curs; and just so Ps. ix and x which coincide in the expres-
sion (
Hebrew characters).
Closely connected with this principle of arrangement is
the circumstance that the Elohimic psalms (i. e., those which,
according to a peculiar style of composition as I have shewn
in my Symbole, not from the caprice of an editor,[1] almost
exclusively call God (Hebrew characters), and beside this make use of such
compound names of God as (Hebrew characters), (Hebrew characters) and
the like) are placed together without any intermixture of Je-
hovic psalms. In Ps. a the divine name (Hebrew characters) predomin-
ates; it occurs 272 times and (Hebrew characters) only 15 times, and for
the most part under circumstances where "yr? was not ad-
missible. With Ps. xlii the Elohimic style begins; the last
psalm of this kind is the Korahitic psalm lxxxiv, which for
this very reason is placed after the Elohimic psalms of Asaph.
In the Ps. Ixxxv — cl (Hebrew characters) again becomes prominent, with
such exclusiveness, that in the psalms of the Fourth and Fifth
books (Hebrew characters) occurs 339 times (not 239 as in Symbole p. 5), and
(Hebrew characters) of the true God only once (cxliv. 9). Among the psalms
of David 18 are Elohimic, among the Korahitic 9, and the Asa-
phic are all Elohimic. Including one psalm of Solomon and four
anonymous psalms, there are 44 in all (reckoning Ps. xlii and
xliii as two). They form the middle portion of the Psalter,
and have on their right 41 and on their left 65 Jahve-psalms.
Community in species of composition also belongs to the
manifold grounds on which the order according to the sub-
ject-matter is determined. Thus the (Hebrew characters) (xlii—=sliii. xlivy.
xlv. lii—lv) and (Hebrew characters) (Ilvi—lx) stand together among the Elo-
him-psalms. In like manner we have in the last two books the
(Hebrew characters)(cxx—cxxxiv) and, divided into groups, those begin-
ning with (Hebrew characters) (cv—cvii) and those beginning and ending with
(Hebrew characters) (cxi—cxvii, cxlvi—cl) — whence it follows that these
titles to the psalms are older than the final redaction of the
collection.
It could not possibly be otherwise than that the inscrip- tions of the psalms, after the harmless position which the mono-
- ↑ This is Ewald’s view (which is also supported by Richm in Stud. uw. Kri’. 1857 S. 168). A closer insight into the characteristic peculiarity of the Elohim-psalms, which is manifest in other respects also, proves it to be superficial and erroneous.
