Heidelb. 1811, 4th ed. 1836. J. B. Köhler, Krit. Anmerkk. üb. d. Pss., in Eichhorn's Rep. vol. iii. p. 1, sqq., vol. iv. p. 96, sqq., vol. v. p. 1, sqq., vol. vi. p. 1, sqq., vol. vii. p. 240, sqq., vol. viii. p. 227, sqq., vol. ix. p. 47, sqq., vol. x. p. 110, sqq., vol. xiii. p. 95, sqq., vol. xviii. p. 95, sqq., p. 117, sqq. we have a collection of miscellaneous, though for the most part religious, odes and poems. They are one hundred and fifty in number." Th. F. Stange, Anticritica in Locos quosd. Psalmorum a Criticis solicitatos; Lips. 1791, 1794, 2 Thle. G. Ph. Chr. Kaiser, Zusammenhäng. hist. Erklärung der fünf PsalmenBB. als National-Gesang-B. auf die Zeit von David bis zu Simon d. Maccab.; Nürnb. 1827. Rosenm. Schol. J. A. Cramer, (poet.) mit Abhandll. 2 A. 1763, fol. 4 vols. J. Chr. Fr. Schulz, m. Comm. 1 Th. (Ps. i.—l.) 1772. G. T. Zachariä, (frei u. erklär.) 1773. Knapp, mit Anmerkk. 1773, 3 A. 1789. Struense, 1783. Mos. Mendelssohn, 1783, 2 A. 1788. Thenius, m. Anmerkk. 1788. Seiler, 1784, 2 A. 1788. Briegleb, 1789, 1790, 2 vols. Zobel, metr. mit Anmerkk. 1790. G. Ringeltaube, 1 vol. (Ps. i.—1.) 1790. Herm. Muntinghe, a. d. Holländ. von Scholl, m. Anmerkk. 1792, 1793, 3 vols. Wobeser, 1793. J. A. Jacobi, mit Anmerkk. 1796, 2 vols. Nachtigall, 1796, fol. 2 vols. Künöl, m. Anmerkk. 1799. Hezel, 1800. Vollbeding, 1806. Stuhlmann, 1812. Schärer, 1812. Lindemann, 1812. F. V. Reinhard, 1814. Stolz, 1814. Goldwitzer, 1827. Krahmer, 1837. Köster, 1837. [A New Translation of the Book of Psalms, by G. R. Noyes; Boston, 1831, 1 vol. 12mo. There are, also, translations of the Psalms into English, by Z. Mudge, Lond. 1774, 4to. Thos. Edwards, Lond. 1755, 8vo. Wm. Green, Lond. 1763, 8vo. J. Merrick, 1765, 4to.; his Annotations, in 1768, 4to. Steph. Street, 1790, 2 vols. 8vo. W. Wake, 1793, 2 vols. 8vo. Alex. Geddes, 1807, 8vo. Wm. Goode, 1811, 2 vols. 8vo. Bishop Horsley, 1815, 2 vols. 8vo. There are, also, commentaries, and notes, and applications, by Hammond, 1659, fol. Bishop Nicholson, 1662, fol. Fenwick, 1759, 8vo. Bishop Horne, 1771, 2 vols. 4to. Dimmock, 1761, 4to. Travell, 1794, 8vo.] a The number and the division of the same psalms differ in the Hebrew MSS. from the LXX. and Vulgate. According to the MSS., it is certain that Ps. xlii. and xliii. are to be united; perhaps, also, ix. and x. VOL. II. See Eichhorn's Allg. Bib. vol. ii. p. 944. Anton, 66 |