Page:04.BCOT.KD.PoeticalBooks.vol.4.Writings.djvu/295

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that specially commends itself to us. That this text is a designed, and perhaps a Davidic, revision of the other text (Hengst.), is an assumption that is devoid of reason and appearance; for in 2 Sam 22 we have only a text that varies in some instances, but not a substantially new form of the text. The text in 2 Sam 22, as it has shown us, is founded upon careless written and oral transmission. The rather decided tendency towards a defective form of writing leads one to conjecture the greater antiquity of the copy from which it is taken. It is easy to understand how poetical passages inserted in historical works were less carefully dealt with. It is characteristic of the form of the text of the Psalm in 2 Sam 22, that in not a few instances the licences of popular expression have crept into it. There is some truth in what Böttcher says, when he calls the text in the Psalter the recension of the priests and that in the Second Book of Samuel the recension of the laity.

Psalm 19

Prayer to God, Whose Revelation of Himself Is Twofold


In the inscription of Ps 18 David is called עבד יהוה, and in [[Bible_(King_James)/Psalms|Psa 19: