for so doing. Both are laid out in tetrastichs; only in the middle portion of Ps 10 some three line strophes are mixed with the four line. And assuming that the ק-strophe, with which Ps 9 closes, stands in the place of a כ-strophe which one would look for after the י-strophe, then Ps 10, beginning with ל, continues the order of the letters. At any rate it begins in the middle of the alphabet, whereas Ps 9 begins at the beginning. It is true the ל-strophe is then followed by strophes without the letters that come next in order; but their number exactly corresponds to the letters between ל and ק, ר, שׁ, ת with which the last four strophes of the Psalm begin, viz., six, corresponding to the letters מ, נ, ס, ע, פ, צ, which are not introduced acrostically. In addition to this it is to be remarked that Ps 9 and Psa 10:1 are most intimately related to one another by the occurrence of rare expressions, as לעתּות בצּרה and דּך; by the use of words in the same sense, as אנושׁ and גּוים; by striking thoughts, as “Jahve doth not forget” and “Arise;” and by similarities of style, as the use of the oratio directa instead of obliqua, Ps 9:21; Psa 10:13. And yet it is impossible that the two Psalms should be only one. Notwithstanding all their community of character they are also radically different. Ps 9 is a thanksgiving Psalm, Ps 10 is a supplicatory Psalm. In the latter the personality of the psalmist, which is prominent in the former, keeps entirely in the background. The enemies whose defeat Ps 9 celebrates with thanksgiving and towards whose final removal it looks forward are גּוים, therefore foreign foes; whereas in Ps 10 apostates and persecutors of his own nation stand in the foreground, and the גוים are only mentioned in the last two strophes. In their form also the two Psalms differ insofar as Ps 10 has no musical mark defining its use, and the tetrastich strophe structure of Ps 9, as we have already observed, is not carried out with the same consistency in Ps 10. And is anything really wanting to the perfect unity of Ps 9? If it is connected with Ps 10 and they are read together uno tenore, then the latter becomes a tail-piece which disfigures the whole. There are only two things possible: Ps 10 is a pendant to Ps 9 composed either by David himself, or by some other poet, and
