SACRALKINGSHIPIN

ANCIENTISRAEL

BY
AUBREY R. JOHNSON

CARDIFF
UNIVERSITY OF WALES PRESS
1967
 FOR
WINIFRED

FIRST EDITION 1955

SECOND EDITION I 967

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

 PREFACE

THE following monograph is mainly, concerned with two

well-known groups of psalms, (i) the hymns which celebrate
the Kingship of Yahweh, and (ii) the so-called royal psalms.
Accordingly it may be regarded as one more illustration of
the influence which Hermann Gunkel has exercised in the
field of Old Testament study by his classification of the
psalms according to their literary types and his stress upon
the value of discovering, so far as possible, their original
Sitx im L&en. By his wide application of the principles of .
Fomgeschichte Gunkel has provided students of the Old
Testament with an approach to their subject which, in my
opinion, seems likely to lead in varying degrees beyond the
simple correlation of obviously related types of literature
to ideological syntheses which should enable us to recover
more than one lost aspect of the religious thought and
practice of ancient Israel. For this reason I have to add that
the monograph also owes much to the emphasis which has
been laid by Sigmund Mowinckel on the original cultic
setting of so many of the psalms, although my conclusions
are in many ways markedly different from his; and it is a
pleasure to record here again in the preface, as I have
already done in the body of the book,’ my deep sense of
indebtedness to this distinguished scholar, whose influence
upon the course of Old Testament study during the last
forty years has been so profound.
In this monograph I have returned to the theme with
which I first ventured into print as a student of the Old
Testament just twenty years ago,2 and I have to thank
Professor S. H. Hooke, as editor of the volume concerned,
and the Reverend F. N. Davey of the Society for Promoting

x See below, p. 61, n. I.

2 ‘The R61e of the King in the Jerusalem Cultus’, in The Labyrinth.
Further Studies in the Relation between Myth and Ritual in the Ancient World,
ed. S. H. Hooke (1935), pp. 71-111.
vi Preface Preface vii
Christian Knowledge, its publishers, for readily granting issuing the invitation and the generous hospitality and kind
me permission to employ again some of the language which consideration which my wife and I received from Dean
I used on the former occasion. I indicated at the time that Leonard Stidley and his colleagues throughout the very
I hoped to return to the subject in due course,’ but I little happy fortnight which we spent in their midst.
suspected that so long a period would elapse before I should Sincere thanks are also due to a number of colleagues and
feel justified in doing so. The fact is that I could see no friends, both at home and abroad, whose close interest in
hope of doing justice to this question of the cultic role of the my monograph has meant much to me during the past five
king in ancient Israel until I knew more about Israelite years. Where so many have been so kind it is difficult for
ideas concerning God (or the gods) and mankin.d, and, in me to make full acknowledgement, but there are several
particular, the forms of communication which were thought names which must be mentioned. Thus it is typical of the
possible between these two orders of being; and I planned encouragement and the many acts of friendship which I
a series of monographs for this purpose. Three of these have have received from Professor G. R. Driver during more
now appeared, 2 and I had hoped that by this time the than twenty years that he read the whole of my typescript
number would be doubled. However, the widespread in its final draft with great care, and made a number of
interest in the question of sacral kingship which has been valuable suggestions for its improvement. The same is true
aroused in recent years, particularly as a result of the views of Professor H. H. Rowley, who, in addition to tracing
put forward by the so-called Uppsala School, has compelled several works which I needed, read through the mono-
me to return to the subject somewhat earlier than I intended, graph both in typescript and at the proof stage, and helped
for I am disturbed to find that views are often attributed to me on more than one occasion to choose the right expression
me which I do not hold and, in fact, never have held. It is for what I had in mind. I must also add a special word of
my earnest hope that this monograph, besides making my thanks to Professor Otto Eissfeldt, Professor G. Levi Della
own position much clearer, may meet with acceptance as Vida, and Father F. L. Moriarty, S.J., each of whom came
an attempt to deal constructively with this difficult problem, to my aid by supplying me with copies of works which I
which has engrossed my attention ever since the time when, had been unable to obtain through the normal channels.
as a post-graduate student at Oxford nearly a quarter of a Finally in this connexion, I have to express my gratitude
century ago, I first realized that its solution must be of the to the Reverend E. T. Ryder and, indeed, Mrs. Ryder,
first importance for our understanding of both the Old and who kindly undertook the preparation of the indexes; I am
the New Testaments. greatly indebted to both these friends for the patience and
The text of the monograph reproduces what were sub- care with which they have performed this most helpful
stantially the Haskell Lectures, which I had the privilege service.
of delivering before the Graduate School of Theology at In conclusion, my warm thanks are due to the University
Oberlin in the spring of 1951. I am happy to think that of Wales Press for continuing to publish my monographs,
at last I am able to place on record in this way my deep and to the Oxford University Press for all the technical
appreciation of the honour which the Faculty did me in skill which has been placed so readily at our disposal once
I Op. cit., p. 110. again.
The One and the Many in the Israelite Conception of God (1942), The
2 AUBREY R. JOHNSON
Cultic Prophet in Ancient Israel (IC+++), The vitality of the Individual in the Cardz%f
Thought of Ancient Israel (1949).
August 1955
 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

A S with the earlier volumes in this series I have found

reason to make only minor changes in the text for the
purposes of a second edition; but once again the footnotes
have been expanded, occasionally at some length, and in
part this is indicative of the persistent and widespread
interest in the subject of this monograph. Unfortunately
I continue to find that, as I said in my earlier preface,
views are often ascribed to me which I do not hold and,
indeed, never have held; and occasional reference to such
misrepresentation will now be found in the footnotes.1
In renewing my thanks to all those colleagues and
friends who have aided me in the preparation of this work
I must now add the names of Professor John Gray, Pro-
fessor B. J. Roberts, Father James Swetnam, SJ., and the
Reverend C. G. Williams who, in addition, has kindly
undertaken the task of helping me with the checking of
the indexes and the reading of the proofs.
Finally, I must also acknowledge with gratitude my deep
sense of indebtedness to the Oxford University Press for
all the technical skill so readily made available once more
in the preparation of this edition.
AUBREY R. JOHNSON
Card23
October 1-966
I The English reader has recently been offered a simple but glaring
example of such misrepresentation in the case of H. J. Kraus, Gottesdienst
in Israel, 2nd edit. rev. (1962), pp. 30 f., E.T. by G. Buswell, Worship i n
Israel (1966), p. 18, who cites this monograph, along with the original essay
upon which it is based (as above, p. v, n. 2), to illustrate his claim that in
the work of some of Mowinckel’s followers ‘the historical foundations of
Israel’s worship disappear more and more. Myth covers the whole field.’
If anyone unfamiliar with my interpretation of the data will turn to the
summary at the end of this volume (pp. 134-44, esp. 136 ff.), it will be
a simple matter to determine what value is to be placed upon such a reference
to my work. See also p. 90, n. 2.
 PRINCIPAL ABBREVIATIONS
A.B. Analecta Biblica.
A.D. The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the
Uniwersity of Chicago (Ig56- ).
A.F.L.N.W. Arbeitsgemeinschaft fur Forschung des Landes Nordrhein-
Westfalen.
A.f.0. Archiv fur Orientforschung.
A.H. W. von Soden (ed.), Akkadisches Handw&terbuch (Igsw ).
A.J.S.L. American &urrud of Semitic Languages and Literatures.
A.L.B.O. Analecta Lovaniensia Biblica et Orientalia.
A.N.V.A.O. II. Avhandlinger utgitt av Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi i
Oslo, II. Hist.-Filos. Klasse.
A.O. Der Alte Orient.
A.P.A.W. Abhandlungen der Preussischen Akademie der Wissen-
schaften, Phil-h&. Klasse.
A.R.M. Archives royales de Mari.
A.R. W. Archiv fur Religionswissenschaft.
A.T.A.N.T. Abhandlungen zur Theologie des Alten und Neuen Testa-
ments.
A.T.D. Das Alte Testament Deutsch.
B.A. The Biblical Archaeologist.
B.A.S.O.R. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research.
B.B.B. Bonner Biblische Beitrgge.
B.E.T. Beitige zur evangelischen Theologie.
B.H.T. Beitrage zur historischen Theologie.
B.J.R.L. Bulletin of the John Ry1arud.s Library.
B.K.A.T. Biblischer Kommentar Altes Testament.
B.K.W. Bible Key Words from Gerhard Kittel’s Theologisches
W6rterbuch zum Neuen Testament.
B.M.B. Bulletin du Musee de Beyrouth.
B.O.T. De Boeken van het Oude Testament.
B.P.(A. T.) La Bible: L’AncGn Testament (Bibliotheque de la Pleiade).
B.V.S.A.W.L. Berichte tiber die Verhandlungen der SZichsischen Aka-
demie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Phil-h&. Klasse.
B.W.A.N.T. Beitrgge zur Wissenschaft vom Alten und Neuen Testa-
ment.
B.W.A.T. Beitriige zur Wissenschaft vom Alten Testament.
B.Z.A.W. Beihefte zur Zeitschrsft fur die alttestamentliche Wissen-
schaft.
C.A.H. The Cambridge Ancient History.
C.B. Cambridge Bible.
C.B.Q. The Catholic Biblical Quarterly.
Cent.B. The Century Bible.
 ...
xii Princi&d Abbreviations Principal Abbreviations x111

K.K. Kurzgefasster Kommentar zu den heiligen Schriften

C.I.S. Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum.
Alten und Neuen Testamentes sowie zu den Apo-
C.R.B. Cahiers de la Revue Biblique. kryphen.
D The Deuteronomic narrative (or code), or the Deutero-
LXX The Septuagint.
nomic school.
Dictionnaire de la Bible: Supplkment, ed. L. Pirot, A. Robert, M.T. The Massoretic Text.
D.B.S.
H. Cazelles, and A. Feuillet (1928- ). M.U.N. Mtmoires de 1’UniversitC de Neuchltel.
D.M.O.A. Documenta et Monumenta Orientis Antiqui. M. U. S.J. M&anges de 1’Universite’ Saint-Joseph.
E The Elohistic narrative (or code), or the Elohist. M.V.A.G. Mittheilungen der vorderasiatisch+yptischen Gesell-
E.B. Etudes Bibliques. schaft.
E.B. Encyclopaedia Biblica, ed. T. K. Cheyne and J. S. Black Nor. T. T. Norsk Teologisk Tidsskrift.
(1899-1903). N.S.I. G. A. Cooke, A Text-book of North-Semitic Inscriptions
Echt.B. Echter Bibel. (1903).
E.H.P.R. Etudes d’histoire et de philosophie religieuses. O.B.L. Orientalia et Biblica Lovaniensia.
E. T. The Expository Times. O.T.S. Old Testament Studies.
F.R.L.A.N.T. Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und O.T.S. Oudtestamentische Studs&.
Neuen Testaments.
P The Priestly narrative (or code), or the Priestly school.
G.K. Gesenius-Kautzsch, Hebrew Grammar, 2nd English edition,
rev. by A. E. Cowley (1910). P.E.Q. Palestine Exploration Quarterly.
G.T.M.M.M. Det Gamle Testamente, oversatt av S. Michelet, S. Pr.J.B. Pre@ische Jahrbiicher.
Mowinckel og N. Messel. R.A. Revue d’assyriologie et d’archeologie orientale.
G. U.O.S. T. Glasgow University Oriental Society: Transactions. R.B. Revue Biblique.
H.A.T. Handbuch zum Alten Testament. Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 1st edition, ed.
R.G.G.
H.K. Handkommentar zum Alten Testament. F. M. Schiele and L. Zscharnack (1909-13), 2nd edition,
H.S.A.T. Die Heilige Schrift des Alten Testamentes (Bonner ed. H. Gunkel and L. Zscharnack (1927-32), 3rd edition,
Bibel). ed. K. Galling (1957-65).
H.S.A.T. E. Kautzsch (ed.), Die Heilige Schrift des Alten Testaments, R.H.P.R. Revue d’histoire et de philosophie religieuses.
4th edition, ed. A. Bertholet (1922-8). R.H.R. Revue de l’histoire des religions.
H.T.R. Harvard Theological Review. S The Syriac Version (Peshitta).
H. U.C.A. Hebrew Union College Annual. S.A.T. Die Schriften des Alten Testaments in Auawahl.
I.B. The Interpreter’s Bible. S.B. La Sainte Bible, texte latin et traduction francaise d’apres
I.C.C. The International Critical Commentary. les textes originaux avec un commentaire extgetique et
theologique.
J The Yahwistic narrative (or code), or the Yahwist.
J.A.O.S. Journal of the American Oriental Society. S.B.D.A.W. Sitzungsberichte der Deutschen Akademie der Wissen-
schaften zu Berlin, Klasse fiir Sprachen, Literatur und
J.B.L. Journal of Biblical Literature. Kunst.
J.N.E.S. Journal of Near Eastern Studies. S.B. J. La Sainte Bible traduite en frangais sous la direction de
J.Q.R. Jewish Quarterly Review. 1’Ecole Biblique de JCrusalem.
J.S.S. Journal of Semitic Studies. S.N. Supplements to Numen.
J. T. S. The Journal of Theological Studies. S.N.V.A.O. II Skrifter utgitt av Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi i Oslo,
II. Hist.-filos. Klasse.
K.A.I. H. Donner and W. RCillig, Kanaan&sche and aramiiische
Inschriften, i (1962), ii-iii (1964). S. T. Studia Theologica.
S.V.T. Supplements to Vetus Testamentum.
K.A.T. Kommentar zum Alten Testament.
T Targum.
K.B. L. Koehler and W. Baumgartner, Lexicon in Veteris Testa-
menti Libros (1953), including Supplementum ad Lexicon T.C.A.A.S. Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and
in Veteris Testamenti Libros (1958). Sciences.
T.D.N.T. See S.V. Th. W.N.T.
K.H.C. Kurzer Hand-Commentar zum Alten Testament.
xiv Principal Abbreviations
T.L.B. Theologisches Literaturblatt.
T.L.Z. Theologische Literaturzeitung.
T.S. Theological Studies.
SACRAL KINGSHIP IN
T.U. Tekst en Uitleg. ANCIENT ISRAEL
T.Z. Theologische Zeitschrift.
Th. W.N. T. Theologisches W&terbuch zum Neuen Testament, ed. G. W E may begin our study with two incidents of unmistak-
Kittel and G. Friedrich (rg33- ); E.T. (= T.D.N.T.)
by G. W. Bromiley, Theological Dictionary of the New able authenticity, taken from the lives of the first and last
Testament (Ig64- ). Davidic kings in Jerusalem. In the first case the scene is
U.U.A. Uppsala Universitets Am&rift.
laid somewhere in the lowlands to the west of Judah, and
V The Vulgate.
V.K.A.W.A. Verhandelingen der Koninklijke Akademie van Weten- the date must be towards the beginning of the tenth cen-
schappen te Amsterdam. Afdeeling Letterkunde. tury B .C . The air is filled with the sound of battle between
V.S.G.T.R. Sammlung gemeinverstiindlicher Vortrage und Schriften Israelites and Philistines, and at one point David himself,
aus dem Gebiet der Theologie und Religionsgeschichte.
V. T. Vetus Testamenturn.
the Messiah or ‘Anointed’ of Yahweh,’ is hard pressed by
V. Th. VOX Theologica. a powerful adversary; but, fortunately for him and for his
W.O. Die Welt des Orients. followers, Abishai springs to the rescue and beats the king’s
Z.A. W. Zeitschrsft ftir die alttestamentliche Wissenschqft. opponent to the ground. Now the noise of battle is over,
Z.D.M.G. Zeitschrsft der deutschen morgenliindischen Gesellschqft. and the king is safe once more in the comparative security
Z.D.P.V. Zeitschrift des deutschen Pal&&a-Vereins.
of the camp; but amongst David’s followers there is mani-
Z.S. Zeitschrift fiir Semitistik und werwandte Gebiete.
Z. T.K. Zeitschrift fiir Theologie und Kirche. fest a strong sense of closely averted tragedy which at
length finds expression in words, for, we are told,2
David’s men swore unto him, saying, ‘Thou shalt not go out to battle
with us again, lest thou quench the lamp of Israel.’

Our second picture brings us to the first half of the sixth

century B .C ., when the Southern Kingdom, like that of the
, apostate north, has become a thing of the past. Jerusalem,
its capital, is now humbled to the dust. The stones of the
holy city litter its streets; and on every hand one may see
the horrors of famine in starving and dying children, in
the discoloured skin and protuberant bones even of the
upper classes, and, worst feature of all, in grim acts of
cannibalism on the part of those who not long before had
known all the compassion of motherhood. Moreover, the
king himself, who should have proved to be the guardian
of his people’s welfare, has been driven from his citadel

1 Cf. 2 Sam. v. 3, 17; and see below, p. 14, n. 2.

2 2 Sam. xxi. 17.
C 8088 B
2 Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel 3
and trapped like some poor creature of the wild. In fact, as is more, such a psychical whole has an extension in time
the poet says who has left us this grim picture,’ as well as space, so that the mystic bond which unites
The breath of our nostrils, the Messiah of Yahweh, society may be conceived retrospectively as regards its
Was caught in their pits, ancestors and prospectively with regard to future genera-
Of whom we had said, ‘In his shadow tions.’ The smallest unit, of course, is the family (i.e. in
We shall live (i.e. flourish)2 amid the nations.’ the narrower sense conveyed by the term ‘household’),
The import of these two pictures is clear. Four centuries which finds its focus in the father; and, as we learn from
have passed by, but from first to last the king or, to be more the well-known story of Achan, if he should commit an
precise, the ruling member of the House of David is regarded offence against the sanctions of the wider sphere, represented
in some way as the light or life of his people. by the tribe or the nation, then his ‘household’, like a
To reach anything like a true appreciation of the implica- festering sore interfering with the successful function of
tions which are wrapped up in this conception of the king’s the social body, may be involved with him in remedial
supremely important place in the social order it is neces- measures.2 In the same way the royal family finds its
sary to bear in mind that in Israelite thought, as in that of temporary focus in the reigning king, who, like Ahaz, may
the so-called ‘primitive peoples of our own day, there is a be referred to or addressed quite simply as ‘House of
vivid sense of what has been called ‘corporate personality’.3 David’;3 so that it is altogether in keeping that the nation as
In other words, the individual is regarded as a centre of a psychical whole should also be seen to have its focus in
power which extends far beyond the contour of the body the royal house and, at any given time, in the reigning
and mingles with that of the family and the family property, monarch.4 Thus it is that any violent disturbance of the
the tribe and the tribal possessions, or the nation and the x Cf. J. Pedersen, Israel I-II: Sjaeleliv og Samfundsliv (1920), 2nd edit.
rev. (1933), 3rd edit. (x958), pp. 203 ff., E.T., Israel: its L;fe and Culture I-II
national inheritance, to form a psychical whole; and, what (1926), 2nd edit. (1959), pp. 261 ff. ; 0. Eissfeldt, Der Gottesknecht bei
Deuterojesaja (1933), E.T. in E.T. xliv (19323), pp. 261-8; S. A. Cook,
ILam. iv. 2 0 . The Old Testament: A Reinterpretation (1936), pp. I 15 ff. ; J. Hempel, Das
2For the significance of ,/X+n (Yl), ‘to live’, see the writer’s monograph Ethos des Alten Testaments, B.Z.A.W. 67 (1938), 2nd edit. enlarged (1964),
The Vitality of the Individual in the Thought of Ancient Israel ( I 9@), pp. 94 ff., pp. 32 ff. Perhaps I should add that J. R. Porter, ‘The Legal Aspects of the
2nd edit. rev. (1964), pp. 95 ff. Concept of “Corporate Personality” in the Old Testament’, V. T. xv (1965))
3 i.e. by H. W. Robinson, e.g. in ‘Hebrew Psychology’, in The People pp. 361-80, arouses afresh in me the doubts which I have long felt with
and the Book, ed. A. S. Peake (1925), 353-82, particularly pp. 375 ff.; and regard to the employment of the terms ‘personality’ in ‘corporate personality’
‘The Hebrew Conception of Corporate Personality’, in Werden und Wesen and ‘psychical’ in ‘psychical whole’, as there is obviously a danger that the
des Alten Testaments, ed. J. Hempel, B.Z.A.W. 66 (1936), pp. 49-62. For modern reader may find these expressions implying more than is intended.
a critical elaboration of this point with reference to the Old and the New Nevertheless I can think of no more suitable terminology for conveying the
Testaments, see now J. de Fraine, Adam et son lignage. Etudes sur la notion significance of the phenomena under consideration. The words ‘corporate
de ‘personnalitk corporative’ duns la Bible (1959); but, as in the case of the personality’ and ‘psychical whole’ do suggest, for example, an emotional
same author’s work, L’Aspect religieux de la royautd israblite. L’institution involvement which is lacking in such expressions as ‘social solidarity’ or
monarchique duns 1’Ancien Testament et dans les textes mbopotamiens, A.B. 3 ‘corporate whole’. Correspondingly one does not expect these emotional
(1954), the reader should compare carefully what one says with what is aspects to appear in legal records which are simply concerned with the work-
attributed to one. Indeed, while I am on this point, a stronger warning of ing out of the implications of such solidarity.
the same kind must be addressed to the reader in connexion with the views z Joshua vii (basically JE).
ascribed to me by K. H. Bernhardt, Das Problem der altorientalischen 3 Isa. vii. 2, 13 (cf. verse 17).
Kiinigsideologie im Alten Testament unter besonderer Berticksichtigung der 4 Cf., for example, J. Pedersen, Israel III-IV: Hellighed og Guddom-
Geschichte der Psalmenexegese dargestellt und kritisch gewiirdigt, S.V.T. viii melighed (1934), 2nd edit. rev. (1960), pp. 65 ff., E. T., Israel: its Life and
(1961). Culture III-IV (1940), 2nd edit. with additions (1959), pp. 81 ff.
 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel 5
I Kings iii. 4-28 ; and the tradition underlying the story of the measures taken
national life, such as that caused by a prolonged drought
by Jehoshaphat to deal with the administration of justice in 2 Chron. xix.
or an outburst of plague, may be attributed to the fact that 5-1 I, together with the interesting parallel afforded by the decree of Harem-
the king himself has violated the sanctions of the group; and hab (c. 1340-1310 B.C.), in which measures were prescribed for the reform Of
the Egyptian judiciary, as discussed by W. F. Albright, ‘The Judicial
the whole royal house or the very nation itself may be in- Reform of Jehoshaphat’, in The Alexander Marx Jubilee Volume, ed. S.
volved with him in the condemnation which follows upon Lieberman (1950), pp. 61-82. Note also the repeated comment on the
any such trespass. 1 Correspondingly, if the nation is to lawless conditions in Israel prior to the monarchy, Judges xvii. 6, xxi. 25.
For many years the standard illustration of such royal responsibility for
prosper, the king must act as the embodiment of ‘righteous- justice in the wider sphere of the ancient Near East has been that furnished
ness’ (i?$& iiz”J$). That is to say, it is first and foremost by the great law-code of Hammurabi (c. 1728-1686 B.C.), e.g. :
his concern to see that the behaviour of society at large Prologue i. 27 ff.
is thoroughly ‘righteous’ (i?‘Q) and that, to this end, the At that time Anu and Enlil called me by name
sanctions of the group, particularly the nation’s laws, are uni- to promote the welfare of the people,
me, Hammurabi, the worshipful, god-fearing prince;
formly observed throughout the different strata of society; to display justice in the land,
for it is only in this way, when the individual is restrained to destroy the wicked and the evil,
to stay the strong from oppressing the weak,
from doing ‘what is right in his own eyes’,2 that the well-
to rise like the sun upon the black-headed people,
being (Pi%@ of the nation, in fact its life or vitality (D’?J), and to shed light over the land.
can be assured.3 Thus the king is the supreme ‘ruler’ or Prologue v. I5 ff.
‘judge’ (Dow), to whom one may go in any matter of dispute When Marduk sent me to give the people justice,
for a final ‘ruling’ or ‘judgement’ (G@J) which, ideally at to bring order to the land,
I established right and justice within the land,
least, will also be an act of ‘justice’ (D!$iJ).4 What is more, promoting the welfare of the people.
* 2 Sam. xxi. 1-14, xxiv. 10-25: cf. 2 Sam. iii. 28 f., xiv. 9; Jer. xv. 4; also Epilogue rev. xxiv. 59 ff.
Gen. xii. 17 (J), xx. 3 f., 9, 17 f. (E) ; I Kings xviii. 18 (vide xvii. I, xviii. I).
To stay the strong from oppressing the weak,
While the principle underlying the story in 2 Sam. xxi. 1-14 is clear enough,
to give justice to the orphan and the widow,
its exact implications remain subject to discussion. Cf. for example, A.
in Babylon, the city whose head Anu and Enlil raised on high,
Malamat, ‘Doctrines of causality in Hittite and Biblical Historiography: a
in Esagila, the temple whose foundations are firm as heaven and earth,
parallel’, V.T. v (1955), pp. I-I I ; A. S. Kapelrud, ‘King and Fertility. A to enact judgement for the land,
Discussion of II Sam. xxi: I-14’, in Interpretationes ad Vetus Testamentum
to effect decrees for the land,
pertinentes (S. Mowinckel Festschrift) = Nor. T. T. lvi (1955), pp. 113-22,
to give justice to the oppressed,
also ‘King David and the Sons of Saul’, in The Sacral Kingship: La regalith
I inscribed my precious words on my stele,
sac~a, S.N. iv (1959), pp. 294-301, esp. 298 ff.; H. Cazelles, ‘David’s
And set them up in the presence of my image ‘King of Justice’.
Monarchy and the Gibeonite Claim (II Sam. xxi, r-14)‘, P.E.Q. (May-Oct.
1955)~ PP. 16575. See especially A. Deimel, Codex gammurabi, 3rd edit. by E. Bergmann,
2 Cf. Judges xvii. 6, xxi. 25. A. Pohl, and R. Follet (1950- ); the translation by T. J. Meek in Ancient
3 The writer hopes that the justification of this and the ensuing statements Near Eastern Texts relating to the Old Testament, ed. J. B. Pritchard (1950),
to the end of the paragraph, although presented in part in the following pages, 2nd edit. rev. (1955), pp. 163-80; and the translation and commentary in
may ultimately appear in an extended form in a monograph entitled The G. R. Driver and J. C. Miles, The Babylonian Laws, ii (1955), pp. I-304.
Vitality of Society in the Thought of Ancient Israel. Cf. The Vitality of the For wider references in this field see the valuable discussion of the whole
Individual in the Thought of Ancient Israel, p. 84, n. I, and p. 103, n. 2,2nd question by L. Diirr, Ursprung und Ausbau der israelitisch-jiidischen Heilands-
edit., p. 82, n. I, and p. 104, n. 5. erwartung (1925), pp. 76 ff.; also R. Labat, Le CaractBre religieux de la
4 For an early illustration of the royal concern with justice, see 2 Sam. royautk assyro-babylonienne (1939), pp. 221-33.
xv. 1-6. Cf., too, the right of appeal to the king which belonged to the widow Now, however, with the discovery of the Ras Shamra tablets (fourteenth
and the orphan, as illustrated by 2 Sam. xiv. 1-20 and, probably, 2 Kings century B.C.), it is unnecessary to go beyond the borders of Canaan for evi-
viii. 1-6; the principle involved in the description of Solomon’s wisdom in dence of a king’s responsibility for justice which is far earlier than any
(Footnote 4 continued on pages 5, 6, and 7.) afforded by the Israelite monarchy, e.g.:
 6 Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel 7
The youth Ysb departs, it is in Yahweh, the God of Israel, that these laws find their
He enters his father’s presence,
He raises his voice and cries. substantiation, for in the ultimate it is from Yahweh, as the
‘Hearken, I pray thee, Keret the noble, great ‘Giver of Life’, that the nation derives its vitality; and,
Listen, and incline thine ear. this being the case, it is to Yahweh that the king is finally
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . responsible and, indeed, upon Yahweh that he is ultimately
Thou dost not judge the case of the widow, dependent for the exercise of justice (D!$@) and the con-
Or adjudicate in the cause of the wretched,
sequent right ordering of society, i.e. its righteousness (i?Ty,
Or drive away those who oppress the poor;
Thou dost not feed the orphan before thy face 3z>v), which alone can ensure fullness of life for his people.
Or the widow behind thy back. Happily some indication of the ideas which were associa-
Inasmuch as thou art brother to a sick-bed,
Companion to a bed of pain,
ted with this conception of the king’s supremely important
Descend from the kingship that I may be king, place in the social order is preserved for us in Psalm lxxii,
From thy dominion that I may posses it.’ which is one of the more famous of the so-called royal
Cf., for example, H. L. Ginsberg, The Legend of King Keret. A Canaanite
psalms.1 The parallelism of the opening line makes it clear
Epic of the Bronze Age, B.A.S.O.R., Supplementary Studies 2-3 (1946),
KRT C, col. 6, 39-54; C. H. Gordon, Ugaritic Handbook (1947) or Ugaritic Gottesname im *denturn und seine Stelle in der Religionsgeschichte, ed. 0.
Manual (195.5) or Ugaritic Textbook (1965), 127, 39-54, and Ugaritic Eissfeldt (1928), iii, pp. 379-463, esp. pp. 398-428; and similarly, for the
Literature (1949), pp. 82 f. ; G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, thought of ancient Egypt, J. H. Breasted, The Dawn of Conscience (1934),
O.T.S. 3 (1956), K II, vi 39-54; J. Gray, The Krt Text in the Literature of pa&m, supplemented by J. A. Wilson in H. and H. A. Frankfort, J. A.
Ras Shamra. A Social Myth of Ancient Canaan, D.M.O.A. v, 2nd edit. rev. Wilson, T. Jacobsen, and W. A. Irwin, The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient
(I 964), pp. 28 f. ; A. Herdner, Corpus des tablettes en cuneiformes alphab&iques Man. An Essay on Speculative Thought in the Ancient Near East (1946),
decouvertes d Ras Shamra-Ugarit de rg2g h 1939 = Mission de Ras Shamra pp. 82 ff. and 104 ff., and in The Burden of Egypt (1951), e.g. pp. 47-50
X (1963), 16, vi 39-54. Indeed, further evidence is now afforded (a) by the and 114-24.
way in which Niqmepa, one of the kings of Ugarit, is described inter alia as Finally, cf. now the far-seeing discussion of this and related issues by
b’l sdq (‘lord of righteousness’) ; and (b) by the contracts and decrees drawn N. W. Porteous, ‘Royal Wisdom’, in Wisdom in Israel and in the Ancient
up in Accadian in the names of various kings, including that of Niqmepa, Near East (H. H. Rowley Festschrift), ed. M. Noth and D. W. Thomas,
which have been found in the royal palace of Ugarit. Cf. (a) Ch. Virolleaud, S.V.T. iii (1955), pp. 247-61; also the summary but careful discussion of
Le Palais royal d' Ugarit II. Textes en cunesformes alphabktiques des archives est, the king’s judicial powers in R. de Vaux, Les Institutions de Z’Ancien Testa-
ouest et centrales = Mission de Ras Shamra VII (1957), 7, 4 ( = Gordon, ment, i (1958), pp. 231 ff., E.T. by J. McHugh, Ancient Israel: Its Life and
Ugaritic Textbook, 1007, 4): (b) J. Nougayrol, Le Palais royal d’Ugarit III. Institutions (1961), pp. 150 ff.
Textes accadiens et hourrites des archives est, ouest et centrales = Mission de x For the theory of royal psalms and the question as to what light they may
Ras Shamra VI (1955), pp. 22-176. throw on the cultic role and social significance of the king, see H. Gunkel,
Similar evidence is also afforded by the Phoenician epigraphic texts; for ‘Die Kijnigspsalmen’, Pr.J.B. clviii (1914), pp. 42-68; R.G.G.‘, z iv, ‘Psal-
the inscription of Ye&milk, king of Byblos, which is at least as early as the men’, 5 9 ; H. Gunkel and J. Begrich, Einleitung in die Psalmen, H. K. (1933),
tenth century B.C., contains a plea that his days and years may be prolonged pp. 14o-71: S. Mowinckel, Kongesalmerne i Det Gamle Testamente (1916);
on the ground that he is ‘a righteous and upright king’ (%” 7% PtZi 75n). Psalmenstudien II. Das Thronbesteigungsfest Jahwas und der Ursprung der
Cf. M. Dunand, R.B. xxxix (1930), pp. 321-31; and now K.A.I. 4, and the Eschatologie, S.N.V.A.O. II, 1921, No. 6 (1922), pp. 297 ff.; Psalmenstudien
translation by F. Rosenthal, in Pritchard, op. cit., 2nd edit., p. 499. This III. Kultprophetie und prophetische Psalmen, S.N.V.A.O. II, 1922, No. I
example is particularly interesting because of the close parallel afforded some (1923), pp. 78 ff. ; Oflersang og sangoffer. Salmediktningen i Bibelen (1951),
five centuries later by the well-known inscription of Yehawmilk of Byblos, pp. 51-91, E.T. by D. R. Ap-Thomas, The Psalms in Israel’s Worship (1962),
in which a similar plea is based upon the claim that Yehawmilk is ‘a righteous i. pp. 42-80; Han som kommer. Messiasforventningen i Det Gamle Testament og
king’ (P’Tr 75n). See N.S.I. 3, supplemented by M. Dunand, B.M.B. v pd Jesu tid (1951), pp. 42-68, E.T. by G. W. Anderson, He That Cometh
(1941), pp. 57-85, A. DuPont-Sommer, Semitica iii (1950), pp. 35-44, and (I 956), pp. 52-95 : H. Birkeland, Die Feinde des Individuums in der israelitischen
now K.A.I. IO, and the translation by Rosenthal, op. cit., p. 502. Psalmenliteratur (1933); The Evildoers in the Book of Psalms, A.N.V.A.O. II,
See also, for a general introduction to the data which need to be examined 1955, No. 2 (1955): A. Bentzen, Det sakrale kongedomme. Bemuzrkninger i en
in order to appreciate the development of this conception within the context lebende diskussion om de gammeltestamentlige Salmer (1945) : J. de Fraine,
of the ancient Semitic world as a whole, W. W. Graf Baudissin, Kyrios als L’Aspect religieux de la royaute israelite (as cited above, p. 2, n. 3): K. H.
8 Sacral Kingship in Andent Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel 9
that we are here concerned with no simple portrayal of some this implies for the economic well-being of the people. The
future eschatological figure (although this is not to say that first few verses, then, may be rendered as follows :I
the psalm is in no way eschatological),~ but with a prayer 0 God, give Thy judgements to the king,
for the ruling member of an hereditary line of kings which And Thy righteousness to this member of the royal line;2
bears every appearance of having been composed for use on May he judge Thy people with righteousness
his accession to the throne; and the whole psalm admirably And Thy humble followers with justice.
depicts the literally vital role which it was hoped that he Through righteousness let the mountains and hills
might play in the life of the nation. The key words are Bring welfare (EW. ‘peace’)3 to the people.
May he grant justice to the humble among the people,
‘righteousness’ (i?& 3zJs) and ‘justice’ (D@!J); and the
Saving-’ the children of the needy and crushing the oppressor.
basic thought throughout is that the king may watch care- rMay he also continue’s as long as the sun,
fully over the rights of his subjects, and so ensure, in And, like the moon, through all generations.
particular, that the weaker members of society may en- May his rule be6 like rain upon the crop,’
joy his protection and thus have justice done to them ac- Like showers that water the earth.
cording to their need. What is more, it is clear from the May righteousness* flourish in his days,
outset that the king is both dependent upon and responsible And welfare (EW. ‘peace’) abound till the moon be no more.
to Yahweh for the right exercise of his power; for his sub- 1 vv. 1-7. What appears to be the requisite distinction between jussive
jects, whatever their status in society, are one and all and indicative forms of the imperfect of the verb has been obscured at dif-
Yahweh’s people. It is to be observed, too, that the ferent points in M.T. ; and the rendering of this psalm offered above in the
text is based throughout upon whichever form of the consonantal text seems
opening lines make passing reference to a basic principle to be required by the context, the matres lectionis being ignored where neces-
which is expressed at length towards the close of the psalm, sary. Cf. the somewhat similar cases offered by the other readings adopted
in verses 5 and 7,
i.e. that it is only as the earthly king ensures a sound moral lit. ‘a (OY the) king’s son’.
order by means of his righteous rule that one can be sure of 3 i.e. P?7q. Cf. the writer’s monograph, The Cultic Prophet in Ancient
a corresponding stability in the realm of nature with all that Israel (rg++), p. 44, n. I, 2nd edit. rev. (rg62), p. 49, n. I ; and see further
G. von Rad, 'Pi+? im A.T.‘, in Th.W.N.T. ii (rg35), S.V. &<Yv, pp. 400-5,
Bernhardt, Dar Problem der altorientalischen K6nigsideologie im Alten Testa- = T.D.N.T. ii. (rg64), pp. 402-6.
ment (as cited above, p. 2, n. 3); and the more general discussion by E. 4 See below, p. rg, n. 2.
Lipinski, ‘Les Psaumes de la royaute de Yahwe dans l’exegese moderne’, 5 Reading 7761 (cf. LXX) for ??NT’:, i.e. a simple case of metathesis
in Le Psautier. Ses origines. Ses probldmes littkraires. Son influence, ed. R. de prior to the introduction of the matres lectionis. Compare the use of the
Langhe, O.B.L. iv (rg62), pp. 133-272. See also the present writer’s earlier corresponding verb in the Phoenician royal inscriptions with reference to
work in this field, i.e. ‘The Rale of the King in the Jerusalem Cultus’, in The the ‘prolonging’ of the days and years of the reigning king, i.e. in the in-
Labyrinth. Further Studies in the Relation between Myth and Ritual in the scriptions of Yehimilk (as cited above, p. 4, n. 4), Sapatba’al or Sifitiba’al
Ancient World, ed. S. H. Hooke (rg35), pp. 71-111; ‘Living Issues in (as cited below, p. 41, n. S), and Eliba’al (ed. R. Dussaud, Syria vi (rg25),
Biblical Scholarship. Divine Kingship and the Old Testament’, E.T. lxii pp. IOI-17), all of which are probably to be dated within the twelfth to the
(rg5o--I), pp. 36-42; ‘The Psalms’, in The Old Testament and Modern Study. ninth centuries B.C., and that of Yehawmilk (as cited above p. 4, n. 4), which
A Generation of Discovery and Research, ed. H. H. Rowley (rg5r), pp. 162- belongs to the fifth or, perhaps, the fourth century B.C.
2og : and now (i.e. since the publication of the first edition of this monograph)
6 lit. ‘May he rule’, i.e. vocalizing the consonantal text as q?T. ($lql):
‘Old Testament Exegesis, Imaginative and Unimaginative’, E. T. lxviii
(19567), pp. 178 f.; ‘Hebrew Conceptions of Kingship’, in Myth, Ritual, and cf. verse 8.
Kingship. Essays on the Theory and Practice of Kingship in the Ancient Neat 7 Q appears to have been used, like the corresponding English terms
East and in Israel, ed. S. H. Hooke (rg58), pp. 204-35, to which the reader ‘fleece’ and ‘crop’, to denote such animal or vegetable growth either before
may be referred for other studies, notably those of the so-called Uppsala or after being cut.
School, which touch on this subject. r See below, Parts V-VI. 8 Reading Pa? for iF@ with three MSS., LXX, S, and Jerome.
IO Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel II

The psalmist then allows his thoughts to reach out beyond being an allusion to the Euphrates, is really an allusion to
the confines of his own land to the world at large, and prays the current of the great cosmic sea which nourishes the
in equally picturesque terms that this earthly king may holy city,’ i.e. that of which the psalmist speaks when he
come to enjoy so complete and so universal a sway that all says :2
the kings of the earth may pay him tribute and all the nations As for ‘The River’, its streams make glad the city of God,
submit to his rule.1 The most sacred abode of the Most High.3
May he rule also from sea to sea, Similarly the expression ‘from sea to sea’, far from denoting,
And from ‘The River’ to the ends of the earth.
say, the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf,4 is really an
May the creatures of the wild2 bow down before him,
And his enemies lick the dust.
allusion in general terms to the all-embracing cosmic sea5
May the kings of Tarshish and the coastal lands and, taken in conjunction with the expression ‘from “The
Render tribute. River” to the ends of the earth’, points to the thought of a
May the kings of Sheba and Seba sovereignty covering the wide circle of the earth.6
Bring their gifts. This, however, is a matter to which we shall return; and,
Yea, may all kings make obeisance to him, continuing our reading of the psalm, we have now to note
All nations serve him. that, after this ambitious vision of a world sovereignty exer-
It is commonly thought that the allusion to ‘The River’ in cised from the citadel on Mount Zion, the poet reverts to
the first metrical line is a reference to the Euphrates,3 and, the thought of the king as the guardian of the humble and
as a result, the poet’s language has been taken as an indica- the needy, the weak and the helpless. In fact the anticipated
tion that he has been influenced by the court style of the realization of this hope is now offered as the ground for
Babylonian world.4 Such a view, however, fails to do justice his being permitted such universal dominion.7
to the central importance which Jerusalem came to enjoy For he will deliver the needy when he crieth,
in Hebrew cosmology.5 At a later stage in our discussion And the humble when he hath no helper.
we shall see reason to believe that the reference, far from x See Isa. viii. 6, ‘the waters of Shiloah that go softly’; Ezek. xlvii, i.e. the
vision of the stream which issues from beneath the Temple and, gathering
x W.&II. z Or (as LXX) ‘Ethiopians’. volume, becomes a great river flowing with fertilizing power in the direction
3 Cf., for example, Gen. xxxi. 21 (E) ; Exod. xxiii. 31 (E) ; Num. xxii. 5 (E); of the Jordan valley and the Dead Sea. Cf. G. A. Cooke, The Progress of
Joshua xxiv. 2 (E); 2 Sam. x. 16; I Kings v. I (EW. iv. 21), xiv. 15; 2 Revelation (I~IO), pp. 41 f. Note also the important parallel to Ps. lxxii. 8
Chron. ix. 26; Isa. xxvii. 12: also, without the article, Ps. lxxx. 12 (EW. I I); which is to be found in Zech. ix. 9 f., especially as the latter passage may
Isa. vii. 20; Jer. ii. 18; Mic. vii. 12. ultimately be found all the more striking in view of the argument of these
4 Cf., for example, H. Gressmann, Det Ursprung der israelitisch-jiidischen pages as a whole.
Eschatologie, F.R.L.A.N.T. 6 (1905), p. 254, Der Messias, F.R.L.A.N.T. 43 2 Ps. xlvi. 5 (EW. 4). The omission of the article in the case of ?Qi is
(1929), p. 19; Mowinckel, Kongesalmerne i Det Gamle Testamente, pp. 39 f.: to be compared with the similar omission in the passage under discussion,
and see further the extended discussion of this verse by H. Gross, Weltherr- as well as those passages which are cited above, p. IO, n. 3 adfin., where the
s&aft als religiiise Idee im Alten Testament, B.B.B. 6 (1953), pp. 11-18. reference is to the Euphrates.
5 Cf., for example, R. Patai, Man and Temple: In Ancient Jewish Myth and 3 Or, reading ji’?P iQ@ @‘Ii& on the basis of LXX and V, ‘Which
Ritual (1947), pp. 83 ff.: and, for an introduction to the wider questions in- the Most High hath sanctified as His abode’.
volved, see A. J. Wensinck, The Ideas of the Western Semites concerning the l Cf., for example, Gressmann, lot. cit., Mowinckel, lot. cit.
Navel of the Earth, V.K.A.W.A., N.R. xvii. I (1916) ; J. Jeremias, Golgotha = 5 Cf., for example, H. Gunkel, Die Psalmen, H. K. (I 926), in lot. ; Pedersen,
AWEhO): Beihefte, i (1926), pp. 43 ff., 66 ff.; E. Burrows, ‘Some Cosmo- Israel III-IV, p. 327, E.T., p. 433.
logical Patterns in Babylonian Religion’, in The Labyrinth, pp. 43-70, esp. ’ Cf. Job xxii. 14; Prov. viii. 27; Isa. xl. 22: also Job xxvi. IO (following
PP. 53 ff. S and T). 7 w. 12-14.
12 Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel ‘3
He will have pity on the lowly and the needy; Thus the basic principle underlying the thought of this
Yea, the lives’ of the needy will he save. psalm is clear enough; and it is that the national prosperity
He will protect2 their life from oppression and violence, of Israel is conditioned by the behaviour of society as a
And their blood will be precious in his eyes.
whole. That is to say, as we have already observed, the
These lines lead in turn to a plea for the economic prosperity moral realm and the realm of nature are regarded as one
which is to be expected as a result of righteous or just govern- and indivisible. What is more, however, such an effective
ment on the part of the king; and this is to be reflected in communal life is ultimately dependent upon the character
such rich revenue from abroad and such abundant harvests of the king, whose function it is to maintain law and order.
at home that his name is to be in constant use for all time and Accordingly he must be careful to guarantee justice for all,
amongst all peoples as the pattern of the highest blessing.3 and thus show a constant concern for the weaker and more
So may he live (i.e. flourish)4 and be given helpless members of society. The nation cannot be expected
Of the gold of Sheba. to be righteous and therefore prosperous, if the king does
So may one pray for him continually,
not prove to be righteous; and, as we learn from the open-
And bless him all the day long.
May there be a wealth5 of corn in the land ing line of the psalm, he cannot do this in his own strength,
To the tops of the mountains. but is ultimately dependent upon Yahweh (or ‘The
May their fruit be as plenteous6 as Lebanon; Eternal”), who is clearly ‘the enduring power, not our-
May they flower on the summit’ like the grass of the earth. selves, which makes for righteousness’.2
May his name endure for ever, The question therefore arises as to what exactly was the
May his name continue* as long as the sun ; relationship between the king and Yahweh; for it is obvious
Yea, may [all the families of the earth]9 bless themselves by him, that it must have been regarded as one of a most intimate
May all nations acknowledge his happiness.
kind. Indeed this conclusion is reinforced by the fact that
I It is,. perhaps, hardly necessary to point out that the use of the plural
form of WQ in this line affords no argument for a late date. Cf., for example, the king is not only found leading his people in worship
2 Sam. xxiii. 17, which bears every appearance of being an early passage. with the offering of sacrifice and prayer on important
2 See the writer’s paper, ‘The Primary Meaning of 2/%‘, S.V.T. i (rg53), occasions in the national life,3 but throughout the four
PP. 67-77.
3 w. 15-17. The doxology which follows is no part of the original psalm; I Cf. The Vitality of the Individual in the Thought of Ancient Israel, p. 106,
it simply marks the close of Book II of the Psalter. n. 7, 2nd edit., p. 108, n. 4.
4 Cf. the familiar salutation q$!$ ‘a: (EW. ‘God save the king’; mgn. 2 This, of course, is the familiar language of Matthew Arnold, Literature
‘Heb. Let the king Ziwe’), as in I Sam. x. 24: 2 Sam. xvi. 16; 2 Kings xi. 12; and Dogma. An Essay towards a better Apprehension of the Bible (1873). The
2 Chron. xxiii. I I ; and (in an expanded form) I Kings i. 25, 31, 34, 39: also use of this famous phrase with approval, however, is not to be understood as
Neh. ii. 3. See further The Vitality of the Individual in the Thought of Ancient involving an acceptance of the content which Arnold gave to it. If it is to
Israel, pp. g6 f., 2nd edit., pp. g7 f. form a true definition of the Israelite conception of Yahweh (or ‘The Eternal’,
5 Cf. G. R. Driver, H.T.R. xxix (rg36), pp. 185 f. to use Arnold’s own language again), it must carry with it the thought of a
6 Cf. G. R. Driver,J.T.S. xxxiii (rg3r-2), p. 43. personal and indeed, in modern terms, a supra-personal Power.
7 Vocalizing the consonantal text as ‘Ifug on the analogy of the Arabic 3 See I Sam. xiii (although, as is pointed out by M. Noth, Z.T.K. xlvii
;ei as used of a ‘ridge’ or similar prominence. Cf. E. W. Lane, An Arabic- (Io50), p. 185, n. I, now reprinted in Gesammelte Studien zum Alten Testa-
English Lexicon (I 863-6), S.V. ment (1g57), 2nd edit. enlarged (1g6o), p. 221, n. 37, this is a somewhat
* The original idea underlying the verb (cf. I’?, ‘offspring’) appears to be doubtful example) ; 2 Sam. vi ( I Chron. xiii, xv, xvi), xxiv. 18-25 (I Chron.
that of the continuation of the male line-with all that this implies for the xxi. ~&xxii. I); I Kings iii. 4, 15 (2 Chron. i. 6), viii (2 Chron. v. 2-vii. I O),
preservation of one’s name. Cf. the writer’s monograph, The One and the ix. 25 (2 Chron. viii. 12 f.), x. 5 (2 Chron. ix. 4: LXX); 2 Kings xix. 14ff. (Isa.
Many in the Israelite Conception of God (x942), pp. 7 f., 2nd edit. (rg6r), xxxvii. 14 ff.); 2 Chron. xiv. 8-14 (EW. g-15), xx. 1-30: also the obviously
9 so Lxx. tendentious story in 2 Chron. xxvi. 16-20. Cf. too, I Kings xii. 32-xiii. IO;
PP. 3 f.
 I4 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel ‘5
hundred years of the Davidic dynasty, from the time of Messiah’ but ‘the Messiah of Yahweh’.’ Indeed it seems
David’s active concern for the Ark to that of Josiah’s clear that, as a result, he was now thought to be a channel
thorough-going reform, himself superintends the organiza- for the operation of the divine ‘Spirit’ (trr’ll); and, this
tion of the cultus in all its aspects.1 Some indication of this being the case, it may well be that for the Israelites the
relationship is to be seen, of course, in the familiar rite of symbolic action was eloquent of the power with which h e
anointing by which the king was installed in office and in was to be imbued and which should henceforward govern
virtue of which he enjoyed the title of ‘Messiah’ (n’@3);2 his behaviour.2 Be that as it may, a special endowment of
for, the sacred commission having come in the ultimate from the Spirit is clearly associated with the rite in question,
Yahweh and having been communicated by His messenger, when it is said of the founder of the Davidic dynasty that,
whether prophet or priest,3 the king was not merely ‘the on his being chosen for this high office,3
2 Kings x. x8-28, xvi. 10-18 (2 Chron. xxviii. 22-25) : and see now the writer’s Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his
additional comments in ‘Hebrew Conceptions of Kingship’ (as cited above, brethren; and the Spirit of Yahweh burst upon David from that day
p. 7, n. I, ad&), pp. 211 ff. forward.
x See 2 Sam. vi (I Chron. xiii, xv, xvi), xxiv. I 8-25 (I Cl-n-on. xxi. 18-xxii. I) ;
I Kings v. 15 (EW. v. 1)-viii. 66 (2 Chron. i. 18 (EW. ii. 1)-vii. I O), xv. Whatever the date of this passage,4 there can be no reason-
12-1s (2 Chron. xv. I-IS); 2 Kings xii. s-17 (EW. 4-16) (2 Chron. xxiv.
able doubt that the picture which it gives is in line with
4-14), xviii. 4 (2 Chron. xxix. 3-xxxi. 21), xxii. 3-xxiii. 23 (2 Chron. xxxiv.
3-xxxv. I g) : and, what is particularly interesting, the Chronicler’s emphasis popular tradition, for it corresponds so exactly with what
upon David’s preparations for the building of the Temple and his organiza- we are told in the obviously early stories about the exploits
tion of the musical side of its worship, I Chron. xxii. 2-19, xxv (cf. I Chron.
xv. 16 ff.; 2 Chron. xxix. 25 ff.). Cf., too, I Kings xii. 26-32 (2 Chron. xi.
of the great heroes of Israel in the period immediately
14 f.); 2 Kings x. 18-28, xvi. 1o-18 (2 Chron. xxviii. 22-25). prior to the foundation of the monarchy and indeed the
z See especially (a) Judges ix. 7-21; I Sam. xvi. 1-13; 2 Sam. ii. 17, v. exploits of David’s predecessor Saul.5 What is more, it
1-5; I Kings i. 28-40; 2 Kings ix. 1-13, xi. 4-20; (b) I Sam. xxiv. 7, I I
(EW. 6, I O), xxvi. g, II, 16, 23; 2 Sam. i. 14, 16, xix. 22. An early parallel
should be borne in mind that from the first the activity of
to this rite is to be found in a letter of the fourteenth century B.C., sent by the Spirit, which, as an extension of the Personality of
Addu-nirari, king of Nuhashshe, to his overlord, the king of Egypt, in which Yahweh, was certainly not thought of as an impersonal
he refers to the fact that the latter’s grandfather had poured oil upon the
head of his own grandfather, thus conferring the kingship upon him, i.e. : and priest as Yahweh’s messengers, see The One and the Many in the Israelite
To the sun, the king, my lord, the king of Egypt, Conception of God, pp. 36 f., 2nd edit., pp. 32 f.; also The Cultic Prophet in
Addu-nirari thy servant, as follows: Ancient Israel, pp. IO f., 48 f., 2nd edit., pp. 8 f., 57 f.
At the feet of my lord I fall. I Cf., for example, I Sam. xxiv. 7, II (EW. 6, I O), xxvi. g, II, 16, 23; 2
(Behold), when Manahbi(r)ia, the king of Egypt, thy grandfather, estab- Sam. i. 14, 16, xix. 22 (EW. 21).
lished (Taku), my (grandfather), as king in Nuhashshe, and set oil upon his 2 Cf. the language of Isa. xliv. 3; Ezek. xxxix. 29; Joel iii. of. (EW. ii.
head, (he said). . , . 28 f.): also Isa xxxii. 15 ; Zech. xii. I O.
Cf. J. A. Knudtzon, Die El-Amuma-Tafen (IgIs), and S. A. B. Mercer, 3 I Sam. xvi. 13.
The Tell el-Amama Tablets (Igsg), No. 51, I ff. : and see now, for a general l Cf., for example, (a) K. Budde, K.H.C. (1go2), pp. I 13 ff. ; W. Nowack,

discussion of this rite within the context of the ancient Near East, E. Kutsch, H.K. (1go2), p. 79; P.(E.) Dhorme, E.B. (1g1o), pp. 145 f.; H. Cressmann,
Salbung als Rechtsakt im Alten Testament und im Alten Orient, B.Z.A.W. 87 S.A.T. ii. I , 2nd edit. rev. (1g21), pp. 63ff.; R. Kittel, H.S.A.T. (Igzz),
(1963); also, as regards its use in connexion with the kingship in ancient p. 431; W. Caspari, K.A.T. (1g26), pp. 187 ff.; A. F. Kirkpatrick, C.B.,
Israel, R. de Vaux, ‘Le Roi d’Isra&l, vassal de Yahve’, in Mt!langes Eugkne 2nd edit. rev. (1g3o), pp. 130 f.; (b) H. P. Smith, I.C.C. (18gg), p. 143;
Tisserant (Ig64), i, pp. 119-33. For an important criticism of Kutsch’s A. R. S. Kennedy, Cent. B. (nd.), p. 116; H. W. Hertzberg, A.T.D. (1g56),
treatment of the historical aspects of the O.T. data, see de Vaux, op. cit., pp. 104 ff., 3rd edit. (1g65), pp. 107 ff., E.T. (of the 2nd edit. rev. (1960))
p. 133, n. 68, and R.B. lxxi (rg64), pp. 276-8. by J. S. Bowden (1g64), pp. 135 ff.
3 Cf. I Sam. xvi. 1-13; I Kings i. 28-40; 2 Kings ix. 1-13, xi. 4-20 5 See esp. (a) Judges vi. 34 ff., xi. 2g ff., xiii. 25, xiv. 6, 19, xv. 14; (b)
(following LXX in verse 12: cf. 2 Chron. xxiii. II): and, for both prophet I Sam. x. I , 6 ff., xi. 6 ff. (cf. xvi. 14).
 16 Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel ‘7
force,’ was by no means restricted to exhibitions of evidence has been advanced for denying the Davidic
physical prowess,2 but might include the foresight of an authorship of at least the body of the poem;’ for there is not
administrator like Joseph and the organizing ability of a the slightest justification for the view that vocabulary,
potential king such as Gideon.3 All in all, therefore, it is style, and thought prove it to be of comparatively late date.2
obvious that David, like the divine ‘Angel’ or ‘Messenger’ Happily, however, a decision on this point is not important
(#Jg) w i t h w h om he could henceforward be compared for our present purpose. It is sufficient to note (a) that the
for his insight,4 must himself have been regarded as a potent poem is of a piece with the royal psalms, (b) that, like
extension of the divine Personality.5 Accordingly it is little Psalm lxxii, it reveals the lofty ideal of righteousness which
wonder that the king’s person should have been regarded as was associated with the House of David, and (c) that this
sacrosanct; i.e., as we learn already from the way in which ideal of a righteous kingship is rooted in a ‘covenant’ (IV’13>,
David spared Saul’s life, that one should beware of stretch- carefully and securely drawn up, between David as the
ing forth one’s hand against Yahweh’s Messiah,6 and that founder of the dynasty and Yahweh as the national God.
the cursing of a king could be brought into line with the The language of the introduction, with its repeated
cursing of God.7 reference to the oracular nature of David’s words, em-
Nevertheless the peculiar bond existing between the phasizes the prophetic character of what follows; and this is
Davidic king and Yahweh is also expressed in other terms in keeping with David’s own claim (or the claim made in
than this, as one may see from the short poem commonly the name of David) that what he is about to say has come
known as ‘The Last ,Words of David’.* It is, of course, a to him directly through the Spirit of Yahweh. This, of
matter of dispute as to whether or not this poem was course, is in harmony with the tradition which we have
actually the work of David; and, if it was, one is still left already noticed, i.e. that David, in virtue of his being
with the question as to whether or not it represents any- anointed and thus becoming the Messiah of Yahweh, came
thing like his last words, for it seems to owe its citation in powerfully under the influence of Yahweh’s Spirit. The
this way to an editorial desire to give David a ‘testament’ poem as a whole may be rendered thus:
similar to those which have been ascribed to Jacob and
Moses.9 At the same time it must be said that no conclusive 1 Cf. 0. Procksch, ‘Die letzten Worte Davids’, in Alttestamentliche
Studien Rudolf Kittel zum 60. Geburtstag dargebracht, B.W.A.T. 13 (1913),
pp. 112-25: also Gunkel-Begrich, Einleitung in die Psalmen, p. 146 (David
I Cf. The One and the Many in the Israelite Conception of God, pp. 17 ff,, himself as author); Gressmann, op. cit., pp. 184 ff. (a contemporary of
2nd edit., pp. 13 ff. David as author); Kittel, op. cit., p. 488 (probably time of David); A. Causse,
2 e.g. Judges xiii. 25, xiv. 6, 19, xv. 14. Les Plus Vieux Chants de la Bible, E.H.P.R. xiv (1926), pp. 152 ff. (David
3 Gen. xli. 38 (J/E) ; Judges vi. 34 ff. (cf. viii. 22 f.). Cf. Judges iii. I O, or a court poet). Cf. now, too, R. de Vaux, S.B. J., 2nd edit. rev. (1961) ;
xi. 29 ff. ; I Sam. xi. 6 ff. : also Isa. xi. I ff., lxi. I, to which the writer hopes Hertzberg, op. cit., p. 324, 3rd edit., pp. 329 f., E.T., pp. 399 f.
to return in a subsequent work. See also The Vitality of the Individual in the 2 Cf., for example, Smith, op. cit., pp. 381 ff. ; Budde, op. cit., pp. 315 ff. ;
Thought of Ancient Israel, pp. 28 ff., 2nd edit., pp. 24 ff. Nowack, op. cit., p. 251; Dhorme, op. cit., pp. 447 f. : and especially S.
4 2 Sam. xiv. 17, 20, xix. 28 (EW. 27) : cf. I Sam. xxix. 9. Mowinckel, ’ “Die letzten Worte Davids” II Sam 23’-7’, Z.A.W. xlv (1927),
5 Cf. The One and the Many in the Israelite Conception of God, pp. 32 ff., pp. 30-58 (cf. G.T.M.M.M. ii (1935), pp. 296 ff.), which suffers from (a)
2nd edit., pp. 28 ff. a radical scepticism with regard to the text, (b) an undue emphasis upon the
6 I Sam. xxiv. 7, I I (EW. 6, I O), xxvi. 9, I I, 23; 2 Sam. i. 14, 16. supposedly gnomic character of the resultant poem, and (c) an interpretation
7 I Kings xxi. IO, 13: cf. Exod. xxii. 27 (EW. 28) (E); 2 Sam. xix. 22 (EW. of Yahweh’s covenant with David in a way which proves to be without
21) ; also Prov. xxiv. 21. * 2 Sam. xxiii. r-7. justification, when the thought of these lines is compared with that of Pss.
g Gen. xlix; Deut. xxxiii. Cf., too, the late work known as The Testaments lxxxix and cxxxii, both of which are recognized by Mowinckel himself as
of the Twelve Patriarchs. being connected in some way with the poem under discussion.
c 3988 C
18 Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel Smal Kingship in Ancient Israel =9
Oracle of David, the son of Jesse, Set forth in detail with proper safeguard?’
And oracle of the man who was raised on high,’ Yea, doth He not bring to growth
The Messiah of the God of Jacob My complete salvation (~@)a and every wish?
And the hero of Israel’s psalms.2
Whereas evil must be like thistles, all running wild,3
The Spirit of Yahweh speaketh through me, For these are not removed4 by hand,
And His utterance3 is upon my tongue; But the man who cometh into touch with them
The God of Israel hath said, Must be complete with iron and spear-shaft,
To me the Rock of Israel hath spoken. And they must be burned with fire on the spot.5
‘A ruler of men must be righteous,
Comment is superfluous ; such vivid, pictorial language
Ruling in the fear of God4
And like the light of morning, at sunrise, speaks for itself.
A cloudless morning which maketh the grass This theme of a covenant between Yahweh and the House
Glistens from the earth after rain.’ of David occurs again in Psalm cxxxii, which clearly comes
Nay, but6 is not that how ,my house stands with God,
within the category of the royal psalms and, as such,
Since He hath granted me an everlasting covenant, appears to have as its original S&z im Leben a dramatic
x In view of the writer’s subsequent argument it would be pleasant to
commemoration or liturgical re-enactment of the bringing
accept the suggestion that 59 is here a divine name, corresponding to the of the Ark to Jerusalem and the consequent foundation of
familiar ]i’yg (‘Most High’), and that Pp;! should be read as a(‘)i73, thus the Jerusalem cultus in close association with the Davidic
securing the rendering : dynasty.6 It falls clearly into two parts: (a) a hymn be-
Oracle of David, the son of Jesse, seeching Yahweh’s continued favour to the royal house,
And oracle of the man whom the Most High raised up,
The Messiah of the God of Jacob and (b) a response of an oracular kind in which the wor-
And the hero of Israel’s psalms. shippers are assured that Yahweh will preserve His cove-
Cf. H. S. Nyberg, Studien zum Hoseabzuzhe, U.U.A. 1935: 6’(1935), pp. nant with the House of David, i.e. the ‘everlasting covenant’
57 ff., and ‘Studien zum Religionskampf im Alten Testament. I. Der Gott to which the preceding poem referred, although this carries
‘Al: Belege und Bedeutung des Namens’, A.R.W. xxxv (1938), p. 378;
G. R. Driver, E.T. 1 (19$3-g), pp. 92 f. As is pointed out by J. A. Bewer,
with it corresponding obligations on the part of David’s
J.B.L. lxi (rg42), pp. 47 f., it may hardly be claimed that this suggestion is * Cf., for example, S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topo-
confirmed by LXXB; but, even so, it remains a possibility and may well be graphy of the Books of Samuel, 2nd edit. rev. (1913), in lot.
right. It has not been adopted here, however, as the writer is anxious to avoid 2 i.e. as ‘freedom’ from whatever interferes with fullness of life. Cf. The
using any argument in support of his thesis which, in his opinion, admits Vitality of the Individual in the Thought of Ancient Israel, pp. g4 ff., 2nd edit.,
the possibility of doubt. See further p. 50, n. 4.
pp. 95 ff. For the wide range of meaning which JU@’ came to admit see
2 Cf. Ps. xcv. 2 and the royal psalms discussed below, in Parts V-VI, which
Driver, op. cit., pp. 118 f.
are so intimately concerned with David and the House of David.
a lit. ‘the whole of them being allowed to wander’. The suffix of P&T
3 The time has gone by when the presence of an ‘Aramaism’ in a work could
be regarded without more ado as an indication of a late date. Cf., for example, refers back to the collective noun yip (i.e. constructio ad sensum).
G. R. Driver, J.T.S. xxxvi (rg35), pp. 294 ff., Problems of the Hebrew Verbal 4 Vocalizing snc as ?llpz. Cf., for example, Budde, op. cit., in Zoc.,
System, O.T.S. 2 (1936), pp. g8 ff., 151 f., ‘Hebrew Poetic Diction’, S.V.T. although this is not absolutely necessary (cf. Driver, op. cit., in Zoc.).
i (1953), pp. 26-39; D. W. Thomas, in Record and Revelation, ed. H. W. 5 Hebrew l?atia = in situ. The writer cannot find the slightest reason for
Robinson (1938), pp. 386 f.; and now M. Noth, Die Urspriinge des alten questioning thi iext ; and the removal of the expression on the ground that
Israel im Lichte neuer Quellen, A.F.L.N.W. 94 (rg6r), e.g., pp. 28 f., 34 ff. it has arisen from confusion with the corresponding set of consonants in the
4 Cf. Gen. xx. II (E). next verse (cf., for example, Driver, op. cit., in Zoc.) merely succeeds in
5 Vocalizing g$lp as a#??. Cf. for example, Budde, op. cit., in lot. robbing the simile of much of its force.
6 Cf. Ruth i. I O; I Sam. x. rg. 6 2 Sam. vi: cf. I Chron. xiii, xv, xvi.
20 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel 21

successors upon the throne. Thus its liturgical character Or slumber to mine eyelids,
seems clear. The hymn begins with a striking appeal to Until I find a place for Yahweh,
Yahweh to remember on David’s behalf (all his humility’.f A dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob.’
This is a quality which we find stressed repeatedly in the Lo, we heard of it in Ephrathah;
Psalter as the characteristic attitude which Yahweh re- We came across it in the countryside of rJair1.I
Let us enter His dwelling,
quires of all His followers, king and subjects alike;2 and its Let us make obeisance before His footstool.
use in the present connexion is then explained in terms of
I A.V.: ‘Lo, we heard of it at Ephratah: we found it in the fields of the
David’s reverent concern for the Ark and his untiring wood.’
determination to find a suitable home for this important R.V. : ‘Lo, we heard of it in Ephrathah (mgn. ‘Or Ephraim’) :
We found it in the field of the wood (mgn. ‘Or Jaar’).’
cultic object, which was the guarantee of Yahweh’s presence
R.S.V.: ‘Lo, we heard of it in Ephrathah,
with His people, and was famous in Israelite history as a we found it in the fields of Jaar.’
potent and indeed, even for Yahweh’s own worshippers, a 0. Eissfeldt, ‘Psalm 132’, W.O. ii 5/6 (rgsg), pp. 480-3, like Kirkpatrick,
op. cit., follows Franz Delitzsch, Biblischer Kommentar iiber die Psalmen,
somewhat dangerous extension of the divine Personality.3
5th edit. rev. by Friedrich Delitzsch (r8g4), E.T. of the 4th edit. by D. Eaton
The home in view is obviously the Temple, for which (I 887-9), in holding that the reference in each stichos is to the locating of
David was primarily responsible even if Solomon was its the Ark at Kiriath-jearim; but, despite such strong support for Delitzsch’s
theory, it seems to me that this well-known crux interpreturn remains un-
builder; and, as the Ark is lifted into its place, Yahweh is solved; for the ingenious attempt to prove that in this instance the name
implored to show favour to His followers, specifically the Ephrathah denotes the district in which Kiriath-jearim lay (cf. I Chron. ii.
priests and general assembly of worshippers, and, above all, rg, 50 f., iv. 4) is governed by the common but highly questionable assump-
tion that ‘Jaar’ is here employed as a poetical variant of ‘Kiriath-jearim’.
to be gracious to the reigning king for the sake of his an- The rendering given in the text, which merely involves the vocalizing of 1Yl as
cestor David.4 ?(‘)Y:, is offered, therefore, as another attempt at a solution of the problem.
0 Yahweh, remember for David This reading is suggested by the theory that David’s original name was
‘Elhanan ben Jair’ (cf. I Sam. xvii, 2 Sam. xxi. rg, and what appears to be
All his humility; the harmonizing gloss in I Chron. xx. 5, as referred to below, p. 51, n. I);
How he swore to Yahweh, and, if this suggestion be sound, the reference in the case of both ‘Ephrathah’
How he vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob, and ‘the countryside of Jair’ must be to the district of Bethlehem (cf. Ruth
‘I will not enter the tent which is my dwelling, iv. II ; I Sam. xvii. 12; Mic. v. I (EVV. 2)). The suffixes of 331@q and
Nor ascend the couch which is my bed, ;Ili’lNqF may then be taken as having neuter force and referring, not to the
I will not give sleep to mine eyes Ark (cf. the customary citation of I Sam. iv. 17 and 2 Chron. viii. I I in sup-
port of the feminine forms of these sufIixes), but to the early evidence for
* i.e. reading !Zl#g with LXX and S. The vocalization of M.T. (cf. T) David’s humility as expressed in the foregoing vow, which was first ‘heard
of’ (dYnt@ or ‘come across’ (1/Km) as a piece of oral tradition concerning
is supposed to refer to all-the trouble which David underwent in the service
the creator of the Davidic dynasty which was found current in the district
of Yahweh, especially in the case of the incident under discussion. Cf., for
in which Elhanan had been brought up. Finally, if it be objected that there is
example, A. F. Kirkpatrick, C.B. (rgoz), in Zoc. To the present writer, how-
no evidence to warrant the view that d/NSn could be used of ‘finding’ in
ever, this is unlikely for the reason given above in the text,
the sense of ‘lighting upon’ such oral tradition (cf., for example, Gunkel,
2 See below, for example, pp. 7g f., gr , I I I ff., and IZO f.
H.K., in Zoc., with reference to H. Kessler, K.K., 2nd edit. (r8gg)), it must
J Cf. I Sam. iv. rb-vii. I ; 2 Sam. vi. 6 f. : and see further The One and the
be said that, if one might use this Hebrew verb of coming across someone
Many in the Israelite Conception of God, pp. 23 ff., 2nd edit., pp. rg ff. See
when on one’s travels (e.g. Gen. xxxvii. 15 (J) ; I Sam. ix. I I, xxx. I I ; 2 Kings
also, for the cultic background to the stories of the Ark in I Sam. iv-vii
iv. 29, x. 15) and even of meeting with trouble and sorrow (Ps. cxvi. 3), it is
and 2 Sam. vi, L. Rost, Die l!?berlieferung von der Thronnuchfolge Davids,
difficult to see why it could not have been used of happening upon a popular
B.W.A.N.T. 42 (Ig26), pp. -_ 4-47.
. . local story of the kind suggested, especially when it may be held that the
l w. I-I O. See also 2 Chron. vi. 41 f. for a slightly different text in the case
actual meaning of the term in this particular context is already indicated by
of the last three lines (i.e. w. 8 ff.).
the use of 4Ymti in the parallel stichos.
 22 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel 23
Rise up now, 0 Yahweh, to Thy home,’ This is My home for ever;
Thou and Thy powerful Ark. Here will I dwell, for I have desired it.
Let Thy priests be clothed with righteousness, I will bless her with abundant provision;
And let Thy votaries2 rejoice. I will satisfy her poor with bread.
For the sake of David, Thy Servant, I will clothe her priests with salvation;’
Turn not back the face of Thy Messiah. And her votaries shall greatly rejoice.
There I will make a horn shoot up for David,
The exact form taken by the oracular response is difficult I have prepared a lamp for My Messiah.
to determine. It is conceivable, for example, that the His enemies I will clothe with shame,
whole psalm was sung antiphonally by the Temple choirs. While on himself his crown shall sparkle.
On the other hand, the second half is so clearly a definite The only question of interpretation is that which is raised
response to the prayer offered in the earlier part of the by the reference to the ‘testimony’ (or ‘testimonies’2), which
psalm that it seems more reasonable to infer that it was Yahweh is to teach David’s descendants. As the parallelism
uttered by an appropriate member of the Temple personnel. shows, this must be a comprehensive term for the duties,
In that case one may think of a priest or, as this seems a little involved in the acceptance of the covenant, which each
unlikely in view of the somewhat detached attitude to the must learn to carry out on ascending the throne. It is an
priesthood suggested by both parts of the psalm, a cultic allusion to the conditions whereby each successive king will
prophet of the type which we find associated with the musi- be entitled to wear, in the language of the psalm, the
cal side of the Temple worship.3 For the rest, the wording ‘sparkling crown’ which will be the symbol of his office;
of the response is so straightforward that little is required in and it is important because it throws light upon a passage
the way of comment, and it may be rendered as follows :4 in the account of the coronation of the boy king Jehoash
Yahweh hath sworn to David, which has been seriously questioned, i.e. the statement
A pledge from which He will not turn back. that he was invested with ‘the crown and the testimony (or
‘Of the fruit of thy body
Will I set upon thy throne. testimonies)‘.3 The Hebrew of the latter term has been
If thy sons keep My covenant found so odd that it is commonly emended so as to read
And My testimony (or testimonies) that I shall teach them, ‘the bracelets’4 or ‘the insignia’ ;5 but the fact surely is that
Their sons too, for ever, I See above, p. 19, n. 2.
Shall sit upon thy throne.’ z The vocalization of M.T. (‘nig) points to an uncertainty as to whether
For Yahweh hath chosen Zion; one should read a singular form, ‘My testimony’ (?Vllr$?), or the plural, ‘My
He hath desired it for His abode. testimonies’ (‘@Iv). See further, p. 67, n. 2.
3 (0~ nit+@ nvg3’nq? y,p;l-nv. 2 Kings xi. 12: cf. 2 Cl-iron. xxiii. I I.
1 lit. ‘resting-place’; but see, for example, Ruth i. g. * ni?$?~~. Cf., for example, J. Wellhausen, Die Composition des Hexa-
2 In the writer’s opinion the nearest English equivalent to the term ‘Igo teuchs und der historischm B&her des Alten Testaments, 3rd edit. (r8gg),
(EW. ‘mercy’, ‘kindness’, ‘lovingkindness‘) is ‘devotion’; and, correspond- p. 292, n. 2: and I. Benzinger, K.H.C. (1899); R. Kittel, H.K. (1900); C. F.
ingly, the term VO? (EW. ‘saint’, ‘holy’, ‘godly’, ‘merciful’ etc.) denotes Burney, Notes on the Hebrew Text of the Books of Kings (1903) ; J. Skinner,
one who is ‘devoted’, i.e. a ‘devotee’ or ‘votary’ or, in certain contexts, one Cent.B. (n.d.), alternatively; H. Gressmann, S.A.T. ii. I , 2nd edit. rev.
who is ‘devout’. See now my discussion of the use of these terms in Inter- (x921); 0. Eissfeldt, H.S.A.T. (1922); S. Landersdorfer, H.S.A.T. (1927);
pretationes ad Vetus Testamentum pettinentes (S. Mowinckel Festschrift) = E.R. Goodenough,r.B.L.xlviii(rg2g),p. rgo; S. Mowincke1,inG.T.M.M.M.
NOY. T.T. hi (1~~55)~ pp. 100-12. ii (rg35), but see the more recent work cited below, p. 24, n. 2; L. Waterman,
3 Cf. The Celtic Prophet in Ancient Israel, pp. 59 ff., 2nd edit., pp. 69 ff. in The Bible: an American Translation, ed. J. M. P. Smith and E. J. Good-
l w. 11-18. (Footnotes 4 and 5 continued on next page.)
 a4 Sacral Kinphip in Ancient Israel Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel 25
the king was made to wear, not merely the royal crown, but tion of the Davidic dynasty were explicit enough, and, no
a document embodying the basic terms of Yahweh’s doubt, they were so framed in order to remind David’s
covenant with the House of David, i.e. in much the same successors of the responsibilities of their office; but, as
way as the devout Jew, generation after generation, has to we have already had occasion to note and as we shall see
learn the words of the Shema (the basic principle underlying again presently, there remains the underlying thought that
the Sinaitic covenant as defined in the book of Deutero- David has an ‘everlasting covenant’ with Yahweh, so that
nomy)’ and wear them, bound on the arm and the brow, failure at any point to fulfil the conditions, while it must
at morning prayer.2 Thus the conditions for the continua- meet with suitable punishment, will not be allowed to
speed (1935); R. Patai, H.U.C.A. xx (rg47), p. rg5, alternatively; A. Causse annul the promise which was originally made to the
and C. Jaeger, in La Bible du Centenaire, ii (1947); R. de Vaux, S.B.J. (rg4g),
but see now the qualification, op. cit., 2nd edit. rev. (rg58), and especially
founder of the royal house.
the more recent work cited below, n. 2, ad fin.; N. H. Snaith, I.B. (1954); This thought comes clearly to the fore in Psalm lxxxix,
E. Dhorme, B.P.(A.T.), i (1956); A. van den Born, B.O.T. (1958). where the covenant between Yahweh and David is referred
5 e.g. n?T@. Cf., for example, A. Klostermann, K.K. (1887), in Zoc. ;
to at such length that we are able to complete our picture of
Skinner, lot. cit., alternatively; The Holy Scriptures, Jewish Publication
Society of America (rgr7), in Zoc.; G. R. Driver, J.T.S. xxxvi (rg35), the intimate relationship which was held to exist between
pp. 293 f.; Patai, lot. cit., alternatively. Yahweh and the successive kings of the Davidic dynasty.
x vi. 4 f. The poem itself, which belongs to the class of royal
z Something of the true significance of this passage was realized by psalms, is a perfectly organic whole; for the variation in
W. E. Barnes, C.B., 2nd edit. rev. (rg28), in Zoc., and T. H. Robinson, in metre and theme, which is so commonly regarded as an
W. 0. E. Oesterley and T. H. Robinson, A History of Israel (Ig32), i, p. 351,
both of whom rightly refrained from an attempted emendation of the text. indication of different authorship,’ is simply due to its
The same holds good of G. Widengren, Psalm IIO och det sakrala kungad&net liturgical background. In other words, it is a perfectly
i Israel, U.U.A. 1941: 7, I (rg4r), pp. rg f. (followed by G. t)stbom, T6~ti straightforward work which reveals sufficiently clearly of
in the OZd Testament: a Semantic Study (1945)~ pp. 76 ff.), The Ascension of
the Apostle and the Heavenly Book = King and Saviour III, U.U.A. 1950: itself the circumstances which have called it into being.
7 (rgso), pp. 24 ff., The King and the Tree of Life in Ancient Near Eastern Disaster has overtaken the royal forces or, at least, the
ReZigion=King and Saviour IV, U.U.A. 1951: 4 (rg5r), pp. 3g f., and now
pp. 5 18 f., who, unlike Widengren, op. cit., p. 6, n. 2, adjin., rightly distin-
‘King and Covenant’, Y.S.S. ii (rg57), pp. 5 ff. ; but in the present writer’s
guishes this interpretation of the text in question from that advanced by von
opinion he makes the mistake of accepting the traditional view which sees
Rad ; R. de Vaux, ‘Le Roi d’Isra&l, vassal de Yahve’, in MbZanges Eug2ne
in the term n?lrg a reference to the Mosaic ‘Tablets of the Law’. Another Tisserant (Ig64), i, pp. 127 f.
step in the right direction is that of G. von Rad, in ‘Das judlische Kiinigsritual’, I Cf., for example, B. Duhm, K.H.C., 2nd edit. rev. (1922) ; W. Staerk,
T.L.Z. lxxii (rg47), ~01s. 211-18=GesammeZte Studien zum AZten Testament S.A.T. iii. I, 2nd edit. rev. (1920); R. Kittel, K.A.T., 5th and 6th edit. (rg29),
(Ig58), pp. 205-13 (followed, for example, by Mowinckel, Oflersang og possibly; H. Gunkel, H.K. (1926); H. Schmidt, H.A.T. (1934); J. Cal&s,
sangoffeer, pp. 73 f., E.T., i, p. 62; G. Fohrer, ‘Der Vertrag zwischen Kanig Le Livre des psaumes (Ig36), probably; M. Buttenwieser, The Psalms:
und Volk in Israel’, Z.A. W. lxxi (I g5g), pp. I I f.), who in partial dependence Chronologically treated with a New Translation (1938); W. 0. E. Oesterley,
upon Ps. ii. 7 (cf. also Ps. cv. IO) sees in the reference to the n?X?, not the The Psalms (1939); F. Natscher, Echt. B. (rg47), 2nd edit. rev. (rg5g),
conditions which the king undertakes to observe (as the present writer main- possibly; E. Podechard, Le Psautier. Traduction ZittkaZe, explication histori-
tains), but the promises to which Yahweh commits Himself in fulfilment of que et notes critiques, ii (1954). See, however, (a) the emphatic rejection of
the covenant, i.e.: ‘In diesem Konigsprotokoll spricht Jahwe in direkter this view by E. Konig, Die Psalmen (1927); F. M. Th. Bohl, T.U. ii (1947):
Rede den Kbnig an, nennt ihn Sohn, belehnt ihn mit der Herrschaft, nennt and (b) the suggestion of a common background of cultic tradition which
seine Thronnamen usw.’ Again, however, it seems to the writer that the is more strongly emphasized by Mowinckel, Psalmenstudien III, pp. 34 ff.;
language of Ps. cxxxii. 12 (cf., too, verse r8b) requires the interpretation E. A. Leslie, The Psalms: Translated and Interpreted in the Light of Hebrew
given in the text. See also in general H. G. May, J.B.L. lvii (rg38), p. 181; Life and Worship (1949); A. Weiser, A.T.D. (rgso), 5th edit. rev. (rgsg),
J. A. Montgomery and H. S. Gehman, I.C.C. (rgsr), in Zoc. : and now, in E.T. by H. Hartwell (1962); and now H. J. Kraus, B.K.A.T., 2nd edit. rev.
support of the view advanced above in the text, J. Gray, I & II Kings (I g64), (1961).
26 Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel 27
king has suffered some deep humiliation; and the trouble is I have exalted a youth from among the people.
attributed to the anger of Yahweh. Accordingly the repre- I have found David, My Servant;
sentatives of the people, under the leadership of the king With My holy oil I have anointed him,
himself, have assembled in the Temple in order to implore So that My Hand shall be his constant support,
the divine favour. The opening lines form a hymn of Mine Arm also shall strengthen him.
No enemy shall oppress him,
praise celebrating the supremacy of Yahweh, as the ‘Holy Nor shall the wrongdoer afflict him;
One’ of Israel, and His power in Creation;’ and this is But I will beat down his adversaries before him,
followed by an equally lengthy passage in which Yahweh And I will smite them that hate him.
is reminded of His former promises to David and, in David, My faithfulness and My devotion* shall be with him,
to his descendants upon the throne of Jerusalem. It is this And through My Name shall his horn be lifted up.2
passage which is our immediate concern, i.e. :2 I will lay his’hand also upon the sea,
And his right hand upon the ocean currents.3
Of old Thou didst speak by a prophets He shall cry unto Me, “Thou art my Father,
To Thy votaries,+ and saidst- My God and the Rock that is my salvation.“4
‘I have bestowed aids upon a manly one, I on My part will make him My first-born,
The highest of earthly kings.
x w. 2-19 (EW. I-18), as below, pp. 106 ff.
2 w. 20-30 (EW. 19-29). It is commonly held that these and the en-
I will always preserve for him My devotion,
suing lines, i.e. verses 20-38 (EW. 19-37)~ are a poetic paraphrase of Always keep My covenant true for him.
Nathan’s prophecy in 2 Sam. vii. 1-17 ( = I Chron. xvii. I-IS). Cf., for I will make his seed to endure for ever
example, F. Baethgen, H.K. (1892), 3rd edit. rev. (1904); A. F. Kirkpatrick, And his throne as the days of heaven.’
C.B. (1902): and the following, all op. cit., Duhm, Staerk, Kittel, Cal&s,
Oesterley, Biihl; also B. Bonkamp, Die Psalmen nuch dem hebriiischen These lines are not to be taken at their face value, as if they
Grundtext (I 949). It is much more likely, however, that the author of 2 Sam. refer merely to the individual whom we know as David;
vii. 1-17 was himself dependent upon the cultic tradition of the Jerusalem
Temple, of which this poem is a typical product. Cf. the remarks of H. See W. F. A. Albright, The Archdeology of Palestine (1949), p. 233, 4th edit.
Gressmann, S.A.T. ii. I, 2nd edit. rev. (1921), p. 139; Mowinckel, Psalmen- rev. (1960), p. 234. This seems possible, and it has now been accepted by
studien III, pp. 34 ff.; G. von Rad. T.L.Z. lxxii (1947), col. 214 = Gesam- Weiser, op. cit., 5th edit. (1959), E.T. (1962); but it also seems to the writer
melte Studien &Ye., p. 210; and the following, all op. cit., Gunkel, Schmidt, that the traditional interpretation (cf. LXX) is supported by the analogous
Leslie, Weiser. See also p. I IO, n. 2 for recent works offering a fuller discus- construction in Ps. xxi. 6 (EW. 5), which, like Ps. lxxxix, may be classed as
sion of this question. a royal psalm. Cf. R. Tournay, R.B. lviii (1951), p. 617, n. 2; and see below,
f EW. ‘in vision’. See, however, The Cultic Prophet in Ancient Israel, pp. 132f. I See above, p. 22, n. 2.
pp. 13 ff., 33 ff., 2nd edit., pp. II ff., 35 ff. 2 For the significance of this picturesque idiom and some indication of its
l See above, p. 22, n. 2. importance for our understanding of the Psalter, see The Cultic Prophet in
5 The term ?,6Y (‘aid’) has often been viewed with suspicion, and it has Ancient Israel, 2nd edit., p. 70, n. 3.
been usual to regard it as a corruption of yi;I (‘crown’). Cf., for example, 3 It is usually assumed that the reference in this line must be to the
Duhm, Staerk, Kittel, Gunkel, Schmidt, Buttenwieser, Oesterley, Notscher, Mediterranean and the Euphrates, the plural form n??gj (EW. ‘rivers’),
BShl, Leslie, Weiser (1st edit. (1950), but see below), Podechard, all op. cit.; being explained either as a poetic generalization or as denoting the Euphrates
also A. Bertholet, H.S.A.T. (1923); H. Herkenne, H.S.A.T. (1936); L. and its canals. Cf. Deut. xi. 24; Pss. lxxx. I I, cxxxvii. I ; and see further, for
Randon, Lu Bible du Centenaire, iii (I 947) ; R. Tournay and R. Schwab, S.B. J. example, Kirkpatrick, op. cit., in lot. However, it should be borne in mind
(1950), but subsequently abandoned (cf. 3rd edit. rev. (1964)). On the other that the term niyg; is also used of the ‘currents’ of the cosmic sea (e.g.
hand, the reading 1TY has been defended on the ground that it corresponds Pss. xxiv. 2, xciii. 3, as below, pp. 65 f. and 72 f.); so that here again the thought
to the Ugaritic &ZT (‘youth’), the suggestion being that one should render the appears to be one of a dominion extending over the wide circle of the earth,
passage : i.e. as in the expression ‘from sea to sea’ in Ps. lxxii. 8, as above, pp. IO f. Cf.
‘I have placed a youth above the mighty man; already Pedersen, Israel III-IV, p. 496, E.T., p. 655.
I have raised a young man above the people.’ * See above, p. 19, n. 2.
28 Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel 29
they must be read in the light of what we know about Nor will I be untrue to My faithfulness.
Israelite ideas of corporate personality.’ When this is done, I will not violate My covenant,
Nor alter that which hath passed My Lips.
they are seen to imply that the line of David is to issue in Once for all have I sworn by My Holiness,
one who shall be something more than ‘The Messiah of To David I will not lie; _ _
Yahweh’. He and, in him, his ancestor David2 will be the His seed shall endure for ever,
accepted ‘Son’ of the national deity, and, what is more, in And his throne like the sun before Me,
virtue of this fact he will hold sway as ‘the highest of earthly Like the moon, which shall continue for ever,
kings’. As we shall see, these two complementary promises, A faithful witness in the sky.’
(a) that the Messiah3 will ultimately be, not merely the As we shall have occasion to note again later, it is this
Servant, but the ‘Son’ of the national deity, and (b) that important promise which is made the ground of appeal in
he shall thus have supremacy over all earthly kings, are of the last part of the liturgy; for the psalm concludes with a
the first importance and recur elsewhere in the Psalter. plea, in which the king himself takes part, begging that in
Meantime, however, it is to be observed that in the light the present hour of need Yahweh may not forget His sworn
of the covenant background the promise of ‘Sonship’ is devotion to the House of David.1 For the present, however,
simply one of adoption, which carries with it certain at- enough has been said to make it evident that the Davidic
tendant conditions so far as David and his descendants are Messiah, as the ‘Son’ of the national deity, is to possess
concerned.4 Moreover, as the oracle goes on to show, only a limited monarchy, and that in the last resort he will
failure to observe these conditions must bring strict be responsible to Yahweh for the right administration of his
discipline in its train;5 but even so, whatever an individual office. Indeed it may be observed that, despite this reference
member of the ruling dynasty may do and however he may to David’s ‘Sonship’, the oracle does not conceal but rather
fare as a result, Yahweh’s covenant with David is valid for emphasizes the king’s essential humanity with the opening
all time, for, as we have seen, it is an ‘eaerlasting covenant’.6 reference to the founder of the dynasty:2
‘If his children forsake My law, ‘I have bestowed aid upon a manly one,
And walk not according to My judgements (UY rulings), I have exalted a youth from among the people.’
If they violate My statutes,
And do not keep My commandments, For that matter, the same is true of the poem which we
I will attend to their rebellion with a rod know as ‘The Last Words of David’, where there is an
And their iniquity with blows. unmistakable emphasis upon the fact that the founder
But My devotion will I not break off from him, of the dynasty was ‘the son of Jesse’ and ‘the man who
I Cf. 2 Sam. vii. 14; I Chron. xxii. IO, xxviii. 6: and see above, pp. zff. was raised on high’. Accordingly, despite David’s promised
2 Cf. such passages as I Kings viii. 66, xi. 36, xii. 16: also (although this elevation to the rank of Yahweh’s ‘Son’ and despite the
is to anticipate a proposed sequel to the present work) Jer. xxx. g ; Ezek.
xxxiv. 23 f., xxxvii. 24 f. ; Hos. iii. 5. I w. 39-52 (EW. 3%51), as discussed below, pp. III ff. Verse 53 (EW.
3 Cf. v. 2rb (EW. zob); also w. 39, 52 (EW. 38, 51). 52) is no part of the original psalm, but marks the close of Book III of the
4 For the somewhat remote parallels to this form of divine ‘sonship’ Psalter.
which are furnished by Mesopotamian thought, see, for example, Labat, 2 Verse 2ob (EW. rgb). The statement made above in the text remains
Le Caractkre religieux de la royautC assyro-babylonienne, pp. 63 ff. ; H. Frank- true even if one accepts the alternative rendering which is refered to above,
fort, Kingship and the Gods. A Study of Ancient Near Eastern Religion as the p. 26, n. 5, i.e.:
Integration of Society and Nature (x948), pp. 2gg ff. ‘I have placed a youth above the mighty man;
5 Cf. 2 Sam. vii. 14. 6 w. 31-38 (EW. 30-37). I have raised a young man above the people.’
32 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel 33
another psalmist to begin his hymn of praise and thanks- quently spread; and, what is more, it lay immediately
giving with the words :I above the spring Gihon, with which it was connected by
God is renowned in Judah, means of a shaft and tunnel excavated in the rock, so that
His Name is great in Israel. it was possible for the inhabitants to draw water without
His covert is tobe found in Salem, going outside the city walls.* Further, it was situated in a
And in Zion hath He made His lair. safely remote but reasonably strategic position on the
The answer to this question is usually given, of course, backbone of the central range of hills. Indeed, it was so
in terms of David’s military and political foresight.2 It is placed that David could not hope to unify the rival tribes
pointed out, for example, that this stronghold, which of north and south in anything like an effective way while
David succeeded in capturing only by a ruse, occupied an it remained in Jebusite hands. Finally it occupied neutral
almost impregnable site at the southern end of the easterly ground between these northern and southern tribes, and
of the two hills over which the city of Jerusalem subse- therefore could give neither group reason to be jealous of
the sovereign claims of the other; and, allied to this, it had
I Ps. Ixxvi. 2 f. (EW. I f.). Mowinckel, Psalmens~%en 11, pp. 57 ff., no prior religious associations for any of the tribes, and so,
126 ff., stresses the first word of verse 4 (EW. 3), i.e. F@t#, on the ground
that it points to the use of some form of dramatic symbolism within the sacred by housing the Ark, seemed readily adaptable as the chief
precincts of the city itself, i.e.: cultic centre of the tribal brotherhood of Israel in its new
There He hath shattered the bow’s bright missile, role as a united kingdom. All this is true, of course, but it
Shield and sword in war’s encounter.
may be questioned if it gives us the whole of the picture.2
Cf. Schmidt, Bentzen, Leslie, op. cit., in Zoc. Although the present writer
thinks that in principle the suggestion of a ritual drama or the like may be Although this Canaanite city had no religious associations
sound (see below, pp. 85 ff.), he cannot but agree with T. W. Davies, for any of the Israelite tribes, it cannot have been without
Cent.B. (n.d.), in Zoc., that on metrical grounds the form in question should its own cultic traditions; and the question therefore arises
be read as FlpfQ and construed as the last word of verse 3 (EW. 2), i.e.
somewhat more literally than above:
as to whether or not it may have had a contribution to make
And as for His lair, in Zion hath He set it. along these lines to its growth in importance as the city of
On the ground of style this reading, which involves one’s regarding !l$Y~ David and the earthly abode of the heavenly King.
as a casi~s pendens, seems more likely than fi@fp (or ;I@), which is This is no idle question, for it seems clear that David, on
favoured by C. A. Briggs, I.C.C. (1906-7) and T. H. Robinson, in Oesterley, capturing the city, made no attempt to exterminate its
op. cit. In any case it is obvious that the form il?q may not be pressed in
inhabitants, but actually went out of his way to conciliate
support of the theory of a ritual drama or some corresponding form of
dramatic symbolism. I Cf., for example, J. Simons, Jerusalem in the Old Testament: Researches
z Cf., for example, H. P. Smith, Old Testament History (1903), pp. 142 ff. ; and Theories (Igsz), pp. 162 ff. ; L.-H. Vincent and A.-M. Steve, rbrusalem de
R. Kittel, Geschichte des Volkes Isruel, ii, 6th edit. rev. (1g25), pp. I 16 ff. ; l’dncien Testament: Recherches d’archkologie et d’histoire, i (I 954), pp. 260 ff. ;
A. Ah, ‘Jerusalems Aufstieg’, Z.D.M.G. lxxix (rg25), pp. 1-19, now and now the important results of the current series of excavations at
reprinted in Kleine Schriften ZUY Geschichte des Volkes Israel, iii (rg59), Jerusalem as reported by K. M. Kenyon, P.E.Q., Jan.-June, 1962, pp. 72-89,
pp. 243-57; A. Lods, Israt des origines au m&eu du VIII* sidcle (1930), Jan.-June, 1963, pp. 7-21, Jan.-June, 1964, pp. 7-18, and B.A. xxvii (1964),
pp. 418 ff., E.T. by S. H. Hooke (1932), pp. 360 ff.; W. 0. E. Oesterley and pp. 34-52. See also, for the early and continuing cultic importance of this
T. H. Robinson, A History of Israel (Igp), i, pp. 214 ff.; H. W. Robinson, spring, A. von Gall, ‘uber die Herkunft der Bezeichnung Jahwes als Konig’,
The History of Israel: its Facts and Factors (1938), pp. 62 ff. ; M. Noth, Das in Studien ZUY semitischen Philologic und Religionsgeschichte (Wellhausen
System der zwiilf Stdmme Israels, B.W.A.N.T. 52 (rg3o), pp. 116 ff., Ge- Festschrift), ed. K. Marti (1914), pp. 156 ff.
schichte Israels (1950), pp. 165 f., 2nd edit. rev. (1954), pp. 175 f., E.T., 2nd 2 Cf. M. Noth, ‘Gott, Konig, Volk im Alten Testament’, Z.T.K. xlvii
edit., rev. by P. R. Ackroyd (1960), pp. 189 ff. ; J. Bright, A History of Israel (rgso), pp. 182 ff. = Gesammelte Studien zum Alten Testament, pp. 218 ff.
(r96o), P P. 178 f. (See above, p. 13, n. 3.)
0 ssss D
34 S’acral Kingship in Ancient Israel Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel 35
them and secure their good will, if we give what appears to still possible for Ezekiel to begin his scathing picture of the
be due weight to the fact that he did not seize Araunah’s city’s failure to live up to its high calling by saying :I
threshing-floor as by right of conquest, when he required Thine origin and birth were of the land of the Canaanite;
it as the site of an altar to Yahweh, but was willing to pur- Thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite.
chase it at a fair price from its Jebusite owner.1 Further,
this city, which David captured but obviously did not Moreover, a tradition was current which reached far back
destroy, must already have witnessed a thousand years of into this early period and told of the friendly treatment
history, to say the least, for its name occurs in Egyptian Abram had received at the hands of Melchizedek, king of
execration texts which apparently date from the closing Salem;2 and, finally, there was a full and graphic account
years of the twelfth dynasty (c. 2ooo-1780 B.C.).Z Five of the way in which Joshua had found in Adoni-zedek,
hundred years later it is well represented in the Tell el- king of Jerusalem, the determined leader of a Canaanite
Amarna tablets of the late fifteenth and early fourteenth coalition which sought in vain to stem the tide of invasion.3
centuries B.C. by the half-dozen letters of its ruler Abdi- Now it is a striking fact about the names of these tradi-
Hiba; and it is obvious, both from Abdi-Hiba’s own state- tional kings of Jerusalem that each is compounded from the
ments and from the references made to him by his ally and root which in Hebrew gives us the term j773, ‘righteous-
ness’; and this is made the more interesting by the fact
former enemy Suwardata, that at this time it was an impor-
tant and comparatively powerful city-state dominating a that Abdi-Hiba himself, although employing Accadian as
large part of the surrounding hill-country.3 Indeed these the medium of his correspondence with the Egyptian
data from the archaeological field simply reinforce the court, actually makes use of the cognate term SADUK ($A-
DU-UK), which is clearly a Canaanite word, in order to
picture presented by the Old Testament itself. Thus
another four hundred years after the time of David it was affirm that he has done or said the right thing in his deal-
ings with the king of Egypt :4
I Cf. 2 Sam. xxiv, esp. verses 16 ff.; I Chron. xxi. ~-xxii. I.
a See K. Sethe, Die Achtung feindlicher Fiirsten, VSlher und Dinge auf Behold, my lord the king, I am in the right
altiigyptischen Tongefiipscherben des Mittleren Reiches, A.P.A.W. 1926: 5 with regard to the KaSi people.
(1926), p. 53 ; G. Posener, Princes et pays d’Asie et de Nubie. Textes hikratiques
SW des jigurines d’envo0tement du Moyen Empire (1950), p. 86. The texts
Further, such an early use of this root in the Canaanite
published by Sethe were found on fragments of clay bowls and jars, and area is well attested outside Jerusalem in the Ras Shamra
contained the names of neighbouring peoples and rulers, as well as indivi- tablets (i.e. the literary remains of the ancient city of
duals in Egypt itself, who were regarded as planning war, fomenting rebellion,
or similarly plotting mischief of some kind against the state. It seems clear Ugarit in northern Syria which come to us from the early
that, after the bowls and jars in question had been inscribed with these names, part of the fourteenth century B.C.),5 where it is used quite
they were smashed in symbolic fashion and probably with magical intent as clearly to denote the thought of right relationship, as when
a means of bringing these plans to nought. The texts published by Posener,
which are of a slightly later date, were inscribed for the most part on clay Keret, the king, is introduced with a passing reference to
figurines rudely fashioned to represent prisoners in a kneeling position with ‘his rightful wife’ (‘ait . ;dhh) and ‘his true spouse’ (mtr& .
their arms bound by the elbows behind their backs; and, while a similar
purpose probably underlies their construction, it is questionable in this case
I xvi. 3. * Gen. xiv. 18-20.
3 Joshua x. 1-28 (JE/RD). Cf., probably, Judges i. 5-7, as discussed by
if such damage as they have suffered was intentional, and, therefore, a direct
G. A. Cooke, C.B. (1913) and C. F. Burney, The Book ofJudges (1920), in Zoc.
result of the magical design which brought them into being.
l A-MUR &4RRU BBLI-IA $A-DU-UR A-NA IA-A-31
J Cf. Knudtzon, Die El-Amama-Tafeln, Nos. 280 and 285-90; Mercer,
A&&J, AMeLtiTI RA-&-WI.
The Tell el-Amarna Tablets Nos. 280 and 285-9oa: and, as regards the name
Cf. Knudtzon, op. cit., Mercer, op. cit., No. 287, 32 f.
Abdi-l$ba, Knudtzon, op. cit., pp. 1333 f.
5 See above, p. 4, n. 4.
 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel 37
36 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel
in conformity with the accepted renderings of these names
ys’i;h).~ Here the form in use, i.e. the noun ;dh, is one which
in the Revised Version)1 ‘My King is Zedek’ and ‘My Lord
corresponds to the Hebrew form a?$, and its employ-
is Zedek.2 This may be so, but we cannot affirm it with cer-
ment is wholly in keeping with that which is to be found
tainty;3 and it is equally possible that it should be construed
a thousand years later in a Phoenician inscription of the
on the lines of the name Jehozadak (‘Yahu is righteous’)4
third or second century B . C . from the island of Cyprus, r
so as to yield the meaning ‘My (or The) King is righteous’
where it or the corresponding adjective (Hebrew: 7’7%)
and ‘My (or The) Lord is righteous’.5 In any case the
is used of a man’s ‘rightful offspring’ (PtX niZ).a What
early association of this ideal with the city of Jerusalem
is even more significant in the present connexion, the
is beyond dispute, although, having recognized this, we
Phoenician epigraphic texts reveal the fact that already in
must beware of making the ‘naive assumption that the con-
or about the tenth century B.C. Yehimilk, king of Byblos,
tent of the term remained unchanged through the years. It
like his successor Yehawmilk in the fifth century B.C., was
may well be that in Jerusalem at the period under discussion
prepared to advance the claim that he should be rewarded
the notion in question gave legal sanction to practices which
with a long life on the ground that he was ‘a righteous
the invading Hebrews or men of a later generation found
k i n g ’ (i?TY $Q).3 For the rest, it is really of little
incompatible with what they knew of the God of Israel.6
moment that, so far as the names Melchizedek and Adoni-
x Cf. Ginsberg, op. cit., pp. 5 f.
zedek are concerned, there is no general agreement as to 2 Cf., for example, W. W. Graf Baudissin, Adonis und Esmun. Eine Unter-
how the element under discussion is to be construed. The suchung zur Geschichte des Glaubens an Auferstehungsgiitter und an Heilgiitter
traA;t;r\n91 intrwnr&atinn
CIUU~CI”IIU~
adnntd
rlrbvrytrl”rur*vrr,
f n r enamnle_ bv t h e
___- --_=_ -, _, _---
(191 I), pp. 71 and 247 f. (alternatively), Kyrios als Gottesname im Yudentum
und seine Stelle in der Religionsgeschichte, iii, pp. 45, n. I, and 54 (alternatively);
s..m-r’_-, ---

writer of the epistle to the Hebrews,4 is that which yields von Gall, op. cit., pp. 155 f. ; G. Widengren, The Accadian and Hebrew
the meaning ‘King of righteousness’ and ‘Lord of righteous- Psahns of Lamentation as Religious Documents (1937), pp. 322 f.; Nyberg,
A.R.W. xxxv (1938), pp. 355 f.; H. Ringgren, Word and Wisdom. Studies
ness’.s On the analogy of other early names of this type, in the Hypostatization of Divine Qualities and Functions in the Ancient Near
however, such a rendering must be regarded as unlikely, East (1947), pp. 83 ff.; W. F. Albright, Y.B.L. lxix (1950), p. 389; and now
and it has been suggested accordingly that the element in J.S. Fitzmyer, “‘Now This Melchizedek . . .” (Heb 7, I)‘, C.B.Q. XXV (1963),
p. 312 (‘most likely’).
question should be construed as a divine name, embodying, 3 Cf. the similar ambiguity with regard to the Ugaritic personal name
so to speak, the ideal which the term implies; and in that sdk’il (Gordon, Ugaritic Handbook or Ugaritic Manual or LJgaritic Textbook,
case the names must be held to mean ‘My King is !$edek 321, iii 4; Herdner, Mission de Ras Shamra X, 119, iii 4), which is held to
mean ‘Sdk is (my) god’ by F. Thureau-Dangin, R.A. xxxvii (194o-I), p. I 14,
and ‘My Lord is Sedek’ or (to adopt a simple transcription Ringgren, lot. cit., Albright, lot. cit., whereas 0. Eissfeldt, El im ugaritischen
Pantheon, B.V.S.A.W.L. 98, 4 (1951), pp. 48 f., insists that it must be con-
I Cf., for example, Ginsberg, The Legend of King Keret, KRT A, 12 f.; strued so as to yield the meaning “11 is righteous’.
Gordon, Uguritic Handbook or Ugaritic Manual or Ugaritic Textbook, Krt,
* Hag. i. I, 12, 14, ii. 2, 4; Zech, vi. I I ; etc.
12 f., and Ugaritic Literature, p. 67; Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends,
5 Cf. Baudissin, Adonis und Esmun, lot. cit. (alternatively), Kyrios als
K I, i 12 f. ; Gray, The Krt Text in the Literature of Ras Shamra, pp. I I,
Gottesname, lot. cit. (alternatively); Burney, op. cit., pp. 41-43 ; S. A. Cook,
3 I f., The Legacy of Canaan. The Ras Shamra Texts and their Relevance to the
C.A.H. ii (1924), p. 397; E. Dhorme, L’Evolution rehgieuse d’Israt?l, i (1937),
Old Testament, S.V.T. v, 2nd edit. rev. (1965), pp. 132 f. ; Herdner, Mission
P* 330.
de Ras Shamra X, 14, i 12 f. Finally, on this and the following material from 6 See below, p. 45, n. 4: and, for a general discussion of this ideal in its
the Phoenician inscriptions which is discussed above in the text, see now the
association with the gods of the ancient Near East, particularly as an aid to
valuable discussion by J. Swetnarn, ‘Some Observations on the Background understanding the association of Ja?X with Yahweh, see (with caution)
of i)‘TS in Jeremias 23, 5a’, Biblica xlvi (1965), pp. 29-40. Baudissin, op. cit., pp. 379 ff.; also S. A. Cook, op. cit., pp. 397 ff., in W. R.
2 N.S.I. 29, I I; K.A.I. 43, I I. Smith, Lectures on the Religion of the Semites, 3rd edit. rev. (1927), pp. 655 ff.,
3 (a) K.A.I. 4, 3 ff. (as above, p, 4, n. 4): (b) N.S.I. 3, 8 f.; K.A.I. I O, 8 f. and The ‘Truth’ of the Bible (rg38), pp. 108 ff., 140 ff.
(as above, p. 4, n. 4). l vii. 2. 5 G.K., 3 9ol.
38 Samal Kingshi) in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel 39
These names Melchizedek and Adoni-zedek, however, worship of Yahweh as T?lr-, or ‘King’ was certainly no
are instructive in yet another respect, i.e. the elements late development in the religious history of Israel but
corresponding to the Hebrew terms s$Q (‘king’) and dates from at least the early years of the monarchy and, so
]i7q (‘lord’). As is well known, the latter not only came far as the House of David was concerned, served as a con-
to be used as an appellation with reference to Yahweh, but stant reminder to the earthly king that there was a heavenly
could also be employed by itself in what appears to be a King to whom he was ultimately responsible.1
suffixed form as virtually a proper name in much the same Now, restricting our data for the most part to the
way as the Accadian term BELU (‘lord’) came to be employed Canaanite area, we may note that the use of the equivalent
in connexion with the Babylonian pantheon, notably with term as a divine appellative in theophorous names or even
reference to Marduk, as the name of a deity, i.e. Be1.1 This, as a divine name Milku(-i) in its own right is well attested as
of course, was the form which the Massoretes reproduced early as the fifteenth to the fourteenth centuries B.C.; for it
as a possible plural of divine majesty, i.e. ‘$78 or, to occurs in the Tell el-Amarna tablets in the personal names
adopt another simple transcription, Adonai (‘My Lord’).2 ILU(-I)-MILK@ and M I L K ( I)-ILI (or MILK(I)-ILU),~ which are
Accordingly, in view of the foregoing suggestion that the all, perhaps, to be construed as meaning ‘Ilu(-i) is (my)
name Adoni-zedek should be construed as meaning ‘My der alttestamentlichen Eschatologie’, in Der alttestamentliche Prophetismus
(or The) Lord is righteous’, it is conceivable that the first (1912), pp. 132 ff., 153 f., 167, 183 ff.: (b) with what appears to be an exag-
component already has the force of a proper name even gerated emphasis upon the primary meaning of the term q?p as ‘counsellor’
here, i.e., to adopt a simple transcription once again, or ‘leader’, M. Buber, Das Kommende I. Kiinigtum Gottes, 2nd edit. en-
larged (1936), 3rd edit. enlarged (1956), passim, supplemented by ‘Das
‘Adoni is righteous’ ; and, if we restrict the analogy merely Volksbegehren’, in In Memoriam Ernst Lohmeyet, ed. W. Schmauch (1951),
to the term under discussion, we may compare the way in pp. 53-66, which was to have been published as the first chapter (and now
by ‘Die Erz%hlung von Sauls Kiinigswahl’, V.T. vi (1956), pp. I I 3 - 7 3 ,
which the Greeks came to know the dying and rising god which is the second chapter) of Das Kommende II. Der Gesalbte; also Moses
named Adonis (“AGovts), whose original home seems to (1946), pp. 78, 105 ff., 113 ff., 137 ff., 157 ff., 170 f.; and ‘Het Geloof van
have been Phoenicia.3 It is the term ?‘;I& however, which Israel’, in De Godsdiensten der Wereld, ed. G. van der Leeuw, 2nd edit. (1948),
pp. 193 ff., or, similarly, in a translation from the Hebrew by C. Witton-
must engage our attention, for there is reason to believe Davies, The Prophetic Faith (1949), pp. 45 ff.: (c) de Fraine, L’Aspect
that even if the term does not occur in a theophorous name religieux de la royautt! israt?lite, pp. 117-34: (d) H. Wildberger, Jahwes
with clear reference to Yahweh until the time of Jeremiah,* Eigentumswolk, A.T.A.N.T. 37 (1960), pp. 20 ff. The problem really centres,
of course, in the vexed question of the date and historical value of such
it had long been employed in the liturgy of the royal Temple passages as Exod. xv. 18, xix. 6 (JE); Num. xxiii. 21 (JE) ; Deut. xxxiii. 5 ;
in Jerusalem as a divine appellation, i.e. that, whether or I Sam. viii. 7, xii. 12; also Judges viii. 23.

not the Hebrews entertained the thought of such a divine I Cf. what follows with the theory advanced by von Gall, op. cit., pp. 152-
60; and note, with reference to the Northern Kingdom in the ninth century
‘Kingship’ at the time of the settlement in Canaan,5 the B.C., the significance of the picture presented by Micaiah’s vision in I Kings
x Cf. Isa. xlvi. I ; Jer. 1. 2, Ii. 44; BeZ and the Dragon. xxii. 19. Incidentally, it should be clear from the way in which the foregoing
.t For an introduction to the vexed question of (a) the origin of this form, note is introduced that the writer allows for the possibility that the concep-
and (b) the history of the use of this term in its application to Yahweh, see tion of Yahweh as King’ already played a part in Israel’s worship at an early
Baudissin, op. cit. i-ii; and G. Quell, Th.B’.N.T. iii (1938), pp. 1056 ff., cultic centre such as Shiloh, whether or not this was due to Canaanite in-
E.T. by H. P. Kingdon, Lord, B.K.W. (1958), pp. 36ff. fluence. Cf. W. Schmidt, K&igtum Gottes in Ugarit und Israel, B.Z.A.W. 80
3 Cf. Baudissin, Adonis und Esmun, pp. 65 ff., Kyrios als Gottesname, iii, (r96r), PP. 76 ff.
a Knudtzon, op. cit., and Mercer, op. cit. 15 I, 45 (AiVLUGAL) ; 286, 36.
PP. 52 ff. l See below, pp. 43 ff.
’ e.g. Knudtzon, op. cit., and Mercer, op. cit., (a) 267, 4; 268, 3 ; 269,
s For the view that the conception of Yahweh as q$q or ‘King’ is to be
4; 270,4; 271,4; 289, 5, II, 25; (b) 249,16; 290,6. See also 249,6; 250, 32,
traced back to so early a period, see (a) E. Sellin, ‘Alter, Wesen und Ursprung
54; 254, 27, 29; 273, 24; 287, 29
40 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel 4’
king’ rather than ‘My god is Milku’ and ‘Milku(-i) is (my) personal names as ‘abmlk (‘z$mZk),I meaning ‘Brother of
god’ ;I ABI-MILKI (or ABU-MILKI),~ which may be construed the king’ or ‘Brother of Milku(-i)‘,2 ‘a@mZk,3 meaning
as meaning either ‘(My) father is (my) king’ or ‘(My) ‘Sister of the king’ or ‘Sister of Milku(-i)‘,4 and mZkn’m,5
father is Milki’; and ABDI-MILKI,~ which must mean meaning something like ‘The (or My) king is a delight’ or
either ‘Servant of the king’ or ‘Servant of Milku(-i)‘.s ‘Milku(-i) is a delight’ ;6 and here the possibility that the
Similarly the Ras Shamra tablets of almost the same date term under discussion may in some instances have the force
reproduce the foregoing personal names in the forms of a proper name becomes more of a probability in view of
‘iZmZk,6 ‘abmlk,’ and ‘abdmlkg a l o n g w i t h o t h e r s u c h the fact that it appears to occur in a list of gods as just such
a personal name in a form which corresponds to the fore-
1 Cf. the corresponding Hebrew forms ?J$i@@ and 5&e, as referred
to below, pp. 43 f. Baudissin, Kyrios als Gottesname, iii, p. 44, followed by going MILKU (-I) with mimation, i.e. mlkm or, as it is prob-
0. Eissfeldt, ‘Jahwe als Kijnig,’ Z.A.W. xlvi (1928), p. 85 ( = Kleine ably to be vocalized, Milkurn. Further, from as early as
Schriften i (1962), p. 175), would restrict the meaning to the first instance the tenth century B .C . or thereabouts, when it appears
given above, i.e. : “‘El ist Kijnig”, nicht “Milk ist Gott”, da in kanaan%schen
Personennamen, soviel ich sehe, el sonst niemals prZidikativ gebraucht wird.’ in the form t’;l7VP i.e. Yehimilk (‘May Milk live’),8 the
The present writer, however, is not altogether convinced of the soundness Ugarit, e.g. Nougayrol, Mission de Ras Shamra VI, 16. 356, 5, 7, II, 16;
of this. Cf. the discussion of the whole problem of the order of subject and 16. 283, 6, I O, 13; 15. 154+164, rev. 8; 15. 155, 16, 23; 16. 204, rev. 4, 7;
predicate in names of this type by M. Noth, Die israelitischen Personennamen 16. 154,4,18; 16. 205-t-192,7, II, 14,23; 16. 257+16. 258+16. 126,iv 13.
im Rahmen der gemeinsemitischen Namengebung, B.W.A.N.T. 46 (1928), I e.g. Gordon, op. cit., 1060, B 3 (restored); 2011, 33 (restored); 20. 68,
pp. 15 ff. See below, n. 6 ; also p. 37, n. 3. 22 (‘ihmlk). Cf. again the parallels in the Accadian texts from Ugarit, e.g.
z e.g. Knudtzon, op. cit., and Mercer, op. cit., (a) 147, 2; 148, 2; 149, Nougayrol, op. cit. 15. 120, 20, 23; 16. 154, 19; 16. 139, 6; 16. 125, 2; 15.
2; 151, 2; 154, 2; (b) 152, 55. See also 153, 2 (IABI-MILKI). 09, B i 8,
3 Cf. the corresponding Hebrew form T#qQ, as referred to below, 2 Cf. the corresponding Hebrew form ?&a& as referred to below,
P* 44. Pm 44.
4 Knudtzon, op. cit., and Mercer, op. cit. 123, 37; 203, 3. 3 e.g. Gordon, op. cit. 95, 4 (= Herdner, op. cit. 51, 4). Cf. again the
5 Cf. the corresponding Hebrew form q?Q’faY, parallels in the Accadian texts from Ugarit, e.g. Nougayrol, op. cit. 15. 89,
. . . . as referred to below, 8, II, 18; 16. 197,16; 16.146+16x, I: Mission de Ras Shamra IX, 17. 352,6.
P. 45, n. 3. 4 Cf. the corresponding Hebrew form ~%IL%, D. Diringer, Le inscrizioni
6 e.g. Gordon, Ugaritic Handbook or Ugaritic Manual or Ugaritic Text-
antico-ebraiche palestinesi (1934), pp. 219 f.
book, 62, 53 ; 127, 59 ( =Herdner, Mission de Ras Shamra X, 6, vi 53 ; 16,
5 e.g. Gordon, op. cit. 326, i ? 2 ( = Herdner, 123, A 2) ; I I 16, 5 ; 2039,
vi 59), which may now be supplemented by Ugaritic Textbook, 2015, rev. I ;
2022, 13 ; 2045, 8. See further Eissfeldt, El im ugaritischen Pantheon, p. 47, 3; 2097, 15.
n. 3, who, as against Thureau-Dangin, R.A. xxxvii (1940-r), p. 103, again 6 Cf. the Hebrew proper names Q?iqa8 (Judges iv. 6, 12, v. I, 12), Q#?fl
favours the meaning “Ilu(-i) is (my) king’ rather than ‘(My) god is Milku(-i)‘. ((a) I Sam. xiv. 50, (b) I Sam. xxv. 43, xxvii. 3, etc.: cf. Diringer, op. cit.,
See above, n. I. Cf., too, the parallels in the Accadian texts from Ugarit pp. 24 f., 27), and ap& (I Chron. xi. 46), as discussed by G. B. Gray,
(corresponding to the above-mentioned ILU(-I)-MILKU of the Tell el-Amarna Studies in Hebrew Proper Names (1896), pp. 80 ff., and especially Noth, op.
tablets), e.g. Nougayrol, Mission de Ras Shamra VI (as above, p. 4, n. 4), cit., pp. 16, 18, 166.
16. 252, 13,20,22; 16.250, 13; 16. 145,4; 16. 257-l-16.258-l-16. 126, ii. 3, 7 e.g. Gordon, op. cit. 17, I I ( = Herdner, 29, rev. I I) : but, for an element
iii 48; id., Le Palais royal d’Ugarit IV. Textes accadiens des archives sud = of doubt about this vocalization, see now R. de Vaux, Studies in Old Testa-
Mission de Ras Shamra 1X(1956), 18.20+17.371, rev. 15; 19.70,8: and see ment Sacrifice (1964), pp. 86 f. = Les Sacrifices de 1’Ancien Testament,
further Eissfeldt, Sanchunjaton von Beirut und Ilumilku van ugarit (1952), C.R.B. I (1964), p. 78.
PP. 47-57. * i.e. (a) in the inscription of Yehimilk, as cited above, p. 4, n. 4; (b) in the
7 e.g. Gordon, op. cit. 323, iv IO ( = Herdner, op. cit. 102, iv I O). inscription of Sapatba’al (or Sifitiba’al: cf. W. F. Albright, J.A.O.S. lxvii
* e.g. Gordon, op. cit. 300, 2, 16; 323, iv 8 ( = Herdner, op. cit. 82, 2, (1947), p. 154, n. 15, J.B.L. lxix (1950), p. 389), published by M. Dunand,
16; 102, iv 8); 1006, 9; 1024, 20; 1035, rev. 5; 1081, 6; supplemented by Byblia Grammata (1945), pp. 146-51: cf. now K.A.I. 7. For the dating of
Ch. Virolleaud, Le Palais royal d’Ugarit V. Textes en cuneiformes alphabktiques these texts, see G. R. Driver, Semitic writing, 2nd edit. rev. (1954), pp. 104 ff.,
des archives sud, sud-ouest et du petit pal&s = Mission de Ras Shamra XI 231, supplemented in the second case by R. de Vaux, R.B. liii (1946),
(1965), 163, iii b 2. Cf. here again the parallels in the Accadian texts from pp. 463 ff. ; and now K.A.I., lot. cit.
42 Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel 43
term under discussion frequently recurs in just such a obvious that all this is in keeping with early Canaanite
personal form as a component of theophorous names in tradition. Moreover, the national deity of the Ammonites,
Phoenician and, later, Punic epigraphic texts,’ while the Israel’s neighbours in Transjordan, was clearly worshipped
god Milkart (IY’Ii?%3) or, to use a more familiar form, under this name in the form which the Massoretes re-
Melqart (cf. MEAK&@OS and ME~K&P~os),~ who figures so produce as iJ>yiJ (EW. ‘Milcom’);* and there is little
prominently in the life of Tyre, owes his name to the fact reason to doubt that this corresponds to the fore-mentioned
that he was originally regarded as ‘King of the city’ Milkum of the Ras Shamra tablets. So far as the Hebrew
(Il’li7 7%3);3 and in the light of the Ugaritic texts it is field itself is concerned,2 we must, of course, recognize that
the appearance of the name Malchiel (~~‘$$J) as that of
I e.g. 7%11’15, ‘May Milk grant life’ (C.I.S. i. r = N.S.I. 3, K.A.I. IO, as a grandson of Asher in the genealogical lists of P and the
above, p. 4, n. 4), ]n?‘zg, ‘Milk hath given’(e.g. C.I.S. i. IO = N.S.I. 12,
K.A.I. 32); t%UV, id. (e.g. C.I.S. i. 24.4) ; ~'z?Sl, corresponding to Chronicler offers doubtful testimony to the use of this
the Hebrew ~~~9~~ (as noticed above, p. 41, n. 2, and below, p. 44: cf. term in theophorous names prior to the settlement, despite
J. Friedrich, P%niz&ch-Pun&he Grammatik (195 I), Q g4), ‘Brother of Milk’ the fact that it corresponds to the MILK(I)-ILU(-I) of the
(e.g. C.I.S. i. 143 = N.S.I. 40, K.A.I. 66: common in the Punic votive in-
scriptions) ; ~hVl, corresponding to the Hebrew t’ztX#lN (as noticed above, Tell el-Amarna tablets, for it is still difficult to know what
p. 41,n.4; cf. Friedrich,loc.cit.), ‘Sister of Milk’(e.g.C.I.S.i.429); TLztl’raY, value to place on these lists;3 and a similar doubt as to
corresponding to the Hebrew ~~~-7~Y (as noticed above, p. 40, n. 5, and its authenticity must be admitted for the analogous form
below, p. 45, n. 3), ‘Servant of Milk’ (e:g. C.I.S. i. 46 = N.S.I. 16, K.A.I.
35); +tinnN, ‘Handmaid of Milk’ (C.I.S. i. 1371); +b?$ ‘Protege pp. 107-g. It is usually assumed that Melqart (qua ‘King of the city’) was
of Milk’ (C.I.S. i. 50); 75gtY, ‘Milk is (my) strength’ (M. Lidzbarski, so named as being the tutelary god of Tyre; but in Albright’s opinion (lot.
Handbuch der nordsemitischen Epigraphik (18gS), i. p. 418 = N.S.I. 8: cit.) the occurrence of this name in the foregoing Aramaic inscription affords
common in the Punic votive inscriptions); P?>%, ‘Milk is exalted’ (N.S.I. strong support for his view that the element &art (‘city’) is here used of the
150, 1). underworld, and that the name Melqart thus reflects the cosmic character
z e.g. Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica, i. IO, 27. Cf. C. Clemen, Die of this god. Cf., originally, A.Y.S.L. liii (rg36--7), p. I I : also Archaeology
phcnikische Religion nach Philo von Byblos, M.V.A.G. xliii. 3 (rg3g), p. 28. and the Religion of Israel, 3rd edit. (x953), pp. 81, 196, and 226 f. ; From the
3 i.e. milk &art. Cf., for example, C.I.S. i. 122 = N.S.I. 36, K.A.I. 47: Stone Age to Christianity, 2nd edit. (rg46), pp. 235 and 333, id. with a new
also such proper names as ny$QtaY, ‘Servant of Melqart’ (e. . C.I.S. introduction (rg57), p. 307. While the present writer agrees that Melqart
i. 14: especially common in the Punic votive inscriptions); n?p$ ?XlnH, was probably a cosmic deity, he finds it difficult to believe that the element
‘Handmaid of Melqart’ (e.g. C.I.S. i. 446); W@7a%, ‘Protege of Mel- katt here refers to the underworld. Cf. G. Levi Della Vida, ‘Some Notes on
qart’ (e.g. C.I.S. i. 47 = N.S.I. 17, K.A.I. 36); nypr7g7& ‘Client of the Stele of Ben-hadad’, B.A.S.O.R. go (Apr. rg43), pp. 30 ff., together with
Melqart’ or, more likely perhaps, ‘By means of (i.e. Thanks to) Melqart’ the reply by Albright, op. cit., pp. 32 ff.; and now Comte du Mesnil du
(C.I.S. i. 139 = N.S.I. 39, K.A.I. 64: frequent in the Punic votive inscrip- Buisson, ‘Origine et evolution du pantheon de Tyr,’ R.H.R. clxiv (rg63),
tions. Cf., for example, 2. S. Harris, A Grammar of the Phoenician Language pp. 133-63, specifically p. 157: and see below, p. 86, n. 6. Finally, on Melqart
(Ig36), p. 85 ; Friedrich, op. cit., 4 80 (a) ; also Eissfeldt, EZ im ugaritischen in general, see R. Dussaud, ‘Melqart’, Syria xxv (Ig46-8), pp. 205-30, and
Pantheon, p. 49). See also (a) the remarkable stele, bearing a relief of Mel- now ‘Melqart, d’aprts de recents travaux’, R.H.R. cli (rg57), pp. 1-21; also
qart accompanied by an inscription in Aramaic, which appears to date H. Seyrig, Syria xxiv (rg44-5), pp. 62-80, esp. pp. 6g ff.
from the ninth century B.C. Cf. M. Dunand, ‘Stele aramtenne dCdiCe a * I Kings xi. 5, 7 (cf. LXX), 33; 2 Kings xxiii. 13; Jer. xlix. I (LXX, S,
Melqart’, B.M.B. iii (rg3g), pp. 6576; W. F. Albright, ‘A Votive Stele V), 3 (LXX, S, V); Zeph. i. 5 ( L X Xmss, S, V): also, perhaps, 2 Sam. xii. 30
erected by Benhadad I of Damascus to the god Melcarth’, B.A.S.O.R. 87 (cf. LXX) = I Chron. xx. 2 (cf. LXX, V); and, more doubtfully, Amos i.
(Oct. rg42), pp. 23-29: and see further A. Herdner, in Syria xxv (rg46-8), 15 (cf. S and Jer. xlix. 3).
pp. 329 f., and now K.A.I. 201. (b) the possible occurrence of the name z Cf. Gray, op. cit., pp. I 15 ff., 146 ff. ; Noth, op. cit., pp. I 14 ff.
Melqart (in the form M I- IL- FAR- T U) in the record of a treaty effected in 3 Gen. xlvi. 17 (P) ; Num. xxvi. 45 (P); I Chron. vii. 31. Cf., too, I Chron.
the seventh century B.C. between Ba’al of Tyre and Esarhaddon of Assyria. viii. 35 (LXXBL) and ix. 41 (LXXL), where Malchiel is given as the name of
Cf. S. Langdon, ‘A Phoenician Treaty of Assarhaddon’, R.A. xxvi (rg29), a great-grandson of Jonathan, a reading which is the more remarkable
pp. 189-94; E. F. Weidner, A.f.0. viii (rg32-3), pp. 29-34; and now R. Bor- because of the occurrence of the name Malchi-shua as that of a brother of
ger, Die Inrchriftcn Asarhaddons K&zigs von Assyrien, A.f.O., Beiheft g (rg56), Jonathan. See below, p. 45, n. 2.
44 Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel
Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel 45
Elimelech ($V%), which app ears in what is the some-
what late,, if not l&t-exilic, book of Ruth as the name of the term under discussion also comes to the fore in Hebrew
Naomi’s husband-in the period of the Judges,’ even though circles at this time in the name Malchi-shua (Y?ti-‘$Q),
it too has an early parallel in the Tell el-Amarna tablets in meaning either ‘My king (= Yahweh?) is salvation’ or
the form ILU(-I)-MILKU as also in the Ugaritic texts in the ‘Milku(-i) is salvation’, I which was given by Saul to one
form ‘z’lml?~ On the other hand, the name Abimelech of his sons.2 In short, so far as our comparatively meagre
evidence goes, the use of names of this type, whether the
(~~Q’X), wh ich a 1so has its parallels in both series of
tablets in the forms ABU(-I)-MILKI and ‘abmlk, is found in term under discussion be regarded as an appellative or as
relatively early Israelite sources as that of a Canaanite a proper name, was as common at the beginning of the
king of Gerar in the patriarchal period and as that of the monarchy as at its close,03 and, what is more important in
son of Gideon who in the period of the Judges early left his the present connexion, it already had a long history behind
mark on Israelite history as one who sought royal power it so far as the land of Canaan was concerned.4
over Shechem and its neighbourhood.2 Similarly the name and the Religion of Israel, p. 214. See also S. Moscati, L’epigrafia ebraica
Ahimelech (T7n9nfl), which has its parallel in the Ugaritic anticu rg35-Ig5o (1951)~ pp. 52, 58, 63, 76, for its occurrence on Hebrew
seals. In Phoenician circles it must have enjoyed considerable popularity,
texts under the form ‘a&nZk, is well attested as that borne by for it appears frequently in Punic in the abbreviated form t+“n, as noticed
two of David’s contemporaries, i.e. the head of the priestly above, p. 42, n. I.
community at Nob who befriended David when he was a I Cf. Noth, op. cit., p. 154, n. 2 (also p. xviii).
2 I Sam. xiv. 49, xxxi. 2; I Chron. viii. 33, ix. 39, x. 2.
fugitive from the court of Saul and, equally remarkable, a 3 Cf. Nathan-melech (?&-jl$ corresponding to the Phoenician
Hittite who was his companion during his flight;3 and it (Punic) 7’2am9, referred to above, p. 42, n. I), a court official of the time
finds ample archaeological support at least as early as the of Josiah, 2 Kings xxiii. I I ; Ebed-melech (q$B’729, corresponding to
the forms ABDI-MILKI and ‘abdmlk, discussed above, p. 40), an Ethiopian
time of Jeroboam II (c. 786-746 B .C .), if not that of Ahab court official of the time of Zedekiah, Jer. xxxviii. 7-13, xxxix. 15-18 ;
(c. 869-850 B.C .), in the ostraca which have been recovered Malchiram (ayp?p, corresponding to the Phoenician al>+?& referred
from the ruins of Samaria. Finally, it is to be noted that to above, p. 42, n. I), a son of Jehoiachin, I Chron. iii. 18; and, if the text
I Ruth i. 2, 3, ii. 3, iv. 3, 9. On the question of the date of the book of be sound, Regem-melech (q$B’a$a), meaning originally, perhaps, ‘Milk
Ruth, see now W. Rudolph, K.A.T. (1962), pp. 26-29. hath spoken’ (cf. Ugaritic rgm, ‘to say’, and Hebrew names of the type
2 (a) Gen. xx. 1-18 (E), xxi. 22-32 (E), xxvi. 1-33 (J): (b) Judges viii. 31, Amariah ((?);l:?@, ‘Yah(u) hath spoken’, e.g. I Chron. xxiv. 23, Zeph.
ix. I- X . I ; 2 Sam. xi. 21. The appearance of this name in the heading to i. I)), a member of a deputation sent to the Temple in Jerusalem shortly
Ps. xxxiv, where the incident which is there referred to Abimelech appears _ after the Return, Zech. vii. 2.
to be that which is told of Achish of Gath in I Sam. xxi. II (EW. IO)-xxii 4 According to Lev. xviii. 21 (H), xx. 2-5 (H); 2 Kings xxiii. I O; Jer.
2, is a matter of dispute. Cf., for example, E. Podechard, Le Psautier: Notes xxxii. 35 (cf. Isa. xxx. 33), it would seem that, at least during the later
critiques, i (1949), and E. Pannier, Les Psaumes, S.B., ed. H. Renard (1950), monarchy, the valley of Hinnom at Jerusalem was the scene of child sacri-
in 10~. Further, its occurrence in I Chron. xviii. 16, i.e. ‘Abimelech the son fices which were made to a god Molech (T?fi) or, rather, Milk (the conso-
of Abiathar’, is usually recognized to be a mistake for ‘Abiathar the son of nantal text having been vocalized, we are told, in order to suggest the term
Ahimelech’: see the following note. n!@ (b6iel, ‘shame’); and opinion has differed as to whether this worship
3 (a) I Sam. xxi. 2-10 (EW. I-9), xxii. 6-23, xxiii. 6, xxx. 7; Ps. lii. 2 was indigenous (as may well seem likely in view of what is said above with
(EW. title). Cf., too, 2 Sam. viii. 17, where one should probably read regard to the Jerusalem cultus in pre-Israelite days) or had been introduced
‘Abiathar the son of Ahimelech’ for ‘Ahimelech the son of Abiathar’ (cf. S), from abroad, e.g. Phoenicia. Cf., for example, G. F. Moore, ‘Molech, Moloch’,
followed by I Chron. xviii. 16 (with the further mistake of reading ‘Abi- E.B. iii (1902), ~01s. 3183-91. However, 0. Eissfeldt, Molk als Opferbegriff
melech’ for ‘Ahimelech’: cf. LXX, V), xxiv. 3, 6, 31. See, for example, im Punischen und Hebrcischen und das Ende des Gottes Moloch (1935), has
A. F. Kirkpatrick, C.B., 2nd edit. rev. (1930), on 2 Sam. viii. 17. (b) I Sam.
xxvi. 6. given reason to believe that the term ?@ (male&) may correspond to the
’ Cf., for example, Diringer, op. cit., pp. 21-68; Albright, Archaeology Punic 75a (mlk), which appears to have been used as a technical term for
a sacrifice made, perhaps, in fulfilment of a vow; and the reference in the
46 Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel 47
As it happens, there is no clear evidence for the explicit stituted by David,*I but, as already observed in the case of
association of this term with Yahweh as the component of the analogous form Malchiel,z it remains a difficult matter
a theophorous name until the appearance of the form to determine the precise historical value of the genealogical
Malchiah or Malchijah (@V&Q), ‘My king is Yah(u)’ or lists of P and the Chronicler.3 In any case, with all the fore-
‘Yah(u) is (my) king’, towards the end of the seventh century going evidence before us, there is no reason to doubt that
B.C.’ Thereafter it figures prominently in the genealogical the name Melchizedek correctly points to the fact that a
lists of the Chronicler,2 as also in the books of Ezra3 and term milrzu(-Q, corresponding to the Hebrew q$Q (‘king’),
Nehemiah.4 Indeed, in the case of the Chronicler it is given was used as a divine appellative if not a proper name in the
very early authority, for it appears inter dia as the name of pre-Israelite worship of Jerusalem. Indeed, in the light of
an ancestor of Asaph, the reputed founder of one of the three the foregoing discussion and in view of what was said earlier
musical guilds established by David,5 and as that of the head with regard to the meaning of the name Adoni-zedek, it may
of one of the divisions or courses of priests similarly in- well be that the name Melchizedek, if it means at basis ‘My
(or The) King is righteous’, should be thought of, rather, as
above-mentioned passages must then be construed as the sacrificing of chil-
dren, not ‘to Molech(mr5Ze&’ but ‘as a m6le&‘. This being the case, all reference ‘Milki is righteous’. In any case, while we must again be pre-
to the name of a god seems to disappear. The argument is attractive and, on pared to find a revision of opinion as to what is involved in
the whole, convincing; but, while Eissfeldt adopts the view that the Hebrew this notion of divine ‘Kingship’, there is obviously every
m6le& ( = Punic mlk) is to be associated with the Syriac $o, ‘to counsel
in its secondary sense ‘to promise’, and thus made to yield the meaning
reason to accept its early association with the notion of
‘promise’ or ‘vow’, it seems more likely that the term in question should ‘rightness’ or ‘righteousness’ so far as the pre-Israelite
continue to be associated with the worship of Milk ( = ‘king’), and inter- city of Jerusalem is concerned.
preted in terms of what we should call a ‘royalty’. Cf. Albright, Archaeology
and the Religion of Israel, pp. 162 ff., who recognizes that the idea of a ‘vow’ The story of Melchizedek, however, teaches us something
may have been derived from the divine name Muluk ( = Malik, corres- more than this about the pre-Israelite worship of Jerusalem,
ponding to Milk), which is well attested for the region of the Middle Euphrates for we are told that, while Abram was returning from his
c. 1800 B.C. This seems more probable than the view advanced by J. G.
FCvrier, R.H.R. cxliii (rg53), pp. 8f., following A. Ah, w.0. iv (rg4g), victory over the coalition of kings who had plundered
pp. 282 f., that the Punic t?n may be connected with the Yiph’il of +/I%, Sodom and Gomorrah,4
as used in the Phoenician inscriptions from Karatepe (G. II, rg = K.A.I.
* 1 Chron. xxiv. g. 2 See above, p. 43.
26, II rg) with reference to the offering (or, rather, providing) of sacrifice;
for, as Alt himself recognized, it is difficult to reconcile this with the vocaliza- 3 Cf., for example, x Chron ix. 12 and Neh. xi. 12 with (a) I Chron.
tion of the Punic term in the construct state as molk, which is attested by the xxiv. g, and (b) Jer. xxi. I, xxxviii. I.
form of its transliteration in the Latin inscriptions on which the whole argu- 4 Gen. xiv. 18-20. In the light of Ps. lxxvi. 3 (EW. 2), as discussed above,
ment is based (i.e. in the first element of molchomor, morchomor, and mocho- p. 32, where Salem is obviously synonymous with Zion, and Ps. cx, as
mot, interpreted as meaning ‘sacrifice of a lamb’). Cf. Friedrich, op. cit., $193. discussed below, pp. I 30 ff., where Melchizedek is quite clearly associated with
Finally, for a valuable survey of the whole question and full bibliographical Zion, there is no reason to doubt that Salem is here to be identified with
references, see now H. Cazelles, art. ‘Molok’, D.B.S. v (Ig57), ~01s. 1337-46, Jerusalem. See further, for example, F.-M. Abel, GLographie de la Palestine,
and de Vaux, Studies in Old Testament Sacri$ze, pp. 73-90 ( = Les Sacri- ii (rg38), pp. 441 f., where reference will also be found to the attempts to
&es de I’Ancien Testament, pp. 67-81). locate Salem elsewhere which have been made from quite early in the
I (a) the father of Pashhur, one of Zedekiah’s advisers, Jer. xxi. I, xxxviii. Christian era, and L.-H. Vincent and A.-M. Steve, ~bwsalem de Z’Ancien
I : (b) a prince of the royal house, Jer. xxxviii. 6. Testament, ii-iii (rg56), pp. 611 ff. Incidentally, it has now been suggested
2 I Chron. vi. 25 (EW. 40), ix. 12 (cf. Neh. xi. 12), xxiv. g. that the translation ‘(king) of Salem’ is due to a misunderstanding, and that
3 Ezra x. 25 @is), 31 ( = Neh. iii. I I) . P’21 should b e i( )read as ;lh?q (on the ground of haplography) so as to
* Neh. iii. II ( = Ezra x. 31), 14, 31, viii. 4, x. 4 (EW. 3), xi. 12 (cf. I yield the supposed meaning ‘a king allied to him’, or (ii) construed as an
Chron. ix. 12), xii. 42. adjective with the supposedly resultant force of ‘a submissive king’. Cf. (i)
5 I Chron. vi. 25 (EW. 40). W. F. Albright, ‘Abram the Hebrew: A New Archaeological Interpretation’,
48 Saual Kingship in Ancient Israel Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel 49
Melchizedek, the king of Salem, who was priest to God Most This story of Abram’s deference towards the sacral king
High, had brought forth bread and wine, and had greeted him and of a Canaanite city, coupled with the emphatic and re-
said : peated reference to ‘El ‘Elyon (‘/i’yp 38) or ‘God Most
‘Blessed’ be Abram by God Most High, High’ (cf. R.V., R.S.V.) is quite remarkable. If it is not
Owner (or Creator)2 of heaven and earth! historical (and this is much disputed),1 the only satis-
Blessed be God Most High, factory explanation of its existence would seem to be that it
Who hath delivered thy foes into thy handl’
is an aetiological myth designed to justify the pre-Israelite
And he had given him a tenth of everything. worship of Jerusalem in the eyes of those who were wor-
B.A.S.O.R. 163 (Oct. 1961), p. 52; (ii) R. H. Smith, ‘Abram and Melchizedek shippers of Yahweh; and, as such, it would be most suitably
(Gen 14~s-~~)‘, Z.A.W. lxxvii (1965), p, 145. However, apart from the assigned to the reign of David.2 Now, until recently the
debatable connotation which is thus claimed for the terms P??q and P@ only evidence outside the general stream of Biblical
(and, if the first suggestion is at least ingenious, the second is highly question-
able), the simple perusal of any respectable Hebrew concordance to the Old tradition for the use of the epithet ‘Elyon as a divine name
Testament, S.V. qyq, . . will suffice to show how unlikely it is that we have here was that offered by Philo of Byblos (A.D. 64-161), who knew
a reference to a king who is described vaguely as an ally or vassal emerging of a god ‘Elioun called Most High’ (‘Ehoiiv Kcihoirpsvos
from some unspecified quarter, rather than a king who is defined by means of
a following genitive as ruling over a particular territory or people, i.e. with
“Y~ylcrros) who had once been worshipped in the neigh-
a resultant indication of the district in (or from) which he makes his appearance bourhood of that city;3 but striking evidence for the exis-
upon the scene. tence of this divine name outside Israel is now to be found
r Cf. Pedersen, Israel I-II; p. 153, E.T., p. 199; also, for valuable com-
parative material, E. Westermarck, Ritual and Belief in Mmocco (1926), i
in the formal expression ?S>D1 +K ati?, corresponding
pp. 35-261. to the Hebrew for ‘in the presence of ‘Es1 and ‘Elyon’, which
2 Cf., perhaps, Deut. xxxii. 6 (and 8) ; Ps. cxxxix. 13 ; Prov. viii. 22 : and occurs in the record of a treaty, inscribed in Aramaic and
see further, for example, H. G. May, Y.B.L. lx (1941), p. I 18, n. I I. Cf. the
similar uncertainty in the case of the corresponding expression Y’lK Ii7 5K dating from the middle of the eighth century B.C., which has
which occurs in the Phoenician inscriptions from Karatepe (G. III, 18 =
K.A.I. 26, III 18) and in a Neo-Punic inscription from Leptis Magna in I While the historical value of Genesis xiv remains uncertain, it is becom-
Tripolitania (G. Levi Della Vida, Libya 3 (1927), pp. 105-7, No. 13 = K.A.1. ing increasingly clear that the names of the kings to which it refers are quite
129, I), and may be held to mean either “El, owner of the earth (or land)’ or authentic for the first half of the second millenium B.C. Cf., for example,
“El, creator of the earth’. Cf., for example, (a) Levi Della Vida, J.B.L. R. de Vaux, ‘Les Patriarches hebreux et les decouvertes modemes’ (suite);
lxiii (1944), pp. 4 ff. (also p, I, n. I); T. H. Gaster, Thespis: Ritual, Myth and R.B. Iv (1948), pp. 326 ff. = Die hebrciischen Patriarchen und die modernen
Drama in the Ancient Near East (1950)~ p. 312,2nd edit. rev. (1961), p. 375; Entdeckungen (x961), pp. 33 ff.
J. Obermann, New Discoveries at Kuratepe, T.C.A.A.S. 38 (1949), p. 36 2 Cf., for example, H. S. Nyberg, ‘Studien zum Religionskampf im
(alternatively): (b) A. Alt, w.0. iv (1949), p. 284; Obermann, lot. cit. (alter- Alten Testament. I. Der Gott ‘Al: Belege und Bedeutung des Namens’,
natively). Cf., too, the use of the Ugaritic Jbny, as in the expression Knyt A.R.W. xxxv (1938), pp. 351,363 f. (see above, p. 18, n. I), followed by Th.
‘ilm, which is used as an appellation of Asherah of the Sea (Gordon, op. cit. C. Vriezen, V. Th. xv ( I 944), pp. 83 f., Oud-israZlietische Geschriften (I 948),
51, i 23 = Herdner, Mission de Ras Shamra X, 4, i 23, etc.) and may be held pp. 108 f.; H. H. Rowley, ‘Zadok and Nehushtan’,J.B.L. lviii (1939), p. 125,
to mean either ‘mistress of the gods’ (e.g. Gaster, op. cit., pp. 163 ff., 2nd supplemented by ‘Melchizedek and Zadok (Gen. 14 and Ps. I IO)‘, Festschrift
edit. rev., pp. 174 ff. ; G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, pp. 92 ff.) fiir Alfred Bertholet (1950), p. 466. See also G. von Rad. A.T.D. 2-4 (1949-
or ‘creatress ( = mother) of the gods’ (e.g. Gordon, op. cit., p. 479 (2249), 53), 6th edit. (1961), pp. 150-2, E.T. by J. H. Marks (1961), pp. 174-6; and
as in Ugaritic Literature, pp. 28 ff. ; J. Aistleitner, Wtirterbuch der ugariti- now, in general, A. H. J. Gunneweg, Leviten und Priester. Hauptlinien der
schen Sprache, ed. 0. Eissfeldt, B.V.S.A.W.L. 106, 3 (1963), p. 279 (2426); Traditionsbildung und Geschichte des israelitisch-jiidischen Kultpersonals,
Driver, op. cit., p. 93, n. 2 (alternatively). For a discussion of the Hebrew F.R.L.A.N.T. 89 (1965),
terminology see P. Humbert, ‘ “QPna ” en hebreu biblique’, in Festschrift fiir 3 Eusebius, Praeparatr
Alfred Bertholet (1950), pp. 259-66 = Opuscules d’un Ubrafsant, M.U.N. kische Religion nach Phr
xxvi (1958), pp. 166-74; and, with special reference to Proverbs viii. 22, Schamra und Sanchunja
W. A. Irwin, ‘Where shall Wisdom be found?‘,r.B.L. 1xXx(1961), pp. 133-42. S.B.D.A.W. 1952: I (19
0 SQSS
 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel
been found near Aleppo.1 The importance of this discovery The attempt to discover,a more personal name for the
lies, not merely in the fact that it offers much earlier testi- high god of this Canaanite city which David made the
mony of an extra-Biblical kind to the use of this divine cultic centre of his kingdom, like the supposed cultic im-
name in northern Syria, but also in the fact that it serves to plication of the name ‘David’ itself,1 must be regarded as
confirm what the Old Testament itself leads one to suspect,2 and note, with reference to R. Lack, ‘Les Origines de ‘Elyhn, Le T&s-
i.e. that in the expression ‘El ‘ElyBn (‘God Most High’) two Haut, dam la tradition culturelle d’Isra&l’, C.B.Q. xxiv (1962), pp. 44-64,
divine names ‘El (‘God’) and ‘ElyGn (‘Most High’), which that it is obviously no part of the argument of this monograph that the use
of the divine appellative ‘Elyon was peculiar to the worship of the Jebusite
were originally distinct, have been fused together so as to cultus of Jerusalem and was totally unknown in Israelite circles prior to the
suggest one supreme God.3 All in all, therefore, there is no time of David.
reason to doubt that, so far as Jerusalem was concerned, the I The view has been advanced that the original name of the founder of
the Davidic dynasty was Elhanan or even Baalhanan, and that the name David
term ‘ElyGn (‘Most High’) .was just what the epithet itself is derived from an original Do& or DaJ, the name of the Palestinian counter-
implies, i.e. an appellation of the high god who had been part of the fertility god Tammuz as worshipped in Jerusalem, which was
assumed by Elhanan (or Baalhanan) only after the capture of the city. Cf.
worshipped in this ancient Canaanite city prior to its cap- (a) I Sam. xvii with 2 Sam. xxi. 19 (as against the harmonizing passage I
ture by David.4 Chron. xx. 5) ; (b) Gen. xxxvi. 38 (P) = I Chron. i. 49: and see further
x Cf., originally, P. S. Ronzevalle, ‘Notes et etudes d’archeologie orientale A. H. Sayce, ‘The Names of the First Three Kings of Israel’, The Modern
(Deuxiemc serie, II). Fragments d’inscriptions ararneennes des environa Review v (1884), pp. 158-69, esp. pp. 159-63, Lectures on the Origin and
d’Alep’, M. U.S.J. xv. 7 (1931), pp. 237-60. See further, for example, H. Growth of Religion as illustrated by the Religion of the Ancient Babylonians
Bauer, A.f.0. viii (1932-3), pp. 1-16; J. Hempel, 2.A.w. 1 (1932), pp. 178- (1887), pp. 52 ff.; J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough. IV. Adonis, Attis, Osiris,
83 ; and now, with an extensive bibliography, K.A.I. 222 (-224). 3rd edit. rev. (rgr4), i. pp. 18ff.; S. A. Cook, C.A.H. ii, pp. 393 ff. Indeed, it
* Cf., for example, Num. xxiv. 16 (JE); and see below, pp. 74ff. has also been suggested that the Song of Songs is, at basis, a liturgy belong-
3 The fact that in the foregoing Aramaic inscription the preposition Q?P is ing to this cult of the god Doa (cf., for example, the bride’s repeated reference
not repeated before t’5Y makes it clear that a similar fusion of these two to her dddor ‘beloved’, i. 13, etc.), and that it owes its preservation to the
terms was under way in northern Syria in the eighth century B.C., as will be fact that it was Solomon (see below, p. 53, n. I), rather than Adonijah, who
seen if the expression is read in its immediate context. G. Levi Della Vida, succeeded David on the throne, for this ensured the continuation of his
“El ‘Elyon in Genesis 14, IS-20’, J.B.L. lxiii (1944), pp. 1-9, followed by father’s efforts at syncretism. Cf., for example, T. J. Meek, ‘Canticles and
J. Morgenstem, ‘The Divine Triad in Biblical Mythology’, J.B.L. lxiv the Tammuz Cult’, A.J.S.L. xxxix (1922-3), pp. 1-14, ‘The Song of Songs
(1945), pp. 15-37, thinks it possible to distinguish a god El, who was the and the Fertility Cult’, in The Song of Songs: A Symposium, ed. W. H. Schoff
lord of earth, and a god ‘Elyon, who was the lord of heaven (i.e. ‘the astral (1924), pp. 48-79; Schoff, ‘The Offering Lists in the Song of Songs and
sky, the seat of sun, moon and stars’ as opposed to ‘the atmospheric or their political significance’, ibid., pp. 80-120; and for a critical survey of
meteoric sky, where storms are formed’). this and associated theories, see H. H. Rowley, The Servant of the Lord and
4 It is possible that one should recognize the survival of a corresponding other Essays otl the Old Testament (1952), pp. 213ff., 2nd edit. rev. (1965),
divine name ‘Al or ‘Eli in a number of Old Testament passages, e.g. Deut. pp. 223 ff. On the other hand, while it seems likely that ‘David’ was, in fact,
xxxiii. 12 ; I Sam. ii. IO; 2 Sam. xxiii. I (as noticed above, p. I 8, n. I) ; Ps. vii. a regnal name assumed by Elhanan (cf. A. M. Honeyman, ‘The Evidence for
9 (EVV. 8). Cf., for example, the Ugaritic ‘Zy (II b’l) in KRT C, col. 3,6 and Regnal Names among the Hebrews’, J.B.L. lxvii (1948), pp. 23 f.; and see
8(- Gordon, Ugaritic Textbook, 126, iii. 6 and 8, and Herdner, Mission de now the vocalization of the Hebrew text of Psalm cxxxii. 6b, as proposed
Ras Shamra X, 16, iii 6 and 8); and especially the name ybw’ly @?Ylllq. above, p. 21, n. I), one should not overlook the fact that it may be interpreted
‘May ‘Iy grant life’) which occurs in the ostraca from Samaria (Diringer, op. as meaning ‘Beloved’, and, as such, may be etymologically akin to the first
cit., pp. 35 f., 46 : cf. Noth, op. cit., pp. 129, 206), and the familiar Old element in what appears to be the private name of his son Solomon (cf.
Testament name ‘Eli or Eli (I Sam. i-iv, xiv. 3; I Kings ii. 27). See further Honeyman, op. cit., pp. 22 f.), i.e. Jedidiah, ‘Beloved of Yah’ (2 Sam. xii.
Nyberg, op. cit., passim, also Studien zum Hoseabuche, pp. 57 ff. ; Albright, 24 f.); for this suggests that it may be a simple hypocoristicon. Cf. Noth, op.
Archaeology and the Religion of Israel, pp. 201 f., C.B.Q. vii (1945), p. 31, cit., pp. 149, 183 n. 4, 223.
n. 89; F. M. Cross jr. and D. N. Freedman, Y.B.L. lxvii (1948), pp. 204 f. ; In the first edition of this work I also referred, for the sake of completeness,
R. Tournay, R.B. lvi (1949), pp. 48 ff.; M. Dahood, ‘The Divine Name to the widely current view that the name David might be related to the term
‘Eli in the Psalms’, T.S. xiv (rg53), pp. 452-7. Cf. now H. S&mid, ‘Jahwe DA-WI-DU-&UM (and the like) which had been found to occur quite often in

und die Kulttraditionen von Jerusalem’, Z.A.W. lxvii (1955), pp. 168-97 ; the Accadian texts of the eighteenth century B.C. from Mari and was thought
52 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel 53
doubtful, although there is some reason to believe that, if &l~rn.I In any case, as we turn in the following pages to an
the association of a god $edek with Jerusalem remains ex- examination of those psalms which are to be our main con-
tremely uncertain, I its tutelary deity may have been the god cern, we shall find reason to believe that, after the capture
to refer to a military leader of some kind. Cf., for example, G. Dossin, A.R.M. of Jerusalem, David found in the Jebusite cultus with its
i (rgso), Nos. 69, 92, 124; C. F. Jean, A.R.M. ii (rgso), Nos. 74, 241; worship of the ‘Most High’ in association with the royal-
Dossin, A.R.M. iv (rgsr), Nos. 33, 40, 41; A.R.M. v (Igsz), Nos. 2, 72;
also J. Bottero and A. Finet, A.R.M. xv (rg54), p 200 (s.v. &w&m). How-
priestly order of Melchizedek a ritual and mythology which
ever, it now seems clear that the form in question should be regarded, rather, might prove to be the means of carrying out Yahweh’s pur-
as a variant of dubdti, ‘defeat’. Cf. H. Tadmor (citing B. Landsberger), in poses for Israel and fusing the chosen people into a model
J.N.E.S. xvii (rg#), pp. 129 ff., followed, for example, by A.D. and A.H.,
s.v. dabdti.
of national righteousness.2
Finally, for more recent discussion of the original significance of the name
David along much the same divergent lines as those already indicated, see retain something of his earlier priestly status, or, simply, a priest of this
now (a) G. W. Ahlstram, Psalm 89. Eine Liturgie aus dem Ritual des leidenden earlier Jebusite cultus. Cf., for example, 2 Sam. viii. 17, xv. 24 ff., xvii. 15,
K&zigs (Igsg), pp. 163 ff., and (b) J. J. Stamm, ‘Der Name des KGnigs xix. 12 (EW. I I); I Kings i. r-ii. 35; I Chron. v. 30-40 (EW. vi. 4-14),
David’, in Congress Volume: Oxford 1959, S.V.T. vii (rgsg), pp. 165-83, vi. 35-38 (EW. so-53), xviii. 16: and see (a) A. Bentzen, Studier over det
who stresses, as an alternative to the meaning ‘Beloved’ (‘Liebling’), that of zadokidiske prasteskabs historic (I g3 I), pp. 8-18, following the suggestions
paternal ‘Uncle’ (‘Vatersbruder’). In connexion with the latter work, how- of S. Mowinckel, Ezra den skrifterde (1916), p. Iog, n. 2 (cf. Offersang og
ever, I must enter a protest against the fact that the first edition of this sangoffer, p. 135, The Psalms in Israel’s Worship, i. p. 133), and H. R. Hall,
monograph is cited (p. 171, n. I; with the broad reference ‘passim’l) as in The People and the Book, ed. A. S. Peake (1925), p. I I, and the summary
evidence for the statement that I have taken up and developed the argument of this work in German by the author, Z.A. W. li (1933), pp. 173-6; Nyberg,
of I. Engnell, Studies in Divine Kingship in the Ancient Near East (Ig&, A.R.W. xxxv (Ig#), p. 375 ; (b) H. H. Rowley, ‘Zadok and ,Nehushtan’,
pp. 176 f., who claimed (i) that the term 777 had been used originally in J.B.L. lviii (rg39), pp. 113-41, ‘Melchizedek and Zadok (Gen. 14 and Ps.
Jebusite Jerusalem as ‘an appellative or a proper name of the “vegetation- IIO)‘, Festschrift fib AZfied Bertholet (x950), pp. 46172; and now C. E.
deity” corporalized in the king’, (ii) that it came to be employed in the Old Hauer jr., ‘Who was Zadok?‘, J.B.L. lxxxii (1963), pp. 89-94.
Testament ‘simply as a title of the reigning king’, and (iii) that, correspond- I It is possible that a divine name Salem should be recognized behind the
ingly, its use in the expression 7174, which figures so often in the headings alternative names of the city, Salem (i.e. ‘&&m’) and Jerusalem (‘Founda-
to the individual compositions in the Psalter, is to be interpreted as ‘an tion of &ilem’ ?), and the personal names which were given by David to his
original cultic-liturgical rubric inherited from pre-Israelite Jebusite times two favourite sons, Absalom (originally ‘Sl?lem is father’?) and Solomon
with the actual import of “a psalm for the king” ‘. It should have been clear, (but see in this connexion J. J. Stamm, ‘Der Name des Konigs Salomo’, T.Z.
both from the statement in the text which has given rise to this footnote and xvi (1960), pp. 285-97). Cf. the form JZrn which occurs unmistakably in the
from the wording of this note in its original form, that I was reserving judge- Ras Shamra tablets as the name of a god (Gordon, op. cit., 17,12; 52,52 f. =
ment (as, obviously, I still do) on the whole of this highly controversial issue. Herdner, 29, rev. 12; 23, 52 f.; see also G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and
What is more, the fact that this monograph develops the argument of a work Legends, pp. 120 ff.), and the divine names Salim and Sulmanu which are
which I published eight years before that of Engnell (see above, in the preface attested by theophorous names in Accadian texts. See further, for example,
to the first edition) should have been sufficient to show that its thesis owes J. Lewy, ‘Lea Textes paleo-assyriens et 1’Ancien Testament’, R.H.R. cx
nothing to any hints which had been dropped by this Swedish scholar. The (1934)) P P. 60 fi..; ‘The Sulman Temple in Jerusalem,’ J.B.L. lix (1940),
fact is that, as I have indicated repeatedly elsewhere (see above, p. 7, n. I), pp. 519-22; also Nyberg, op. cit., pp. 352 ff. ; N. W. Porteous, ‘Shalem-
I owe my treatment of the psalms in question to Gunkel’s valuable recogni- Shalom’, G.U.O.S.T. x (1940 and 1941, published rg43), pp. 17; J. Gray,
tion of a class of psalm which he described as ‘royal psalms’ (‘Konigspsalmen’), ‘The Desert God ‘A_ttr in the Literature and Religion of Canaan’, Y.N.E.S.
many of which, as it seems to me, have close links with a modified form of viii (rg49), pp. 72-83; and now Vincent and Steve, op. cit., p. 612; G.
Mowinckel’s epoch-making treatment of the psalms which celebrate the King- Fohrer, Th.W.N.T. vii (rg64), pp. 296 f.
ship of Yahweh. 2 It has been claimed that kingship as aninstitutionwas in decline in Canaan
I See above, pp. 36 f. It has also been suggested that the figure of Zadok, at the time of the Hebrew settlement, and, in particular, that the absence of
a priest of uncertain genealogy, who comes suddenly to the fore as an any reference to a contemporary king of Jerusalem in the account of David’s
associate of Abiathar when once David is established in Jerusalem, acquires capture of the city (2 Sam. v. 6-8) makes it likely that there was no kingship in
deeper significance when seen in the light of the Melchizedek tradition; in existence there at that time. Cf. J. Gray, ‘Canaanite Kingship in Theory and
fact, that he may have been either the earlier Jebusite king of Jerusalem, who, Practice’, V.T. ii (rg52), pp. x93-220, following A. Alt, Die Staatenbildung
in line with David’s general policy of conciliation, had been allowed to der Israeliten in Pa&t&a (I: gso), pp. 3 I f. ( = Kleine Schriften zur Geschichte
 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel 55
54
Moreover, we learn that the festival under discussion was
III
celebrated in Jerusalem in the month Ethanim, which is
The dedication of Solomon’s Temple, which adjoined the then explained as being the seventh month, i.e. the month
palace and was first and foremost a royal chapel,1 took Tishri (October-November) according to the Babylonian
place at the celebration of a great autumn festival.2 This calendar and the numbering of the months from that of
corresponds to a leading feature of Jeroboam’s attempt to Nisan (March-April).1 In Bethel, on the other hand, it is
consolidate his position in the north, following the dis- said to have taken place in the eighth month, i.e. the month
ruption of the monarchy and the successful break-away Bul or, according to the Babylonian calendar, Marcheshvan
from the House of David; for we learn that he established (November-December), the variation probably being in
rival centres of worship at Dan in the north and Bethel keeping with local tradition as well as reflecting the
in the south of his kingdom, and we are expressly told that, absence of any central control such as that which emerged
in establishing what was essentially a royal cultus at Bethel in close association with the Jerusalem Temple after the
as a rival to the similar cultus in Jerusalem (the book of Exile.2 Further, it is generally agreed that the festival in
Amos revealing that the sanctuary at Bethel, like that in question must have been the last and most important of the
Jerusalem, was indeed a royal sanctuary),3 he followed three great festivals of the Israelite year,3 i.e. ‘The Feast’
the example of the Southern Kingdom by inaugurating at par excellence,4 which occurs in the earlier legal codes as
this particular centre a corresponding autumnal festival.4 ‘The Feast of Ingathering’ (T’Q$;! In)” but ultimately
This is important; for it indicates that the festival in ques- even isolated rulers, the Southern Kingdom remained faithful to the House
tion was used in Jerusalem for the important purpose of of David throughout some four centuries until the kingdom itself was
binding the people in loyalty not only to the national deity overthrown from outside.
x I Kings viii. a.
but also to the reigning house.5 a I Kings xii. 32 f. (cf. vi. 38). The argument advanced by J. Morgenstern,
des Volkes Israel, ii (1953), pp. 24 ff.), who thinks in terms of a council of Amos Studies, i (1941), pp. I46 ff. (cf. H.U.C.A. xii-xiii (1937-8), pp. 20 ff.),
elders. See also J. de Groot, in Werden und Wesen des Alten Testaments, ed. in an attempt to equate the date of these two festivals in terms of his theory of
J. Hempel, B.Z.A.W. 66 (1936), pp. 191 ff., who suggests a Philistine over- a triple calendar seems to the present writer to be very strained, and amongst
lordship. However, such an argument from silence, when the data concem- other things overemphasizes the attractions of such a feast at the expense
ing the capture of Jerusalem are so meagre, is extremely precarious; and, if of the traditional rivalry between north and south. Cf., for example, 2 Sam.
nothing happens to be said here about a king who may be regarded as a auc- Xix. 41-43, xx. I; I Kings xii. 16. For Morgenstern’s theory of a triple
cessor of Adoni-zedek, as little is said either here or anywhere else about calendar, see ‘The Three Calendars of Ancient Israel’, H. U.C.A. i (1924),
there ever having been a council of elders or, indeed, a Philistine ruler at pp. 1378; ‘Additional Notes on “The Three Calendars of Ancient Israel” ‘,
Jerusalem prior to its capture by David. H.U.C.A. iii (1926), pp. 77-107; and ‘Supplementary Studies in the
I Cf. I Kings v. 15 (EW. v. I)-vii. 51; Ezek. xliii. 7-9: and see further Calendars of Ancient Israel’, H.U.C.A. x (1935), pp. 1-148. On the whole,
K. Mohlenbrink, Der Tempel Salomos. Eine Untersuchung seinet Stellung however, Morgenstem’s argument is too dependent upon a theory of inter-
in der Sakralarchitektur des alten Orients, B.W.A.N.T. 59 (1932), pp. 49-79. polation to be at all convincing to the mind of the present writer, and no
As should be clear from the ensuing argument of this monograph, the state- further account of it is taken in connexion with the ensuing discussion; for,
ment which is made above in the text is not to be construed as implying that even if Morgenstern’s theory were to prove true, the writer’s general thesis
the Temple was the king’s private chapel. Cf. the careful distinction which is would remain quite unaffected. Finally, note now (i.e. as compared with
rightly drawn by R. de Vaux, Les Institutions de Z’Ancien Testament, ii (1960), the time when the foregoing words were written for the first edition of this
pp. 158 E, E.T. (as above, p. 4, n. 4), pp. 320 f. monograph) that Morgenstem has abandoned this attempt to equate the
2 I Kings viii. 2: cf. 2 Chron. v. 3, vii. 8-10. date of the two festivals: see ‘The Festival of Jeroboarn I’,J.B.L. lxxxiii (I 964),
3 vii. 10-17, esp. verse 13. I Kings xii. 26-33.
pp. 109-18.
f Cf., for example, J. Skinner, Cent. B. (nd.), on I Kings viii. 2.
5 Cf. N. H. Snaith, TheJewish New Year Festival: Its Origins and Develop-
* Cf. Judges xxi. 19; I Kings viii. 2, xii. 32: also John vii. 2.
ment (1947), pp. 47 ff. It is, perhaps, worthy of note in this connexion that,
5 Exod. xxiii. 16 (E), xxxiv. 22 (J).
whereas the Northern Kingdom witnessed a succession of dynasties and
a

56 Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel 57

appears in the later codes as ‘The Feast of Tabernacles’ or, I other words, this expression simply denotes one of the two
better perhaps, ‘Feast of Booths’ (niZg;lr IQ.1 According recognized turning points in the cycle of the year.
to pre-exilic sources this festival took place ‘in the going ~ On the other hand, some support for the view that the
out of the year’ (il#;lr nQq),2 or ‘at the turn of the year’ Feast of Ingathering was closely connected with the thought
(;1$;1 r@q?Q;3 and a strong case can be made out for the of at least an agricultural New Year is to be found in the so-
view that the expression ‘the going out of the year’ denotes called Gezer Calendar (possibly as early as the tenth century
the end of the year .4 Nevertheless it is difficult to escape B . C .), which lists the agricultural operations of the year in

the impression that the phrase ‘the going out of the year’ their monthly order beginning with that of ‘Ingathering’
should be regarded as the opposite of the expression ‘the (7 W) ;I and such a forward look is confirmed by the explicit
return of the year’ (3$@ nlrl@), which is defined as the association of the Feast of Tabernacles with the coming
time when military operations might be expected to begin of the rain which would be so necessary if these agri-
and therefore probably bears reference to the spring.5 If that cultural operations were to issue in a successful harvest
should be so, these two contrary expressions may reflect by the end of the ensuing twelve months.2 Further, it is
the thought of the dying and reviving year ;6 and, this being a noteworthy fact that in the post-exilic period Tishri I
the case, the expression ‘the going out of the year’ should or the first day of the seventh month was a day of memorial
not be stressed as clearly marking, in and of itself, the end to be celebrated in a special way with the sounding of
of one year or by implication the beginning of the next. In trumpet or horn,3 and that in the rabbinical tradition repre-
I Lev. xxiii. 34-36, 39-44 (H); Dem. xvi. 13-15, 16. Cf. Num. xxix. sented by the Mishnah it is expressly stated to be a New
12-38 (P); Deut. xxxi. 10-13: also Ezra iii. 4; Neh. viii. 14-18; Zech. xiv.
16-19.
Year’s Day;-+ for this seems best understood as a reflection
* Exod. xxiii. 16 (E). of the traditional importance which must have been at-
3 Exod. xxxiv. 22 (J). tached to this season of the year. Moreover, it is to be ob-
4 Cf. Snaith, op. cit., pp. 58 ff. (followed by A. Aalen, Die Begrifle ‘Licht’
und ‘Finsternis’ im Alten Testament, im Splitjudentum und im Rabbinismus,
served that, whereas this New Year’s Day fell on Tishri I,
S.N.V.A.O. II, 195 I, No. I (1951), p. so), who rightly rejects the theory that i.e. at the new moon, the Feast of Tabernacles did not begin
the expression in question means ‘the begining of the year’, as maintained, its week of celebrations until Tishri I 5, i.e. at the full moon ;5
for example, by G. B. Gray, Sacrifice in the Old Testament: Its Theory and
Practice (1925), pp. 300 f. See also E. Auerbach, V.T. iii (1953), pp. 186 f.; so that the great autumnal festival now came well within
and, for a reiteration of the view that this expression must mean ‘the be- the new year marked by this particular New Year’s Day.6
ginning of the year’, S. Mowinckel, Zum israelitischen Neujahr und zur
Deutung der Thronbesteigungspsalmen, A.N.V.A.O. 11, 1952, No. 2 (1952), I See Diringer, op. cit., pp. 1-20, and Moscati, op. cit., pp. 8-26.
pp. 12-14, and now de Vaux, op. cit., i, p. 289, E.T., p. 190. * Cf. Snaith, op. cit., pp. 62 ff.; Aalen, op. cit., pp. 52 f. : and see below,
5 2 Sam. xi. I (Q: cf. I Chron. xx. I); I Kings xx. 22,26; 2 Chron. xxxvi. IO. P. 59, n. 2. 3 Lev. xxiii. 24 f. (H); Num. xxix. 1-6 (P).
The writer has been unable to accept Snaith’s argument, op. cit., pp. 32 ff., 4 Rosh ha-Shanah i. I, e.g. in the translation by H. Danby, The Mishnah
that in 2 Sam. xi. I, I Kings xx. 22, 26, the reference cannot be to the open- (‘933).
ing of hostilities in the spring. The definition of the season as being the 5 Lev. xxiii. 34, 39 (H); Num. xxix. 12 (P): cf. I Kings xii. 32.
time at which the kings ‘go forth’ does not imply, of course, that hostilities 6 It seems possible that in the pre-exilic period each new month began,
always took place just at that time, but merely that from that particular not with the new moon, but with the full moon; and, this being the case, it
period of the year onwards they might be expected. may be that the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles or, to use the earlier
6 Cf. The Vitality of the Individual in the Thought of Ancient Israel, name, the Feast of Ingathering, since it coincided with the full moon, was
pp. 13 f., 2nd edit., pp. 8 f. Shortly after the publication of the first edition originally not only the first day of a new month but also a New Year’s Day.
of the present work I found that the suggestion which is made above in Cf. I. Benzinger, Hebriiische Arch5oZogie, 2nd edit. (1907), p. 169, 3rd edit.
the text had already been made by Pedersen, Israel I-II, pp. 380 f., E.T., (x927), pp. 169 f.; Mowinckel, Psalmenstudien II, pp. 87 f.; and esp. Snaith,
pp. 489 f., and Israel III-IV, p. 336, E.T., pp. 444 f. op. cit., pp. 96 ff., particularly pp. 99-103 with reference to Ps. kxxi. 4 (EW.
58 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel
Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel 59
Unfortunately the Old Testament offers little direct Tabernacles. Moreover, it shall be that, whoso of all the families of
evidence as to the ritual and mythology of this great autum- the earth goeth not up to Jerusalem to worship the King, Yahweh of
nal festival in any of its forms; and even the little that is Hosts, upon them the rain shall not come.
available is post-exilic in date. In short, there is the well-
known practice of dwelling in ‘booths’ throughout the It seems reasonable to infer that such an eschatological
seven days of the festival, 1 and there are the regulations picture (and for the present writer’s argument as a whole
concerning the special sacrifices which are to be offered on this eschatological aspect must be emphasized)1 is based
each successive day;2 but none of this takes us very far, and upon what was already the established complex of ideas
it seems extraordinary that so important a festival should associated with this festival in the form which had been
have left so little trace. Happily, however, there is a brief current in Jerusalem, i.e. to infer, as a general principle,
but important passage in the post-exilic book of Zechariah that the gift of rain was bound up with the celebration of
which touches on the Feast of Tabernacles and, in so the Feast of Tabernacles (an inference borne out from other
doing, yields a valuable clue to the indirect evidence which sources),2 and, what is more, that this celebration found its
is available for the reconstruction of the ritual pattern as it focus in the worship of Yahweh as King and even, perhaps,
existed in Jerusalem, i.e. :3 the universal King.
At this point it is necessary to recall the fact that in
And it shall come to pass that every one that is left of all the nations
Israelite thought the sky is a concrete dome-like structure or
which came up against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to
worship the King, Yahweh of Hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of ‘firmament’ which rests upon the circle of the earth, while the
earth itself is supported above a part of the all-embracing
3). Indeed, it is conceivable that in the post-exilic period the celebration of cosmic sea, in which are sunk the bases of the mountains
(i) a New Year’s Day on Tishri I, (ii) the Day of Atonement on Tishri IO,
and (iii) the Feast of Tabernacles on Tishri 15-21 (22), represents different as the very pillars of heaven. The breaks in the earth’s
facets of what had once been a single celebration in the earlier period, surface, which are caused by the seas and the rivers, the
when this agricultural New Year began, not with the new moon, but with flooded wadies, and the bubbling springs, all reveal the
the full moon. Cf. (i) Rosh ha-Shanah i, I, as above, n. 4: (ii) Lev. xvi. 29,
xxiii. 27 (H); Num. xxix. 7 (P): (iii) Lev. xxiii. 34-36, 39-44 (H); Num. presence of the subterranean waters; and rain is due to
xxix. 12-38 (P): and see further P. Volz, Das Neujahrsfest Jahwes (Laub- the fact that a supply from the upper reaches of this great
hiittenfest), V.S.G.T.R. 67 (IgI2), p. 18; Mowinckel, op. cit., pp. 206ff.; cosmic sea is released from time to time by Yahweh through
and Snaith, op. cit., pp. 89 and 148. Finally, for what may have been a
transitional celebration of Tishri IO as a New Year’s Day (cf. Ezek. xl. I ; also the window-like openings of heaven for the service or
Lev. xxv. g (H) with reference to the Year of Jubilee), see Snaith, op. cit.,
pp. 131-41. I See below, p. 61, n. I.
1 Lev. xxiii. 42 f. (H); Neh. viii. 14-18. Various attempts have been made a Sukkah iv. g; Taanith i. I. Cf., for example, H. St. John Thackeray,
to explain the origin of this practice in terms of the agricultural life of The Septuagint and Jewish Worship (IgzI), pp. 62 ff. ; Wensinck, op. cit.,
Palestine: for example, (a) the practice of camping out in the vineyards at pp. 27 ff. ; G. Dalman, Arbeit und Sitte in PalListina, i. I (Ig28), pp. 148 ff. ;
the time of harvest, J. Wellhausen, Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels = Patai, Man and Temple, pp. 24 ff. For valuable comparative material with
Geschichte Israels, i, 2nd edit. (1883), p. 88, E.T. by J. S. Black and A. regard to the climatic conditions of Palestine including the annual rainfall,
see also H. Hilderscheid, ‘Die Niederschlagsverhiiltnisse PalZIstinas in alter
Menzies, Prolegomena to the History of Israel (1885), p. 85 ; (b) a practice
und neuer Zeit’, Z.D.P.V. xxv (1go2), pp. 1-105; F. M. Exner, ‘Zum Klima
corresponding to that of planting Adonis gardens, H. Gressmann, Tod und
von Palgstina’, with a foreword by M. Blanckenhorn, Z.D.P.V. xxxiii (I~IO),
Auferstehung des Osiris nach Festbriiuchen und UmzCgen, A. 0. xxiii. 3 (I gz3),
pp. 107-64; F.-M. Abel, Gkographie de la Palestine, i (1g33), pp. 108-34;
p, 17 ; (c) a taboo on dwelling indoors at a time of the year when houses were
M. Noth, Die Welt des Alten Testaments, 2nd edit. rev. (Ig53), pp. 23-28,
thought to be peculiarly susceptible to demonic visitation, A. J. Wensinck,
4th edit. rev. (Ig62), pp. 25-30; R. B. Y. Scott, ‘Meteorological Phenomena
Arabic New-Year and the Feast of Tabernacles, V.K.A.W.A., N.R. xxv. 2
and Terminology in the Old Testament’, Z.A.W. lxiv (Ig32), pp. 11-25;
(1925), PP. 2.5 ff. 2 Num. xxix. 12-38:(P). 3 xiv. 16 f.: cf. verse g.
and now D. Baly, The Geography of the Bible (rg57), pp. 40 ff.
 60 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel 61
destruction of mankind, as He may see fit.1 Moreover, it consider evidence which serves to show that the psalms in
seems clear that the ‘bronze sea’ which figured so promi- question, far from being influenced in some cases by the
nently in the furnishing of Solomon’s Temple was intended thought of Deutero-Isaiah as is commonly supposed, are
as a replica of this cosmic sea, and, as such, must have been of pre-exilic date, and must be regarded rather as having
designed to play a prominent part in the ritual of the cultus. themselves exerted a powerful influence upon the thought
Now it is significant to find that in the Psalter there are of this great prophet of the Exile.1
not a few liturgical works which lay stress upon the fact Tabernacles) no reference is made to this conception of Yahweh as King;
that Yahweh is King, and, what is more, that He is en- but such an omission does not prove that the association of ideas in the
throned as King in virtue of His control over the great book of Zechariah is purely fortuitous, for the tractate is merely concerned
with the preservation of traditional material relating to certain practices
cosmic sea and His rule over the more stable world of associated with the festival as celebrated in connexion with the Second
heaven and earth, of which He is the Creator; for the fact Temple or the provincial synagogues, and shows little, if any, interest in
that in the foregoing passage from the book of Zechariah the accompanying ideology.
* See especially Mowinckel, Psalmenstudien II, pp. 190-202, and Zum
the gift of rain is made dependent upon the celebration of israelitischen Neujahr und zur Deutung der Thronbesteigungspsalmen, pp. 39-53 ;
the Feast of Tabernacles and the concomitant worship of also the present writer’s comments in his essay on ‘The Psalms’, in
The Old Testament and Modern Study, ed. H. H. Rowley (1951), pp. 194 f.,
Yahweh as King, coupled with the fact that rain is due to
where it is pointed out (i) that the list of parallels between Psalms xciii,
Yahweh’s power over the cosmic sea, goes far to make it xcv-xcviii and Isaiah xl-lv, drawn up by N. H. Snaith, Studies in the Psalter
probable that the psalms in question were intended for this (1934), pp. 66-69 (cf. The Jewish New Year Festival, pp. 200 f.) in support
of his claim that the former are dependent upon the latter is something of a
great autumnal festival. Moreover, although the passage two-edged sword, for quite the opposite conclusion may be drawn; and (ii)
from the book of Zechariah is of post-exilic date, there is that, if the psalms in question owed their existence to the influence of
no reason to doubt that it preserves an age-long association Deutero-Isaiah, one would expect to find some reference to Yahweh’s
activity, not only as the universal King, but also as the proven 5#i (EW.
of ideas with its roots well back in the pre-exilic period;
‘redeemer’ or, rather, as argued by the present writer in S.V.T. i (1953),
for cultic thought and practice are notoriously tenacious of pp. 67-77, ‘protector’) of His people, for this idea dominates the thought of
existence and quite capable of surviving (even though in Isaiah xl-lv from begining to end (cf. (a) xli. 14, xliii. 14, xliv. 6 (P$P 11 5&h),
a modified form) such a violent upheaval as that of the 24, xlvii. 4, xlviii. 17, xlix. 7, 26, liv. 5, 8: (b) xliii. I, xliv. 22, 23, xlviii. 20,
lii. 9); but, as a matter of fact, there is none.
Babylonian Exile.3 This is important, for we shall presently The writer’s basic dependence upon Mowinckel’s epoch-making work
I Cf., in general, Gen. i. I ff. (P), xlix. 25 ; Exod. xx. 4 (cf. Deut. iv. 18) ; for the ensuing interpretation of the psalms in question is clearly indicated
Deut. xxxii. 22, xxxiii. 13 ; 2 Sam. xxii. 5 f., 8, 16 f. (corresponding to Ps. in The Old Testament and Modern Study, pp. 196 f., as also in ‘Living
xviii. 5 f., 8, 16 f. (EW. 4 f., 7, IS f.)); Job xxvi. IO ff., xxxviii. 4 ff., 16 f.; Issues in Biblical Scholarship. Divine Kingship and the Old Testament’,
Ps. xxiv. I f., xxxiii. 6f., lxix. 16 (EW. IS), Ixxi. 20, Ixxxviii. s-8 (EW. 47), E.T. lxii (195o-I), p. 39; and it is again gratefully acknowledged here.
cxxxvi. 6 ; Prov. viii. 24-29 ; Ezek. xxvi. 19-21; Amos v. 8 ; Jonah ii. 6 f. Nevertheless, if the writer may be allowed to anticipate the conclusion of his
(EW. 5 f.): and, for the lattices or gratings (EW. ‘windows’) of heaven, argument at so early a stage as this, it seems desirable to add that, while pre-
Gen. vii. II, viii. 2 (P); 2 Kings vii. 2, 19; Isa. xxiv. 18; Mal. iii. I O. See paring this series of lectures during the winter of 1950-1 after the foremen-
further, on the general question of Israelite cosmology but with special tioned articles had gone to press, he found himself compelled to modify his
reference to the Underworld (as discussed below, pp. I 17 ff.), The VitaZity of earlier views at a number of points; and included in these modifications is
the Individual in the Thought of Ancient Israel, pp. 91 ff., 2nd edit., pp. 90 ff.; one change of quite a major character. This is (a) the rejection of the view
and, for the bearing of Israelite cosmology on the conception of rain, E. F. that the festival under discussion was concerned with the cyclic revival of the
Sutcliffe, ‘The Clouds as Water-Carriers in Hebrew Thought’, V.T. iii social unit, and (b) the recognition that its orientation was not merely to-
(r953), PP. 99-103. wards the following cycle of twelve months but towards a completely new era.
2 I Kings vii. 23-26 (cf. 2 Chron. iv. 2 ff.); 2 Kings xxv. 13. Cf., for That is to say, if ever it had its roots in a complex of myth and ritual which was
example, Albright, Archaeology and the Religion of Israel, pp. 148 ff. primarily concerned with the cycle of the year and an annual attempt to
3 In Sukkah (i.e. the Mishnaic tractate on the observance of the Feast of secure a renewal of life for a specific social unit, this had been refashioned in
 62 Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel Sacral Iiringship in Ancient Israel 63
Turning now to the liturgical works which call for con- itself opens with an exhortation to the lesser members of
sideration, we may begin with Psalm xxix, which is of the divine assembly or community of the gods (l3’% ‘a?)*
special importance in that it reveals some close parallels in
to render to Yahweh the praise which is His due?
both language and form with the Ugaritic literature of the
latter part of the second millennium B.C., and so may safely Render to Yahweh, 0 ye gods,
Render to Yahweh glory and strength,
be assigned to the pre-exilic period and, indeed, the early
Render to Yahweh the glory due to His Name;
pre-exilic period. In fact the parallels with Ugaritic are so Make obeisance to Yahweh in His holy splendour!
close that the psalm has been described as in origin a hymn
to Baa1 which has been but slightly revised in terms of The body of the psalm is then given up to a vivid picture
Yahwism;~ and as such it has been assigned tentatively to of thunderstorm and earthquake, described in terms of
the tenth century B.C.2 This is important, for it admits the Yahweh’s powerful and resplendent ‘Voice’, which echoes
possibility that we have here a hymn of the early Jebusite over the many waters, 3 shatters the cedars on the moun-
Cultus of Jerusalem which was adapted to the worship of tain slopes, makes Lebanon and Sirion (i.e. Anti-Lebanon)4
Yahweh after the capture of the city by David.3 The psalm skip like calves, rends the skies with flashes of lightning,
terms of the Hebrew experience of Yahweh’s activity on the plane of causes the wilderness of Kadesh to writhe and dance, and
history, and the thought in question was really the creation of a new world instils terror into the animal world, while in His Temple
order and the introduction of an age of universal righteousness and peace.
In short, while the writer continues to reject the historical interpretation of
the theme on everyone’s lips is that of ‘Glory!‘:5
these psalms, he now holds, not only that they were cultic in intention from the petty rulers of Canaan in addressing their Egyptian overlord may be
’ the first, but that their orientation was also eschatological from the first. drawn from contemporary Canaanite hymnology, and, this being the case,
The foregoing paragraph (apart from the form of citation in the reference may be held to indicate the existence of Canaanite prototypes for the
to my own work) has been reproduced, as it stands, from the 8rst edition of Israelite psalms. F. M. Th. B6h1, ‘Hymnisches und Rhythmisches in den
this monograph; but the reader may now be referred to my essay on ‘Hebrew Amarnabriefen aus Kanaan’, T.L.B. xxxv (1914), ~01s. 337 ff.: cf. De
Conceptions of Kingship’, in Myth, Ritual, and Kingship, ed. S. H. Hooke Psalmen, T.U. i (rg46), pp. 25 ff. See also A. Jirku, ‘Kana’aniiische Psalmen-
(rg58), pp. 204-35, for a renewed acknowledgement of my indebtedness to fragmente in der vorisraelitischen Zeit Palgstinas und Syriens’, J.B.L. lii
Mowinckel. At the same time, in view of much current misrepresentation of (r933), P P. 108-20.
my own line of approach and its conclusions, I must stress the fact, which is * Cf. Ps. lxxxix. 7 (EW. 6), as below, p. 108: also, for the corresponding
there recorded, that I have ventured to differ from him on a number of expression Ol$?#($) ‘$3, Gen. vi. 2, 4 (J) ; Job i. 6, ii. I, xxxviii. 7. See
important points, including this shift of emphasis with regard to the eschato-
further The One ‘)md the Many in the Israelite Conception of God, pp. 26 ff.,
logical interpretation of the psalms under discussion.
2nd edit., pp. 22 ff., which may be supplemented by H. W.‘Robinson, ‘The
* Cf. H. L. Ginsberg, n“lX?N ‘XI:, or The Ugarit Texts(rg36),pp. 129-31, Council of Yahweh’, J.T.S. xliv (rg43), pp. 1517, and Inspiration and
Orientalia v (Ig36), pp. 180 f., B.A. viii (rg45), pp. 53 f.: but note that the Revelation in the Old Testament (Ig46), pp. 166 ff. ; also, now, the careful
beginning and the end of the psalm hardly support the view that Yahweh study by G. Cooke, ‘The Sonsof (the) God(s)‘, Z.A.W. lxxvi(rg64), pp. 22-47,
is thought of as riding across the skies from west to east. Cf., too, T. H. although I must add that his attempt to distinguish between ‘mythologi-
Gaster, ‘Psalm 2g’, J.Q.R. xxxvii (rg4&/), pp. 55-56, Thespis, pp. 7477, cal’ and ‘psychological’ sets of ideas (pp. 40 ff.) introduces a false anti-
2nd edit., pp. 443 ff.; F. M. Cross jr., ‘Notes on a Canaanite Psalm in thesis which must do less than justice to the conception of the divine n??
the Old Testament’, B.A.S.O.R. 117 (Feb. rg5o), pp. 19-21. On the more = w. I-2.
or ‘Spirit’.
general question of Ugaritic parallels to the Psalter, see J. H. Patton, Canaanite
) Cf. H. G. May, ‘Some Cosmic Connotations of Mayim Rabbfm, “Many
Parallels in the Book of Psalms (Ig44), and W. F. Albright, ‘The Psalm of
Waters” ‘, J.B.L. lxxiv (1955), pp. 9-21.
Habakkuk’, in Studies in Old Testament Prophecy (T. H. Robinson Festschrift),
* Cf. Deut. iii. g; also, perhaps, I Chron. v. 16 (LXXs). In the former
ed. H. H. Rowley (rg5o), pp. I ff., where it is said of this psalm that it
passage ‘Sirion’ is explained as being the Sidonian, i.e. the Phoenician or
‘swarms with Canaanitisms in diction and imagery’ (p. 6).
Canaanite, name of Hermon as opposed to the Amorite ‘Senir’; and this now
z Albright, lot. cit. ; also Archaeology and the Religion of Israel, p. 129.
finds confirmation in Ugaritic. Cf. Gordon, Ugaritic Textbook, 51, vi 19, 21
r Cf. the suggestion advanced in connexion with the Tell el-Amarna
Herdner, Mission de Ras Shamra X, 4, vi 19, 21; also Driver, Canaanite
tablets, that the somewhat extravagant language which is occasionally used by ’ vv. 3-9.
Myths and Legends, pp. g8 f.
64 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel 65
The Voice of Yahweh soundeth over the waters; The foregoing composition acquires added importance,
The most glorious God hath thundered forth, however, in that it now seems to fix the date and inter-
Even Yahweh, over the many waters. pretation of a number of similar pieces in the Psalter, e.g.
The Voice of Yahweh is full of power;
Psalm xciii, which may be rendered as follows :
The Voice of Yahweh is full of splendour.
The Voice of Yahweh shattereth the cedars, It is Yahweh who is King!’ He is clothed in majesty;
Yahweh doth shatter the cedars of Lebanon. Yahweh is clothed, He is girded with strength!
He maketh Lebanon skip like a calf, ‘call’ (vi. I ff.) should be seen against this background. Cf., for example, the
And Sirion like the young of the wild-ox. antiphonal hymn with its emphasis upon the fact that the whole earth is full
of Yahweh’s ‘Glory’ (verse 3), the vivid impression of an earthquake in the
The Voice of Yahweh cleaveth flames of fire;
rocking of the Temple (verse 4), and the final realization, ‘Mine eyes have
The Voice of Yahweh convulseth the wilderness, seen the King, Yahweh of Hosts’ (verse 5). Cf., in principle, Alt, Kleine
Yahweh doth convulse the wilderness of Kadesh. Schriften zut Geschichte des Volkes Israel, i. pp. 349 ff.
The Voice of Y~ahweh doth make hinds to calve, I The present writer is not convinced by Mowinckel’s argument that the
And causeth the birth of kids in haste,1 expression ?@? ” in this and the other passages to be discussed must mean
While all His Temple echoeth the word ‘Gloryl’ that Yahweh has beome King, and that we should think in terms of an annual
enthronement of Yahweh. Cf. Psalmenstudien II, pp. 6 ff.; also Offersang og
The whole is then brought to a triumphant conclusion in sangoffer, pp. 523-6, and now The Psalms in Israel’s Worship, ii, pp. 222-4 (in
reply to 0. Eissfeldt, ‘Jahwe als K&g’, Z.A.W. xlvi (1928), pp. IOO ff.).
words which make completely clear’ the ground for such In the present writer’s opinion the thought which dominates these psalms
an atmosphere of excitement :2 is that of Yahweh’s Kingship from the beginning to the end of time, the
emphasis lying rather upon the thought that it is Yahweh who is King. As
Yahweh is enthroned over the flood;3 will be seen, this is also true of Ps. xlvii. 9 (EW. 8), despite (a) the exception
Yahweh is enthroned as King for ever. which even Eissfeldt makes in this case, op. cit., p. IOI, and (b) the stress
Yahweh will give strength to His people; which is also laid upon this particular passage by H. J. Kraus, Die K&zigs-
Yahweh will endow4 His people with welfare (ai4q). herrschaft Gottes im Alten Testament, B.H.T. 13 (1951), pp. 5 ff. See below,
p. 66, n. 3, and p. 77, n. I : and note indeed that Mowinckel’s view is clearly
To sum up, the theme of this early hymn is obviously that belied by verse 2 of the psalm under discussion.
Since the publication of the first edition of this monograph D. Michel,
of Yahweh’s Kingship over what we should call the realm of ‘Studien zu den sogenannten Thronbesteigungspsalmen’, V. T. vi. (1956),
nature; and this assurance of His enthronement over the pp. 40-68, has rightly stressed the fact that the verb q?S denotes the
physical universe and, in particular, the chaos of waters or actiwity proper to a king, i.e. the function of ‘reigning’; and, indeed, this is
recognized by the translators of A.V., R.V., and R.S.V. in the passage under
cosmic sea brings with it a guarantee that He can be relied consideration. Further, despite the arguments of (i) A. S. Kapelrud, ‘Noch-
upon to ensure the seasonal rains and the consequent mals Jahwii m&k’, V.T. xiii (1963), pp. 229-31, who maintains that the
prosperity of His people. In virtue of both its content and activity implied by the expression under discussion is ‘ingressiv sowohl als
durativ’, and thinks to translate the Hebrew by ‘Jahwe herrscht jetzt aktiv
its date, therefore, we have good grounds for associating als KGnig’, and (ii) E. Lip&ski, ‘Yghweh mEilgk’, Biblica xliv (1963), pp. 405-
this particular psalm with the occasion under discussion, 60, and La RoyautL de Yahwd dans lapobie et le culte de l’ancien Israg (1965),
i.e. Israel’s great autumnal festival as celebrated in the pp. 336-91, whose citation of supposedly relevant comparative material
from Accadian, Egyptian, and Ugaritic sources has, it seems to me, little
Jerusalem Temple during the period of the monarchy.5 if any bearing on the question, I find no evidence to show that the form
I Cf. G. R. Driver, r.T.5’. xxxii (1930-I), pp. 255 f. 2 w. IO-II. 9’2? is ever used in the Old Testament of anything but an existent condition,
3 For the cosmic significance of the Hebrew term, see J. Begrich, ‘Mabbal. whatever the temporal circumstances may be. This is not to deny that the
Eine exegetisch-lexikalische Studie’, Z.S. vi (1928), pp. 135-53, reprinted in form is sometimes used in circumstances which give it an inchoative colour-
Gesammelte Studien zum Alten Testament (1964), pp. 39-54, ing; but, as I see it, such colouring is not inherent in the form but is due to
* lit. ‘bless’. the light which is shed upon the form by its context. Thus in such a case as
It is difhcult to resist the impression that Isaiah’s vision at the time of his aikp~ y273( 2 s am. xv. IO: cf. 2 Kings ix. 13) the Hebrew simply means
0 a988 F
66 Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel Sacral Kingshi+ in Ancient Israel 67
Yea, the world doth continue immovable! the theme of the psalm is clearly that of Yahweh’s power
Thy throne was established of old; over the primeval ocean with its multitude of waters and its
Thou Thyself art from ages past! many currents ; I and this time we are reminded that it was
in virtue of His triumph over this cosmic sea that He was
The currents lift up, 0 Yahweh,
The currents lift up their voice; able to bring the habitable world into existence, establish-
The currents lift up their clamour. ing it firmly above the flood. Finally, it is to be observed
that the psalm ends, like Psalm xxix, on a note of assurance
Yahweh in the heights is mightier
with regard to the future, based this time upon the thought
Than the voice of the many waters,’
Mighty as are the breakers of the sea. that Yahweh, who is eternal in being, has the power to fulfil
the ‘testimonies’ or ‘promises’ (Ri7y>, to which He is
Thy testimonies are strongly supported; committed under the terms of His covenant with Israel;2 so
It is seemly that Thy House should be holy,
that it is but proper that He should enjoy the worship of
0 Yahweh, who abidest throughout the years12
His people. In the circumstances it seems reasonable to
The similarity to Psalm xxix in both form and content is so infer that the promises include the all-important one of rain
marked that there appears to be every justification for the (which was the blessingpar excellence), and that the thought
view that it was intended for the same occasion. The order of of Yahweh’s control over the cosmic sea, which dominates
the opening words q?Q “‘, i.e. ‘It is Yahweh who is King’,
being laid upon the fact that, contrary to David’s solemn promise that
sounds a somewhat polemical note, emphasizing the fact, Solomon should succeed him, ‘it is Adonijah who is king’. Cf. in general
as in the case of Psalm xxix, that it is the God of Israel who is L. Koehler, ‘Syntactica III. IV. JaJzw&h m&k’, V.T. iii (1953)~ pp. 188 f.,
supreme in the general assembly of the gods.3 Moreover, who is right in his primary inference from the order of the words in the
Hebrew expression under discussion but is without justification in the con-
‘Absalom is king’ or, more forcefully, ‘Absalom reigneth' ; but we gather from clusion which he then draws with regard to the dating of this and the cor-
the context that the exercising of this function by Absalom is something responding psalms; as against J. Ridderbos, ‘Jahwiih Malak’, V.T. iv (1954),
new, the addition of the words ‘in Hebron’ (as compared with the simple pp. 87-89, with whose further argument I also disagree, in part, for reasons
form of the corresponding statement in z Kings ix. 13) indicating the tem- which are sufBciently indicated above, p. 65, n. I.
porary seat of government under what is intended to be a new r&ime. r For this special sense of the term ?3;, which is the normal word for
On the other hand, the context of the statement ?$7$ !lyP, meaning quite ‘river’, see Ps. xxiv. 2 (as below, p. 73); Jonah ii. 4 (EW. 3); also, perhaps,
simply ‘Thy God is King’ or, more forcefully, ‘Thy God reigneth’, with which Isa. xliv. 27. It now finds illustration in the Ugaritic texts, i.e. in the account
the great prophet of the Exile sums up the good news now on its way to of the conflict between Baa1 and ‘Prince Sea’ (zbl ym) or ‘Judge River’ (_t~t
Zion (Isa. lii. 7), does not require one to think in terms of a formal proclama- nhr). Cf. Gordon, op. cit., 68, 12 ff. = Herdner, op. cit., 2, iv 12 ff. ; also
tion to the effect that, with the overthrow of Babylon, Zion’s God has become Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, pp. 81 ff.
King; rather, it offers Zion the glad assurance that, despite possible appear- 2 The word ;17S7, which occurs in the Old Testament only in the plural,
ances to the contrary during the long years of exile, the evidence is now at is traditionally rendered by the word ‘testimony’; but it must be borne in
hand to prove that Yahweh is still King, the order of the words also showing mind that it is used in the Old Testament in a specialized sense, i.e. not of
the point at issue to be the reality of Yahweh’s Kingship rather than any that which one testifies to have happened in the past (i.e. evidence) but of
question as to who among the gods is King (cf. n. 3). that which one protests shall happen in the future (i.e. a solemn promise or
I See above, p. 63, n. 3. pledge), and so, specifically, of the terms of the covenant or, rather, the cove-
2 The expression P’)jl qy.ky (Z;t. ‘for length of days’) should be construed nants between Yahweh and His votaries. Accordingly it may be used either
closely with the tetragrammaton. Cf. The. Vitality of the Individual in the (a) of Yahweh’s promises to His followers, as here, or (b) of the undertakings
Thought of Ancient Israel, p. 106, n. 7, 2nd edit., p. 108, n. 4; and observe which He requires of them in return, i.e. His ‘laws’. Cf., for example,
how the psalmist thus carries forward the thought of verse 2, adfin. Pss. xxv. IO, cxxxii. 12; and see above, pp. 22 ff. The writer hopes to develop
3 Cf. the simple statement Vl$q $P, ‘Adonijah is king’ (I Kings i. this point more fully in another connexion; see The Vitality of the Individual
in the Thought of Ancient Israel, p. 88, n. I, 2nd edit., p. 86, n. 7.
II) with the inverted form qkp n:J?v (verse IS), where stress is clearly
68 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel 69
the psalm, is again the assurance that this need can be met. led His chosen people so signally into the land which He
At the same time, in this concluding reference to the cove- had selected as His earthly home. He begins with the signi-
nant relationship between Yahweh and His people, we are ficant appeal : I
carried a step further in our recognition of the way in which 0 that to&.. ye may hearken to His Voice!
the old Canaanite mythology was remodelled in relation to
the Hebrew traditions with their focus in the events at Then the personality of the speaker (possibly a cultic
Sinai-Horeb. prophetz) gives way, as it were, to that of the Godhead;
The last point is important; for another of the so-called so that, acting as an extension of the divine Personality,3
enthronement psalms presents us with the other side of the he proceeds to address his hearers as Yahweh Himself, and
picture, laying stress not on Yahweh’s promises to Israel reminds them of this lesson in loyalty from the period of the
but on Israel’s corresponding obligations towards Yahweh. Wandering :4
This is Psalm xcv, which opens with a summons to unite ‘Harden not your heart as at Meribah (i.e. ‘Contention’),
in the worship of Yahweh (i) as the great God and King As on the day at Massah (i.e. ‘Trial’) in the wilderness,
When your fathers put Me on trial,
who is also the Creator of the earth, and (ii) as the Maker and
Tested Me, though they had seen what I had done.
Shepherd of His chosen people Israel :I Through forty years I loathed
0 come, let us applaud Yahweh, [That]5 generation, and said,
Let us acclaim the Rock that is our salvation. “They are a people errant of heart,
Let us approach His Person with thanksgiving, A people who ignore My ways.”
While we acclaim Him with songs. Wherefore I swore in My wrath
For Yahweh is a great God, That they should not enter My homeland.‘6
Even the great King over all the gods;
In whose Hand are the depths of the earth, All this, however, is wholly in line with the fact that, as is
To whom also the summits of the mountains belong; now generally recognized, the agricultural festivals of
Whose is the sea, which He Himself made, Canaan were taken over by the Hebrews and given an
And the dry land, which His own Hands moulded. historical interpretation, the dwelling in booths at the
Come, let us make obeisance, let us bow down, Feast of Tabernacles coming to be treated as a reminder of
Let us kneel before Yahweh our Maker; the time when Israel dwelt in tents in the wilderness-the
For it is He who is our God, while we very theme of the present psalm.7 In other words, the first
Are the people whom He doth shepherd, the flock under
part of our psalm, with its characteristic emphasis upon
His Hand.
Yahweh’s universal Kingship and His power in Creation,
At this point, however, the course of the utterance under- is mainly a legacy from Canaanite mythology, while the
goes a change. The speaker, instead of acting as the leader second part, with its emphasis upon the lesson in obedience
of the assembly in a call to worship, now becomes the repre- which is to be drawn from the history of the Wandering,
sentative of Yahweh; and as such he administers on this is based upon the Hebrew traditions concerning the great
solemn day an equally solemn charge to the worshippers 1 Verse 7c. 2 See above, p. 22, n. 3.
not to be like their disobedient forefathers in the wilderness, 3 Cf. The One and the Many in the Israelite Conception of God, pp. 36 ff.,
but to hearken dutifully to the omnipotent God who has 2nd edit., pp. 32 ff. 4 w. 8-11. 5 Cf. LXX, Jerome, S.
6 See above, p. 22, n. I.
I w. rjrab. 7 Cf. Lev. xxiii. 42 f. (H): and see above, p. 58, n. I.
70 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel 71
events of the Exodus; and, all in all, we have good reason Being a King who loveth justice,
Thou hast established equity,
to believe that both together formed an important element
Thou hast wrought
in the liturgy of the great autumnal festival as celebrated Justice and righteousness in Jacob.
in Jerusalem during the period of the monarchy.1 Extol Yahweh our God,
In Psalm xcix, another of the so-called enthronement And make obeisance at His footstool;
psalms, we have an obvious companion-piece to the fore- Such is His holiness!
going composition, bringing the sacred story of Yahweh’s
Thus, as is made clear in the second part of the psalm, we
dealings with Israel down to the years which saw the rise
are shown here the ultimate issue of those long years of
of the monarchy and the transference of the Ark to its new
discipline under the leadership of Yahweh which began
home on Mount Zion. In the first part of the psalm an
with the Exodus, i.e. :I
eschatological note is clearly sounded, and we are given a
glimpse of that ultimate purpose of Yahweh in choosing Moses, and Aaron as His priest,
And Samuel as one who calls on His Name
Israel which, as we shall see, is the dominant theme of the Would cry to Yahweh, and He would answer them.2
ritual and mythology of this festival which we are attempting In the pillar of cloud He would speak to those
in some measure to reconstruct, i.e. :2 Who kept His testimonies and the statute He gave them.
It is Yahweh who is King! The peoples quake. Thou, Yahweh our God, didst answer them;
He that is seated on the cherubim! The earth trembleth. Thou wast for them a forbearing God,
Great is Yahweh, whose home is in Zion; While punishing their misdeeds.
He is exalted above all the peoples. Extol Yahweh our God,
Let them praise Thy Name as great and terrible, And make obeisance at His holy hill;
One which is mighty in its holiness.3 For such is the holiness of Yahweh our God!
x Cf. Psalm Ixxxi, which offers a remarkable parallel to Psalm xcv in both The point of view which the psalm reveals is thus perfectly
form and content, although it appears to stand much closer to the pure
Hebrew tradition. This may well be so, for it seems to have come from the clear, and may be summed up by saying that, after the long
north; and, what is even more important in the present connexion, there are vicissitudes of the Wandering and the Settlement, Yahweh
ample grounds for believing that it was composed for use at the celebration
of some New Year festival of the pre-exilic period. Cf. Snaith, The Jewish
is now firmly established in Zion, where, manifesting His
New Year Festival, pp. 99-103. It is possible, too, that the Song of Miriam presence as ‘He that is seated on the cherubim’ through the
(Exod. xv. 1-18, 21) belongs to the same circle of poems; for it links in much
the same way the Hebrew traditions concerning the Exodus, specifically the I w. 6-9.
miraculous deliverance at the Sea of Reeds, with the celebration of Yahweh’s 2 The traditional rendering of this verse, which numbers Moses with
uniqueness amongst the gods, His settlement in Canaan as His chosen Yahweh’s priests (e.g. A.V. ‘Moses and Aaron among his priests, and
earthly home, and, finally, the fact that He is the everlasting King. On the Samuel among them that call upon his name’), is due to a misunderstanding
other hand, Psalm c, which has one or two points of contact with Psalm xcv of Hebrew syntax. In the first metrical line of the Hebrew there are two
and is commonly classed with the so-called enthronement psalms (although examples of the beth essentiae in association with a plural of excellence (cf.,
there is no explicit reference to Yahweh’s Kingship), is really of far too general for example, Ps. cxviii. 7a, as below, p. 125; and see further G.K., $9 ~rgi,
a character to be ascribed with any certainty to a particular festival. 124g-i); and the reference is (a) to Moses who is in a class by himself, (b) to
z w. I-5. Aaron as Yahweh’s priest par excellence, and (c) to Samuel as His prophet
3 lit. ‘Holy is it-and mighty.’ It is difficult to obtain sense from the con- par excellence. For the terminology in the last case, see The Cultic Prophet in
sonantal text of verses 3 and 4 as vocalized in M.T. ; but the meaning of these Ancient Israel, pp. 47 ff., 2nd edit., pp. 54 ff. Accordingly there is not the
lines becomes clear, if the first word of verse 4 is read as WI and construed slightest justification for the claim that, as Moses and Samuel are here classed
with verse 3. The cause of the trouble is probably the view that we have here along with Aaron as priests, this harmonizes with the late dating of the SO-
a refrain corresponding to that which occurs in versea SC and gc. called enthronement psalms. Cf., for example, Gunkel, H.K., in ZOC.
72 Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel 73
instrumentality of the Ark,1 He is to rule over the earth The earth is Yahweh’s, and all that filleth it,
as the universal King; and, what is more, the achieve- The world and they that dwell therein;
ment of justice and righteousness amongst His own chosen For it is He who founded it upon the seas,
people is to be the guarantee of His actual presence as a And doth maintain it above the ocean currents.’
King who is resolved that His rule shall be just and equi- This is followed by a short section, couched in terms of
table. question and answer, in which one is reminded of the moral
Enough has been said to sketch the general background integrity that Yahweh requires of His worshippers :2
of our festival, and we may now take a further step in its Who may ascend Yahweh’s hill?
attempted reconstruction by observing that in several Who may stand in His holy place?
psalms we have evidence for a procession in which Yahweh The clean of hands and the pure of heart,
is again acclaimed as King. The first of these to engage our Who hath not made falsity his aim,
attention is Psalm xxiv, which clearly requires us to think And sworn with intent to deceive!
He shall receive blessing3 from the presence of Yahweh,
in terms of a scene in which the Ark, as the forementioned
A due response from the God who is his salvation.
symbol of Yahweh’s presence and the focus of His worship, Such is the lot4 (or circle)5 of those who look for Him,
is being borne in procession up the slopes of Mount Zion Those who seek ‘the Person (lit. Face) of the God of’ Jacob.6
towards the gates of Solomon’s Temple. The psalm itself,
Finally we have the appeal of the worshippers that the gates
which may have something of an antiphonal character,2
of the Temple should be opened to admit Yahweh into
begins significantly enough with a brief reference to Yah-
His sanctuary; and again we note that, as in Psalm xxix, the
weh’s activity in Creation :3
theme of the song is the actual presence of Yahweh as King
I Cf. Exod. xxv. 18 ff. (P); I Sam. iv. 4; 2 Sam. vi. 2 (cf. I Chron. xiii. 6); in all His attendant ‘Glory’:’
2 Kings xix. 15 (cf. Isa. xxxvii. 16); Ps. lxxx. 2 (EW. I): and, for a discussion
of the archaeological data now available for our understanding of the sym- Lift up your heads, 0 ye gates;
bolism associated with these composite figures so characteristic of the Be lifted up, 0 everlasting doors;
mythology of the ancient Near East, see P. (E.) Dhorme and L. H. Vincent, That the glorious King may enter!
‘Les Cherubins’, R.B. xxxv (1926), pp. 328-58,481-95; W. C. Graham and
H. G. May, Culture and Conscience. An Archaeological Study of the New Who is this-‘The glorious King’ ?
Religious Past in Ancient Palestine (1936), pp. 248 ff. See also, for a suggestive Yahweh strong and mighty,
if somewhat speculative attempt to make use of such archaeological data in Yahweh mighty in battle!
order to penetrate behind the work of P to a different origin for this expres-
sion in its association with the Ark, 0. Eissfeldt, ‘Jahwe Zebaoth’, Miscel- Lift up your heads, 0 ye gates;
lanea Academica Berolinensia (1950), pp. 126-50: and now, in general, J. Lift them up, 0 everlasting doors ;
Trinquet, art. ‘Kerub, Kerubim’, D.B.S. v (1957), ~01s. 161-86; R. de Vaux, That the glorious King may enter!
‘Les Cherubins et l’arche d’alliance. Les sphinx gardiens et les tranes divins
dans 1’Ancien Orient’, M.U.S.J. xxxvii (1961-2), pp. 93-124. I See above, p. 67, n. I. 2 w. 3 - 6 . 3 See above, p. 48, n. I.
z It has been argued, on the ground of content and variation in metre, that l Cf. G. R. Driver, J.B.L. liii (1934), p. 285.
Psalm xxiv may be divided up into two or three originally independent 5 Cf. F. J. Neuberg,J.N.E.S. ix (1950), pp. 216 f.
pieces: cf., for example, J. Maier, Das altisraelitische Ladeheiligtum, B.Z.A.W. 6 So LXX. M.T. ‘Thy Person (lit. Face), 0 Jacob.’
93 (1965), p. 77. However, we must beware of using such considerations as an 7 w. 7-10. Cf. I Sam. iv. 19-22, i.e. the way in which the wife of Phinehas,
argument for chopping up a composition of this kind in so mechanical a way, when she heard that the Philistines had captured the Ark and that her husband
when we ought to be taking into consideration the question of a liturgical as well as her father-in-law was dead, named her new-born child ‘Ichabod’
Sitz im Lehen with all that this may have involved in terms of (i) ritual (i.e. ‘Inglorious’), saying:
background and corresponding variation in theme, and (ii) musical accom- ‘Glory is an exile from Israel,
paniment. 3 w. I-2. For the Ark of God hath been taken.’
74 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel 75
Who is this--‘The glorious King’ ? clapping of hands and loud acclamation.1 This is followed
Yahweh of Hosts,’ by the exultant affirmation that the Kingship of Yahweh is
He is ‘The glorious King’!
a universal one which guarantees the supremacy of His
Two points stand out in this important psalm, and they own chosen people over all the other nations; and the
must be stressed. In the first place we have to note that, strophe as a whole closes with a word-play on the appel-
as in the case of the preceding psalm, Yahweh’s Kingship lation ‘Most High’ (‘/i’y$_?) in the triumphant assertion that
is here represented as something more than a sovereignty Yahweh has ascended (?I#) to His Temple with appropri-
over the realm of nature. It also includes His sovereign ate acclamation and to the sound of the horn.2 Accordingly
power over what we should call the moral realm; He is, as there seems to be no good reason to doubt that here again,
we shall have further occasion to see, vitally concerned with
as in the case of Psalm xxiv, we should think in terms of a
the way in which men behave. In other words, the divine
procession which has just ascended to the Temple on Mount
King is not only worshipped as the Creator; He is also Zion in company with the Ark as the guarantee of Yahweh’s
revered as a Judge, who demands that those who would presence in power with His people; and, this being the case,
rely upon Him must be able to plead their innocence in we are now in a position to see why such emphasis was laid
both thought and deed and their freedom from all taint of in Psalm xxiv upon the fact that it is as a victorious warrior
insincerity. The second point to be observed is the em- that the divine King enters His sanctuary. As such He is
phasis which is laid upon the identification of this King the guarantor in some way of Israel’s ultimate supremacy
with One who has been proved ‘mighty in battle’. That is over the nations. The first strophe, then, may be rendered
to say, the procession of this God who is so actively con- as follows :3
cerned with both the physical and the moral realms is Clap your hands, all ye peoples;
obviously a triumphant one. It is as a victorious warrior Make acclamation to God with applauding voice.
that the divine King is now entering His Temple. For Yahweh Most High (fi”?~) is to be feared,
A similar situation and indeed the climax of the proces- The great King over all the earth!
sion is suggested by Psalm xlvii, in which the Kingship of * For a valuable discussion of the significance of the corresponding
Yahweh is again an object of emphasis; and this time we Hebrew root, which is used again in verse 6, see P. Humbert, La ‘Terou*a’:
analyse d’un rite biblique (1946), although, in the present writer’s opinion, he
have to notice at the outset that, in being acclaimed as tends to follow Mowinckel a little too closely in his stress on the supposed
King, Yahweh is also addressed as ‘Most High’, an ex- annual enthronement of Yahweh.
pression which we have already seen to be the special 1 For this use of the verb 320 with reference to the ascent of Mount Zion,
see Ps. xxiv. 3, as above, p. 73, and Ps. lxviii. rg (EW. I@, as below, p. 82);
appellation of the high god worshipped in Jerusalem in and, for the subsequent word-play on li’#, it should be borne in mind
pre-Israelite days. That is to say, we have another indica- that, just as the Ark is the symbol of Yahweh’s Person, so Mount Zion
tion that we are on the right track in seeing in this celebra- corresponds to the divine Mount of Assembly, and the Temple itself is the
earthly counterpart of the divine King’s heavenly Palace. Cf. Ps. xlviii. 3
tion of Yahweh as King an adaptation of the earlier worship
(EVV. 2), as below, p. 86 ; and, for the elaboration of this idea in later Judaism,
characteristic of this one-time Canaanite city. The psalm see, for example, Patai, Man and Temple, pp. 130 ff.
itself falls readily into two parts, the first of which begins 3 w. 2-6 (EW. 1-5). In the ensuing translation of this psalm and its
fellows little attempt has been made to restore the divine name ‘Yahweh’ in
with a universal summons to hail the heavenly King with those cases where it, rather than the present reading ‘God’, may have been
K Or ‘Yahweh Almighty’? Cf., for example, Eissfeldt, lot. cit. ; and see in original. There can be no reasonable doubt that such substitution has been
general B. N. Wambacq, L’I?pithdte divine Jahvk Seba'ot : Etude philologique, made in many of the psalms of Books II and III (i.e. Pss. xlii-lxxxix); but it
historique et exkgktique (1947). is difficult to determine every case.
 76 Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel 77
He subdueth’ the peoples beneath us, Clearly Yahweh has returned in triumph to His throne,
Yea, the nations beneath our feet, having asserted His age-long Kingship once and for all by
While our inheritance is of His choosing, His complete subjection of the nations and their earthly
This proud possession of His beloved Jacob.
God hath ascended (fi?y) with acclamation,
rulers.1 This graphic description of the kings of the earth as
Even Yahweh, to the sound of the horn! being brought together in subjection to Yahweh is one
which we need to bear in mind; for we shall see in due
The second strophe repeats and expands the thought of the course that they appear to have been formally represented
first, emphasizing, to begin with, the universal Kingship of as the captives of this triumphant and victorious King.
Yahweh and then unfolding its implications as to the supre-
The next hymn of this kind to engage our attention is
macy of Israel over the nations, inasmuch as earth’s rulers
Psalm lxviii, which is extraordinarily graphic and pictur-
are now all united in subjection to Him. Finally, like the
esque in its description of the triumphant passage of the
first strophe again, it closes with a word-play on the appel-
divine King into His Temple, and, as a result, succeeds in
lation ‘Most High’, summing up the theme of the whole
taking us still further in our attempted reconstruction of
psalm in the thought that Yahweh in His universal, sove-
the ritual and mythology of this festival. It is also deserving
reign power as the divine King is highly exalted (iI?qJ) :”
of note, perhaps, that, like Psalm xxix, this hymn is said to
Sing the praises of God, sing praises; offer close parallels to the Ugaritic texts, and for this
Sing praises to our King, sing praises. reason has been similarly assigned to the early years of the
Of a truth He is King throughout3 the earth; monarchy, specifically the tenth century B.C.2 While the
Sing the praises of God for His success;4
parallels with Ugaritic are apt to be exaggerated, the fore-
God is King over the nations;
God is seated on His holy throne. going discussion has opened the way for us to recognize
The princes of the peoples are assembled that the apparent confusion of its thought, which has made
With Him5 who is the God of Abraham, it something of a crux interpreturn, is due to a weaving
For the rulers6 of earth are subject to God, * Despite the argument of J. Ridderbos, ‘Jahwiih Malak’, V.T. iv (rg54),
Who is highly exalted (;I~~I)! pp. 87-89, the present writer cannot see that, following the analogy of such
passages as 2 Sam. xv. IO and 2 Kings ix. 13, one should regard the normal
* It may not be without significance that the rare verbal form in this order of verb-subject in verse g (EW. 8) and again in Isa. lii. 7, ad fin.,
stichos, i.e. the Hiph’B of 017, is found elsewhere only once-and then on as requiring the rendering ‘Yahweh has become King’. In these passages
the lips of the Messiah when he says of the Most High in exactly parallel from Samuel and Kings the expression under discussion need mean no
fashion to the above, ‘He hath subdued the peoples beneath me.’ Ps. xviii. more than ‘So-and-so is king’, the context serving to show that in these
48 (EW. 47), as below, p. 123. For the term itself, see G. R. Driver,J.T.S. cases the expression has the force of ‘So-and-so is (now) king’. See above,
xxxi (rg2g-30), pp. 283 f. 2 w. 7-10 (EW. 6-g). p. 65, n. I, where the foregoing passages are now dealt with at greater length.
3 Insert 59 with many MSS., and vocalize qkn as 7%. 2 Albright, as above, p. 62, nn. I and 2.
4 lit. ‘as One who is successful’, i.e. the Hiph% pa&&e of ll%fp used 3 The apparent lack of connexion within the psalm has led to the sug-
predicatively: cf. the similar construction in Ps. xcix. 3, as above, p. 70, i.e. gestion that it is a series of incipits or catalogue of hymns from about the time
‘Let them praise Thy Name as great and terrible.’ For the use of this form of Solomon. See W. F. Albright, ‘A Catalogue of Early Hebrew Lyric Poems
in an obviously specialized way to denote a discreet and, therefore, success- (Psalm LXVIII)‘, H.U.C.A. xxiii (1950-r), pp. r-39, who draws attention
ful individual, see I Sam. xviii. 14 f.; Job xxii. 2; Pss. xiv. 2, xli. 2 (EW. I); to the somewhat similar suggestion made by Schmidt, H. A. T., in lot., and
Prov. x. 5, rg, xiv. 35, xvi. 20, xvii. 2. Cf., too, Jer. xxiii. 5, where this verb is T. H. Robinson, in Oesterley, The Psalms, in lot. While Albright’s article is
used to describe the successful ruler who is to issue from the House of David. invaluable for its treatment of individual points, the present writer cannot
5 Vocalizing n9 as P&7 with LXX, S, and V. but regard its main thesis as a counsel of despair. Cf. S. Mowinckel, Der
6 LXX: KpcTcnol. See further G. R. Driver, J.T.S. xxxiii (1931-z), p. 44, achtundsechzigste Psalm, A.N.V.A.O. II, 1953, No. I (rg53), who defends the
and xxxiv (x933), pp. 383 f., followed by K.B., p. 4g4a. unity of the psalm along much the same lines as those offered here.
78 Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel 79
together, once again, of Hebrew and Canaanite strands of Whose Name consisteth of ‘Yah’,’ and exult before Him!
culture and, what is more, to an over-all ideological pattern God in His holy abode
which is almost wholly strange to the modern Western Is a father of the fatherless and a defender of widows;
mind. The psalm opens with an obvious reference to the God giveth the lonely a home wherein to dwell,
Ark, which thus appears to be the dominant factor in the He skilfullyz setteth free those in bondage;
actual procession, the language being almost identical with Bzlt (78) the rebellious make their home in the arid waste!
that which was in use when this effective guarantee of The last reference gives the key to the situation, for
Yahweh’s presence set out on the different stages of the the ultimate issue in this picturesque statement of the
journey through the wilderness;1 and this is followed by deliverance and well-being vouchsafed to the righteous
the thought of Yahweh’s power in defence of orphans and is clearly one of rain; and this immediately furnishes an
widows, the friendless, and those in bondage. Further, it is occasion to quote somewhat freely a passage from the Song
to be observed that Yahweh’s followers are described, of Deborah which portrays Yahweh less as a god of war
somewhat ideally it seems,2 as the ‘righteous’ (n’i?‘?X). .- > than as a god of earthquake and storm. Moreover, this is
while their enemies are referred to categorically as the followed by an explicit forecast of rain as Yahweh’s gift
‘wicked’ (P@T) or the ‘rebellious’ (Q’T3ib), and, as such, to His chosen people, who are now described in obvious
are condemned ‘to dwell in the arid waste.3 That is to say,4 contrast to the nation’s foes as ‘humble’ or ‘submissive’
When God ariseth, His enemies are scattered, (2P>.”
They that hate Him flee before Him. 0 Yahweh, when Thou wentest forth before Thy people,
As smoke is dispersed, so is their dispersal;5 When Thou didst march through the desert,
As wax melteth in the presence of fire, The earth quaked, yea, the heavens were in downpour
So do the wicked perish before God. Before Yahweh, Him of Sinai,4
The righteous, however, are glad; Before Yahweh, the God of Israel.
They exult before God, Hebrew traditions of the Wandering and the Settlement: cf., again with
Rejoicing for gladness. due regard to the context, Deut. xxxii. 13. It is true that in verse 34 (EW.
Sing unto God, sing the praises of His Name; 33) Yahweh is referred to as riding through the heavens; but there the con-
Extol Him who came riding through the deserts,6 text is very different, for it lays stress on Yahweh’s universal power.
I Despite G.K., $1rgiN3, it seems to me that we have here an excellent
* Num. x. 35 (JE). example of the beth essentiae.
* Cf. Kirkpatrick, C.B., in Zoc. z The meaning of the Hebrew term is now made abundantly clear by the
3 Cf. again Zech. xiv. 16 f. ; and see further Pedersen, Israel I-II, Ugaritic texts, notably (a) in the form k_tr (or kjr w&s), which is the name of
PP~ 353 f% E-T.9 PP. 453 ff. * w. 27 (EW. 1-6). the craftsman of the gods, and (b) in the form k_trt, which is used of skilled
s Vocalizing the consonantal text so as to read l-r$JP and TT$l. Cf. female singers or ‘artistes’. Cf., for example, Gordon, op. cit., (a) 5 I, v 103 ff.,
Albright, op. cit., p. 17. vii 20 f. ; 2 Aqht, v g ff., vi 24 (= Herdner, op. cit., 4, v 103 ff., vii 20 f. ;
6 It is now commonly maintained that ni=1>&Q 2292 should be emended 17, v g ff.,: vi 24: cf. Driver, op. cit., pp. g8 f., IOO f.; 52 ff.): (b) 2 Aqht,
to mm7 3335 so as to make it conform to the expression rkb ‘rpt, ‘Rider ii 26 ff. (= Herdner, op. cit., 17, ii 26 ff. : cf. Driver, op. cit., pp. 50 f.). See
of the Clouds’, which appears frequently in the Ugaritic texts as an epithet further, for example, H. L. Ginsberg, B.A.S.O.R. 72 (Dec. rg38), pp. 13 ff. ;
of Baal. Cf., Gordon op. cit., 51, iii I I, 18, v 122; 67, ii 7; I Aqht, 43 f.; Albright, Archaeology and the Religion of Israel, pp. 81 f.; Gaster, Thespis,
‘nt, ii 40; ( = Herdner, op. cit., 4, iii II, 18, v 122; 5, ii 7; xg, 43 f.; 3, ii4o: pp. 89, 154 ff., 277 f., 2nd edit., pp. 161 ff., 338 ff.
cf. Driver, Canaanite Mythsand Legends, pp. g4 f., g8 f., 104 f., 58 f., 84 f.) 3 w. 8-11 (EW. 7-10). In the ensuing translation the name ‘Yahweh’
2001, rev. 18. See, for example, H. L. Ginsberg, J.B.L. lxii (rg43), pp. I 12 f. ; has been substituted for ‘God’ in verses 8-g (EW. 7-8), following the Song
Albright, op. cit., p. 18. The present writer is unconvinced by this sugges- of Deborah (Judges v. 4-5).
tion, for it fails to take due notice of the context, which clearly reflects the * lit. ‘who is Sinai’. Cf., for example, Pss. lxxiv. 2, lxxviii. 54; Prov. xxiii.
22. Here, as in Judges v. 5 and again in verse 18 (EW. 17) below, the term
80 Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel 81

Thou wilt shed’ a generous rain, 0 God, The transition in thought, however, is not nearly so abrupt
Over Thine inheritance, when it is exhausted, as may at first appear, for we have already had occasion
That which Thou didst found, in which Thy family2 doth dwell, to notice that Yahweh’s Kingship carries with it, not only
Which in Thy goodness Thou wilt keep in order for the humble, the thought of His power over the cosmic sea and His
0 God. consequent control of the rains, but also the prospect of
Then comes what may at first appear to be an abrupt victory over the nation’s foes; and it is obvious that these
transition to the picture of a victory by Yahweh over the foreign kings threaten the life of Israel quite as much as
nation’s foes, described with a high degree of imaginative would the absence of rain. Accordingly we must not be
power and, indeed, something of the vigour of the Song surprised to find that these two ideas are woven together in
of Deborah.3 a remarkably impressive way.
When the Lord (‘$ig)4 doth give the command, At this point attention is focused on the procession it-
Women in a mighty host spread the good news. self, as it makes its way into the Temple; and in an opening
‘The kings with their armies flee, they flee! apostrophe the imposing mountains of Bashan are deri-
And she that is home will divide the spoil,
ded for their jealousy of Mount Zion, which Yahweh has
If ye linger there in idlenesss-
The wings of a dove which is overlaid with silver, chosen in place of Mount Sinai to be His earthly abode.
But its pinions with gleaming gold!’ Further, we learn that, as in the case of Psalm xxiv, Yahweh’s
When Shaddai (EW. ‘the Almighty’b) scattereth kings, entry into the Temple is that of a warrior god who is re-
It is like7 the falling of snow on Zalmon.* turning in triumph from a victory over His foes; and,
what is more, He is accompanied by those who have op-
‘Sinai’ is evidently used with the force of a divine name. Cf. the way in
which ‘Carmel’ was used not only of the sacred mountain which bore this posed His choice of Mount Zion as His earthly home. As
name but also of the god who was worshipped there, as shown by 0. Eiss- already indicated and as we shall have still further occasion
feldt, Der Gott &zrm.el, S.B.D.A.W. 1953: I (1953), pp. 8 ff., 19, a n d
K. Galling, ‘Der Gott Karmel und die Achtung der fremden Giitter’, in
to realize, these can scarcely be other than the kings of the
Geschichte und AZretes Testament (A. Ah Bests&rift), B.H.T. 16 (1953), nations who have been threatening the existence of the Holy
pp. 105-25; and, for the general principle, see J. Lewy, ‘Les Textes paleo- City.1
assyriens et 1’Ancien Testament’, R.H.R. cx (1934), pp. 44 ff. Cf., too, the
defence of the text offered by H. Grimme, Z.D.M.G. 1 (1896), p. 573, 0 mighty mountain-range of Bashan,
and W. F. Albright,J.B.L. liv (1935), p. 204, B.A.S.O.R. 62 (Apr. 19~6), 0 lofty mountain-range of Bashan,
p. 30, which is followed, for example, by J. M. Allegro, V.T. v (1955), p. 31 I, Why do ye look askance, 0 lofty mountains,
and T. J. Meek, J.B.L. lxxix (1960), p. 332. See further in this connexion At the mount that God hath desired for His abode,
Gordon, Ugaritic Textbook, pp. 39 f. (5s 6.23 f.); but note also H. Birkeland,
‘Hebrew zb and Arabic &i’, S.T. ii (1950), pp. 201 f.
Yea, where Yahweh would settle for ever?
* Cf. G. R. Driver, Z.A.W. 1 (1932), pp. 142 f. 7 The 3 of 23 is simply correlative to that of v>Fq, and the construction
2 Cf. The Vitality of the Individual in the Thought of Ancient Israel, p. IOO,
as a whole indicates that the two conceptions are essentially the same.
n. 4, 2nd edit., p. IOI, n. 6; Albright, H.U.C.A. xxiii, p. 21.
s Probably the modern Rebel Haur&. Cf. Abel, Gkographie de la Palestine,
3 w. 12-15 ( E W . 11-14).
4 See above, pp. 35 ff., esp. p. 38. i. pp. 377 f.
5 lit. ‘if ye lie down between the panniers (OY within the cattle-pens)‘, I w. 16-19 (EW. 15-18).
i.e. of behaving in lazy or carefree fashion. Cf. what appears to be the 2 lit. ‘0 mountain(-range) of God(s), 0 mountain(-range) of Bashan’.
corresponding idiom in Gen. xlix. 14, Judges v. 16; and see further K.B., The use of the term ‘God(s)’ is here idiomatic; and, to appreciate the full
p. 580, S.V. PlnFyp (or 0. Eissfeldt, Kleine Schriften, iii (1966), pp. 61-70). force of the original, the reader should consult the careful discussion of this
6 See, however, W. F. Albright, ‘The Names Shaddai and Abram’, J.B.L. and related problems by D. W. Thomas, ‘A Consideration of some Unusual
liv (x935), P P. 180-93. Ways of Expressing the Superlative in Hebrew’, V.T. iii (1953), PP. 209-24.
a 8988 G
(Notes 7 and 8 on p. 81.)
82 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel 83
The chariots of God are thousands upon thousands;1 the arch-enemy over whom Yahweh has triumphed, is of
The Lord (‘$9~) is amid them, He of Sinai2 is in the sanctuary! quite extraordinary importance and needs to be borne in
Thou hast ascended on high, leading Thy captives; mind, for we shall meet it again.
Thou hast taken tribute from amongst mankind, Meantime, continuing our way through the psalm, we
Even those who rebelled at Yah’s choice of a home!3
now find that we are given a more detailed account of the
The jubilation then reaches its peak in the exultant procession itself; and the pointed allusion to Yahweh as
recognition that Israel’s God and Saviour, who is extolled ‘King’, coupled with the reference to the instrumentalists
elsewhere as the ‘Living God’,4 has delivered them from and singers, provides what seems to be the necessary con-
the onslaught of ‘Death’, and so assured His chosen people text to Psalm xxiv with its theme of Yahweh’s Kingship and
that none of their enemies shall escape their vengeance, its obviously processional background centring in the Ark.
though they flee to these heights of Bashan or, at the other Further (and this is most important), we learn that Yahweh,
extreme, seek refuge in the depths of the sea.5 the heavenly King, has passed into the Temple in triumphal
Blessed be the Lord (‘)iQ continually!6 procession from ‘Israel’s Spring’ ; and this can hardly be
God beareth for us the burden of our salvation. other than the spring Gihon, which, as early as the time of
God is for us a god who save& David, clearly had some special significance in connexion
And through Yahweh, the Lord (‘$iQ), ‘Death’ is expelled.7
with the ritual of accession to the throne.1 Finally, it is to
Yea, God doth crush the head of His enemies,*
The hairy skull of him who persisteth in his guilt.
be observed that this vindication of Yahweh’s universal
The Lord (‘Jifi) said, ‘I will bring back from Bashan, sovereignty is evidently thought of in close association
I will bring back from the depths of the sea, with the ancient tribal confederation of Israel, for reference
That thou mayest plunge thy foot in blood, is made to figures who are representative, not only of such
That the tongue of thy dogs may have its share in the foe.’ southern tribes as those of Benjamin and Judah, but also of
This passage, with its emphasis upon the fact that ‘Death’ is tribes from the far north such as Zebulun and Naphtali.2
I G.K., § g7h. 2 See above, p. 79, n. 4. What a spectacle3 was Thy procession, 0 God,
3 lit. ‘at Yah’s settling down’. The Hebrew adds ‘God’, which is obviously The procession of my God, my King (‘$%),* into the sanctuary!
a variant of ‘Yah’. The singers were in front, the minstrels followed behind,
l See below, p. 103, and The Vitality of the Individual in the Thought of
Ancient Israel, pp. 105 ff., 2nd edit., pp. 106 ff. All flanked by maidens with their timbrels.
’ W. 20-24 (EW. 19-23). In companies they greeted God,
6 lit. ‘eveq day’. 7 Or (following the analogy of Ugaritic): Even Yahweh, from Israel’s Spring.
And through Yahweh, the Lord, there is deliverance from ‘Death’. Benjamin was there, that mettlesome5 youth,
Cf. Gordon, Ugaritic Textbook, pp. g2 f., g8 f. (IQ IO. I, II).
‘See below, p. 132, n. 5. ’ Cf. I Kings i. 33-35, 45 f.; and see above, pp. 32f.
Q The writer can find no justification for the proposal to see in the Hebrew
’ w. 25-28 (EW. 24-27).
@I of this stichos the equivalent of the Ugaritic bin, ‘serpent’, and in the 3 lit. ‘they have seen’, i.e. an active form of the Hebrew verb with an
line as a whole a reference to the mythical monster of the Deep. Cf. Gordon, indefinite subject, corresponding to a passive construction in English. Cf.
op. cit., 67, i I f.; ‘nt, iii 38 (= Herdner, op. cit., 5, i I f. ; 3, iii 38: cf. Driver, LXX and see G.K. $ I44 f. l See above, pp. 35 ff., esp. pp. 38 ff..
Canaanite Myths and Legends, pp. 102 f., 86 f.) : and see further, for example, * * , which is used of the emission of short, sharp sounds
5 Cf. the Arabic cr~J
Gaster, Thespis, p. 93; Albright, H.U.C.A. xxiii, p. 27. This suggestion -specifically the ‘twanging’ of a bow. The reference appears to be to the
again fails to do justice to the context (cf. verse 16 (EW. IS)), and it exag- military prowess of the tribe of Benjamin as exemplified in the use of the bow.
gerates the significance of the parallelism. The ideas actually involved find Cf. Gen. xlix. 27 (J) ; Judges xx. 16; I Chron. viii. 40, xii. 2 : and see further,
ready illustration in Amos ix. 3. for example, Lane, op. cit., 8.~.
84 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel
Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel 85
The nobility of honest-spoken’ Judah,
The nobility of Zebulun and of Naphtali. The psalm is then brought to a close with a strophe in
general praise of Yahweh’s universal power, the whole
Following this dramatic description of Yahweh’s royal
celebrating the fact that He who came riding through the
passage into the Temple, He is summoned to make known
deserts is also the One who rides through the heavens with
His good will and pleasure as regards His subject peoples,
thundering ‘Voice’.1
who now come to Jerusalem, not to gain spoil for themselves
as they had once fondly hoped, but to present to the God of Ye kingdoms of the earth, sing unto God,
Sing the praises of the Lord (‘$4),
Israel their own tribute of loyalty and obedience.2
Of Him who rideth through the ancient and lofty heavens;
Issue Thy commands,3 0 my God, as4 befitteth Thy might, Lo, He uttereth His Voice, a mighty Voice!
The divine might5 which Thou hast exercised for us! Ascribe might unto God,
How potent Thou art6 on behalf of Jerusalem; Whose majesty is over Israel,
Kings bring Thee their offerings! And His might in the clouds!
The wild beast of the marshes7 0 God, terrible within Thy sanctuary
Hath quelled* the assembled steers. Is He who is the God of Israel,
Trampling on the bull-like9 peoples, Who giveth might and strength
On those whose pleasure was inI0 silver, To a people divinely blessed!2
He bath scattered the peoples who delighted in war.
They are coming from Egypt with11 their tribute;12 In fact this reference to Yahweh as One who is the ‘Rider
Cush bath stretched out’3 its hands to God. of the Clouds’3 links up admirably with the foregoing
I Dividing the consonantal text of the enigmatic a?@7 (EW. ‘and their association of Israel’s King with ‘Israel’s Spring’ (i.e. one
council’) so as to read 00 ,aA?. For dtlX?, see above, p. 45, n. 3 ; and, for Judah’s of the channels connected with the subterranean ocean),
reputation for honest speaking, see Gen. xxxviii. 26 (J), xliv. 18-34 (J).
a w. 29-32 (EW. 28-31). These verses, as preserved in M.T., are out-
for this is wholly appropriate to a festival which associates
standingly difficult; but the difficulties disappear, when one recognizes that the coming of the rains with Yahweh’s enthronement over
the current division and vocalization of the consonantal text are due to the the turbulent waters of the great cosmic sea. All in all, it
misunderstanding which arose when once the psalm had lost its original
Sitz im Leben. looks as if something dramatic must have happened at
3 Vocalizing the consonantal text so as to read 33% with LXX, S, and V. ‘Israel’s Spring’ ; and we are left with the question as to
4 Dividing the consonantal text so as to read q!$?? ‘@. what this may have been.
5 Dividing the consonantal text so as to read a’$783 TiY.
6 Dividing the consonantal text so as to read ?yT:‘n@. Elsewhere IV
(Num. xiv. 16 (JE); Deut. ix. 28) the Qal infin. constr. of % occurs as
nyjl; but, for the coexistence of such masculine and feminineTforms, cf.
We are now in a position to trace back to a still earlier
&z (Isa. xxvii. II) and n@l: (Gen. viii. 7 (J)). Cf. Albright, op. cit., p. 32, phase the actual course of this ceremony as it came to be
who nevertheless, in the writer’s opinion, unnecessarily goes on to seek uni- celebrated in the capital of the Southern Kingdom; for
formity of construction by emending the text so as to read @&. the original consonantal text). Cf. the Accadian TAR@U @TA, ‘to stretch out
7 lit. ‘the reeds’. s Vocalizing the consonantal text so as to read yy$. the hand’; and see further F. Perles, Analekten ZUY Textkritik des Alten
9 lit. ‘bulls of peoples’, i.e. an example of the epexegetical genitive or Testaments. Neue Folge, ii (1922), p. 34. This suggestion overcomes the
genitive of apposition. Cf. G.K., 5 Idif, and see above, p. 30, n. I. difficulty of construing ‘Cush’ as both feminine and masculine, i.e. ‘She
lo Vocalizing the consonantal text so as to read ‘Si?. stretcheth forth (ht. runneth out) his hands.’
Ix Vocalizing the consonantal text so as to read ?‘nlcfl. I2 Vide K.B., S.V. I w. 33-36 ( E W . 32-35).
Ia y’?B should probably be read as ylt (with’ no change as regards a Vocalizing the consonantal text so as to read P’$?g 77’13 P$?. Cf.
Gen. xxiv. 31, xxvi. 2g (J). 3 See above, p. 78, n.. 6.
_
i

86 Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel 87

Psalm xlviii, another of the familiar enthronement psalms, For, lo, the kings assembled,’
They came on together.
indicates the way in which the forementioned victory over
They saw, so were they startled;
‘Death’ has been brought about. It opens with a few They were dismayed, alarmed.
general lines of praise in celebration of the fact that Yahweh Trembling laid hold of them there,
reigns as King and, indeed, as the ‘great King’ in His city Anguish, like a woman in travail,
of Zion; and it is to be observed that the sacred mountain Like2 an east wind, when it doth shatter
itself is here extolled as being jibs or, to adopt the form The fleets of Tarshish.
of transcription made current by the standard English
The fact of this spectacle is then emphasized in the follow-
Versions, ‘Zaphon’I (EW. ‘the north’), a name which ing terms :3
appears in the Ugaritic texts as that of the mythological
As we have heard, so have we seen
mountain where Baal, the ‘Rider of the Clouds’, had his
In the city of Yahweh of Hosts,
royal throne.2 The lines in question may be rendered :3 In the city of our God (or in our divine city),
Great is Yahweh and greatly to be praised Which God maintaineth for ever.
In the city of our God (OY in our divine city)!
His holy mountain is beautiful in elevation,4 These lines have rightly been interpreted as indicating the
The joy of all the earth, use of some form of symbolic ritual of the type familiar to
Mount Zion, the heights5 of Zaphon, all students of comparative religion;-+ and this theory is
The citp of the mighty King! supported in principle by the fact that there is no known
The body of the psalm is then taken up with a vivid picture historical situation which satisfies the conditions laid down
of the way in which Yahweh, as the stronghold of His by the unmistakable reference to the overthrow of a group
people, has brought discomfiture to the kings of the earth; of foreign kings within the city itself. What is more, it
and it is to be noted that this has taken place within the harmonizes with the obvious vagueness of the picture-so
sacred area itself. Thus we read (in further reference to different, for example, from that of the Song of Deborah but
Mount Zion) :7 so in keeping with a piece of recurrent ritual. Further, it
agrees with the statement that what the worshippers have
God in the palaces thereof
Hath shown Himself a stronghold.*
seen has also been described to them; for this points to the
fact that they have not only been spectators of some kind of
x Joshua xiii. 27.
2 Cf., for example, Gordon, op. cit., 49, i 28-37; 51, iv-v 84 ff. ; ‘nt, iii-iv x E@l. Cf. the use of the cognate term fi7$? in the simile of the assembled
25 ff., 43-48 ( = Herdner, op. cit., 6, i 56-65 ; 4, iv-v 84 ff.; 3, iii-iv 25 ff., steers, Ps. lxviii. 31 (EW. 30), as above, p. 84.
43-48: cf. Driver, op. cit., pp. I IO f., 96 ff., 86 f.): and see further R. de z Beth essentiae (cf. G.K., § rrgi), i.e. ‘a veritable east wind which shat-
Langhe, Les Textes de Ras Shamra-Ugarit et leurs rapports avec le milieu tereth etc.’ 3 Verse 9 (EW. 8).
biblique de Z’Ancien Testament (I&, ii, pp. 217-44. 4 Cf. Mowinckel, Psalmenstudien II, pp. 126 ff., also Religion og Kultus
3 w. 2-3 (EVV. 1-2). (1950), pp. 71 ff. (or, in the German edition, Religion und K&us (1953),
l The metrical structure of the poem as a whole makes it clear that the pp. 76f.), Oflersang og sangofler, pp. 177f. = The Psalms in Israel’s Wor-
last two words of verse 2 (EW. I) should be construed with verse 3 (EW. 2). ship, i, pp. 181 f.: and see in general G. van der Leeuw, Phiinomenologie
5 lit. ‘recesses’. Cf. 0. Eissfeldt, Baa1 Zaphon, Zeus Kasios und der Durchsug det Religion (1933), pp. 349-55 (2nd edit., revised and enlarged (1956),
der Israeliten durchs Meer (1932), pp. 15 f. ; and see below, p. 94, n. I. pp. 420--S), E.T. by J. E. Turner, Religion in Essence and Manifestation: A
6 N.B. =I’l q$p “IT?. Cf. p. 42, n. 3. Study in Phenomenology (I 938), pp. 373-8, or, in the revised French transla-
7 vv. 4-8 (EW. 37). tion by J. Marty, La Religion duns son essence et ses manifestations: Pht%omkno-
* Cf. the refrain of Psalm xlvi, as discussed below, pp. gz ff. log& a% la religion (1948), pp. 364-70.
 88 Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel 89
ritual performance, but have been instructed as to its ment (Il’o!$$) in overthrowing the hostile forces which
meaning by the accompanying mythology. Even stronger threaten the national life. In other words, we have to note
evidence than all this, however, is to be found in the next once again that Yahweh’s Kingship is thought of as carry-
line of the psalm; and for the moment we leave one word ing with it the responsibility to act as the heavenly Judge,
untranslated : I who from His royal throne can exercise His power in de-
0 God, we have . . . Thy devotion (q!B) fence of His people. I
In the midst of Thy Temple. * Like Thy Name, 0 God, so doth Thy praise
The word which we have left untranslated, the Pi’e’l of Extend to the ends of the earth.
Jlflu7, is rendered in the standard English Versions by ‘to Thy Right Hand is full of righteousness;2
think’, e.g. in the Revised Version: . Let Mount Zion be glad!
Let the daughters of Judah rejoice
We have thought on thy lovingkindness, 0 God, Because of Thine acts of judgement!
In the midst of thy temple.
What is even more important, the last few lines of the
Such a rendering, however, is wholly inadequate. The
psalm again deal with a ritual procession; and it will be
verbal form in question, which means literally ‘to make
observed that they close with an emphasis upon the fact
like’, is used elsewhere in the Old Testament in one of two
that Yahweh is the leader of His people in the struggle
senses: (a) that of ‘to compare’, a rendering which is ob-
against ‘Death’, i.e. the very same thought which we have
viously inappropriate here, and (b) that of ‘to picture’ some-
already noticed in the case of Psalm lxviii.3 Accordingly it
thing in the present which is to happen in the future-and
seems clear that in this psalm we are dealing with the situa-
so ‘to plan’.2 The latter is evidently the meaning which is
tion immediately preceding the procession which has been
intended here, and we may render the line thus:
engaging our attention in connexion with Psalms xxiv,
0 God, we have pictured Thy devotion xlvii, and lxviii. The exhortation to begin this triumphant
In the midst of Thy Temple. procession runs as follows ?
Even so, however, the context shows that this anticipation March around Zion, go round about her,
of the future is something more than a mere mental ‘pic- Number her towers,
ture’, i.e. something more than that which is seen, as we say, Pay heed to her ramparts,
by the mind’s eye. It is a ritual performance or acted Pass between her palaces,
‘picture’ of a piece with the prophetic symbolism but on the That ye may tell the coming generation
grand scale-the %&I par excellence.3 That such is God!
Our God, who abideth for ever,
The next few lines of the psalm then proceed to extol
Is our leader against ‘Death.5
Yahweh because of this anticipated manifestation of His
righteousness (?7$) and His corresponding acts of judge- I w. 11-12 ( E W . I O- I I) .
2 It is clear on metrical grounds that the last stichos of verse I I (EW. IO)
I Verse IO (EW. 9 ) . should be taken closely with verse 12 (EVV. I I). Note the resultant example
2 Cf. The Cultic Prophet in Ancient Israel, pp. 38 ff., esp. p. 39, n. I, 2nd of chiasmus. s See above, p. 82.
edit., pp. 41 ff., esp. p. 42, n. 2. 4 vv. 13-15 (EW. 12-14).
3 Cf. the writer’s study of this term in Wisdom in Israel and in the Ancient 5 Vocalizing the consonantal text so as to read 17J?‘t7g. These words have
Near East (H. H. Rowley Festschrift), ed. M. Noth and D. W. Thomas, long been a crux interpretum, and again we can see that the general failure to
S.V.T. iii (1955), pp. 162-9. understand the allusion has been due to the fact that the psalm has been
I

90 Samal Kingship in Ancient Iwael Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel 91

All in all, therefore, it seems quite clear that the arch- Presently we shall see something of the way in which
enemy over whom Yahweh has triumphed is ‘Death’; and Yahweh’s followers enjoy His protection as their ‘strong-
it is tempting to compare the story of Baal’s conflict with hold’ ; but we must first examine Psalm cxlix, which ap-
Mot (‘Death’) in the mythology of the Ras Shamra tablets parently introduces the worshippers as themselves sharing
and so to find yet another parallel in the field of Canaanite in this ritual performance. The psalm opens with a sum-
culture as represented by the literature of ancient Ugarit.1 mons to the worshippers, Yahweh’s ‘votaries’ (P’?‘Pq),
At the same time it should be borne in mind that there is no to offer praise to their God as their Maker and King; and
indication whatsoever that in this ritual and mythology of again we meet the thought that Yahweh takes pleasure in
the Jerusalem cultus ‘Death’ is thought of as a god, even His people (or finds them acceptable) and brings them
though, as we shall see, the Underworld and its forces are salvation because they are ‘humble’ or ‘submissive’ (l!y).
represented as threatening the life of the nation as focused What is more, we have to note that they are summoned to
in the person of the Messiah. In fact, so far as this ritual sing a ‘new song’ ; and this, one need hardly say, is a thought
performance is concerned, the mass attack of ‘Death’ is which is particularly appropriate to our festival with its
obviously portrayed as an onslaught by the kings (and exultant anticipation of a new era of universal dominion
ipso facto the nations) of the earth; and ‘Death’ is driven and national prosperity.1
out of the city through their discomfiture inasmuch as Sing unto Yahweh a new song,
Yahweh has revealed Himself in some way as the ‘strong- His praise in the assembly of the devout (PT~~J).
hold’ of His people.2 Let Israel be glad because of his Maker,
divorced from its original Sitz im Leben, so that the obvious rendering seems Let the children of Zion rejoice in their King.
to make no sense. Indeed this particular example serves the present writer Let them praise His Name with dancing,
as a stem warning against hasty textual ‘emendation’; for, when he began his Let them sing His praises with timbre1 and lyre;
researches into the Psalter along the lines indicated by ‘The Rale of the King For Yahweh findeth His people acceptable,2
in the Jerusalem Cultus’ (as referred to above, p. 7, n. I), he followed the He adorneth the humble with salvation.
usual practice of attempting to improve the reading, and only discovered
later, as his work developed, that in so doing he was destroying a valuable In the latter part of the psalm, however, Yahweh’s worship-
piece of evidence and an important link in his argument!
x Cf. Gordon, op. cit., 49, ii 9-37, vi 9 ff. ; 5 I, vii 42 ff.; 67 ( = Herdner, pers or ‘votaries’ are called upon, not merely to be exultant
op. cit., 6, ii 9-37, vi 9 ff. ; 4, vii 42 ff. ; 5 : cf. Driver, op. cit., pp. I IO f., I 14 f., at the thought of the glory which is coming to them, but to
100 ff., 102 ff.). be prepared, sword in hand, to execute the sentence which
z I find it remarkable that, despite the above explicit rejection of any sug-
gestion that ‘Death’ is here regarded as a god (cf., too, ‘The RBle of the King Yahweh has pronounced or, rather, is about to pronounce
in the Jerusalem Cultus’, pp. 94 f.), I am repeatedly cited in terms which upon the nations of the earth; and, significantly enough,
suggest that in my opinion we have here a definite allusion to the god Mot. this involves their making the kings of these nations their
Cf., for example, H. J. Kraus, B.K.A.T. (1958), 2nd edit. (1961), in Zoc.;
S. H. Hooke, Middle Eastern Mythology (1963), pp. 84 (cf. p. 94, n. I), 106 f. captives.3
(cf. p. 160, n. 4). In the circumstances it seems necessary to point out once Let the devout (D~~~WJ) exult at the thought of glory;
again that I was led to pursue the line of study which I have begun in The
Vitality of the Individual in the Thought of Ancient Israel, because (a) I
Let them break out in applause upon their bedding.
realized that we are here in a very different realm of thought from that which I vv. 1-4.
is represented by the Ugaritic texts, and (b) it seemed that, to appreciate this, 2 Cf., for a valuable discussion of the use of +/FIX? in a cultic setting,
we needed a clear formulation of Israelite ideas concerning ‘life’ and ‘death’. E. Wiirthwein, ‘Kultpolemik oder Kultbescheid 7’, in Tradition und Situa-
Cf. what I have to say on this matter in E.T. lxii (195~I), p. 4rb; also lxviii tion (A. Weiser Festschtift), ed. E. Wiirthwein and 0. Kaiser (1963),
1956.7), P. r79b. pp. 115-31. 3 w. 5-9.
 Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel 93
92
We have God as our refuge and strength,’
Let the praises of God be in their throat,
A ready source of help in time of trouble.
And a two-edged sword in their hand.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth sway
To wreak vengeance upon the nations,
And the mountains reel amidst the sea.
Chastisement upon the peoples,
Let its waters clamour and break into foam,
To bind their kings with chains,
Let the mountains quake at its swelling;
Their nobility with iron fetters,
[Yahweh of Hosts is with us,
To execute upon these the judgement prescribed
The God of Jacob is our stronghold.].2
Is an honour which falleth to all His votaries (Q’,~*v?)!
In the second strophe attention is drawn to one of the
There seems to be only one theory which does justice to currents of the cosmic ocean which, as a good servant but
this psalm in every detail and without recourse to emenda- a bad master, is thought of as ministering to the needs of
tion, i.e. that which sees it as the prelude to a ritual per- the Holy City; and in general the passage recalls, say,
formance of the type to which we have already referred. Psalm xxix with its description of Yahweh’s enthronement
Accordingly we are brought a stage nearer to the exact over the flood and the convulsive effect of His thundering
timing of the above-mentioned spectacle, for the fact that ‘Voice’. Indeed we learn that Yahweh’s power in the realm
Yahweh’s followers are described as seated or lying upon of nature, as shown in His subjection of the turbulent acti-
their bedding indicates that it is at night that they are vity of the cosmic sea, has its parallel in what we may
assembled so expectantly in the Temple. again call the moral realm; but in this case it is revealed in
Fortunately we possess in Psalm xlvi a hymn which may the overthrow of the kingdoms of the earth, which in their
fittingly be said to throw light on this point; and in so doing own way similarly threaten the safety or well-being of the
it also gives some indication of the way in which Yahweh nation. Accordingly, as in Psalm xlviii, emphasis is laid
has proved Himself to be the ‘stronghold’ of His people. It upon the fact that Yahweh has proved to be the ‘stronghold’
seems to fall into three parts; and of these the first deals of His people; and in this connexion it is significant (a)
with the assurance of Yahweh’s help in virtue of His power that it should be as the ‘Most High’ that Yahweh preserves
over the great cosmic sea, which is not merely the source of His sacred city, and (b) that it is at daybreak that He brings
the rains and the rivers but apparently represents (some- succour to His people. In short, it is in the person of the
what like Tiamat, the body of salt water, in the Babylonian ‘Most High’, worshipped with all the eloquent symbolism
Epic of Creation’) the primeval forces of darkness.2 the text by George Smith in The Chaldean Account of Genesis (1876) practi-
cally the complete story has been recovered, and a whole series of revised
x In its current form this myth is probably to be assigned to the period of editions and translations has appeared. A critical edition of the text is available
the First Babylonian Dynasty, i.e. the nineteenth to the sixteenth centuries in A. Deimel, ‘Enuma EM sive epos Babylonicum de creatione mundi, 2nd edit.
B.C.; and, as is now well known, it describes the way in which Marduk first
rev. (1936), and a convenient transliteration and translation in R. Labat,
subdued the primal chaos by overthrowing the monster Tiamat, the mother Le Pokme babylonien de la crkation (1935). The fullest and most up-to-date
of the gods, and her equally monstrous allies under the leadership of her translations into English, however, are those of A. Heidel, The Babylonian
consort, the god Kingu, and then created the visible world by splitting her Genesis, 2nd edit. rev. (1951), pp. 18-60, and E. A. Speiser in Ancient Near
corpse into two parts and using the one half to form the solid firmament of Eastern Texts relating to the Old Testament, ed. J. B. Pritchard, 2nd edit. rev.
heaven, In the present connexion it is also worthy of note that the divine 2 vv. 2-4 (EW. 1-3).
(r955), PP. 60-72.
assembly, faced with the need to meet the challenge of Tiamat, had pre-
viously bestowed upon Marduk ‘kingship over the whole of the entire I Or ‘protection’? Cf. K.B., p. 693a.
universe’. Tablet iv, line 14. Cf. line 28, ‘They gladly did homage, saying a This line is not in the Hebrew text; but it seems likely that in verses 8
“Marduk is King.“’ Since the publication of the first known fragments of and 12 (EVV. 7 and I I) we have a refrain which has fallen out at this particu-
(Footnotes I and 2 continued on p. 93.) lar point.
94 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel 95
of the sun, that Yahweh triumphs over the forces of dark- Finally, the view that we are here dealing with a ritual
ness, the gloomy underworld of ‘Death’, and the kings (or performance of some kind is confirmed by the vivid
nations) of the earth who threaten the life of His chosen phraseology of the third strophe, as it calls upon mankind
people. I to gaze on the actual spectacle:’
As for ‘The River’,2 its streams make glad the city of God, Come, behold the deeds of Yahweh ( ),2
The most holy abode of the Most High.3 As He maketh wars to cease throughout the earth.
With God in her midst she cannot be shaken; He doth shatter the bow and snap the spear;
God doth help her as the morning appeareth. He doth burn the shields3 with fire.
The nations clamour, the kingdoms reel; ‘Be still and know that I, God,
At the sound of His Voice the earth is in turmoil. Am high above the nations, high above the earth!’
Yahweh of Hosts is with us, Yahweh of Hosts is with us,
The God of Jacob is our stronghold. The God of Jacob is our stronghold.

I w. 5-8 (EW. 47). The passages in the canonical prophets, particu- Indeed, the thought of these last lines is particularly striking;
larly the book of Isaiah, which need to be seen against the background of this for the ideal which is visualized is one which is pathetically
festival are so numerous that the writer refrains, for the most part, from familiar to modern ears, i.e. that of a war which is to end
drawing attention to them at this stage; but the reader should compare at
this point the fragment from the cycle of mythology associated with the all wars. At the same time it is to be observed that, while
‘Most High’ which has been preserved for us through its being given an Israel is the chosen instrument of God for the achieve-
historical application, i.e. Isa. xiv. 12-15, which, as the context shows, cele-
brates the prospective downfall of some tyrant of the ancient Near East:
ment of His purpose, which, as we shall see, is one of uni-
How art thou fallen from heaven, versal righteousness and justice, the assurance of ultimate
Gleaming One, son of the Dawn! victory is found, not in the weapons of His followers, but
Thou, who didst override the nations,
Art hewn to earth.
in His own omnipotence. When all is said and done, the
Yet thou didst say in thine heart, deeds must be Yahweh’s deeds, and it is He alone who can
‘I will mount up to heaven; really make wars to cease throughout the earth.4
Beyond the divine stars
Will I raise my throne. We are now in a position to understand Psalm xcvii,
I will sit on the Mount of Assembly, which brings us back to the situation indicated by the
In the heights (Zit. recesses) of Zaphon. psalms with which our treatment of this festival began;
I will climb above the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High!’ and in examining it we need to bear in mind that Israel
Howbeit to Sheol art thou brought down, never lived in a vacuum, so that already in early times its
To the depths (Zz’t. recesses) of the Pit!
The picture is obviously that of a morning star, which strives to reach the I w. 9-12 (EW. 8-11).
height of heaven but only succeeds in being hurled down to the underworld, 2 The Hebrew adds, ‘Who hath laid waste the earth’; but there is reason
the more powerful rays of the sun, whose role it is clearly attempting to fill, to believe on the ground of both syntax and metre that this is a prosaic gloss.
causing it to fade and disappear. This is not to say, of course, that Yahweh Cf., for example, E. Podechard, Le Psautier: Notes critiques, i (1949), in lot.
was identified in any way with the sun. On the contrary it was His expressed 3 M.T. ‘wagons’; but it seems likely that the consonantal text should
wish that He should be shrouded in darkness from mortal eyes. Cf., for be vocalized so as to read n@T, a word which is not found elsewhere in the
example, I Kings viii. 12 (esp. LXX, i.e. viii. 53a): and see in general the Old Testament but may well have existed as a parallel to the Aramaic ?Jg,
important study by H. Schrade, Der verborgene Gott: Gottesbild und Gottes-
uorstellung in Israel und im alten Orient (1949). N)I’Jg, ‘shield’. Cf. LXX and T: and see further, for example, Podechard,
z See above, pp. ~of. op. cit., in lot.
3 Or, as above, p. I I, n. 3, ‘Which the Most High hath sanctified as His * Cf. Psalm lxxvi, which has much in common with Psalms xlvi and xlviii,
abode.’ and may well have its original Sitar im Leben just here. See above, p. 32, n. I.
96 Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel 97
religious thinkers were bound to face the question as to of their own followers have been compelled to acknowledge
what exactly was Yahweh’s relation to the gods of the sur- the supremacy of Yahweh and, what is more, the defeat of
rounding nations. The psalm begins with a summons to their own ambitious schemes to overthrow His righteous
the world at large to rejoice in the fact that it is Yahweh rule and produce anarchy in the earth; and again we are
who is King, and then continues with a description of the reminded of Psalm xxix with its summons to the gods to
way in which He has manifested the basic righteousness render to Yahweh the glory due to His Name. In fact, the
and justice of His rule by a dramatic demonstration of His point of view which occurs here is to be understood in
power in the realm of nature. This is pictured in the now terms of a passage from the so-called ‘Song of Moses’, as
familiar terms of earthquake and thunderstorm, the flashes restored on the basis of the Septuagint, i.e. :I
of His lightning not only wiping out His adversaries but When the Most High gave to the nations their possessions,
illuminating the whole world, so that all peoples have been When He divided up mankind,
able to see His ‘Glory’. When we come to consider the Fixing the territories of the peoples
role of the Davidic King (or the Messiah) in this ritual, we According to the number of the rgodsl$
shall be better able to appreciate the meaning of this Yahweh’s own share was His own people,
dramatic intervention on the part of Yahweh. Meantime Jacob was the portion of which He took possession.
we may recall that, according to Psalm xxix, the theme on Further, it is interesting to observe that Yahweh’s supremacy
everyone’s lips in the Temple was similarly one of ‘Glory’.’ in this way is also expressed in this section of the psalm by
It is Yahweh who is King! Let the earth rejoice! means of a double word-play on the appellation ‘Most High’
Let the many coasts be glad! (li’3Y) like that which we have already observed in the case
Cloud, deep cloud, is round about Him; of P&m xlvii, i.e. Yahweh is high (fi’@) over the earth, He
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. is highly exalted (Niph’al of ii@) above all the gods.3
Fire goeth before Him,
Setting His foes ablaze on every side. All who serve a graven image are put to shame,
His lightning illumined the world; Those who take pride in worthless idols,
The earth saw and writhed. All the gods having made obeisance to Him.4
The mountains melted like wax before Yahweh, Zion hath heard and is glad,
Before the Lord of all the earth. And the daughters of Judah rejoice,
The heavens have declared His righteousness, Because of Thine acts of judgement, 0 Yahweh.5
And all the peoples have seen His ‘Glory’. For Thou, Yahweh, art high (li$y) over all the earth;
Thou art highly exalted (@qi) above all the gods.
In the following lines our attention is directed to the pp. 7-40, esp. pp. 25 ff. ; and now (with an up-to-date bibliography), in Men
conclusion which is to be drawn from Yahweh’s triumph of God: Studies in Old Testament History and Prophecy (1963), pp. 136, esp.
over the nations of the world. It is a proof that these image- pp. 20 ff. 1 Deut. xxxii. 8-9.
2 M.T. I?KTp’! ‘23. LXX (KC& tpe$~) &yyhov 0~00, i.e. r e a d i n g ‘$7
worshipping peoples, who are obviously contrasted with
OYJ%$ Cf. Job i. 6, ii. I, xxxviii. 7; and note that the reading of LXX is now
the Israelites and their traditional imageless worship of confirmed by the fragments of a Hebrew manuscript from Qumran, as
Yahweh,2 are the wards of inferior gods who in the defeat described by P. W. Skehan, B.A.S.O.R. 136 (Dec. 1954), p. 12, and3.B.L.
1XXViii (1959), p. 21. 3 vv. 7-9.
* vv. I-6. 4 i.e. construing the Hebrew verb as the perfect indicative (cf. R.S.V.) rather
a Cf. H. H. Rowley, ‘Moses and the Decalogue’, B.J.R.L. xxxiv (1951-2), than an imperative (cf. EW.).
pp. 81-118, esp, pp. 102 ff.; also (in a French edition), R.H.P.R. xxxii (1952), 5 Cf. Ps. xlviii. 12 (EW. II), as above, p. 89.
U 8988 H
98 Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel Sacral KingshZp in Ancient Israel 99
In view of this occasion for rejoicing, Yahweh’s followers have permitted the wicked to dominate the scene and, as
are then reminded that to love Him carries with it the the forces of darkness, to threaten the whole moral basis of
responsibility of hating evil; for, when all is said and done, earth’s society-a thought which is expressed in the charac-
this is the indispensable condition of success. Yahweh is teristic recognition that the moral realm and the realm of
there to watch over the lives of His ‘votaries’ (Q’T’Qq), nature are inextricably related. Thus Yahweh calls them to
those who are devoted to Him or pledged to His service task with the words :I
within the covenant, and it is His responsibility to deliver ‘How long will ye judge unjustly,
them from the power of the ‘wicked’. The latter term, as And show partiality towards the wicked?
we have seen,’ is one which is used categorically of the Secure justice for the weak and the fatherless;
nation’s enemies, whereas Yahweh’s ‘votaries’ are idealized Grant the humble and the poor their right.
as the ‘righteous’ ; and on these, significantly enough, the Rescue the weak and the poor,
Deliver them from the hand of the wicked,
glad light is said to have shone. That is to say, it is a
Who have neither knowledge nor understanding,
righteous people who have been delivered with the coming But live persistently in darkness,
of the dawn from the sorrows of darkness and ‘Death’.2 So that all the foundations of the earth are shaken.’
Those who love Yahweh hate3 evil;
He who guardeth the lives4 of His votaries
Accordingly, despite their standing as the sons of God,
Doth deliver them from the hand of the wicked. Yahweh goes on to pronounce what must be the final sen-
Light is sown (or rise+) for the righteous,6 tence upon them for failing to live up to this ideal, decree-
And gladness for the upright of heart. ing that as a result they shall die like ordinary human
Be glad in Yahweh, 0 ye righteous, beings, i.e. :2
And give thanks to His holy Name! ‘I admits that ye are gods,
We are now in a position to understand Psalm lxxxii, And all of you sons of the Most High.
which has long been regarded as one of the most perplexing Nevertheless ye shall die like men,
compositions in the whole of the Psalter. It introduces us And fall like any ordinary prince.‘4
at the outset to the heavenly court, and reveals Yahweh as This means, of course, that Yahweh will be left to take
pronouncing sentence upon the assembled gods of the charge of their territories and, as the unchallenged, omni-
nations because of their misrule :7 potent, and indeed only God, will be able to enforce the
God (0~ Yahweh)* taketh His stand in the divine assembly; universal reign of justice; and it is in lively anticipation of
Amidst the gods He pronounceth judgement. this happy consummation that the psalm draws to a close:5
The charge against them is that, instead of defending the Arise, 0 God (0~ Yahweh)! Secure justice for the earth!6
rights of the weak and the fatherless, the humble and the For Thou wilt take possession of all the nations.
poor, within the territories under their jurisdiction, they The exultation aroused by this thought finds ready illus-
I Page 78. 2 w. 1 0 - 1 2 . tration in Psalm xcviii,’ which begins with the now familiar
3 Vocalizing the consonantal text so as to read W$. Cf. G.K., 0 ro6g.
4 See above, p. 12, n. I. I w. 2 - 5 . 2 w. 6 - 7 . 3 G.K., 5 ro6g.
5 i.e. reading ?‘I?! with one MS., LXX, Jerome, S, and T. * Cf. Judges xvi. 7 (‘like any ordinary man’). 5 Verse 8.
6 Cf. Ps. cxviii. 27a, as below, p. 127. 7 Verse I. 6 Cf. verse 3.
’ See above, p. 75, n. 3. 7 Cf. Psalm xcvi, which has many points of contact with this and some
 IO0 Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel IO1

summons to the world at large to sing a new song in honour to the worshippers that the ‘Voice’ of Him who rides the
of Yahweh. As such it is an obvious prelude to the new era clouds with such catastrophic power is also the ‘Voice’
of righteousness and justice which is to dawn for mankind which was heard by their forefathers at Sinai, when Yahweh
when Yahweh comes to judge the earth. first admitted His chosen people to His counsel; and amid
all the disappointment engendered by the passing years it
Sing unto Yahweh a new song,
For He hath performed wondrous thing4 brings them afresh the challenge to be in very truth the
His Right Hand and His holy Arm righteous nation which He then envisaged as the instrument
Have wrought salvation for Him. of His purpose. In short, the key-words for the under-
Yahweh hath made known His salvation; standing of this dramatic ritual in its full significance are
He hath revealed to the nations His righteousness. to be found in the plea which we met almost at the outset
He hath remembered His devotion [to Jacob],’ of our study of these psalms :I
And His faithfulness to the House of Israel-
All the ends of the earth have seen 0 that to&y ye may hearken to His Voice!
The salvation of our God. Accordingly, summarizing our discussion thus far, we
Make acclamation unto Yahweh, all the earth; may say that the following features can now be recognized
Break out in applause, and sing praises! in the festival under consideration. In the first place we
Sing praises to Yahweh with the lyre, have (a) the celebration of Yahweh’s original triumph, as
With the lyre and the sound of singingi
leader of the forces of light, over the forces of darkness as
With trumpets and the sound of the horn
Make acclamation before the King-Y&.&! represented by the monstrous chaos of waters or primeval
Let the sea thunder with all its fullness, ocean; (b) His subjection of this cosmic sea and His en-
The world and they that dwell therein; thronement as King in the assembly of the gods; and (c)
Let the rivers clap their hands, the further demonstration of His might and power in the
Let the hills unite in applause, creation of the habitable world. Cosmogony, however, gives
Before Yahweh, for He cometh, place to eschatology; for all this is the prelude to the thought
[For He comethI to judge the earth. of His re-creative work, which is expressed in the form of a
He will judge the world with righteousness, ritual drama, and, as such, is wholly in line with what we
And the peoples with equity.
are told about prophetic symbolism of the type which ap-
Nevertheless it must be borne in mind that this exultant pears to have been embraced by the term %&. In fact
anticipation of Yahweh’s coming in triumph to judge the it is the %@ par excellence, and is designed as an effec-
earth is tempered with words of caution; for, as we have tive demonstration of Yahweh’s ultimate will and purpose
seen, it is only to a righteous nation that Yahweh thus for Israel and the world. In this ritual drama the worship-
comes in final demonstration of His universal sovereignty. pers are given (a) an assurance of final victory over ‘Death’,
That is to say, the festival as a whole serves as a reminder i.e. all that obstructs the fullness of life for mankind which
of the other psalms which are dealt with in the text. At the same time one
was Yahweh’s design in the creation of the habitable world;
must beware of seeing conscious dependence in a case of this kind. It may (b) a summons to a renewal of their faith in Yahweh and His
well be that we should think, rather, of a common heritage of established plans for them and for the world; and (c) a challenge to a
phraseology. Cf. the repetition which so often occurs in the Accadian epics
and annals and in the Ugaritic texts as well as the similar stock phrases in, say,
renewed endeavour to be faithful to Him and His demands,
Homer. I Cf. Lxx, a Cf. Ps. xcvi. 13. * Ps. xcv. 7c, as above, p. 69.
 102 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel =o3
so that the day may indeed dawn when this vision of a them from the forces of darkness and ‘Death’, it is to be ex-
universal realm of righteousness and peace will be realized, pected that the ritual of this festival should have some definite
and His Kingdom will be seen in all its power and glory. connexion with the earthly king, who, as we have seen, is the
This work of ‘salvation’ (;rY’l@), as it is called,1 is por- focal point of the life of the nation. Accordingly we have now
trayed by means of some kind of mime in which the kings to consider a number of psalms which seem to require in-
(i.e. nations) of the earth, representing the forces of darkness terpretation along these lines; and in the nature of the case
and ‘Death’ as opposed to light and ‘Life’ and commonly most of these belong to the class known as royal psalms.1
designated the ‘wicked’ (P’uv?), unite in an attempt to A simple indication of the importance which was un-
overthrow Yahweh’s covenanted followers, i.e. His ‘vota- doubtedly attached to the king in this connexion may be
ries’ (B’t’Qn) or the ‘righteous’ (B’p’?S); and victory (or found in Psalm lxxxiv, which is best explained as a hymn
salvation)2 is eventually secured through the direct inter- sung by Yahweh’s worshippers in celebration of their pil-
vention of Yahweh (or the ‘Most High’) at dawn on this grimage from the towns and villages of the land at the time
fateful day. In this way Yahweh reveals His own devotion of this autumnal festival. It opens with a vivid description
(7pn) and righteousness (i;rZQ to His covenant people. of the emotional response aroused by the thought of the
This is not all, however, for Yahweh’s earthly victory has Temple in the hearts of those who have to spend their lives
its counterpart in the heavenly places. The rebellion of the out of sight of the Holy City, and so are unable to enjoy the
kings of the earth is but a reflection of the rebellious misrule privileges shared by the chosen few whose duties enable
of the lesser gods in the divine assembly to whom the Most them to make it their permanent home; and it is note-
High had granted jurisdiction over those territories which worthy that He in whose honour it stands is addressed or
were occupied by the other nations of the earth. Accordingly referred to, not merely as Yahweh of Hosts, but also as the
the overthrow of the kings of the earth corresponds to the ‘Living God’ (‘n 38) 2 and the divine ‘King’.3
overthrow of these rebellious gods, who, having shown their How lovely is Thy dwelling-place,
unfitness to rule, are condemned to die like any earthly 0 Yahweh of Hosts!
princes. Thus Yahweh proves to be what has been aptly My whole being4 longeth, yea, pineth
called ‘the enduring power, not ourselves, which makes for For Yahweh’s courts;
righteousness’ ;3 and the helpless, the poor, and the humble, My heart and my flesh cry out
not merely in Israel but throughout the world, may look Unto the Living God!
Even the sparrow findeth a home
forward to an era of universal righteousness and peace, as
And the swallow a nest for itself,
the one omnipotent God comes with judicial power to en- Laying its young beside Thine altars,
force His beneficent rule upon the earth. 0 Yahweh of Hosts, my King5 and my God!
How happy are they who dwell in Thy house,
V Who can always be praising Thee!
Now inasmuch as Yahweh thus enlivens His people with x See above, p. 7, n. I.
this dramatic assurance of His will and power to deliver 2 Cf. The Vitality of the Individual in the Thought of Ancient Israel,
pp. 105 ff., 2nd edit., pp. 106 ff. 3 w. 2-5 (EW. 1 - 4 ) .
x See above, p. 19, n. 2 . 4 For the wide range o$ meaning associated with the Hebrew term U$J
..
a Cf., for example, I Sam. xiv. 45; and see further Pedersen, Israel I-II, see op. cit. (n. 2, above), pp. g ff., 2nd edit., pp. 3 ff.
pp. 257 ff., E.T., pp. 330 ff. 3 See above, p. 13, n. 2. 5 Cf. Ps. lxviii. 25 (EW. 24), as above, p. 83.
ro4 Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel 105
In the following lines, however, we learn that even the Behold our shield,’ 0 God,
pilgrim has his own peculiar happiness, for he knows that, And look upon the face of Thy Messiah!
following his worship of this ‘Living God’, the parched and
Finally, having reached this focal point at which the
thirsty ground over which he has to travel will soon be
transformed, and will be dotted in due course with pools worship of the heavenly King and a due regard for the
earthly king are linked with the coming of the needed rain,
which will be the result of the winter’s rains; and this
the worshipper reverts to his original theme, and contem-
thought spurs him on with increased vigour to meet with
plates afresh the incomparable pleasure that awaits the
God in Zion and to present before Him his special prayer,
namely that Yahweh will bless the earthly king in Jerusalem, pilgrim in the worship of the Temple :2
who is at once the ‘shield’ of his people and the ‘Messiah’ For I prefer a day in Thy courts
of God. Thus the thought of the heavenly King leads on to To a thousand elsewhere,3
that of His specially anointed deputy, the reigning member Hovering on the threshold in the house of my God
To dwelling in the tents of wickedness.
of the House of David; for the Temple, we must be careful
For Yahweh ( )4 is both sun5 and shield;
to bear in mind, was first and foremost a royal temple and He bestoweth grace and glory.
its cultus primarily a royal cultus.
How happy mankind who make Thee their strength, I The traditional view (following LXX) is that !$a?, ‘our shield’,
should be construed as a vocative and therefore as co-ordinate with ‘God’;
Whose heart is set on pilgrimage!2 but the parallelism in the Hebrew shows quite clearly that it should be con-
Passing through the arid3 valley, strued as the object of the verb so as to yield an example of chiasmus. Cf., for
They convert it into a spring; example, Gunkel, H. K., and Pannier-Renard, S. B., in Zoc. For the same
Yea, the early rains clothe it with pools.4 reason one must reject the view, advanced on the basis of Ugaritic, that
They go from strength to strength,5 ?up here means ‘our entreaty’ = ‘we implore’. Cf. Patton, Canaanite
Until the God of6 gods is seen’ in Zion. Parallels in the Book of Psalms, p. 41, where the reader will find other equally
untenable examples of this alleged form (including Ps. xlvii. IO (EW. g),
0 Yahweh ( )* of Hosts, hear my prayer; as discussed above, p. 76, and Ps. lxxxix. 19 (EW. IS), as discussed below,
Hearken, 0 God of Jacob! p. rag). In fact, here again we see how important it is to examine a form care-
fully in the light of its context before attempting to interpret it in a novel
x w. 6-10 (EW. 5-g). z lit. ‘who have the highways in their heart’. way in terms of Ugaritic. See above, p. 78, n. 6, and p. 82, n. g.
3 The point of t&_comparison is indicated, not only by the context, but Z w. 11-13 ( E W . 10-12).
also by the Arabic 6 , ‘to have little milk’ (e.g. of a ewe), ‘to have little 3 The rendering of this metrical line must be regarded as doubtful. In
water’ (e.g. of a well), and so generally of that which is unproductive. Cf. Lane, fact it is almost certain that the consonantal text of the form rendered by
op. cit., S.V. ; J. G. Hava, Arabic-English Dictionary, rev. edit. (I gr s), S.V. : and ‘I prefer’ (M.T. : ‘n7ng) involves some such meaning as ‘in my own home’,
see further Kanig, Die Psalmen, p. 304. and that this and the following line should be rendered:
4 Vocalizing the consonantal text so as to read nj37.3. Cf. A.V. and
For better is a day in Thy courts
P.B.V. as against R.V. As is clear from the use of this root in both Arabic
Than a thousand in my own . . . (I),
(s>, ‘pool’) and Hebrew (;l?7?, id.), rain was regarded as the ‘blessing’ Better to hover on the threshold in the house of my God
par e&ellence. Than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
5 Cf. Jer. ix. 2 (EW. 3) ; 2 Cor. iii. 18; and, for the idea, Isa. xl. 3 1 . As yet, however, so far as the present writer is aware, no completely con-
Alternatively the reference may be to the swelling ranks of the pilgrims. vincing solution of the problem has been offered.
6 The consonantal text admits this interpretation, and indeed it was so 4 Cf. p. 104, n. 8.
understood by LXX, Jerome, and S. Cf., too, the Hebrew of Ps. 1. I. 5 Better ‘buckler’ or, rather, ‘battlement’? Cf. Isa. liv. 12; and see further,
7 i.e. in all the accompaniment of worship. for example, Gunkel, op. cit., in Zoc., Tournay-Schwab, op. cit., in lot.,
s The Hebrew adds ‘God’, but this should be omitted as an intended sub- K.B., S.V. Note, however, the words of caution offered by Kraus, op. cit.,
stitute for ‘Yahweh’. in lot., with which I am much inclined to agree; for it is also important to
 106 Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel =o7
Yahweh’ doth not withhold what is good Yea, I acknowledge’ that devotion will ever be built up (4/m3) ;
From2 those who walk in integrity. Along with the heavens themselves Thou wilt maintain (4112)
0 Yahweh of Hosts, Thy faithfulness.
How happy mankind who trust in Thee!
Now such language, with its assurance of Yahweh’s devotion
We are now in a position to recognize the real signifi- (tan) and faithfulness (3$??2$$) is really idiomatic, for it is the
cance of Psalm lxxxix, the theme of which is subject to language appropriate to the ‘tjnought of fulfilling one’s part
such sudden change that commentators have been misled in a covenant;2 and this is confirmed by the two following
into regarding it as a fusion of two and even three originally verses, which introduce a summary quotation of Yahweh’s
independent compositions, failing to realize that these actual vow under the terms of the Davidic covenant.3
transitions are due to its liturgical background;3 and, as we ‘I have made a covenant with My chosen one;
shall see, there is good reason to believe that the liturgical I have sworn to David My Servant:
background in question is that of the festival which we are “I will maintain (l/11>) thy seed for ever;
attempting in some measure to reconstruct.4 The psalm Through all generations I will build up (1/W) thy throne.” ’
opens with a hymn in praise of Yahweh; and it is important This quotation is introduced with such apparent abrupt-
to note that this combines the thought of Yahweh’s devo- ness, the ‘I’ who now speaks being Yahweh, that the text is
tion and faithfulness to the House of David with the back- commonly supposed to be corrupt, and it has even been
ground of thought which we have seen to be proper to this suggested that these lines have been severed from their
festival. The first two lines run as follows :5 supposedly original connexion later in the psalm, where,
I will ever sing of Yahweh’s continued devotion ;6 as we shall see, we meet with an extended reference to this
Through all generations I will make known Thy faithfulness Davidic covenant. 4 Such drastic treatment of the text,
with my mouth. however, is completely without justification; for we need
bear in mind that, as already observed (pp. 93 f., IOI f.: cf. pp. 134 ff.), the to bear in mind that the introductory lines already quoted
symbolism afforded by the light of the sun is of outstanding importance in would at once arouse the thought of a covenant in the
the ritual and mythology under review.
r On metrical grounds ‘Yahweh’ should probably be construed with what
minds of the worshippers; and this would be the more
follows rather than with what precedes. ready in view of the fact that, as we shall see, they are
a Cf. Gordon, Ugaritic Handbook or Ugaritic Manual or Ugaritic Text- uttered in the presence of the Davidic king himself. More-
book, i 5s IO. I, I I. 3 See above, p. 25, n. I.
l The writer trusts that the argument of these pages, taken as a whole,
over, there is such a striking parallelism in the language of
provides sufficient answer to the criticism levelled by Mowinckel, Oflersang the two passages (i.e. in the balanced use of the verbal
og sangoffer, pp. 570 ff., against his use of this psalm (as also Psalms xviii and forms $731 and 4113 including their general chiastic
cxviii) in ‘The Role of the King in the Jerusalem Cultus’. See above, p. 7,
n. I. arrangement), that their close association must have been
The revised version of Mowinckel’s critical comments may now be found x Cf. p. 99, n. 3.
in The Psalms in Israel’s Worship, ii, pp. 253 ff. ; and what I have to say in a The writer hopes to deal with the principle of the VT? and its related
reply may be summed up by expressing surprise at Mowinckel’s attitude to terminology in a subsequent publication. Cf. The Vitality of the Individual
the psalms in question in view of his early comment on the psalms which in the Thought of Ancient Israel, p. 88, n. I, 2nd edit., p. 86, n. 7, and p. 103,
celebrate the Kingship of Yahweh: ‘Dal3 die zeitgeschichtliche Deutung n. 4, 2nd edit., p. 105, n. 2. 3 w. 4-5 (EW. 3-4).
verfehlt ist, geht erstens aus dem vijlligen Mange1 an konkreten geschicht- l Cf., for example, the works of Mowinckel, Gunkel (followed by Kraus,

lichen Hindeutungen und Reminiszenzen hervor.’ (Psalmenstudien II, p. 12.) Die K(inigsherrschaft Gottes im Alten Testament, pp. 75 ff.; but see now
5 w. 2-3 (EW. 1-2). B.K.A.T., in Zoc.), Buttenwieser, Oesterley, Leslie, and Podechard, as cited
6 Or ‘acts of devotion’. above, p. 25, n. 1,
108 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel =o9
intended from the first. The sequence of thought is really Thine are the heavens, Thine too is the earth;
quite unbroken.1 It was Thou who didst found the world and all that filleth it.
The initial affirmation that Yahweh’s faithfulness in It was Thou who didst create the north and the south;
respect of this vow is as sure as the heavens themselves is Tabor and Hermon applaud Thy Name!
now explained as being due to the fact that He is without Further, this assurance of a stability in the realm of
peer in the assembly of the gods; for it was He who nature has its parallel in the assurance of an equal stability
triumphed over the chaos monster and its allies, and this in the moral realm. As He is supreme in the assembly of
victory not only ensured His rule over the cosmic sea but the gods, Yahweh is able to rule the world with the basic
also made possible His creation of the ordered world of principles of righteousness (p?$) and justice (D@); and
earth and heaven. It is hardly necessary to add that with this means that He never loses sight of the twin factors
this threefold thought we at once enter the realm of ideas in His covenant relationship with Israel and the House of
which we have already seen to be associated with the con- David, i.e. devotion and fidelity (n?X!. tvq). Accordingly
ception of Yahweh as the heavenly King and, what is more, His followers, who know what it means to share in the
with the celebration of the autumnal festival of the Jerusa- ‘festal acclamation’ (;l$7’llq),1 may live exultantly in the
lem cultus in its pre-exilic form.2 light of His presence. Through Yahweh’s righteousness and
The heavens praise Thy wondrous work, 0 Yahweh, goodwill they are assured of the nation’s supremacy and
Even Thy faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones. prosperity; for in the ultimate it is He in His omnipotence
For who in the sky can be compared with Yahweh, who is really Israel’s King.2
Is like Yahweh among the gods (~‘fll( ‘a?)? Thine is an Arm with might;
A God who is awesome in the council of the holy ones, Thy Hand is strong, and Thy Right Hand on high.
rHe is great13 and terrible above all who are about Him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Thy throne;
0 Yahweh, God of Hosts, who is like unto Thee, Devotion and fidelity are present before Thee.
Strong, 0 Yah, and with Thy faithfulness all about Thee? How happy the people who share in3 the festal acclamation,
It is Thou who dost rule over the swell of the sea; Who walk, 0 Yahweh, in the light of Thy presence!
When the waves thereof rise, it is Thou who dost still them. In Thy Name they shall rejoice all the day long;
It was Thou who didst crush Rahab4 like a corpse, And through Thy righteousness they shall be exalted.
Scattering Thine enemies with Thy mighty Arm. For Thou in Thy splendour art the source of their strength;
x Cf. in this connexion the interesting suggestion made by R. B. Y. Scott, In Thy goodwill Thou wilt lift up our horn.4
‘The Pillars Jachin and Boax’, J.B.L. lviii (19yg), pp. 143-g.
For it is Yahweh who is really our shield;
z w. 6-13 (EW. 5 - 1 2 ) .
3 Reading KVI 23 for the extraordinary a+? of M.T. Cf., for example,
It is the Holy One of Israel who is really our King.5
Gunkel, op. cit., in lot. obvious that we have here (as in the Babylonian Epic of Creation) a motif
l i.e. the primeval chaos-monster, which makes its appearance in Israel’s which, in principle, was the common property of the Near East in the second
religious literature as Rahab or Leviathan, the dragon or tortuous serpent millennium B.C. and had as its main theme the struggle to create and main-
with many heads. See in general Job iii. 8, vii. 12, ix. I 3, xxvi. 12 f. (cf. xl. tain an ordered world. See further, for example, the careful survey of the
25-xii. 26 (EW. xii. 1-34)); Pss. lxxiv. 12 ff., civ. 25 f.; Isa. xxvii. I, xxx. 7, material by H. A. Brongers, De scheppingstradities bij de profetm (1945),
li. 9; Amos ix. 2 f. The conception of Leviathan, the dragon or serpent with PP. 3 3 7 6 . I See above, p 75, n. I.
many heads, may now be illustrated from the Ugaritic texts, e.g. Gordon, 3 w. 14-19 (EW. 1 3 - 1 8 ) . 3 lit. ‘know’.
op. cit., 67, i I ff.; ‘nt, iii 35 ff. ( = Herdner, op. cit., 5, i I ff.; 3, iii 35 ff.: * See above, p. 27, n. 2: and note, accordingly, that K (‘Thou wilt lift up
cf. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, pp. 102 f., 86 f.), which not only our horn’) is preferable to Q (‘and our horn shall be lifted up’).
furnish a close parallel to Isa. xxvii. I (cf., too, Job xxvi. I 3), but supplement 5 For the use of 5 as an emphasizing particle, see G. R. Driver, in Fest-
Ps. lxxiv. 13 f. by describing the monster in question as seven-headed. It is schriftfiir Alfred Bertholet (1950), p. 134; F. NGtscher, F.T. iii (1953), p. 379.
 110 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel III
Thus the hymn closes, as it began, with the confident ex- My faithfulness and My devotion shall be with him,
pectation that Yahweh will be loyal to His covenant obliga- And through My Name shall his horn be lifted up.
tions; and the intervening lines offer the justification for I will lay his hand also upon the sea,
this assurance. It is because Israel’s ‘Holy One’ is supreme And his right hand upon the ocean currents.
He shall cry unto Me, “Thou art my Father,
in the council of the ‘holy ones’, or (what is the same thing)
My God and the Rock that is my salvation.”
it is because the God of Israel is omnipotent in the assem- I on My part will make him My first-born,
bly of the gods; and in His omnipotence as the heavenly The highest of earthly kings.
King He not only created the universe but sustains it in I will always preserve for him My devotion,
righteousness, for He is faithful and true. Always keep My covenant true for him.
This hymn of praise is then followed by the lengthy I will make his seed to endure for ever
reminder of Yahweh’s covenant with the House of David, And his throne as the days of heaven.
which we have already discussed at length;1 and it must be If his children forsake My law, .~
repeated here for the sake of continuity, i.e. :z And walk not according to My judgements (or rulings),
If they violate My statutes,
Of old Thou didst speak by a prophet And do not keep My commandments,
To Thy votaries, and saidst- I will attend to their rebellion with a rod
‘I have bestowed aid upon a manly one, And their iniquity with blows.
I have exalted a youth from among the people. But My devotion will I not break off from him,
I have found David, My Servant; Nor will I be untrue to My faithfulness.
With My holy oil I have anointed him, I will not violate My covenant,
So that My Hand shall be his constant support, Nor alter that which hath passed My Lips.
Mine Arm also shall strengthen him. Once for all have I sworn by My Holiness,
No enemy shall oppress him, To David I will not lie;
Nor shall the wrongdoer af3lict him; His seed shall endure for ever,
But I will beat down his adversaries before him, And his throne like the sun before Me,
And I will smite them that hate him. Like the moon, which shall continue for ever,
1 See above, pp. 25 ff. A faithful witness in the sky.’
a w. 20-38 (EW. 19-37). As indicated above, p. 26, n. 2, the relationship
of these verses to the prophecy of Nathan, as recorded in 2 Sam. vii. 1-17 At this point, however, the optimistic note of the earlier
and I Chron. xvii. I-IS, continues to be a matter of dispute. Cf., for example, verses comes to an end, and there follows a remarkable
the markedly different points of view represented by (a) R. H. Pfeiffer, Intro- passage in which bewilderment is expressed at the thought
duction to the Old Testament (1941), 2nd (English) edit. (1952), pp. 368-73,
who finds the prose narratives to be dependent upon the psalm, which that Yahweh has permitted the defeat and humiliation of
is itself post-exilic (cf. now Ahlstrijm, Psalm 89. Eine Liturgie aus dem His Messiah in a combat which seems likely to prove mortal.’
Ritual des leidenden K&zigs, pp. 182-5, who nevertheless traces the psalm
back to a date at least early in the monarchy); (b) J. L. McKenzie, ‘The Yet Thou hast spurned and rejected,
Dynastic Oracle: II Samuel 7’, T.S. viii (1947), pp. 187-218, who finds the Thou hast been wroth with Thy Messiah.
prose narratives on the one hand and the poem on the other to be dependent Thou hast repudiated the covenant with Thy Servant;
upon a common source (cf. now A. Caquot, ‘La ProphCtie de Nathan et sea Thou hast brought his crown to pollution in the dust.
Cchos lyriques’, S.V.T. ix (1963), pp. 213-24); and (c) H. van den Bussche Thou hast broken down all his walls;
Le Texte de la prophdtie de Nathan sut la dynastic davidique, A.L.B.O. ii. ;
(1948), who accepts the primacy of the prose passages, the text of Chronicles
Thou hast laid his defences in ruins.
being ouperior to that of Samuel. x w. 39-46 (EW. 38-45).
 II2 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel Sacral Kingship in Ancient Ismel ==3
All the passers-by have despoiled him; What man can live and not see death,
He has become a mockery to his neighbours. Can deliver himself from the hand of Sheol ?
Thou hast raised on high the right hand of his foes; Where are Thy former acts of devotion, 0 Lord,
Thou hast made glad all his enemies. Which Thou didst swear to David by Thy faithfulness?
Yea, Thou hast turned back the edge of his sword,’ Remember, 0 Lord, the mockery of Thy Servant,’
And hast not upheld him in battle. How I bear in my bosom the insults of many peoples,2
Thou hast made an end of his splendour How Thine enemies make mock, 0 Yahweh,
(or Thou hast destroyed rhis illustrious sceptrel),2 How they make mock of Thy Messiah at every step!
And Thou hast hurled his throne to the ground. Thus we see that at this autumnal festival the Davidic
Thou hast shortened the days of his prime;
king, for all that he is the specially chosen Servant of the
Thou hast wrapped him about with shame.
omnipotent, heavenly King, is a suffering Servant. He is
Now we have already seen that at the festival under dis- the Messiah of Yahweh; but on this occasion, at least, he is
cussion the celebration of Yahweh’s Kingship is the back- a humble Messiah. What we see, however, is a ritual
ground to a ritual drama in which the kings of the earth humiliation which in principle is not unlike that suffered
combine to make an attack upon Yahweh’s holy city. In the by the Babylonian king in the analogous New Year Festi-
nature of the case, however, this would also be an attack val.3 That is to say, this dramatic deliverance from the
upon Yahweh’s vicegerent, the Davidic king. Accordingly, kings (or nations) of the earth, this victory over ‘Death’, is
as the celebration of Yahweh’s universal Kingship is also not achieved without an early disaster, which is clearly
the identical background to the present lament, it seems intended as a lesson in dependence upon Yahweh. Salva-
reasonable to infer that the defeat or humiliation of the tion, for king and commoner alike, must come from Israel’s
Davidic king, which is indicated in these lines, is not any God, for all human aids are really worthless to this end.4
specific historical event, for indeed there is none that can Now we possess in Psalm ci a composition in the first
be made to fit the scene, but is an important element in the person which fits remarkably into this context, and in so
ritual drama. This is confirmed by the language of the last
The foregoing ‘39 corresponds to the Arabic negative L (as in I Kings
part of the psalm; for the king himself apparently brings the
xii. 16, Song of Sol. viii. 4), and -r?o corresponds to the Arabic $&,
liturgy to a close by pleading that he may not be allowed to ‘lasting’.
die, but may be delivered from the humiliation which he is I Reading ‘Thy Servant’ for ‘Thy servants’ with twenty-four MSS. and S.
suffering at the hands of his foes.3 2 Cf. G. R. Driver, ‘Once Again Abbreviations’, Textus iv (1964), p. 81.
3 Cf., for example, C. J. Gadd, in Myth and Ritual: Essays on the Myth
How long, 0 Yahweh, wilt Thou continue to hide Thyself? and Ritual of the Hebrews in relation to the Culture Pattern of the Ancient
How long shall Thine anger burn like fire? East, ed. S. H. Hooke (1933), pp. 53 f.; Labat, Le Catactkre religieux de la
Remember, I am mot everlasting; royautk assyro-babylonienne, pp. 167 f.; Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods,
As nought14 hast Thou created all mankind. pp. 319 f. The statement made above in the text corresponds to that which
was made by the writer in ‘The Rale of the King in the Jerusalem Cultus’,
I Or ‘his flashing sword’? Cf. G. R. Driver, in Studies in Old Testament p. IOO; and it has been described by L. cern$, The Day of Yahweh and some
Prophecy (T. H. Robinson Festschrift), ed. H. H. Rowley (1950), p. 55. Relevant Problems (1948), p. 69, n. 87, as containing ‘a great exaggeration’.
2 The text of this somewhat short stichos is commonly, and probably This seems to the writer to be without justification and to be based on a
rightly, suspected of being corrupt ; and the alternative rendering given above failure to pay due regard to the pivotal words ‘in principle’; for the principle
is based on the reading iY$ ;rBB, which assumes a simple case of is surely the same, i.e. that of reminding the king that in the ultimate he holds
haplography. office by will of his divine overlord, whose responsible servant he is.
3 w. 47-52 (EW. 46-51). * Cf. Pss. xx. 7 ff. (EW. 6 ff.), lx. 13 f. (EW. II f.) = cviii. 13 f. ( E W .
l Divide and vocalize the consonantal text so as to read Nl@ P#! 720. 12 f.) ; Isa. xxxi. I ff, ; Jer. xvii. 5 ff. ; Zech. iv. 6.
0 8988 I
 I
“’ I

II4 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel 115
doing reveals the Messiah as pleading the justice of his rule his loyalty to the Davidic covenant in terms of his devo-
and longing for the moment when Yahweh will come to tion (IQU) and justice (t3?&), and is claiming that his
him in his apparent abandonment. Most recent commen- rule is altogether without ‘fault; he has behaved with
tators are agreed that the psalm embodies the code of be- complete integrity.1 Accordingly he can look confidently for
haviour governing the conduct of an Israelite ruler;’ and Yahweh to come to him in his hour of need. He has ful-
we may safely infer from the reference to ‘Yahweh’s city’ in i filled his own part in the covenant, and it is now for
the last line of the poem that the ruler in question is the Yahweh to show a corresponding loyalty or devotion. The
Davidic king.2 Indeed its standpoint is so similar to that of remainder of the psalm then presents us with an elabora-
the so-called ‘Last Words of David’ that it may well mirror tion of this defence. That is to say, it offers us not so much
the moral code to which the Davidic king (and originally a vow as to the type of rule which he proposes to exercise2
David himself) was pledged under the terms of the Davidic but an affirmation of the rule which he is wont to exercise.3
covenant. For our immediate purpose, however, the most I walk in the integrity of my heart
remarkable feature of the poem is to be found in the first Within my house.
two lines, for these end with a question which at first sight I set before mine eyes
appears strangely out of keeping with the context :3 No evil thing.
I hate him that practiseth4 deceit;
Of devotion and justice will I sing;
He is no adherent of mine.
Unto Thee, 0 Yahweh, will I raise a psalm.
The crooked heart departeth from me;
I will make my theme4 ‘A Faultless Way’.
I consort with none who is evil.
When wilt Thou come to me?
Whoso slandereth his fellow in secret,
The question in the last stichos has been found so irrele- Him I put to silence.5
vant and so incomprehensible that some commentators As for the lofty of eye and the proud of heart,
have felt bound to infer a corruption of the text;5 but we Him I cannot endure.
are now in a position to place it in its full context and so to x The statement which is made above in the text is in line with the usual
understanding of the fist metrical line; but Kaiser, op. cit., p. 202 (following
grasp its purpose. The fact is that the Messiah is pleading Kraus, B.K.A.T., in Zoc.), thinks that we have here a reference, not (a) to the
qualities, subsequently illustrated, which the Davidic king claims to have
r e.g. Kirkpatrick, Kittel, Gunkel, Kiinig, Schmidt, Herkenne, Cal&s,
shown in fulfilment of his obligations under the covenant, but (b) to the
Leslie, and Weiser; also Kraus. For a valuable discussion of the form and
corresponding qualities in Yahweh to which he can appeal in virtue of his
content of this psalm, see now 0. Kaiser, ‘ErwBgungen zu Psalm IOI’,
own behaviour in upholding the covenant. This is a tempting suggestion,
Z.A.W. lxxiv (1962), pp. 195-205, where stress is rightly laid upon the use
for, as Kaiser goes on to make clear, it would serve to strengthen rather
of the Qinah rhythm (i.e. the metre which is characteristic of the dirge).
than weaken my argument; but I am not convinced that this interpretation
2 Cf. Ps. xlviii. 2 f., 9 (EW. I f., 8), as above, pp. 85 ff.; Isa. lx. 1 4 .
is required by the parallelism or, again, by the wording of Psalm lxxxix. 2
3 vv. I-2a.
(EW. I) and Isaiah Iv. 3. z Cf. P.B.V., A.V., and R.V.
4 The Hiph’fl of Il%V appears to be used with reference to the com- 3 w. 2b-8. Cf (i) the imperfect forms of the verbs in these verses with
position or use of a Hebrew poem of the type known as a %3$@ (EW. the cohortatives of w. r-2a; (ii) the so-called ‘negative confession’ or
‘Maschil’). Cf. the use of 4/Sn? in the preceding verse (including the head- ‘declaration of innocence’ recited by the king in connexion with the ritual of
ing to the psalm). humiliation at the Babylonian New Year Festival, as described, for example,
5 e.g. Duhm, Staerk, Mowinckel (Kongesalmeyne i Det Gamle Testamente, by Gadd, lot. cit., and Frankfort, lot. cit. See also Mowinckel, Psalmen-
pp. 50 f.; but see Offersang og sangoffer, p. 335, The Psalms in Israel’s studien II, pp. 328 f., Offersang og sungo@, pp. 77, 333 ff. (cf. The Psalms
Worship, i, p. 68, and G.T.M.M.M., in Zoc.), Gunkel, Schmidt, Herkenne, in Israel’s Worship, i, pp. 65 ff.) ; Diirr, Uysprung und Ausbau dey isyaelitisch-
Oesterley, Leslie, and Weiser; also Kraus, and E. Dhorme, B.P. (A.T.), ii jiidischen Heilandseywartung, p. 140, n. 37.
(1959). l Vocalizing the consonantal text so as to read ;IvY. 5 Cf. K.B., S.V.
116 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel
Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel 117
Mine eyes are upon the faithful of the land,
That they may dwell with me. of his righteousness (i?Q); and (c) his triumph over the
Whoso walketh in a faultless way, nations of the earth. * ’
He becometh my servant. The general situation revealed by the psalm is so clear
There doth not dwell within my house that little is required in the way of detailed comment. The
Any that committeth deception. Messiah begins with a few general lines in praise of Yahweh
He that telleth lies may not stand for His saving power:1
Before mine eyes.
Morning by morning I put to silence I love Thee, 0 Yahweh, my strength!
All the wicked in the land, Yahweh is my crag, my fortress, my deliverer;
Cutting off from Yahweh’s city My God is my rock wherein I seek refuge,
All who make trouble.1 My shield, my saving horn, my tower.
I call for Yahweh, the subject of my praise,
The language is so simple and direct that comment is And I am delivered from mine enemies.
unnecessary; but one important conclusion must now be This is followed by a description of* his deliverance which
borne in mind, i.e. that the Messiah, in pleading that he is not only vivid and picturesque but highly instructive.
has proved worthy of his trust, is affirming not only his own His fight with his powerful foes, who, as we learn from
righteousness but also that of his subjects. Whatever their the last part of the psalm, are the nations of the earth, con-
standing in society, Yahweh’s El’7’bn or ‘votaries’ are, one tinues to be a struggle with ‘Death’. As such, however,
and all, asp’?3 or ‘righteous’. In short, the Messiah has it is also a battle with the breakers of the cosmic sea which
purged the nation of its evil and made it a fit instrument for threatens every moment to engulf him and thus plunge
the realization of Yahweh’s purposes. the nation (and indeed, by implication, the whole earth)
The next work to engage our attention is Psalm xviii,2 into chaos.2
which, as the conclusion shows quite clearly, must have
Death’s breakers3 engulfed me,
been composed for the use of the Davidic king or Messiah. And the evil torrents o’erwhelmed me.
We have already seen how, in Psalms lxxxix and ci, the, Sheol’s cords were round about me;
Messiah has appealed to Yahweh for deliverance from his Death’s snares confronted me.
distress, and here we have his thanksgiving for answered In my distress I called for Yahweh,
prayer. It falls clearly into three parts, which celebrate (a) And unto my God I appealed for help.
his deliverance from ‘Death’ through the intervention of As we have already seen, however, this disastrous experience
Yahweh in the person of the ‘Most High’ ; (b) his resultant is really designed as a lesson in dependence upon Yahweh;
justification or, better perhaps, the consequent vindication and it is only when the outlook is blackest that the latter
I The reference is to the role of the king as the supreme judge to whom I w. 2-4 (EW. 1-3).
difficult cases might be referred. Cf. 2 Sam. xv. 1-6; I Kings iii. 16-28; Jer. z w. 5qa (EW. a-6a). For the cosmology underlying this scene, see
xxi. 12. In the Yemen, for example, it was still the practice only a few years The Vitality of the Individual in the Thought of Ancient Israel, pp. 8g ff., and
ago for the Imam to sit for an hour every morning under the Tree of Justice in now, especially, 2nd. edit. rev., pp. 88 ff.; also, for valuable comparative data,
San’a to deal with his subjects’ grievances. Cf. A. Rihani, Arabian Peak and 0. Kaiser, Die myth&he Bedeutung des Meeres in rl[gypten, Ugarit und Israel,
Desert: Travels in Al- Yaman (Igso), pp. 103 f. B.Z.A.W., 2nd edit. rev. (1962).
2 Cf. 2 Sam. xxii, which has been followed occasionally in the ensuing 3 Reading ‘breakers’ with 2 Sam. xxii. 5 rather than ‘cords’, which occurs
translation. again in the following line.
118 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel 119
intervenes on behalf of this Messiah who has proved Ahead of Him through His clouds there passed
worthy of ‘Sonship’, and delivers him (and z&o facto the Hailstones and coals of fire.1
Yahweh thundered in the heavens;
nation) from the arch-enemy ‘Death’. Moreover, it is signi- The Most High uttered His Voice ( ).”
ficant to find that deliverance comes through the interven- He sent forth His arrows, scattering them abroad,
tion of Yahweh in the person of the ‘Most High’, for this Even lightnings in abundance, making them resound.
harmonizes with the fact that the triumphant issue of the Then the bed of the sea3 could be seen,
ritual combat was found to take place with the intervention And the foundations of the world were laid bare,
of the ‘Most High’ at daybreak. That is to say, the life of At Thy rebuke, 0 Yahweh,
the Messiah is renewed at dawn; and this is a point to be At the tempestuous breathing of Thy Nostril.4
borne in mind, for we shall have occasion to return to it in He reached from on high, He took me,
He drew me out of the many waters.5
due course. Moreover, it is wholly in line with what we have
He delivered me from my powerful enemy,
already learnt concerning Yahweh’s subjection of the cosmic From my foes, for they were too strong for me.
sea, as celebrated at this festival, that He comes to the aid of They confronted me on the day of my calamity;
His Messiah in His role as the ‘Rider of the Clouds’, and But Yahweh became my support.
that His theophany is described as taking place in all the He set me at liberty;6
terrifying splendour of a thunderstorm.’ He freed me, for He was pleased with me.
In His Palace (or Temple) He heard my voice, It is difficult not to link this dramatic picture with the
And my appeal ( )2 came to His Ears. procession from ‘Israel’s Spring’, which we have already
The earth heaved and quaked, seen to be closely associated with the manifestation of
While the foundations of the mountains quivered;
Yahweh’s victorious power over the waters of the cosmic
Yea, they rocked because He was wroth.
Smoke rose from His Nostril,
sea; and one cannot but conjecture (although this is no more
While fire leapt devouring from His Mouth; than a conjecture) that something like a baptismal scene
Live coals came kindling therefrom. within the confines of the spring Gihon may have been the
He parted3 the heavens, and descended, focal point of this dramatic ritual.7 Be this as it may, it
With a cloud beneath His Feet.
I For the significance of the verb ?a$? in this connexion, see Isa. xxxiii.
He rode upon a cherub4 and flew; 21; Lam. iii. 44. The rendering in the text is based upon that of Buttenwieser,
He sped on the wings of the wind. op. cit., in lot.
He made darkness His covert, 2 Omitting ‘hailstones and coals of fire’ as an obvious duplication from the
His shelter around Him the watery blackness, preceding verse. Cf. LXX and 2 Sam. xxii. 14.
Masses of cloud which had no brightness.5 3 lit. ‘the watery channels’ or (as in 2 Sam. xxii. 16) ‘the channels of the
sea’; but see also Patton, op. cit., pp. 12 and 34, and F. M. Cross jr. and
1 w. 7b-2o ( E W . 6b-19). D. N. Freedman,r.B.L. lxxii (1953), p. 26, n. 41.
z Omitting ‘before Him’ as a variant of ‘to His Ears’: cf. 2 Sam. xxii. 7. * Or,asinzSam.xxii. 16,
3 Vocalizing the consonantal text so as to read t3!1, ‘And He thrust aside’ ‘At the rebuke of Yahweh,
At the tempestuous breathing of His Nostril.’
(i.e. like a curtain).
* A mythical creature, probably pictured as a winged and human-headed 5 See above, p. 63, n. 3. 6 lit. ‘He brought me forth into a broad place.’
lion. Cf. Gen. iii. 24 (J); Exod. xxv. 18-22 (P) ; Ps. xcix. I ; Ezek. I. 5-28, 7 Cf. J. Steinmann, David: Roi d’Isra51(1948), pp. 144 f. The reader may
x. 1-22, xxviii. 11-19; etc.: and see above, p. 72, n. I. also be referred at this point to the interesting comparative data now furnished
5 Construing the first word of verse 13 (EW. 12) with verse 12 (EW. I I). by C. S. Mann, ‘Sacral Kingship-an Ashanti Footnote’, Y.S.S. v (1960),
Cf. J. M. P. Smith, in The Bible: An American T~umZution (1935). pp. 378-87, esp. 381 f.
120 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel 121

will be observed that, following his ascent from the waters So Yahweh hath made me restoration according to my
of the Underworld, the Messiah knows himself to be the righteousness,
‘Son’ in whom his heavenly Father is well-pleased.1 According to the purity of my hands in His sight.
It is appropriate, therefore, to find that the Messiah, With the devoted Thou dost prove devoted;
whom we have already seen in Psalm ci to be pleading his With him who is faultless Thou dost prove faultless;
faithfulness to his trust, then goes on to emphasize the fact With the pure Thou dost prove pure;’
that by his deliverance from ‘Death’ he has been vindicated But with the tortuous Thou dost prove ready to wrestle.2
For Thou dost save a humble people,
with regard to his ‘righteousness’ (i?V); he has been
But lofty eyes Thou dost abase.
justified or proved ‘righteous’ (i?‘Q). aoreover, this is in For Thou keepest my lamp alight, 0 Yahweh,
line with his humility before his God and Father; for it is My God doth illumine my darkness.
only a humble people (‘$7 n$J), proved such in the person of For through Thee I break down3 the fence;
their king, whom Yahweh consents to save. It is for man, And through my God I leap the wall.
even when called to the highest office in the service of his The Messiah, fresh from Yahweh’s triumph in the ritual
Creator, to remember his place in the divine economy. The combat and his own dramatic escape from the confines of
Davidic king must be taught that he is no more than a
I G. R. Driver, H.T.R. xxix (1936), pp. 172 f., suggests that the verbal
vicegerent in the service of the divine King, for only so can forms from 4’1% in this line should be associated with the Syriac I&,
he be sure of Yahweh’s support in time of need; and in the k
‘simple, rude’, and the Arabic G;, ‘wild, savage’, so as to secure an example
scene before us the true Messiah, having been vindicated
of synonymous parallelism in contrast to that of the preceding verse, e.g.
with regard to his righteousness, is assured that his lamp will With the boorish Thou dost show Thyself boorish,
not be extinguished. rn this way we again see that Yahweh’s And with the crooked Thou dost show Thyself tortuous.
victory is not only the triumph of the ‘Living God’ over the Once again, however, it seems to the writer that what is an attractive sug-
forces of ‘Death’ but also the triumph of light over the forces gestion when considered in comparative isolation becomes untenable when
seen in its full context; for this example scarcely does justice to the use of
of darkness; and the resultant deliverance of the Messiah %‘/$$a in verses 21 and 25 (EW. 20 and 24), i.e. “7: 753, ‘according to the
from the dark underworld of ‘Death’ is a dramatic escape purity of my hands ’ . Indeed the fact that the second stichos in verse 27 is in-
from the encircling defences of a prison into the world troduced by the conjunction 1, which: is absent from the three preceding
stichoi, serves to point the contrast thus finally introduced. (Professor Driver,
of light and life which is Yahweh’s special creation and in a private note to the writer, defends his view on the ground that this is
care.z ‘one of those cases in which a Hebrew author intentionally juxtaposes hom-
onyms with different senses’ (cf. V.T. iv (1954), pp. 242 f.), and claims that on
Yahweh doth recompense me according to my righteousness; his theory verses 26 and 27 (EW. 25 and 26) offer an example of paral-
lelism, combined with chiasmus, which is decisive; but the writer remains
According to the purity of my hands He maketh me restoration. 2 Cf. Gen. xxx. 8 (J).
unconvinced.)
For I have kept Yahweh’s ways, 3 Vocalizing the consonantal text so as to read Yifr; cf. A.V. mgn. At
And I have not departed wickedly from my God. the same time there seems to be no justification for taking the further step
For all His judgements are before me, of reading Q (‘wall’) for 7Yf+. Cf., for example, Duhm, op. cit., in LX.
And I turn not His statutes from me. The term tYTt appears to have the primary meaning of ‘section’ or ‘divi-
I have been faultless in my relations with Him, sion’ (cf. 77$, ‘to cut’), whence the traditional rendering of EW., ‘a
And I have abstained from all that would render me guilty. troop’. Here, however, it seems to be used of a ‘division’ with reference to
that which actually divides, i.e. a partition, barrier, or fence. Accordingly rt
I See above, pp. 25 ff., I IO f., and below, pp. I 28 ff. should be retained, the more so that it is confirmed by the text of 2 Sam.
2 w. 21-30 (EW. 20-29). xxii. 30.
 122 Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel 123
‘Death’, then goes on to praise Yahweh, the one omnipo- Thou dost deliver me from myI people’s struggles:
tent God, in equally picturesque language for this assurance Thou dost make me head of the nations;
of victory over his enemies and a resultant supremacy People serve me that I have not known.
amongst the nations of the earth.1 Foreigners cringe before me;
The moment they hear, they obey me.2
As the God whose way is faultless, Foreigners wither away,
Yahweh’s speech is without dross; Quitting their fastnesses.
He is a shield to all who seek refuge in Him.
For what god is there beside Yahweh, The whole psalm is then brought to an end on a note of per-
And what rock is there except our God? sonal thanksgiving to Him who is obviously the ‘Living God’:3
The God who girdeth me with might, Yahweh Ziueth!4 Blessed be my rock!
And hath rendered my way faultless; The God who doth save me is supreme,
Who maketh my feet like those of a hind, The God who hath granted me vengeance,
And setteth me firm on the heights;2 And subdued5 the peoples beneath me!
Who traineth my hands for battle, As my deliverer from mine angry foes,
So that mine arms can aim a bow of bronze!” Thou dost give me supremacy over mine adversaries,
Thou hast given me also Thy saving shield, From violent men Thou dost rescue me.
While Thy Right Hand upholdeth me, Therefore I will thank Thee amid the nations, 0 Yahweh,
And Thy support4 maketh me great. I will sing praises to Thy Name,
Thou dost extend my strides beneath me, To Him who doth give great victories6 to His king
And mine ankles do not give way. And showeth devotion to His Messiah,
I pursue and overtake mine enemies, To David and his seed for ever.
And I turn not back until making an end of them.
I smite them so that they cannot rise; In Psalm cxviii we have an obvious companion-piece to
They fall beneath my feet. the foregoing. It opens with a general summons by or on
Thou hast girded me with might for battle; behalf of the king to offer thanks to Yahweh for His un-
Thou dost subdue mine opponents beneath me. ending devotion (Irdn); and the whole nation, afterwards
Thou hast made mine enemies turn back before me, distinguished as thk ‘priesthood and the general body of
And them that hate me I put to silence. worshippers, is then bidden to echo this thought of
They appeal for help, but there is none to save them, Yahweh’s continued regard for His chosen people. It is
Even to Yahweh, but He doth not answer them.
I grind them small like dust before the wind,
true that the king is not specifically mentioned, but the
I crush5 them like the mire of the streets. language and thought of the psalm as a whole are obviously
x w. 31-46 (EW. 30-45). in harmony with the other psalms in this series which centre
2 Reading nina for *bin3 with LXX, Jerome, and S on the ground of in the person of the Messiah; and, of course, if the king is
dittography. I Cf. 2 Sam. xxii. 44.
3 Cf. G. R. Driver, w.0. i (Ig47-52), p. 410; also cT.T. i (1951), p. 248, 2 Reversing the order of the two stichoi as in 2 Sam. xxii. 45.
where it is suggested that ‘bow’ must be used here by synecdoche with 3 w. 47-51 ( E W . 46-50). l Cf. p. 2, n. 2.
reference to a bronze-tipped ‘arrow’. 5 It is worthy of note that in the text of our psalm (but not that of 2 Sam.
4 lit. ‘answer’ or ‘response’, i.e. reading @3g in agreement with 2 Sam. xxii. 48, which reproduces the more familiar 471)‘) the Messiah echoes
xxii. 36. Cf. verse 42 (EW. 41) with its reference to the vain appeal to the words of Ps. xlvii. 4 (EW. 3) with its otherwise unparalleled use of the
Yahweh made by the Messiah’s enemies. Hiph’fl of l/l)a’T, as noticed above, p. 76, n. I.
5 See G. R. Driver, H.T.R. xxix (Ig36), pp. 173 f. 6 EW. ‘deliverance’: R.V. mgn. ‘Heb. salvations’. Seeabove, p. 102, n. 2.
 Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel 125
124
the speaker and it is clear to all the onlookers that he is With Yahweh on my side I do not fear
What man may do to me.
filling this particular role, there is no need for him to be With Yahweh on my side to give me aid,
mentioned as such on every occasion.1 His opening words, I gaze in triumph on them that hate me.
then, may be rendered as follows :2 It is better to seek refuge in Yahweh
Give thanks to Yahweh, for He is good; Than to trust in man.
For His devotion is everlasting. It
is better to seek refuge in Yahweh
Let Israel say, Than to trust in princes.
‘For His devotion is everlasting’. All nations surrounded me;
Let the House of Aaron say, Through the Name of Yahweh I cut them off.*
‘For His devotion is everlasting’. They surrounded me, yea, they surrounded me;
Let those who fear Yahweh3 say, Through the Name of Yahweh I cut them off.
‘For His devotion is everlasting’. They surrounded me like bees;
They died away2 like a fire of thistles;
This is followed by words of thanksgiving on the part of Through the Name of Yahweh I cut them off.
the king, which describe in colourful terms the immediate Thou didst press me sore3 that I might fall,
ground for the foregoing exhortation to give thanks to hut Yahweh came to mine aid.
Yahweh for His unceasing devotion; and the reason is that Yah, who is my strength and song,
He has justified His Messiah’s trust by delivering him from Hath become my salvation.
the onslaught of the nations.4 In the ensuing lines we are able to discern a little more of
Out of my distress I cried unto Yah; the ritual background of this psalm; for once again, as in
Yah’s answer was to set me at liberty.5 Psalms xxiv and lxviii, we find ourselves in the company of
* de Fraine, L’Aspect religieux de la royautt? israklite, p. 334, n. 6, takes a procession which is approaching the gates of the Temple
the writer to task on the ground that in his earlier work, ‘The R61e of the
King in the Jerusalem Cultus’, p. 105, he unblushingly (‘sans sourciller’)
and seeking admission to its precincts. In this case, however,
ascribed verses 5 ff. of this psalm to the king despite the fact that the king is we find that the focus of interest is not the Ark as the mani-
not specifically mentioned. It is pleasant to find, however, that subsequently festation par excellence of the presence of the divine King
the writer is spared his blushes, for a little later de Fraine himself says of
verse IO, ‘il s’agit bien d’un roi qui parle’ (op. cit., p. 388, n. 8)!
amidst His chosen people but His earthly representative,
2 w. 1 - 4 . the Messiah of the House of David; and the whole ceremony,
3 It is commonly held that in the expression ‘those who fear Yahweh’
1 Or ‘I warded them off’? Cf. LXX (fi~uvdrclnv), and see further G. R.
one should see a reference to proselytes. Cf., for example, Gunkel, op. cit.,
Driver, Z.A.W. iii (1934), p. 54.
pp. 498 (i.e. on Ps. cxv. I I) and 505 f. (on this passage), and similarly K&rig,
2 Reading the Qal for the Pu’al of the M.T. The simile is that of a bonfire
op. cit., pp. 144 and 440. Even if the phrase might be allowed this meaning,
of thistles, which blazes up furiously enough at first but quickly dies away.
the order in which the groups are mentioned in the case before us should be
Cf. the simile of the dying wick in Isa. xliii. 17; and, for the picture, see 2
enough to make one question the validity of this view; but the fact is that it
Sam. xxiii. 6 f. (as above, p. 19).
reads into a simple description of the devout Israelite a highly specialized
3 The placing of this psalm in what appears to be its original setting
meaning for which there is no real warrant. Cf., for example, K. Lake, in The
throws light on a reading which is commonly emended to ‘Q’nl& fol-
Beginnings of Christianity. Part I: The Acts of the Apostles, ed. F. J. Foakes
Jackson and Kirsopp Lake, v (1933), Note VIII. ‘Proselytes and God- lowing LXX, Jerome, and S, so as to yield the meaning ‘I was pressed sore’;
fearers’, pp. 74 ff., who points out that ‘eisegesis has often been substituted for it is now possible to explain this reading in terms of an aside addressed
for exegesis in treating the phrase in the Old Testament’ (p. 82). Cf., too, to the leader of the ‘kings’ of the earth, who, as we have seen, are led captive
Kirkpatrick, op. cit., on Ps. cxv. I I. to the Temple in. this triumphant procession of Yahweh’s Messiah. In other
’ w. S-14.
s lit. ‘Yah answered me with a broad place.’ Note the close parallel in Ps. words, the M.T. has happily preserved what is an appropriately dramatic
xviii. 20 (EW. IS), as above, p. 119, n. 6. touch.
126 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel =27
as it now appears before our eyes, is one which compels a I will acknowledge Thee, for Thou hast answered me,
certain admiration. The Messiah has been made to suffer And hast become my salvation.
humiliation; he has been ‘chastened sore’ and thereby
These lines are followed by a short hymn of welcome,
brought close to the gates of the Underworld. Nevertheless
which was evidently sung by way of greeting to the incom-
through Yahweh’s devotion (??a) and righteousness (j?a$)
ing procession; and it is wholly in line with our attempted
his faith has been justified, and he has been delivered from
reconstruction of this festival that the emphasis should be
the power of ‘Death’ and thereby proved righteous (i?‘Q);
found to lie upon the fact that this festal day is one on which
but @so facto the people themselves, as forming a psychical
Yahweh has acted in a very special way, delivering His
whole with its focus in the king and, what is more, as being
people from darkness and bringing them light as well as life.
dependent upon the justice of his rule for the right order-
Moreover, it is to be observed that this hymn of welcome to
ing of society, have also been delivered from ‘Death’ and
Yahweh’s Messiah centres in the cry of XJ 3$7’&ji;l, ‘Grant
proved righteous (i7’73). Thus the well-being of the com-
salvation!‘, which in the shortened form XJ’Y@;l has been
munity is assured; and public testimony is borne to the fact
made familiar through the Greek of the New Testament as
that the key to ‘Life’ is righteousness (i?Ts), the loyal func-
‘Hosanna!”
tioning of the corporate whole, based on a resolute faith in
Yahweh. Accordingly the procession of the righteous now The stone which the builders rejected
moves forward through ‘the gates of righteousness’, through Now doth crown the corner.
‘the gate whereby the righteous may enter’, to continue the This is Yahweh’s doing;
ritual in a ceremony with which we have yet to deal.1 rt is marvellous in our eyes.
This is the day on which Yahweh hath acted;
Hark to the cries of victory2 Let us rejoice and be glad therein.
In the tents of the righteous! 0 Yahweh, grant salvation (5 ?~y’qiit)!
Yahweh’s Right Hand acteth mightily, 0 Yahweh, grant prosperity!
Yahweh’s Right Hand is exalted, Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of Yahweh!
Yahweh’s Right Hand acteth mightily! We greet you from the House of Yahweh;
I am not to die but live, Yahweh is God, and hath given us light!2
And relate the deeds of Yah.
Yah hath chastened me sore, The concluding lines of the psalm then present us with
But He hath not given me over to ‘Death’. what appears to be the royal summons to begin the festal
Open for me the gates of righteousness,3
dance as an act of thanksgiving to Yahweh for His lasting
That I may enter thereby and acknowledge Yah.
This is that gate of Yahweh, devotion (788); and it is worthy of note that the worship-
Whereby the righteous may enter. pers appear to have been equipped with festal branches of
I w. 15-21. some kind. In the circumstances it is reasonable to infer
2 Or ‘salvation’, i.e. the same word as in verses 14 and 21. See again p. 102, that these are branches of palm, myrtle, and willow such
n. 2. as were traditionally associated with the ritual encircle-
3 Cf. the interesting collection of traditional material, Jewish and Christian,
assembled by J. Morgenstern, ‘The Gates of Righteousness’, H.U.C.A. vi ment of the altar in the post-exilic form of the Feast of
(1929), pp. 1-37, although the citation of this work must not be construed as
an acceptance of the theories developed by Morgenstern in this connexion. I w. 22-27~. Cf. Matt. xxi. 9, 15 ; Mark xi. 9 f. ; John xii. 13,
Cf. the writer’s comment, E.T. lxii (1950-I), p. 40; and see above, p. 55, n. 2. 2 Cf. Ps. xcvii. II, as above, p, 98, n. 6.
128 Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel 129
Tabernacles.1 Finally, it is also worthy of note that this who is justified to be the ‘Son’ of Yahweh, the divine
royal summons thus brings us full circle to the summons
King who is enthroned in the heavens. It opens thus:1
with which the psalm began.2
Why did the nations become insurgent,
Join in the dance with festal boughs And the peoples engage in useless plotting?
Up to the horns of the altar! The kings of the earth took up their stand,
Thou art my God, and I will acknowledge Thee; The rulers conferred together,
My God, I will extol Thee. Against Yahweh and against His Messiah:
Give thanks to Yahweh, for He is, good; ‘Let us snap their bonds asunder,
For His devotion is everlasting. And let us fling their cords off from us.’
He who is throned in the heavens doth laugh;
VI The Lord maketh mock of them.
Then He doth speak to them in His anger,
(4
And in His wrath He doth dismay them:
We come now to what appears to be the final stage in the ‘But I, as you see,2 have set up My king
dramatic ritual under review, and to appreciate its signifi- Upon Zion, My sacred mountain.’
cance we have to recall that David was promised supremacy
over the kings of the earth in virtue of his being the adopted At this point in the liturgy the Messiah himself is made
‘Son’ of Yahweh; for we now meet with the thought of the to recount an oracle which he has received from Yahweh;
eventual fulfilment of this promise in the person of his and here we have clear evidence of the complementary
descendant and ideal successor upon the throne, the true ideas concerning the Messiah’s relationship to Yahweh in
Messiah of the House of David.3 We have already seen terms of ‘Sonship’ and (in conscious dependence upon his
how Yahweh secures the latter’s supremacy over the nations heavenly Fathers) his supremacy over the nations of the
by giving him victory in the ritual combat at daybreak on earth.4
this- ‘ t h e day on which Yahweh hath acted’. The com- Let me tell of Yahweh’s decree!
plementary idea, however, is present at the same time, for He hath said to me, ‘Thou art My Son;
This day have I begotten thee.
this deliverance from ‘Death’ also marks the renewal of
Ask of Me, and I will make
life or rebirth of him who has proved to be the true Messiah; The nations thine inheritance,
it is the sign of his adoption as the ‘Son’ of Yahweh, and The ends of the earth thy possession.
issues, as one might expect, in his re-enthronement as Thou shalt crush them with a rod of iron;
Yahweh’s vicegerent endowed now with universal power. Thou shalt smash them like a potter’s vessel.’
This finds ready illustration in Psalm ii, which shows us
The psalm then draws to a close with an exhortation to
the kings of the earth, after their abortive attempt through-
the rebellious kings of the earth to curb their proud spirits
out the years to thwart Yahweh’s plans to make good His
and admit Yahweh’s universal sovereignty.5
sovereign power through the line of David, being compelled
x w. 1-6.
to acknowledge the universal sovereignty of this particular 2 These words represent an attempt to reproduce the force of the intro-
Messiah in virtue of his triumphant enthronement as one ductory ‘)$j, which serves to underline the contrast between the empty
words of the rebellious kings of the earth and the summary statement of the
x Cf., for example, Buttenwieser, op. cit., in Zoc. heavenly King whose actions speak louder than words.
2 w. 27b-29. 3 See above, pp. 2 f. and 25 ff.
3 Note the emphatic ‘Ask of Me’. 4 w. 7-g. 5 w. 10-12.
C 8988 K
r3o Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel 131
Now therefore, ye kings, show prudence; Massoretic text with the renderings of the ancient versions.
Take warning, ye rulers of earth. Nevertheless there appears to be little, if anything, wrong
Serve Yahweh with fear; with the consonantal text, when it is read in the light of the
With trembling kiss rHis Feet’;’ foregoing discussion. The fact is that it deals in a per-
Lest He be angry, and ye vanish away, fectly straightforward way with the rebirth of the Messiah,
For His anger is quickly kindled. which, as we now know, takes place on this eventful day
Happy all those who seek refuge in Him!2
with his deliverance from the Underworld, apparently at
The same association of ideas may be found in Psalm the spring Gihon, at dawn or ‘as the morning appeareth’;
cx, which appears to be an oracle delivered specially for and this carries with it the implication that the Messiah,
the occasion by one of the cultic prophets whose role in the in all the fresh vigour of his new-won life (which is here
formal worship of the Temple we have already had OC- symbolized by the morning dew),1 has been elevated for all
casion to note.3 The psalm begins with the word a$ which time not only to the throne of David but also to the tradi-
is, of course, the normal term for a prophetic oracle;4 and tional priesthood of Melchizedek.2
the opening lines, which are quite straightforward, may be Thou hast the homage of3 thy people on the day of thy birth4
rendered thus ? In sacred splendour5 from the womb of dawn.6
Oracle of Yahweh to my lord! Thou hast the dew wherewith I have begotten thee;’
Sit thou at My Right Hand, while I make Yahweh hath sworn beyond recall:
Thine enemies a stool for thy feet. Thou art priest for ever
Yahweh doth extend thy powerful sceptre;6 After the order of Melchizedek.
Rule from Zion amidst thy foes! The oracle then comes to an end with a reminder of the
The words which immediately. follow have long been a way in which Yahweh came to the aid of His hard-pressed
CIWV interpreturn, as one may see from a comparison of the Messiah; and in the portrayal of this scene we are given a
1 The expression ?Q’?@l at the beginning of verse 12 (A.V. ‘Kiss the
x Cf., for example, Ps. cxxxiii. 3 ; Isa. xxvi. 19 : and see further E. Burrows,
‘Psalm I IO (Vulgate 109) Interpreted’, in The Gospel of the Infancy and Other
Son’; R.V. ‘Kiss the son’) is a well-known clux interpreturn, as the use of the
Biblical Essays (1940), pp. 88 ff.; G. Widengren, Psalm IIO och det sakrala
word 13 as an Aramaism for ‘son’ is extremely unlikely in this context. kungad&net i Israel, U.U.A. 1941: 7, I (1941), pp. I I f. As Burrows indicates
The rendering accepted above involves the assumption that the present text on the analogy of Ps. cxxxiii. 2 f., there may well be a ritual counterpart to
of this stichos has arisen from corruption of an original ?i7t@ ;11$?3. this reference in the fact of anointing from which the title ‘Messiah’ is derived.
(OY !3$>2) ??+I?. Cf. A. Bertholet, 2.A.B’. xxviii,(rgo8), pp. 58f., 193: See above, p. 14, n. 2. = w. 3-4.
and see in general H. H. Rowley, J.T.S. xlii (rgqr), pp. 152 f. 3 It is possible that the consonantal text should be vocalized so as to read
z Cf. Ps. cxviii. 8 f., as above, p. 125. 3 See pp. 22 and 69. @l!, lit. ‘Thou hast made thy people willing’, rather than as M.T., i.e.
* Cf. The CuZtic Prophet in Ancient Israel, pp. 46 f., 2nd edit., p. 52. ‘Thy people are all willingness.’
5 w. I-2. 4 Vocalizing the consonantal text as qt5a, i.e. Qal infmitive construct
6 Cf., for the idiom, I Sam. xiv. 27: and, for the metaphor, the code of of l/!JYl with an objective suffix, on the analogy of Isa. xlv. IO.
I&mrnurabi (as above, p. 4, n. 4), Epilogue rev. xxvi. 14 f., ‘May Shamash 5 Many MSS. (in common with Symmachus and Jerome) read ‘in the
lengthen his sceptre’, i.e. ‘May Shamash extend his rule’, which is variously sacred mountains’, which seems equally possible in the context.
explained (a) as the prolonging of one’s reign (cf. T. J. Meek, in Ancient 6 The anomalous IlPt@ should perhaps be read as llnirf on the ground
Near Eastern Texts relating to the Old Testament, p. 178), (b) as the enlarging
of dittography.
of one’s empire (cf. G. R. Driver and J. C. Miles, The Babyyloniun Laws, ii,
7 Or, a little more literally perhaps, ‘of My begetting thee’, i.e. vocalizing
pp. IOO f., and (c) as an extending of one’s rule in both time and space (cf.
P. Cruveilhier, Commentaire du code d’lriammourabi (1938), pp. 268 f. Cf., too, the consonantal text so as to read q’ntL7f with LXX. Cf. Ps. ii. 7 (as above,
the picturesque idiom which is referred to above, p. 27, n. 2. p. 129); and, for the syntax, see G.K. § 130d.
132 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel =33
vivid glimpse of the heavenly King, who is known to all as Thou hast granted him the desire of his heart;
the omnipotent God who has proved ‘mighty in battle’,’ Thou hast not withheld the request of his lips.
pausing to slake His thirst ere He pursues afresh His For Thou meetest him with goodly blessings;
work of slaughter and retribution.2 Thou settest a crown of gold upon his head.
Life, which he asked of Thee, Thou hast given him,
The Lord hath smitten away at thy right hand, Length of days for ever and ever.
Judging3 kings in the day of His anger. His glory is great by reason of Thy victory;’
He hath taken His fill of corpses among the nations;4 Honour and majesty Thou dost bestow upon him.
He hath crushed heads5 o’er all the wide earth. Yea, Thou makest him an everlasting blessing;
He would drink from a stream on His way,6 Thou bringest him joy and gladness with Thy presence.
Thus holding His Head on high! For the king trusteth @Pi) in Yahweh,
In conclusion we are now in a position to appreciate the And in the unshakeable2 devotion (t!~) of the Most High.
original significance of Psalm xxi, for this in turn gains in In the second half of the psalm we meet with the exul-
coherence when studied against the foregoing background tant thought that the future may be faced with confidence
of ritual and mythology. It opens with an emphasis upon the by Yahweh’s followers, for the dramatic victory which they
fact that the king is able to rejoice in an affirmative re- have been celebrating is an earnest of that which is to come.
sponse to his plea for ‘life’ (D’?J). Through some great In short, it offers the assurance that in due course Yahweh
act of ‘victory’ or ‘salvation’ (iI?!@) on the part of Yahweh, will indeed root out those who have been planning mis-
which is not further defined but now stands revealed, this chief against Him and, by implication, His Messiah; and, in
has been vouchsfed to him; and it is described in glowing keeping with our earlier study of the triumph of the
terms as ‘length of days for ever and ever’. What is more, heavenly King,3 He is finally urged to arise that He may
this assurance of answered prayer with its issue in the king’s bring to pass this final act of judgement upon those who
coronation or enthronement is the outcome of a true cove- have sought to oppose His will.4
nant relationship, whereby the king’s trust ($X23) in Thy Hand will reach out to all Thine enemies;
Yahweh is matched by a signal act of devotion (780) Thy Right Hand will find out those who hate Thee.
from Yahweh’s side; and it is all of a piece with the liturgical Thou wilt make them like a blazing oven
setting which is here proposed for our psalm that Yahweh, In Thine own good time,5 Yahweh.
who has already figured so prominently as the ‘Most High’, In His anger He will swallow them up;
is again refered to at this point by means of this particular Fire will devour them.6
appellation.7 Thou wilt destroy their fruit from the earth,
And their seed from amongst mankind.
The king is glad, 0 Yahweh, by reason of Thy might;
How greatly doth he rejoice because of Thy victoryls I EW. ‘salvation’. Cf. again p. 102, n. 2.
2 i.e. construing tiinl’52 as a relative clause.
* Cf. Ps. xxiv. 8, as above, p. 73. = vv. 5-7. 3 See above, pp. 98 ff. 4 w. g-14 (EW. 8 - 1 3 ) .
3 Construing the first word of verse 6 with verse 5 on the ground of both 5 Cf. The Vitality of the Individual in the Thought of Ancient Israel, p. 46,
metre and sense. 4 Cf. Exod. xv. 9. n. 3, 2nd edit., p. 44, n. 3.
5 Cf. the language of Ps. Ixviii. 22 (EW. 21), as above, p. 82, and that of 6 It is tempting to omit this line as a gloss on the ground that it is compara-
Hab. iii. 13. tively short and introduces a reference to Yahweh in the 3rd person rather
6 The Hebrew corresponds exactly to the French ‘en route’! than a direct address. Cf., for example, Kittel, op. cit., in lot. On the other
7 w. 2-8 (EW. 1 - 7 ) . 8 EW. ‘salvation’. Cf. again p. 102, n. 2. hand, however, its omission would destroy the balance of the two halves of
 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel “35
‘34
Because they intended evil against Thee, of a universal realm of righteousness and peace will be
They planned mischief which they could not effect, realized, and His Kingdom will be seen in all its power
Thou wilt surely make them turn to flight, and glory. Moreover, the summons and the challenge are
When Thou dost aim at them with Thy bowstrings. directed first and foremost towards the ruling member of
Rise up, 0 Yahweh, in Thy strength, the House of David, in whom rest the hopes of Yahweh and
That we may sing the praises of Thy might! His people; for we now know that, humanly speaking, the
All in all, therefore, enough has been said to prove the leading actor in this drama is the Davidic king, in whom the
literally vital part played by the Messiah of the House of life of the nation as a corporate whole finds its focus. This
David in the ritual and mythology of the Jerusalem cultus work of ‘salvation’ (a$7!W), as it is called, is portrayed by
during the period of the Israelite monarchy; and, sum- means of some kind of mime in which the kings (i.e. nations)
marizing our conclusions once again, we may now say that of the earth, representing the forces of darkness and
the following features are to be recognized in the festival ‘Death’ as opposed to light and ‘Life’ and commonly de-
under discussion as celebrated in Solomon’s Temple be- signated the ‘wicked’ (a’v$y), unite in an attempt to
tween the tenth and sixth centuries B.C. In the first place we overthrow Yahweh’s covenanted followers, i.e. His ‘vota-
have (a) the celebration of Yahweh’s original triumph, as ries’ (B’t’QQ) or the ‘righteous’ (iF?‘Ts), under the
leader of the forces of light, over the forces of darkness as leadership of the Messiah. The latter, who is also described
represented by the monstrous chaos of waters or primeval as the Servant of Yahweh,1 suffers an initial humiliation;
ocean; (b) His subjection of this cosmic sea and His en- but this issues in his salvation and that of his people, for it
thronement as King in the assembly of the gods; and involves the recognition of an ultimate dependence upon
(c) the further demonstration of His might and power in the Yahweh rather than ‘the arm of flesh’, and thus sets the
creation of the habitable world. Cosmogony, however, gives seal upon the basic plea of ‘fidelity’ (ngg), ‘devotion’ (@TQo),
place to eschatology; for all this is the prelude to the and ‘righteousness’ (p7.3) on the part of the Messiah and
thought of His re-creative work, which is expressed in the his subjects.2 As a rest&victory (or salvation) is eventually
form of a ritual drama, and, as such, is wholly in line with secured through the dramatic intervention of Yahweh Him-
what we are told about prophetic symbolism of the type self in the person of the ‘Most High’, who makes His presence
which appears to have been embraced by the term ?@. In felt at dawn on this fateful day, and delivers the Messiah
fact it is the >qQ p ar excellence, and is designed as an effec- and ZIpso facto the nation from the forces of darkness and
tive demonstration of Yahweh’s ultimate will and purpose for ‘Death’. In this way Yahweh reveals His own ‘fidelity’ @BE),
Israel and the world. In this ritual drama the worshippers
are given (a) an assurance of final victory over ‘Death’, I For the setting of this conception in a wider context, see the valuable
i.e. all that obstructs the fullness of life for mankind which study by C. Lindhagen, The Servant Motif in the Old Testament (1950).
2 A consideration of the possibility that the conception of the Suffering
was Yahweh’s design in the creation of the habitable world; Servant in the work of Deutero-Isaiah may have some connexion with that
(b) a summons to a renewal of their faith in Yahweh and His of the Davidic Messiah lies outside the scope of the present study; but the
plans for them and for the world; and (c) a challenge to writer hopes to return to the question in another monograph in this series.
Meantime the reader may be referred to the careful survey of recent work in
a renewed endeavour to be faithful to Him and His de- this field by H. H. Rowley, ‘The Suffering Servant and the Davidic Messiah’,
mands, so that the day may indeed dawn when this vision O.T.S. viii (1950), pp. 100-36, reprinted in The Servant of the Lord and other
Essays on the Old Testament (1952), pp. 59-88, and now, with an up-to-date
the poem, and there is a similar reference to Yahweh rather than a direct bibliography, ibid., 2nd edit. rev. (1965), pp. 61-93.
address in verse 8 (EW. 7).
 1
136 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel 137
‘devotion’ (tvc), and ‘righteousness’ (i?T$) in relation to it is his responsibility to defend the nation from internal
His covenant people. Further, this--deliverance from ‘Death’ corruption and external attack; and success in the latter con-
marks the renewal of life or the rebirth of the king in ques- nexion is conditioned by his success in the former. In other
tion. It is the sign that in virtue of his faithfulness and words, it is the king’s function to ensure the ‘righteous-
basically by reason of his faith this suffering Servant and ness’ or right relationship within the borders of his territory
humble Messiah has been adopted as ‘Son’ of Yahweh or, which will ensure the economic well-being of his people
to express this mediatory office in another way, has become and at the same time will safeguard them from foreign
an everlasting Priest ‘after the order of Melchizedek’; and, interference. There can be no prosperity and no assurance
as such, he is enthroned on Mount Zion as Yahweh’s un- of continuity for the nation without righteousness; and
mistakable vicegerent upon earth. This is not all, however, there can be no righteousness without the fidelity to
for Yahweh’s earthly victory has its counterpart in the Yahweh and His laws to which the tribal brotherhood of
heavenly places. The rebellion of the kings of the earth is Israel was pledged under the terms of the Sinaitic covenant.
but a reflection of the rebellious misrule of the lesser gods In the ultimate, therefore, the righteousness of the nation is
in the divine assembly, to whom the ‘Most High’ had granted dependent upon the righteousness of the king. Under the
the jurisdiction over those territories which were occupied changed conditions of the monarchy it is the king’s devotion
by the other nations of the earth. Accordingly the over- and fidelity to Yahweh under the terms of the Davidic
throw of the kings of the earth corresponds to the over- covenant which is the basis of the nation’s fidelity and
throw of these rebellious gods, who, having shown their righteousness. Thus the king is in a very real sense the
unfitness to rule, are condemned to die like any earthly ‘shield’ of his people; and his first care must be the admini-
princes. Thus Yahweh proves to be what has been aptly stration of justice, ensuring obedience to tne formal defini-
called ‘the enduring power, not ourselves, which makes for tions of righteousness which are enshrined in Yahweh’s
righteousness’ ; and the helpless, the poor, and the humble, laws and thus maintaining the appropriate balance between
not merely in Israel but throughout the world, may look the rights and the responsibilities of the individual. It is
forward to an era of universal righteousness and peace, as only in this way that he can ensure the prosperity and the
the one omnipotent God comes with judicial power to de- survival of his people, i.e. all that is implied by the Hebrew
stroy the wicked, to justify His Messiah and His Messiah’s term for ‘life’ and so makes it possible and indeed necessary
people in their responsible mission to the world, and to en- to speak of the continuing and abundant life of the social
force His beneficent rule upon the earth. body or, better, its ‘vitality’. Thus, as already indicated,
it is the king’s duty to remove the obstacles which impede
(4 the way of life within and without the borders of the nation
All this, however, is to summarize our conclusions in (i.e., in other words, to safeguard the liberty of the indivi-
close adherence to the terminology of the sacred texts. If dual and of the state), so that one and all may follow freely
we would adopt more general terms, we must state them the road which leads to economic prosperity.1 Accordingly,
afresh in the following way. In saying ‘Amen’1 to the con- while the freedom for which the king longs in his dramatic
ditions laid down in the Davidic covenant the king be-
I The Hebrew terminology which is normally reproduced as that of
comes the trustee of Yahweh’s chosen people. Henceforth
‘salvation’ (i.e. l/Y@ and its derivatives) is first and foremost the language
K See above, p, 107, n. I. of ‘freedom’ or ‘liberty’. See above, p. 19, n. 2.
138 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel =39
struggle with the forces of darkness and ‘Death’ is obviously If there is a robust nationalism here, it is a nationalism
freedom to live and, implicitly, to prosper, it is not a freedom which is tempered by a sense of responsibility towards Yah-
to live altogether in the way of his own choosing or freedom weh as the one omnipotent God who is ‘the power, not
to prosper at the expense of his fellows. It is a freedom to ourselves, which makes for righteousness’ and by a lively
be of service, a freedom to live in accordance with the will of concern for the establishment of His Kingdom as an actual
Yahweh and thus to promote, not merely his own personal fact in the international sphere. If it is a nationalism which
welfare, but the well-being of the community as a whole, may give rise to the dream of a sovereign state, it is also one
i.e. the well-being of the nation for whom he has accepted which foresees the breakdown of national barriers and the
responsibility under the terms of the Davidic covenant. establishment of a righteousness which the tribal brother-
Accordingly, if the argument of these pages is sound, the hood of Israel (with its story of a common ancestry and its
ritual of the festival which we have been attempting to emphasis upon a community of blood and soil) may ulti-
reconstruct was designed to foster the corporate sense of mately share with all the nations of the earth, as the
Israel (i.e. as the tribal brotherhood in covenant relation- Creator Himself comes to the aid of His righteous people
ship with Yahweh) by recalling the traditions of Yahweh’s and so smooths the way for that universal obedience which
active intervention on their behalf in the field of history will ensure the fruits of His beneficent rule for the whole of
and the consequent demands which He made upon those mankind. Finally (and this is of basic importance), it is also
who were so obviously the people of His choice. Under the a nationalism which offers no ground for pride, but on the
changed conditions of the monarchy, however, all this was contrary stresses the fact of man’s creaturely dependence
set in the wider context furnished by the thought of Yahweh upon God. There can be no righteousness where there is
as the omnipotent, divine King, who is also the Creator and no humility; and in this respect Israel, like the king himself,
Sustainer of the universe, which appears to have had its is no more than primus inter pares. When all is said and
roots in the earlier worship of Canaan as represented by the done, man everywhere must learn to be humble, if he would
Jebusite cultus in Jerusalem. The implications of Yahweh’s inherit the earth.
choiceoftheHebrewswerenowunfolded,andthehistoricepi- It should be obvious, of course, that what we have in this
sodes of the Exodus, the Wandering, and the Settlement were dramatic ritual and its attendant mythology is no attempt of
seen in anew light. Yahweh's ultimate purpose was now clear ; a magical or magico-religious kind to present Yahweh with
it was that of a universal realm of righteousness and peace, a fait accompli, i.e. an opus operaturn which carries with it
in which not merely the twelve tribes of Israel but all the the implication that His Hand can be forced, and that He
nations of the earth should be united in one common life. may be manoeuvred into giving His worshippers the material
This was Israel’s mission to the world; and the successful blessings which they want. It is, rather, a theory of the
direction of that mission had been entrusted to the House of universe, a creative vision of an ultimate purpose for them
David. The purpose of the Davidic covenant was to ensure and for the world, which discerns an ideal pattern of be-
righteousness within Israel and thus make righteousness safe haviour for mankind and must needs be communicated to
for the world. The world was in danger of collapsing into Yahweh’s followers with all the measured symbolism and
primitive chaos, and it could only be saved from such utter moving imagery afforded by splendid architecture, exciting
collapse as Israel succeeded in producing the necessary re- drama, rousing music, and stirring verse. It is intended to
sponse to Yahweh’s attempt to create an ordered world. evoke an awareness of a common life, not only within
 ‘40 Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel 141
Israel but also throughout mankind, and a recognition of afresh their devotion and their faithfulness, but also, in
the necessity to co-operate for the common good in no nar- renewing their vows, to renew their faith. For, when all is
row nationalistic sense but with a view to the well-being of said and done, this ritual drama offers the assurance that,
society at large. It is designed to arouse in the worshippers however unequal the struggle may appear, victory is ulti-
and especially in the king a lofty sense of the need to unify mately certain if Israel will only prove steadfast. That is to
society in a common admission of dependence upon and res- say, its final implication is one which pervades the Old
ponsibility towards the Creator and thus make possible an Testament from beginning to end, i.e. the principle that
entry into that fuller life which He has designed for man- the righteous will ‘live’ (with all that this means or may
kind. It is only as His rule is acknowledged in the moral come to mean), not merely in virtue of his faithfulness, but
realm, or it is only as His will is done on earth as also in primarily by reason of his faith.1
heaven, that the full benefit of His creative activity in the
realm of nature can become available for mankind, and
that His Kingdom may be seen in the fullness of its glory. Looking still more closely at the worship under discus-
In other words, this ritual drama is a summons to convert sion we see a ritual pattern in which the broadly verifiable
into actual fact the social ideal which is here depicted in data of history are interwoven with an imaginative por-
moving symbols culled from all the arts, and its purpose is trayal of that which made possible the long pageant of
to give Yahweh’s followers the opportunity to renew their human life and that which is to be its ultimate issue (i.e.,
willingness and their power to co-operate for the common in more technical language, a cosmogony and an eschato-
good, not only of Israel, but also of all mankind. Thus it is logy), both of which clearly belong to the colourful sphere
the lively hope of a new world which is brought before the of myth. Accordingly, if there was ever any concentration
king and his subjects with the coming of a new cycle of the upon the cycle of the year and the annual revival of the
year; and who should sympathize with this point of view social unit, this has been transcended; and ‘salvation’ has
more readily than we who know that every new year has become a matter of the historical process. The purpose of
its own way of inviting new resolutions or the renewal of this ritual and its associated mythology is simply to secure
old resolutions which have worn thin with the passage of what may be described as a ‘frame of mind’,2 the conscious
time? acceptance of a pattern of thought and behaviour which will
Finally in this connexion, it remains to be said that the give direction not only to one’s own life but also to the life
ritual and mythology under review thus serve to focus the of society. Its aim is (a) to reaffirm one’s belief in the
attention of the worshippers, both the king and his subjects, principles underlying the behaviour thus envisaged and
upon ‘what is unquestionably a cardinal dogma of the one’s faith in Yahweh as their author, and (b) to evoke afresh
cultus, i.e. that it is only the righteous, whether this be the the assent of the will in a renewed pledge of faithfulness
individual or the community, who may be expected to to Him and His demands. Accordingly, the memory of
‘live’ in the full sense which the Hebrew term may imply, Yahweh’s earlier dealings with His people is carefully
and, what is more, that the righteous will ‘live’ in this way employed as an aid to present faith and faithfulness; and
in virtue of his fidelity or faithfulness. Nay more, through
x Cf. The Vitality of the Individual in the Thought of Ancient Israel, p. 3,
this dramatic act of worship the king and his people are ad init., 2nd edit., p. v, ad init.
given the opportunity year by year, not merely to pledge * Hebrew: Sk3 nh@?J 73:. Cf. ibid., p. 86, 2nd edit., p. 85.
 142 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel I43
the vision set before the worshippers is the extended one, time will be ripe (or the vital moment will have arrived)*
not merely of a new cycle of the year, but of a new age and the great ‘Day’ will have dawned when He will be
in which Israel’s destiny and indeed the destiny of all man- justified in intervening decisively in the affairs of men as
kind will have been realized. Thus, if we have here no the sovereign Ruler and Judge of mankind. The latter will
formal statement of faith which warrants the word ‘creed’, then be an organic whole enjoying the fullness of life which
there is ample material for the framing of one; and in so has been designed for the human race by the God of Israel,
far as it is implicit it is quite remarkable for its affirmation who in His sovereign power is the ‘Living God’ (‘a 38)
concerning the character and purpose of the Godhead as or the true ‘Giver of Life’.2
expressed in His sovereignty over space and time and, in Thus at the point in time represented by any one of
particular, its emphasis upon the ultimate welfare of man- these recurrent festal days the worshipper’s gaze is directed
kind as the guiding motif of His activity in creation and first, in retrospect, to the beginning of time or the creation
history. of the natural order; in the second place, to Yahweh’s con-
This sovereignty of Yahweh first manifests itself in the trol of the natural world and His active concern with the
creation of the earth as a habitable place for mankind, and behaviour of mankind on the plane of history; and, in the
it continues to prove itself an actuality in the multifarious third place, to the prospect of the consummation of both
processes of nature which form the context of human life; creation and history in a universal moral order, i.e. the
but it still remains to be made effectual in the field of coming of the great ‘Day’ which will usher in a new era
human action, which is continually permitted to oppose of world-wide righteousness and peace.
His will and thwart His plans for the general good. Never- Accordingly, in this great act of worship the eschatolo-
theless His determination to ensure His sovereignty even gical hope, which centres in the House of David, finds vivid
in the realm of man’s behaviour is already discernible in expression in the contemporary scene, and that which is
the history of His chosen people, who, by their formal really yet to be occurs dramatically before one’s eyes as a
acceptance of the covenant obligations imposed at Sinai- challenge and a means of inspiration for all who are pre-
Horeb, have consented to be the agents of His purpose in pared to take it seriously. In particular it brings before
establishing a universal order of society which shall function each reigning member of the House of David the vision
in perfect harmony with the great cosmic order and so shall that he may yet be instrumental in preparing the way for
form the crown and climax of His activity in creation. With the conclusive demonstration of Yahweh’s sovereign power
the settlement in Canaan and the founding of the monarchy and His determination to secure an ordered world, or, in
He is prepared to take the final step for the establishment of other words, that he himself may have a decisive part to
His rule in the moral realm; and this is to take place as soon play in the fulfilment of Yahweh’s plans for making His
as the House of David fulfils its own covenanted task of Kingship effectual amongst men and ensuring that His
raising His chosen people to the required standard of will shall be done upon earth as also in heaven. In this
social righteousness and thus forging a community which way the House of David” is reminded that it is the respon-
will be justified in serving as the moral and spiritual leaders sibility of the true Messiah to put an end to everything
of mankind. In other words, Israel is to serve as the great
bridge-head in Yahweh’s campaign against, the forces of 1 Cf. The Vitality of the Individual in the Thought of Ancient Israel, p. IOI,
n. 2, 2nd edit., p. 102, n. 2.
evil; and when this has been successfully built up, the z Vide op. cit., pp. 105 ff., 2nd edit., pp. 106 ff. 3 Cf. p. 3, n. 3.
 144 Samal Kingship in An&at Israel
which disturbs the right relationship between the various
members of society both on the human plane and vis-h-vis
INDEX
the Godhead, i.e. to root out from the social body the
deadly cancer of sin, which finds expression most forcibly (a) SUBJECTS
in its avarice and pride, and thus bring his people into that Where relevant page numbers apply to both text and footnotes.
effective unity with one another and with the Creator which Aaron, 71. Babylon, Babylonian, 4 n., I O, 38,
will not only ensure their own well-being but will lead to Abdi-J$iba, 34 f. 55, 60, 65 n., 92, 108 n., 113,
Abiathar, 44 n., 52 n. 115 n.
that decisive intervention on the part of Yahweh in the Abimelech, 44. Baptism, I I 9.
affairs of mankind which will bring about universal Abishai, I. Bashan, 81 f.
At==, 3.~47 ff. Bel, 38.
righteousness and peace. In short, this great act of wor- Absalom, 53 n., 65 n. Benjamin, 83 f.
ship looks forward to the day when the crisis will have been Accadian, 4 n., 65 n. Bethel, 54 f.
Achan, 3. Bethlehem, 21 n.
reached in the persistent struggle between the forces of light Blessing, 12, 48, 73, 104n., 133.
Achish, 44 n.
and the forces of darkness, i.e. the day when the true Addu-nirari, 14 n. Booths, 58, 69. See also Feast of
Messiah of the House of David, by his own dependence Adonai, 38. Tabernacles.
Adonijah, 51 n., 66 n. Bul, 55.
upon the holy Spirit and his own filial devotion to the God- Adonis, 38, 58 n. Byblos, 4 n., 36, 49.
head, will have justified the decisive intervention of Yahweh, Adoni-zedek, 35 ff., 47.
Adoption, see Messiah. Calendar, 55 ff.
and final victory (i.e. man’s full ‘salvation’ or his enjoyment Ahab, 44. Canaan, Canaanite, 33 ff., 38 ff.,
of perfect freedom) will thus be assured. Ahaz, 3. 43 ff., 47 f3., 62 n., 68 fi., 74,77 f.,
Ahimelech, 44. 90, 138.
‘Al, 18 n., 50 n. Carmel, 79 n.
Almighty, 74 n., 80. Chaos, 64, 92 n., IOI, 108 f., 117,
Amariah, 45 n. 134, 138.
Amarna, see Tell el-Amama. Cherub, cherubim, 70 ff., I 18.
Amen, 136. Clouds, Rider of the, 78 n., 85, IOO f.,
Amorite, 35, 63 n. 118.
Angel, 16, 30 n. Combat, see Ritual.
Anointed, anointing, I, 13 ff., 17, Cosmogony, 101, 134, 141.
104, 131 n. See also Messiah. Cosmology, 10, 59 f., I17 n.
Anu, 4 n. Covenant, 16 ff., 19 ff., 25 ff., 67 f.,
Aramaisms, 18 n. 98, 102, 106 ff., 109 ff., 113 ff.,
Araunah, 34. I32f., 135 f., 136ff., 142 f. See
A r k , 14, I9 ff., 33, 70% 72 ff., also Devotion, Faithfulness.
74 fi., 78, 83, 125. Craftsman of the gods, 79 n.
Asaph, 46. Creator, creation, 26, 48 n., 59 f.,
Asher, 43. 68 f., 72ff., 92, IoI, Io8ff., 120,
Asherah of the Sea, 48 n. 134, 138 ff., 142 ff.
Assembly: of the gods, 63, 66, 92 n., Creatress of the gods, 48 n.
98 f., 101 f., 108 ff., 134 ff.; divine Creed, 142.
Mount of, 75 n. See also Yahweh. Crown, 23, 133.
Atonement, Day of, 57 n. Cultus, 7 ff., 13 f., 19 ft., 25 ff., 33,
Autumn festival, 54 ff., 60 ff., 69 f., 45 n., 49 f., 51 ff., 58, 60 ff.,
103, 108, 113. See also Festival. 7on., 74f., 9 0 , 96f., 104, 108,
112 f., 134 ff., 138, 140 f. See also
Ba’al of Tyre, 42 n. Ritual.
Baal, 62, 67 n., 78 n., 86, 90. Currents, IO f., 27, 65 ff., 93 f., I II.
Baalhanan, 51 n. See also Sea.
0 sQS8 L
 Subjects =47
Dan, 54. 93 ff., 95 ff., 98 f., 102, IIO ff., Godhead, 69, 142, 143 f. Jehozadak, 37.
Darkness, 98 f., IOI f., 12off., 127, 116 f., 121 ff., 124 f., 128 ff., Godly, 22 n. Jeremiah, 38.
134% 144. 135 f., 138 f. See also Yahweh. Gods, rebellious, 102, 136. See also Jeroboam I, 54.
David: as Messiah, I, I 5, 17 f.; as Ebed-melech, 45 n. Assembly. Jeroboam II, 44.
Son of Yahweh, 27 ff,. 128 ff. ; Egypt, Egyptian, 34 f., 62 n., 65 n., Gomorrah, 47. Jerusalem: fall of, I f. ; and Adoni-
H o u s e o f , zff., 16ff., 23&, Guilds, musical, 46. zedek, 35 ff., 47; and Ark, 19 ff.,
2 5 ff., 3 9 , 5 4 , 104, 106, 109% %?47 ff. 33, 70 ff., 72 ff., 75; and autumn
125 f., 128, 134 f., 138, 143 f.; Elders, council of, 53 n. &unmurabi, 4 n., 130 n. festival, 54 f., 64, 70, 108; and
humility of, 19 ff. ; Last Words of, Elhanan, 21 n., 51 n. IJaremhab, 4 n. cultus, 19, 25 f., 32 f., 47 ff., 54,
16ff., 29, 114; name of, 51; ‘El& 50 n. Heavenly King, see Yahweh. 5 8 f., 62, 74, 90, 108, 134, 138;
throne of, 19 f., 22 f., 26, 83, 128, Eli, 50 n. Hebrews, historical traditions of, and David, 32 ff., 50, 53, 62; and
131; and Absalom, 53 n. ; and Eliba’al, 9 n. 61 n., 68 ff., 77 ff. Davidic kings, I ; and ‘Elyan, 49 f. ;
Ahimelech, 44; and Ark, 14, 20, Elimelech, 43 f. Hebron, 65 n. and Hebrew cosmology, IO; and
33; and corporate personality, Elisha, 30 n. Hermon, 63 n. high god, 49 f., 74; and Hinnom,
27 f.; and covenant, 16 ff., 19 ff., ‘Elyan, 49 f. See also Most High. High god, 49 ff., 74. See also Most 45 n.; and king, 104; and Melchi-
25ff., 106ff.; IIO~., 114f., 136ff; Enlil, 4 n. High. zedek, 35 ff.., 4 7 ff., 53; and
and cultus, 33, 51 ff., 83; and Enthronement, 60, 64, 68, 70 ff., Hinnom, 45 n. $ggr,“,““f”,* 3a;d4;e$z “szd
dynasty, I, 13 ff., 19 ff., 25 ff., 75 n., 85, 93, IOI, 126, 128 f., History: and ritual, 69 f., 141; and
5 I n. ; and extension of personality, 130 f., 132 f., 134, 136. salvation, 141; and Yahweh, 61 n., and iubject * ‘peoples, 84;’ and
15 f.; and Gihon, 83 ; and Jebu- Ephrathah, 21. 138,141 ff. Tammuz, 51 n. ; and Temple,
sites, 32 ff., 53; and Jerusalem, Esagila, 4 n. Hittite, 35, 44. 26 n., 38, 45 n., 54 f. See a l s o
32 ff., 50, 53,62; and kings of the Esarhaddon, 42 n. Holy, 22 n.; City, 81, 93, 103; One Jebusite, Ritual.
earth, 25 ff., IIO ff., 128 ff.; and Eschatology, 7 f., 58 f., 61 n., 70 f., of Israel, 26, 29 f., IIO; ones, Jesse, 18, 29.
musical guilds, 46; and priests, 101 f., 134 ff., 141 ff. 108 ff.; Spirit, 29 f., 144. Jonathan, 43 n.
46 ; and Samuel, 15 ; and Saul, 16, Ethanim, 55. Horeb, 68, 142. See also Sinai. Jordan, II n .
44; and Solomon, 51 n., 53 n., Ethiopian, IO n., 45 n. Hosanna, I 27. Joseph, I 6.
66 n.; and divine Spirit, 17 f., Euphrates, IO f., 27 n., 45 n. Hosts, see Yahweh. Joshua, 3 5.
29 f.; and Temple, 14 n., 20; and Exile, 65 n. Humble, 91, 98 f., 102. See also Josiah, 14,45 n.
tribes of Israel, 33 ; and Yahweh, Exodus, 69 ff., 138. King, Messiah, People, Yahweh. Jubilee, 57 n.
15 ff., 19 ff., 25 ff., 33 f., 128. Humiliation: of king, 25 f.; of Judah, I, 32, 83 f., 89, 97.
Dawn, 93 f., 98, IOI f., 118, 128, Faith, 101, 126, 132 f., 134 ff., 141 f. Messiah, III ff., 115 n., 126, 135. Judge, see King, Yahweh.
130 f., 135. Faithfulness, 106 ff., 120, 134 ff., See also Ritual. Judge River, 67 n.
Dead Sea, II n. 141 f. See also Devotion. Humility: of David, 20 f.; of Messiah, Judges, 43 f.
Death, 82 f., 85 f., 89 f., 93 f., 98, Family, 2 f., 80. 120; and righteousness, 139. Justice, 4, 7, 13, 71 f., 95 f., 98 f.,
101 f., 112 E, 116 ff., 120 ff., Father, heavenly, 29 f., I I 9 f., 128 f. Hymnology, Canaanite, 62 n. 99 ff., 109, 113 ff., 126, 136 ff. See
125 ff., 128, 134 ff., 137 f. Feast : of Ingathering, 55 ff. ; of also Righteousness.
Deborah, Song of, 79 f., 87. Tabernacles, 55 ff., 69 f., 127 f. Ichabod, 73 n.
Demons, 58 n. Festival, 54 ff., 60 ff., 69 f., 72, 77, ‘11, 37 n. Kadesh, 63 f.
Desert, 78 ff., 85. 85, 91, 93 f., 95, IOO ff., 106, 108, Ingathering, see Feast. Karatepe, 45 n., 48 n.
Deutero-Isaiah, 60 f., 61 n., 65 n., 112 f., 115 n., 118, 127, 134ff., Isaiah, vision of, 64 n. Keret, 4 n., 35.
135 n. 138. See also Autumn festival, Israel: divine purpose for, 53, 70, Kindness, 22 n.
Devoted, 22 n. Ritual. 95, IOI, 116, 134ff., 141 ff.; God King, earthly: Davidic, I, 16, 30,
Devotee, 22 n. Freedom, see Salvation. of, 7, 37, 66, 82, 113, 143; Holy 96, 107, 112ff., 116, 120, 135; as
Devotion, 22 n., 26 ff., 88, 102, One of, 26,29 f., I IO; lamp of, I ; judge, 4ff., 9, 13, 116 n., 126; as
106 ff., 109 ff., 114 f., 123 ff., Gezer, calendar of, 57. Spring of, 83, 85, 119; tribes of, sacrosanct, 16; as shield of his
127 f., 132 f., 135 ff., 140 f., 144. Gideon, 15 f., 44. 33, 83 f., 136 ff. people, 104f., 137; accession of,
See also Faithfulness. Gihon, 32 f., 83, 119, 131. 7 f. ; anointing of, 13 ff. ; humanity
Devout, 22 n. Giver of Life, 7, 143. Jacob, 16, 73. of, 29 f. ; humiliation of, 25 f. ;
Dew, 131. Glory of Yahweh, see Yahweh. Jair, 21. humility of, 19 ff. ; negative con-
Dragon, see Monster of the Deep. God: high, 49 ff., 74; Living, 82, Jebusite, 33,51 n., 52 n., 53,62, 138. fession of, I 15 n. ; universal sway
Drama, see Ritual. 104, 120, 123, 143; Most High, Jedidiah, 51 n. of, IO ff.; and covenant, 16 ff.,
47 ff.; omnipotent, 49 f., 68 f., Jehoash, 23 f. 113 ff., 136 ff.; and cultus, 7 f.,
Earth, kings (nations) of the, I O, 102, 121 ff., 131 f., 136, 139. See Jehoiachin, 45 n. 13 f., 96, 112 f., 135; and dyna-
25 ff., 74ff., 80 ff., 86 ff., 91 f., also Yahweh. Jehoshaphat, 4 n. sty, 7 f., 23 ; and God, 30; and
 Index
King (cont.) Melqart, 42.
heavenly King, 105, 112, 120; Merciful, 22 n. Mission of Israel, see Israel, divine New song, see Ritual.
and humble, I I ; and people, I ff., Mercy, 22 n. purpose for. New Year, 57, 70 n., 113, IIS n.,
7 f., II ff., 30, 104, 126, 136 ff.; Meribah, 69. Mistress of the gods, 48 n. 140.
and righteousness, 4 ff., I I ff., 17, Messenger of Yahweh, 14 ff. Molech, 45 n. Niqmepa, 4 n.
35, 47, 136ff.; and royal psalms, Messiah: anointed, I, 14f., 131 n.; Monarchy, 4 n., 15, 29, 39, 45, 54, Nisan, 55.
7, 17, 102 f.; and Spirit, 14ff.; Davidic, I , 16, 2gf., 96, 113 f., 64, 70, 77, 134, 136 ff., 142. S e e Nob, 44.
and testimony, 23 ff. ; and Yahweh, 116, 120, 125 f., 134ff.; humble, also David, King Messiah, Yah- Nubashshe, 14 n.
7 f., 13 ff., Ig f., 29 f., 102, 104 ff., 113, 136; true, 120, 128, 136; as weh.
112, 123 f., 136 ff. See &so Servant of Yahweh, 28,113,135 f.; Monster of the Deep, 82 n., 108 n.
Moon, 57. Ocean, 66 f., 85, 93, 101, 134. See
Messiah. as Son of Yahweh, 28 f., 117 f., also Sea.
IIgf., 128 ff., 136; as suffering Moral realm, and Yahweh, 8 f., 13,
King, heavenly, 33,38 f, 45 f., 59 f., Oracle, 17 ff., Igff., 26ff., IIO f.,
64 ff., 68, 70 ff., 74% 77, 83 ff., Servant, 113, 135 f.; of God, 104; 7 4 , 93, 9 8 f., 109, 114, 140, 142.
See also Nature, realm of. 129 ff.
86, 88 ff., 95 f., 101, 103 ff., adoption of, 28, 128 ff., 136; de-
108ff., 112f., 120, 125, 128f., feat and humiliation of, III ff., Moses, 16, 71; Song of, 97.
132 f., 134f., 138 ff., 141 ff. See Most High: as appellation of Palestine, 58 n., 59 n.
I25 f., 135; enthronement of,
also Yahweh. 125 f., 128 f., 132, 136; faithful- Yahweh, 74 ff., g3 f., 97, 102, Pashhur, 46 n.
Kingdom: Northern, I, 30 n., 3g n., ness of, 120, 136; humility of, 120, 116 ff., 132, 135 f.; word-play on, Peace, 101 f., 134ff., 138, 143 f. See
54; Southern, I, 30 n., 54, 85. life of, 118, 128 ff., 134ff.; re- 74 ff., 97; Yahweh’s intervention also People, welfare of; Righteous-
Kings, 92 n. birth of, 128, 136; sonship of, 28, a s , g3 f., IOI f., 116ff., 1 3 5 f . ; ness.
Kiriath-jearim, 21 n. 117 f., 128 ff.; victory of, 113, and Jerusalem, I I, 47 ff., g3 f.; People: chosen, 53, 68 f., 71 f., 75,
121 f., 128, 132f., 135; and Ark, and Messiah, 18 n., 76 n., I 16 ff., 79, 82, 93 f., IOO f., 123, 125 f.,
Laws, 4 ff., 67 n., 136 f. 135 f. ; and mythology in Isaiah, 136 ff., 142 f.; humble, 79, 91,
125; and covenant, 28, 114,
Lebanon, 12, 63 f. 135 f.; and c&us, go 104, 113, 94n.; and Song of Moses, 97; 120, 136; welfare of, I ff., 8 f.,
Leptis Magna, 48 n. God Most High, 47 ff. See also 12 f., 64,7g,gI, 93, 136 ff., I39 f.,
I34 fi..; and David, I , 15, 17f.,
Leviathan, see Monster of the Deep. Ritual. 142, 144; and Ark, 20, 75, 125;
131; and deliverance at dawn, Mot, go, see Death.
Life: Giver of, 7, 143 ; of Messiah, 1i7 f., 128, 13of., 135; and de- and covenant, 67 f., 102, 135 ff.,
118, 128ff., 134ff.; light and, liverance from Death, go, 113, Mother of the gods, g2 n. 142 f.; and gift of rain, 67 f., 79,
101 f., 120, 127, 134ff. See a l s o 116ff.,12off., 125&, 128, 134ff.; Muluk, 45 n. 104; and king, I ff., 7 ff., 12 f., 30,
Society. and divine purposr, I 16, 134 ff., Music of the Temple, 14 n., 22, 46, 104, 126, 136 ff.; and Messiah,
Light, see Life. I43 f.; and Hosanna, 127 ; and 83. I f., go, 104, 116, 125 f., 135 f.;
Liturgy, liturgical, Ig f., 25, 29, 38, king, 13 ff., 96, 104, 113 f., 116, Myth, mythology, 49, 53, 58, 61 n., and righteousness, 4, 13, 53, 71 f.,
51 n., 60&, 6g f., 106, 112, 129, 120, 123 f., 132, 135 f.; and kings , 68, 6g f., 77, 82 n., 86, 88, go, 78 f., 98, ~ooff., 116, 125 ff.,
132. See a l s o Cultus, Ritual, (nations) of the earth, go, 113, , 92 n., 94n., 132, 134, 139 ff. See 135 f., 136 ff., 140 f., 143 f.; and
Worship. 117ff., 121ff,. 125 n., 128ff.; and also Ritual. Yahweh, 8, 20, 53, 64, 68 ff.,
Living God, 82, 104, 120, 123, 143. M o s t H i g h , 18x1., 76n., 117f., 71 f., 75, 79 fX, 86, 88 ff., 92 ff.,
Lord, 36 ff. 135; and people, I f., go, 104,116, Naaman, 30 n. 98, IOOff., 123 f., 125 f., 134ff.,
Lovingkindness, 22 n. 135 f. ; and priesthood of Melchi- Name: royal, 12, 51; divine, 4g ff., 136 ff., 141 ff. See also Votaries,
zedek, 130 i., 136; and righteous- 79 n. Worshippers.
Magic, 34 n., 139 f. ness, 116, 120, 126, 135 f., 143 f.; Names, theophorous, 38 ff., 53 n. Persian Gulf, I I.
Malchiah, Malchijah, 46. and Spirit, 14ff.; and Yahweh, I f., Naomi, 44. Personality: corporate, 2 f., 27 f.,
Malchiel, 43, 47. 13 &,27ff., 111 ff., 114ff.,117ff., Naphtali, 83 f. 126, 135, 138; extension of the,
Malchiram, 45 n. 12off., 123&, 128ff., 13off.. Nathan, 26 n., IIO n. 15 f., 20, 69.
Malchi-shua, 43 n., 45. 1 3 2 ff.; 135 f.,. 143 f. -See- also Nathan-melech, 45 n. Philistines, I, 53 n., 73 n.
Malik, 45 n. Ritual, Yahweh. Nation, 2 ff., 8 f., 13, 17, 75, 7g ff., Philo of Byblos, 49.
Manahbiria, 14. Micaiah, 3g n. 90, 93, 98, 100% 109, 117, 123, Phinehas, 73 n.
Marcheshvan, 55. Milcom, 43. 135, 136 ff. See also People. Phoenicia, Phoenician, 4 n., g n.,
Marduk, 4 n., 38, g2 n. Military operations, 56. Nations, see Earth. 36, 38, 41 ff., 44 n., 45 n., 63 n.
Mari, 51 n. Milk, Milku(-i) and compounds, Nature, realm of, 8, 13, 64, 74, 93, Pilgrimage, 103 ff.
Maschil, I 14 n. 96, g8 f., rag, 140, 142 f. See also Power, 2, 15; which makes for
39 ff.
Massah, 69. Milkart, see Melqart. Moral realm. righteousness, 13, 102, 136, 139;
Mediterranean, I I, 27 n. Mime, 102, 13.5. See also Ritual. Navel of the earth, IO n. as personal, 13 n.; a s supra-
Melchizedek, 35 ff., 47 ff., 53, 131, Mind, frame of, 141. Negative confession, see King. personal, 13 n.
136. Miriam, Song of, 70 n. New age, 61 n., gg ff., 134ff., Power of Yahweh, see Yahweh.
138 ff., 141 ff. Presence of Yahweh, see Yahweh.
ISO Index IS
Priest, 20 ff., 44, 46 f., 52 n., 71, 87ff., 92&, 96, IOI f., 113, 119, 104, 108ff., III ff., 116ff., 121 f., Sun, 93 f., 105.
123 f. ; as messenger of Yahweh, 128, 133, 134ff., 138 ff.; Signifi- 125 ff., 128 f., 132 f., I34 fi.9 Suwardata, 34.
CaXXe Of, 93 f., 101 f., 134 ff., 138 ff. Symbolism, see Prophetic.
Pr:ezthood of Melchizedek, 47 ff., 138ff., 141 ff.; combat, I I I, 118, River, see The River. Synagogues, 60 n.
53, 131, 136. 121, 128; defeat or humiliation, Ruth, 44. Syria, 30 n., 35, 50.
Prince Sea, 67 n. See also Judge III ff., 115 n., 126, 135; proces-
River. _ _ sion, 72 ff., 78, 81, 83 f., 89, 119, Sacrifice, 13, 45 n., 58. Tabernacles, see Feast, Rain, Ritual.
Procession, 72 ff., 78, 81, 83 f., 89, 125 n., 125 ff.; and Ark, 19 ff., Saint, 22 n. Taku, 14 n.
119, 125 n., 126 f. See also Ritual. 72 ff., 74 ff., 83, 125; and autumn SHlCm, 52 f. Tammux, 51 n.
Prom&es,- 24 n., 26, 28 f., 45 n., festival, 58 f., 60 ff., 77, 91, 93, 95, Salem, 32, 35,48, 53 n. Tell el-Amarna, 14 n., 34, 39, 43 f.,
67 f., 128. See also Covenant. 101 f., 112f., 117f., 1 2 7 , 134ff., Salvation, 45, 91, 101 f., 113, 127, 62 n.
Prophet, 2 6 , 71 n., 94% 110; 138; and cosmic sea, 60, 81, 92 f., 132 f., 135 f., 144; as freedom, Temple, 92, 125, 130, See also
cultic, 22, 69, 130; as messenger 101, 119, 134; and COSmOgOny, 19 n., 137 f., 144;aSViCtOly, 101 f., David, Jerusalem, Solomon, Wor-
of Yahweh, 14. 101, 134, 141; and cultus, 53, 113, 127, 132 f., 135 f., 144; and ship, Worshippers, Yahweh.
Prophetic, 17 ff., 130; symbolism, 60 f., go, 134, 138, 140 f.; and the historical process, 141. Testimony, 23 f., 67. See a l s o
88, 101, 134. dawn, 93 f., 98, 102, 117 f., 128, Samaria, 44, 50 n. Covenant.
Proselytes, 124 n. 131, 135; and Death, 82 f., 85 f., Samuel, 15, 71. Tetragrammaton, 66 n.
Psalms, 18, 20, 28; Canaanite 89 f., 93 f., 98, IOI f., 112 f., Safiatba’al, Siptiba’al, 9 n., 41 n. The River, IO f., 93 f. See a l s o
prototypes for, 62 n. ; dating of, 116ff., 120&, 125 ff., 128, 134ff., Saul, 15 f., 44 f. Currents, Euphrates, Gihon,
60 ff., 71 n.; Ugaritic parallels to, 137 f.; and eschatology, 58 f., Sea: of Reeds, 70 n.; Asherah of the, Judge River.
62 n.; enthronement, 68, 70, 86; 61 n., 70, 101, 134, 141; and 48 n.; bronze, 60; cosmic, IO f., Throne, 8, 19 f., 23, 26, 30 n., 51 n.,
liturgical, 60 f.; royal, 7, 17 ff., Feast of Tabernacles, 57 ff., 69 f., 27n., 59 f., 64ff., 81, 85, 92 f., 77, 83, 86, 89, 128, 131.
25, 26 n., 30 n., 102 ff.; individu- 127 f.; and forces of light and IOI, 108, rr7ff., 134. See a l s o Tiamat, 92.
ally discussed : ii, 128 ff. ; xviii, darkness, 101 f., 120, 127, 134ff.; Prince Sea, Rain, Ritual, Yahweh. Tishri, 55, 57.
116ff.; xxi, 132ff.; xxiv, 72ff.; and gift of rain, 58 ff., 81, 85, 92, Seaek, 36 f., 52. Tradition, 15, 17, 25 n., 26 n., 35,
xxix, 62 ff. ; xlvi, 92 ff.; xlvii, 74 ff.; Io4f.; and Gihon, 32 f., 83, 119, Senir, 63 n. 43, 49, 52 n., 68, 70 n., 78 n.
xlviii, 85 ff. ; lxviii, 77 ff. ; lxxii, 131; and Jebusites, 33,53,62,138; Serpent, see Monster of the Deep. Transjordan, 43.
7 ff.; lxxxii, 98 f.; lxxxiv, 103 ff.; and Jerusalem, 53, 58 f., 90, 104, Servant of Yahweh, see Messiah, Tree of Justice, I I 6 n.
lxxxix, 25 ff., 106 ff.; xciii, 65 ff.; 134, 138; and king, 7 ff., 13 ff., 20, Yahweh. Tribes of Israel, see Israel.
xcv, 68 ff. ; xcvii, 95 ff. ; xcviii, 26, 96, 102ff., 112 f., 115 n., Settlement in Canaan, 38, 43, 53 n., Tyre, 42.
99 f.; xcix, 70 ff.; ci, 113 ff.; cx, 123 ff., 136 ff.; and kings (nations) 70 n., 71, 78 n., 138.
I 30 ff, ; cxviii, 123 ff.; cxxxii, of the earth, 80 ff., 86 f., 90 ff., Shaddai, 80. Ugarit, Ugaritic, 4 n., 35, 37 n.,
19 ff.; cxlix, 91 f. 93 f., g5 ff., 98 f., IOI f., 112 f., Shamash, 130 n. 40 n., 42 f., 45 n., 48 n., 62,65 n.,
Psychical whole, 2 ff. 121 ff., 124f., 128 ff., 135, 138; Shechem, 44. 67n., 77, 78 n., 82 n., 86, 99 n.,
Punic, 42, 44 n, 45 n., 48 n. and Messiah, 14 f., go, 96, 104, Shema, 24. 105 n., 108 n.
III ff., 116 ff., 120 ff., 123 ff., Shiloah, II n. Underworld, 42 n., 60 n., 90, 93 f.,
Rahab, I 08. 128ff., 134 ff.; and Most High, Sidonian, 63 n. 120, 126, 131.
Rain: and cosmic sea, 59 f., 64,67 f., 93 f., 102, 117 ff., 132 f., I35 f.; Sinai, 68,7g ff., 101; covenant at, 24, Universal peace, see Yahweh.
81., 85._.92; _ and Feast of Taber- and mythology, 53, 58, 61 n., 70, 137, 142. See also Yahweh. Universal righteousness, see Yahweh.
nacles, 57 ff. See also People, 7 7 , 8 7 f., 90, 9 2 n., 94n.p 132, Sirion, 63 f.
Ritual, Yahweh. 134,139 f., 141; andnew song, 91, Society, 13, 61 n., 98 f.; vitality of, Victory, see Messiah, Ritual, Sal-
Ras Shamra, 4 n., 35 f., 40 f., 42 ff., g9 f.; and people, 53, 86, 90 ff., r ff., 7 ff., go, 101 f., 127, 134 ff., vation, Yahweh.
53 n., 90. See also Ugarit, Ugaritic. 93 f., 98, 102, 120 f., 125 f., 134 ff., 136 ff., 141 ff. See also Life, Vitality, see Society.
Redeemer, 61 n. 138 f., 140 f.; and rebellious gods, People, Yahweh. Voice of Yahweh, see Yahweh.
Regem-melech, 45 n. 102, 136; and righteousness, 53, Sodom, 47. Votaries, 22 f., 26, 67 n., 91, 98; as
Rider, see Clouds. 95 f., 101 f., 120, 125 ff., 135 f., Solomon, 20, 51 n., 53 n., 54 f., 60, the righteous, 98, 102, 116, 135.
Righteous, righteousness, 3 ff., 8 f., 138 f., r4o f.; and theory of the 66 n., 72, 77 n-3 134. See also Yahweh.
12 f., 17, 35 ff., 47, 53, 71 f., 78 f-9 universe, 139; and victory, IOI f., Son of Yahweh, see David, Messiah, Vow, 45 n., 107 f., 115.
88 f., g5 ff., 98, IOO A., 109,116 f., 113, 121 f., 1 2 8 , I32 f., 134ff., Yahweh.
120, 125 ff., 134 ff., 136 ff., 140 f., 141; and worship, worshippers, Spirit, 14 ff., 29 f., 144; holy 29 f., Wandering, period of the, 69 f., 71,
142 ff. See also King, Messiah, 53, 60, 87 f., 91 f., 96, IOI f., 104, 144. See also David, Personality 78ff., 138.
People, Yahweh. 127, 134f., 138, 139 ff.; and (extension of the), Yahweh. Welfare, see People, Yahweh.
Ritual : accession, 83 ; anointing, Yahweh, 19 f., 53, 58 f., 60 ff., 70, Spring, and cycle of the year, 56 f. Wicked, 78 f., 98 f., 102, 135 f.
I3 f% 131; dramatic, 19, 32n., 77, 83, 86, 90 ff., 95 ff., 101 f., Suffering Servant, see Messiah. Word-play, 75 f., 97.
152 Index Subjects I53
Worship, 38 f., 45 n., 47 ff., 59, 62, 134 ff., 138 ff., 141 ff., 143 f.; ritual, Ig f., 53, 58 f., 60 ff., 70, Year: cycle of the, 56 f., 61 n.,
67 f., 143 f.; and Temple, 14 n., Servant of, 28, I I 3, I 35 f. ; Son of, 77, 83, 87, 90 ff., 95 ff., 101 fV 139 ff.; dying and reviving, 56 f.
22, 38 f., 60, 72 f., 74 f., 96, 104 f., 28f., 117f., IIgf., 128ff., 1 3 6 ; 104, 107 ff., 121 f., 125 f., 128 f., See also New Year.
130. See also Ritual, Yahweh. Spirit of, 14 ff., 18, 29 f., 144; 132 f., 134ff., 138 ff.; and Sal- Yehawmllk, 4 n., g n., 36.
Worshippers, 49, 68 f., IOO f., 107, throne of, 76, 89; victory of, 77, vation, 82, 91, 101 f., 127, 132 f., Yehimilk, 4 n., g n., 36, 41.
123, 139 f., 143; and Temple, 20, 80 ff., 85 f., go, 93, g5 ff., IOI f., 135 f-3 141, 144; and universal Yemen, I 16 n.
73, 87 f., 103 f. See also Ritual, 113, 116 f., 120&, 128, 131 ff., peace and righteousness, IOI f.,
Yahweh. 134 ff., 144; Voice Of, 63 f., 85, 93, 134ff., 138, 144; and welfare of Zadok, 52 n.
IOO f., 119; votaries of, 22 f., 26, society, I ff., 7 ff., 64, 79, g3 f., Zalmon, 80.
Yah, Yahu, 37, 45 n., 82. 67n., 91, 98, 102, 116, 135; and 136 ff., 139 ff., 143 f.;andworship, Zaphon, 86, g4 n.
Yahweh: of Hosts, 58 f., 74, 103; as Ark, 20, 70 ff., 72 ff., 74 ff., 83, worshippers, 20, 38 f., 49, 53, 59, Zebulun, 83 f.
Almighty, 74 n. ; as Creator, 26, 125 ; and assembly of the gods, 62, 68 f., 73, 87 f., 95, IOO ff., Zedek, 37.
59 f., 68 ff., 72ff., 92, 101, 108, 62 f., 66, 98 f., IOI f., 108 ff., 103 ff., 107, 123 f., 139 f., 143 f.; Zedekiah, 45 n., 46 n.
120, 134, 138 ff., 142 ff.; as en- 134ff.i and cosmic sea, 5g f., and Zion, 22, 31 ff., 65 n., 70 ff., Zion, I I, 22, 31 ff., 47 n., 65 n.,
during power which makes for 64ff., 8 1 , 8 5 , g2 f., IOI, 108, 72 ff., 75, 81, 85 ff., 136. 70 ff., 72 ff., 75, 81, 85 ff., 136.
righteousness, 13,102,136,13g; as 117 ff., 134; and cosmogony, 101,
Giver of Life, 7, 143 ; as God of 134, 141; and cosmology, 5g f.,
Israel, 7, 37, 66, 82, 113, 143; as 117 f.; and covenant, 17 ff., Ig ff.,
heavenly Father, 2g f., 120, 129; 25 ff.9 67 f., 98, 102, 106 ff.,
as heavenly King, 33, 38 f., 45 ff., 109 ff., 113 f., 132 f., 135 f., 136 ff.,
59 f., 64 ff., 68, 70 ff., 74% 77, 142 f.; and David, 16, 17 f.,
83 ff., 86, 88 ff., g5 f., IOI f., 20% 25 ff., 3 3 , 128 f.; and
103 ff., 108 ff., 112 f., 120, 125, Death, 82 f., 85 f., 89 f., g3 f.,
128 f., 131 ff., 134 f., 138 ff., 98, IOI f . , 112f., 116ff., 12off.,
141 ff.; as Holy One of Israel, 125 ff., 128, 135 f., 137 f.; and
26, 2g f., IIO; as Judge, 71 f., eschatology, 58 f., 61 n., 70, IOI,
74, 88 f-3 91, 95 ff., 133, 143; as 134, 141, 143 f. ; and extension of
Living God, 82, 103, 120, 123, personality, 16, 20,6g; and gift of
143 ; as Most High (‘Al, 18 n., rain, 59 f., 64,67 f., 79,81,85,92,
so n. ; ‘Wan, 49 f.1, 1 I, 53,74 ff., 104 f.; and history, 61 n., 138,
93, 97, 102, 116 ff., 132, 136; as 141 ff.; and the humble, 20 f., 79,
Rider of the Clouds, 78 n., 85 f., 91, 98 f., 102, 120, 136; and king,
IOI, 118; as (god of) Sinai, 7g ff.; 7 f., 13 ff., 20, 30, 102 f., 104 f.,
as Stronghold of His people, 112, 123 f., 136 ff.; and kings
86 f., go.ff.; as supreme God, 26, (nations) of the earth, 26 ff.,
59, 66, 69, 71 f., 74 ff., 83, 85, 75 ff., 8off., 86 ff., goff., g3 ff.,
93 ff., 95 ff., gsff., 102, 108ff., g5 ff., 98 f., 102, IIO&, 116 f.,
112 f., 122, 128 f., 131 f., 134ff., 121 f., 124, 128 ff., 135 f., 138 f.;
139, 143 f.; as warrior, 30 n., and Melchizedek, 47 ff., 53, 130 f.,
73 ff., 81, 131 f.; devotion and 136; and Messiah, I f., 13 ff.,
faithfulness of, 28 f., 88, 102, 27 ff, III ff., 113 ff., I 16 ff.,
106ff., 115, 120, 123 ff., 127 f., 12off., 1 2 3 f f . , 128ff., 13off.,
132 f., 135 f.; enthronement of, 132 ff., 134 ff., 144; and new age,
60, 64 If., 68, 70, 75 n., 8s f., 93, 61 n., gg ff., 134 ff., 138 ff., 141 ff.;
101, 134; Glory of, 63 f., 73 f., and new song, 91, gg f. ; and peace,
95 f.; intervention of, 93 f., 95 f., 101 f., 134 ff., 138, 143 f.; and
IOI f., 116 ff., 128 f., 131 f., 135 f., people, 8, 20, 53, 64, 67 fi., 72,
144; laws of, 3 ff., 67 n., 137; ~~$9 ff.., 86, 88 fi., 92 ff., 98,
messenger of, 14 ff. ; power of, 13, 123 f., 125 f., 134 fi.9
26, 60, 66 f., 69, 74 f., 78 f., 81, 136 ff:: 142 f.; and righteous,
85, 89, g2 f., 96, IOI f., 116 f., righteousness, 4 ff., I 3, 17, 37 n.,
119, 128, 134 ff., 139; presence of, 53, 71 f., 78 f., 88 f., 9s f., 98,
20, 72, 75, 78, 109, 125, 135; Pur- IOO ff., Iog f., 116 f., 120, 125 ff.,
pose of, 53, 70, 95, 101, 1 1 6 , 134 ff., 138 f., 140 f., 143 f.; and
 Authors 155
Finet, A., 52. ‘acobsen, T., 7.
Fitzmyer, J. S., 37. ‘aeger, C., 24.
INDEX Fohrer, G., 24, 53. ‘ean, C. F., 52.
Follet, R., 5. ‘eremias, J., IO.
de Fraine, J., 2, 7, 39, 124. ‘irku, A., 63.
(b) AUTHORS Frankfort, H., 7, 28, 113, 115 .
Frankfort, H. A., 7. iaiser, O., 91, 114, 115, 117.
Page numbers refer throughout to the footnotes.
Frazer, J. G., 51. iapehud, A. S., 4, 65.
Aalen, A., 56, 57. Buttenwieser, M., 25, 26, 107, 119, <ennedy, A. R. S., 15.
Freedman, D. N., 50, 119.
Abel, F.-M., 47, 59, 81. 128. Kenyon, K. M., 33.
Ackroyd, P. R., 32. Friedrich, J., 42, 46.
Kessler, H., 21.
Ahlstriim, G. W., 52, IIO. Cal&s, J., 25, 26, 114. Kingdon, H. P., 38.
Aistleitner, J., 48. Gadd, C. J., 113, 115.
Caquot, A., IIO. Kirkpatrick, A. F., 15,20,21,26,27,
Caspari, W., 15. von Gall, A., 33, 37, 39.
Albright, W. F., 5,27,37,41,42,43, Galling, K., 80. 44, 78, 114, 124.
g . is, . g, . 50, 60, 62, 77, 78, 79, Causse, A., 17, 24. Kittel, R., 15, 17, 23, 25, 26, 31, 32,
Gaster, T. H., 48, 62, 79, 82.
Cazelles, H., 4, 46. 114, 133.
Allegro, J. M., 80. Gehman, H. S., 24.
Cemy, L., 113. Klostermann, A., 24.
Ginsberg, H. L., 6,36,37,62,78,79.
Alt, A., 32, 46, 48, 53, 65. Clemen, C., 42, 49. Knudtzon, J. A., 14, 34, 35, 39, 40.
Anderson, G. W., 7. Goodenough, E. R., 23.
Cook, S. A., 3, 37, 51. Koehler, L., 67.
Ap-Thomas, D. R., 7. Goodspeed, E. J., 23.
Cooke, G., 63. Kiinig, E., 25, 104, 114, 124.
Arnold, M., 13. Cooke, G. A., II, 35. Gordon, C. H., 6, 36, 37,4o, 41,48,
so, 53, 63, 67, 78, 79, 80, 82, 86, Kraus, H. J., 25, 65, 90, 105, 107,
Auerbach, E., 56. Cross, F. M., jr., 50, 62, 119. 114, 115.
90, 106, 108.
Cruveilhier, P., 130. Kutsch, E., 14.
Baethgen, F., 26. Graham, W. C., 72.
Dahood, M., 50. Gray, G. B., 41, 43, 56.
BUY, D., 59. Labat, R., 5, 28, 93, 113.
Barnes, W. E., 24. Dahnan, G., 59. Gray, J., 6, 24, 36, 53.
Gressmann, H., I O, I I, 15, 17, 23, Lack, R., 51.
Baudissin, W. W. Graf, 6, 37, 38, Danby, H., 57. Lake, K., 124.
. 26, 58.
Davies, T. W., 32. Landersdorfer, S., 23.
Bagr, H., 50. Grimme, H., 80.
Deimel, A., 5, 93. de Groot, J., 54. Landsberger, B., 52.
Begrich, J., 7, 17, 64. Delitzsch, Franz, 21. Lane, E. W., 12, 83, 104.
Gross, H., IO.
Bentzen, A., 7, 31, 32, 53. Delitzsch, Friedrich, 21. Langdon, S., 42.
Benzinger, I., 23, 57. Gunkel, H., 7, II, 17,21, 25, 26, 31,
Dhome, P. (E.), 15, 17, 24, 37, 72, 52, 71, 105, 107, 108, 114, 124. de Langhe, R., 8, 86.
Bergmann, E., 5. 114. van der Leeuw, G., 39,87.
Bernhardt, K. H., 2, 8. Gunneweg, A. H. J., 49.
Dirmger, D., 41, 44, so, 57. Leslie, E. A., 25, 26, 32, 107, 114.
Bertholet, A., 26, 130. Dossin, G., 52. Levi Della Vida, G., 43, 48, 50.
Bewer, J. A., 18. Hall, H. R., 53.
Driver, G. R., 5, 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, Lewy, J., 53, 80.
Birkeland, H., 7, 80. Harris, 2. S., 42.
36, 41, 48, 53, 63, 64, 67, 73, 76, Hartwell, H., 25. Lidzbarski, M., 42.
Black, J. S., 58. 7 8 , 7 9 , 80, 82, 86, 90, 108, 109, Lieberman, S., 5.
Blanckenhom, M., 59. Hauer, C. E., jr., 53.
112, 113, 121, 122, 125, 130. Lindhagen, C., 135.
B6h1, F. M. Th., 25, 26, 63. Hava, J. G., 104.
Driver, S. R., 19. Lipidski, E., 8, 65.
Heidel, A., 93.
Box&amp, B., 26. Duhm, B., 25, 26, 114, 121. Lods, A., 32.
Borger, R., 42. Dunand, M., 6, 41, 42. Hempel, J., 2, 3, so, 54.
van den Born, A., 24. DuPont-Sommer, A., 6. Herdner, A., 6,36,37,4o, 41,42,48,
McHugh, J., 7.
Bottero, J., 52. Diirr, L., 5, 115. so, 53, 63, 67, 78, 79, 82, 86, 90,
108. McKenzie, J. L., IIO.
Bowden, J. S., 15. Dussaud, R., 9, 43. Maier, J., 72.
Breasted, J. H., 7. Herkenne, H., 26, 114.
Hertzberg, H. W., 15, 17. Malamat, A., 4.
Briggs, C. A., 32. Eaton, D., 21. Mann, C. S., 119.
Bright, J., 32. Hilderscheid, H., 59.
Eissfeldt, G., 3, 7, 21, 23, 37,4o, 42, Honeyman, A. M., 51. Marks, J. H., 49.
Brongers, H. A., 109. 45, 48, 49, 65, 72, 74, 80, 86. Marti, K., 33.
Buber, M., 39. Hooke, S. H., 8, 32, 62, 90, I 13.
Engnell, I., 52. Marty, J., 87.
Budde, K., 15, 17, 18, 19. Humbert, P., 48, 75.
Eusebius, 42, 49. May, H. G., 24, 48, 63, 72.
Burnv, C. F., 23, 35, 37. Exner, F. M., 59. Meek, T. J., 5, 51, 80, 130.
Burrows, E., IO, 131. Irwin, W. A., 7, 48.
Menzies, A., 58.
van den Bussche, H., IIO. Fevrier, J. G., 46. Mercer, S. A. B., 14, 34, 35, 39, 40.
Jackson, F. J. F., 124.
 Authors
156 Index Weidner, E. F., 42. Widengren, G., 24, 37, 131.
Weiser, A., 25, 26, 27, 114. Wildberger, H., 31, 39.
du Mesnil du Buisson, Comte, 43. Losenthal, F., 6.
Wellhausen, J., 23, 58. Wilson, J. A., 7.
Michel, D., 65. Lost, L., 2 0 .
Wensinck, A. J., IO, 58, 59. Witton-Davies, C., 39.
Miles, J. C., 5, 130. :owley, H. H., 8,49, 51, 53, 61, 62,
Westermarck, E., 48. Wiirthwein, E., 91.
MShlenbrink, K., 54. 9 6 , 112, 130, 135.
Montgomery, J. A., 24. udolph, W., 44.
Moore, G. F., 45.
Morgenstern, J., 50, 55, 126. ,ayce, A. H., 51.
Moscati, S., 45, 57. Nchmauch, W., 39.
Mowinckel, S., 7, IO, I I, 17, 23, 24, &mid, H., 50.
25, 26, 32, 52, 53, 56, 57, 58, 61, lchmidt, H., 25, 26, 32, 77, 114.
62, 65, 75, 77, 87, 106, 107, 114, chmidt, W., 39.
1x5. chaff, W. H., 51.
chrade, H., 94.
Neuberg, F. J., 73. Schwab, R., 26, 105.
North, C. R., 30. Scott, R. B. Y., 59, 1 0 8 .
Noth, M., 7, 13, 18, 32, 33, 40, 41, sellin, E., 38.
43, 4.5, 50, 51, 59, 88. jethe, K., 34.
Natscher, F., 25, 26, 109. jeyrig, H., 43.
Nougayrol, J., 6, 40, 41. jimons, J., 33.
Nowack, W., 15, 17. Simpson, D. C., 30.
Nyberg, H. S., 18, 37, 49, so, 53. jkehan, P. W., 97.
skinner, J., 23, 24, 55.
Obermann, J., 48. smith, G., 93.
Oesterley, W. 0. E., 24, 25, 26, 32, Smith, H. P., 15, 17, 32.
77, 107, 114. Smith, J. M. P., 23, 118.
C)stbom, G., 24. Smith, R. H., 48.
Smith, W. R., 37.
Pannier, E., 44, 105. Snaith, N. H., 24, 54, 56, 57, 58,
Patai, R., ro, 24, 59, 75. 61, 70.
Patton, J. H., 62, 105, 119. Speiser, E. A., 93.
Peake, A. S., 2, 53. Staerk, W., 25, 26, 114.
Pedersen, J., 3, rr, 27, 48, 56, 78, Stamm, J. J., 52, 53.
102. Steinmann, J., 119.
Perles, F., 85. Steve, A.-M., 33,47, 53.
Pfeiffer, R. H., IIO. Sutcliffe, E. F., 60.
Podechard, E., 25, 26, 44, 95, 107. Swetnam, J., 36.
Pohl, A., 5.
Porteous, N. W., 7, 53. Tadmor, H., 52.
Porter, J. R., 3, 30. Thackeray, H. St. J., 59.
Posener, G., 34. Thomas, D. W., 7, 18, 81, 88.
Pritchard, J. B., 5, 6, 93. Thureau-Dangin, F., 37, 40.
Procksch, O., 17. Tournay, R., 26, 27, 50, 105.
Trinquet, J., 72.
Quell, G., 38. Turner, J. E., 87.

von Rad, G., 9, 24, 26, 49. d e Vaux, R., 7, 14, 17, 24, 25, 41,
Randon, L., 26. 46, 49, 54, 56, 72.
Renard, H., 44, 105. Vincent, L.-H., 33, 47, 53, 72.
Ridderbos, J., 67, 77. Virolleaud, Ch., 6, 40.
Rihani, A., 116. Volz, P., 58.
Ringgren, H., 37. Vriezen, Th. C., 49.
Robinson, H. W., 2, 18, 32, 63.
Robinson, T. H., 24, 32, 77. Wambacq, B. N., 74.
Ronzevalle, P. S., 50. Waterman, L., 23.
. . .... .........
zc) &$

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. . . . . . . ..~..............

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....
2
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wo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... ..........
 160 Index Scripture References 161

2 Samuel (cont.): i. 34 . . . 12 n.
...
xv111. 4 . . . 14n. iv. 2 ff. . 60 n.
...
viu. 17 ‘. . . 44 n., 52 n . i. 39 . . . 12 n. xix. I4ff. . . 13”. v. z-vii. . . .
I0 13 n.
x.16 . . . . Ion i. 45 f. . . . 83 n. xix.15. . . 72 n. v.3 . . . . 54 n.
xi.1 . . . 56 n ii. 27 . . . 50 n. xxii. 3-xxiii. 23 . 14n. vi. 41 f. . . . 20 n.
xi. 21 . .
... ... vii.
. . 44n 111. 4 . . . 13 n. xX111. IO . . 45 n. 8-10 . . . 54 n.
... ...
xii.24f. . . 51 n iii. 4-28 . . . Vlll. I I . . . . 21 n.
. ... 5 n. xxlll. I I . 45 n.
xii. 30 . . . . 43 n 111.15 . . . . . . 13 viii. I2 f.
I3n. XXIII. . . 43 n.
xiv. 1-20 . . 4n iii. 16-28 . . II6n. xxv. 13 . . 60 n. ix.4 .. . . 13 n.
xiv. 9 . . . . 4n v.1 . . . Ion. ix. 26 . . . . 10 n.
xiv.17. . . 16 n., 30 n v. I5-vii. 51 . . 54 n. I Chronicles: I4.f. ... 14 n.
xiv. 20 . . . 16 n., 30 n, v. I5-viii. 66 . 14 n. i.49 . . 5In. xiv. 8-14 . . . 13 n.
XV.I-6. . . 4n., 116 n. vi. 38 . . . 55 n. ii. 19 . . 21n. xv. 1-18 . . . 14 n.
xv.10. . . 65 n., 77 n, vii. 23-26 . . 60 n. ii. 50 f. . . 21 n. xix. 5-11 . . . 5 n.
xv.24ff.
... xx. 1-30 . . . 13 n.
. . . 52 n. Vlll
...
. . . 13 n. iii. 18 . . 45 n. ...
xvi.16. . . . 12 n. Vlll. 2 . . 54 n., 55 n. iv.4 . . 21 n. xxlll. II . 12 n., 14 n., 23 n.
...
xvii.15. . . . 52 n. v111.12. . . 94 n. v.16 . . 63 n. xxiv. 4-14 . . . 14 n.
xix.12. . . . 52 n. viii. 66 . . . 28 n. v. 30-40 . 52n. xxvi. 16-20 . . . 13 n.
...
xix. 2 2 . . 14 n., 15 n., 16 n. ix. 25 . . . 13 n. vi. 25 . . 46 n. xxviii. 22-25 . . 13 n., 14 n.
xix. 28 . . . 16 n., 30 n. x.5 . . . 13 n. vi. 35-38 . 52n. xxix. 3-xxxi. 21 . . 14 n.
Xix. 41-43
. . . 55 n. xi.5 . . . 43 n. vii. 31 . . 43 n. xxix. 25 ff. . 14n.
XX.1 . . . 55 n. xi.7 . . . 43 n. ...
Vlll. 33 . . xxxiv. 3-xxxv. -19 . . 14 n.
. ... . 45 n.
xxi. 1-14 . . . 4 n. xi.33 . . . 43 n. Vlll. 35 . . 43 n. xxxvi. I0 . . 56 n.
xxi.17. . . . I xi. 36 . . . 28 n. ...
Vlll. 40 . . 83 n.
. . 21 n., 51 n. xii. I6 . . 28 n., 55 n., rI2n. Ezra
xxi.19.
.. ix. I2 . . 46 n., 47”. ... : . . 56 n.
xxll. . . . . 116 n. xii. 26-32 . . . 14 n. ix. 39 . . 45 n. 111. 4 . .
xxii.5 . . . . 117 n. xii. 26-33 . . . 54 n. ix. 41 . . . 43 n. x. 25 . . . . 46 n.
Xxii. 5 f. . . . 60 n. xii. 32 . . . 55 n., 57 n. x.2 . . . 45 n. x.31 . . . . 46 n.
xxii. 7 . . . . 118 n. Xii. 32 f. . . . 55 n. xi. 46 . . 41 n.
xxii.8 . . . . 60 n. xii. 32-xiii. 10 . . 13 n. Xii.2 . . 83 n. Nehemiah :
xxii. 14 . . . . 119n. xiv.15. . . . 10 n.
...
x111 . 13 n., 14 n., 19 n. ii.3 . . . . 12 n.
xxii.16.
...
111. . . 46 n.
. . . 119 n. xv. 12-15 . . . 14 n. xiii. 6 . . . 72n.
... I I ..
xxii.16f. . . . 60 n. xvii.1 . . . . 4 n. xv . 13 n., 14 n., 19 n. iii. 14 . . . . 46 n.
xxii. 30.
... ... 31 . 46 n.
. . . 121 n. xvlll. I . . . . 4n. xv. 16ff. . 14 n. iii.
. . . . .
xxii. 36 . . . , 122 n. xviii. 18 . . . 4 n. xvi . rg n., 14 n., 19 n. Vlll. 4 . . . . 46n.
xxii. 44 . . . . 123 n. xx. 22 . . . . 56 n. xvii. 1-15 . 26 n., I IO n. viii. 14-18 . . 56 n., 58 n.
xxii. 45 . . . . 123 n. xx. 26 . . . . 56 n. xviii. 16 * 44 n., 52 n. ix.32 . . . 30 n.
xxii. 48 . . . . 123 n. xxi.10 . . . . 16 n. xx.1 . . 56 n. x.4 . . . . 46 n.
. . .
46 n., 47 n.
. . . I-7 ..
XXl11.1. . . 50 n. xxi.13. . . . 16 n. xx.2 . . 43 n. xi.12 . . .
. . 46 n.
XXlll. . 16 n., 18 f. xxii.19. . . . 39 n. xx.5 . . 21 n., 51 n, xii. 42 . .
xxiii. 6 f. . . . 125 n. xxi. I-xxii. 1 . . 34 n,
...
-11. 17 . . . 12 n. :! Kings: xxi. IS-xxii. I . 13 n., I4n Job:
xxiv . . . . 34 n. iv. 29
. . . . 21 n. lorii. 2-19 . . I4n i.6 . . . 63 n., 97 n.
x x i v . 10-25 . . . 4 n. v.7 . . . . 30 n. xxii.10. . . . 28n ii. 1 . . . 63 n., 97 n.
w i v . 16ff. . . . 34 n. vii.2 . . . . 60 n. xxiv. 3 . . . 44n iii. 8 . . . . 108 n.
xxiv. 18-25 . . 13 n., 14 n. vii.19. . . . 60 n. xxiv. 6 . . . 44n vii.12. . . 108 n.
viii. I-6 . . 4 n. xxiv. 9 . . . 46 n., 47 n ix.13 . . . 108 n.
I Kings: ix. 1-13 . . . 14 n. Xxiv. 23 . . 45 n xxii. 2 . . . . 76 n.
i. r-ii. 35 . . . 52 n. ix.13. . . 65 n., 77 n. xxiv. 31 . . 44n xxii. 14 . . . . IIn.
i.11 . . . . 66 n. x.15 . . . . 21 n. xxv . . . I4n xxvi. I0 . . II n.
i.18 . . . . 66 n. x. 18-28 . . 13 n., 14n. xxviii. 6 . . 28n x x v i . Ioff. . . 60 n.
i. 25 . . . . I2n. xi. 4-20 . . . 14 n. xxvi. 12 f. . . Io8n.
i. 28-40 . . . 14 n. xi.12. , . 12 n., 23 n. 2 Chronicles: xxvi. I3 . . . Io8n.
i.31 . . . . 12 n. xii. 5-17 . . . 14 n. i.6 . . . I3n xxxviii. 4 ff. . . 60 n.
...
i. 33-35 . . . 83 n. xvi. ho-18 . . 13 n. 14 n. i . I8-vii. I O . . - I4n xXXv111. 7 . . 63 n., 97 n.
c 3988 M
 I62 Index
Scripture References 163
Job (cont.): xlvi. 12 . , . , 93 n.
xxxviii. 16 f. . . . 60 n xlvii . . 74 % 89, 97
lxxx. 12 . . . 10 n. C . . 70 n.
xl. z5-xli. 26 . 108 n xlvii. 2-6 . lxxxi . . . . 70 n. ci 113 ff., 116, 120
* 75f.
xlvii. 4 . . . 123 n. lxxxi. 4 . . . 57 n. ci. r-2a . 114
Psalms: x l v i i . 7-10 . lxxxii . . . . 98 f. ci. 2b-8 . . 115f.
76 Io8n.
ii . . . . 128fl xlvii. 9 . . . 65 n., 77 n. lxxxii. I . . . 98 civ. 25 f. . .
ii. 1-6 . . . 12( xlvii. 10 . . 105 n. lxxxii. 2-5 . . . 99 cv.10. . .24n.
ii. 7 . . . 24n., 131 n xlviii . . lxxxii. 3 . . . 99 n. cviii. 13 f. . .
113”.
85 ff.., 93, 95 n.
ii. 7-9 . . . . 12! xlviii. 2 f. . . 114n. lxxxii. 67 . . . 99 cx . . . 47 n., 130 ff.
ii. 10-12 . . 129 f xlviii. 2-3 . . . 86 lxxxii. 8 . . . cx. I-2 130
vii. 9 . . . . son xlviii. 3 . . lxxxiv . . . . 103; cx. 3-4 . 131
75 n.
xiv. 2 , . . . 76 n xlviii. 4-8 . . 86f. lxxxiv. 2-5 . . . 103 cx. 5-7 . 132
...
xv111 . . . 106 n., 116 ff xlviii. 9 . . 87, 114 n. lxxxiv. 6-10 . . . 104 f. cxv. II . 124n.
...
xvm 2-4 . . . xlviii. 10 . . 88 lxxxiv. 11-13 . . . 105 f. cxvi.3. . . 21 n.
lxxxviii. 5-8
... . 106 n., 123 ff.
xviii. 5 f. . . 6:: xlviii. I 1-12 . . . 60 n. CXVlll . .
... 89 . . . 1-4
xvm. 5-7a . . 11; xlviii. 12 . lxxxix 17 n., 25 ff., 106 ff., 116 cxviii. . . 124
. 97n. . . .
xviii. 7b-2o . . . 118ff xlviii. I 3-15 89 lxxxix. 2 . . . 115 n. CXVlll. 5-14
. . . 7a . . 124f.
xviii. 8 . . . 60 II 1.1 . . . . 104 n. lxxxix. 2-3 . . . 106 f. cxvm. . . 71 n.
xviii. 16 f. . . . 60 n, lii. 2 . 44 n. lxxxix. 2-19 . . . 26 cxviii. 8 f. . . 130n.
... . . . . 126f.
XVlll.
. . . 2 1203 0 * . 124n lx. 13f.’ : . 113 n. lxxxix. 4-5 . .
. Io8f.
107 . . . 15-21 .
cxv~ii.
xviii. . . 12of. lxviii . . 77 ff., 89, 125 lxxxix. 6-13 . . CXVIII.
...
22-27a 127
xviii. 3 1-46 . . . 122 f. lxviii. 2-7 . . 78 f. lxxxix. 7 . . . 63 n. cxvlll. 27a . . g8 n.
...
XVlll. 47-51 . kXXiX. 14-19 . cxviii. 27b-29 . 128
123 lxviii. 8-1 I , . 79 f. . . 109
xviii. 48 . . . 76 II. Iwiii. 12-15 . . 80 f. lxxxix. 19 . . . 105 n. cxxxii . . 17 n., 19 ff.
xx. 7ff.. . . . 113 n. lxviii. 16 , . . 82 n. lxxxix. 20-30. . 26 ff. cxxxii. I-10 . . zoff.
xxi . . . . 132ff. lxviii. 16-19 . . 81 f. lxxxix. 20-38 . . 26 n., IIO f. cxxxii. 6b . . 5In.
xxi. 2-8 . . . 132 f. lxviii. 18 . . lxxxix. 2ob . . 29 cxxxii. 11-18 . . 22f.
. 79 n.
xxi.6. . . 26 n. lxviii. 19 . . . 75 n* lxxxix. 21b . . 28 n. cxxxii. 12 . 24 n., 67 n.
xxi. 8 . . - 133 n. lxviii. 20-24 . 82 lxxxix. 31-38 . . . 28 f. cxxxii. 13 . 31
xxi, g-14 ._. . 133 f. lxviii. 22 . . 132 n. lxxxix. 39 . . 28 n. c x x x i i . 18b . . 24n.
XXiV * 72 ff.9 75,81,83,89, 125 lxviii. 25 . . 103 n. lxxxix. 39-46 . . . III f. c x x x i i i . zf. .
... 3 . . 131 n.
xxiv. I f. . . . 60 n. lxviii. 25-28 . 83 f. kXXiX. 39-52 . . 29 cxxx111. . 131 n.
xxiv. I-2 . . . 72 f. h’iii. 29-32 . kxXix. 47-52 . . . 112 f. cxxxvi. 6 . . 6on.
. 84
xxiv. 2 . . . 67n.,
27 n. lxviii. 31 . . 87 n. lnxix. 52 . . . 28 n. cxxxvii. I . . 27n.
xxiv. 3 . . . . 75 n. lxviii. 33-36 . . 85 lxxxix. 53 . cxxxix. 13 . . 48 n.
xxiv. 3-6 . . . . . . . 61-n., zz;f: cxlix . * . 91 f.
hiii. 34 . . . 78 n. . . . 3 . . ..
xc111
cxlix. 1-4 .
xxiv. 7-10 . . . 737: lxix.16. . . . 60 n. XClll. . 91
xxiv. 8 . . . . 132 n. lxxi. 20. . . . 60 n. xcv . . . 6I’n., zi k cxlix. 5-9 . . g1f.
xxv. IO . . 67 n. lxxii . xcv. ITab . . . 68
. 7 ff., 17 . 18 n.
xxix 62 ff., 8673, 77, f., 93, 96 f. lxxii. I-; 1 . . 9 xcv. 2 . . Proverbs:
...
xxix. I-Z . . . 63 lxxii. 8 . . . x1 n., 27n. xcv. 7c . . 69, I O I Vlll. 22 . . . 48 n.
... . 60 n.
xxix. 3-9 . . . 63 f. lxxii. 8-11 . . . IO xcv. 8-11 . . . 69 Vlll. 24-29
. . . 27 . .
lxxii. 12-14 . IIf. xcvi . . . 61 n., 99 n. vu. . . II n .
xxix. IO-II . . . 64 . .
xxxiii. 6 f. . 60 n. hii. 15-17 . . xcvi. 13 . x.5 . . . 76 n.
xxxiv . . 44 n. lxxiv. 2 . . 79: xcvii . . . 6I’n.,‘~~ k x.19 . . . 76 n.
xli. 2 . . 76 n. lxxiv. 12 ff. 1 . . 108 n. xcvii. I-6 . 96 xiv.35. . . 76 n.
xlv . . 30n. lxxiv.13f. . . . 108 n. xcvii. 7-9 . . . 97 xvi. 20 . . . 76 n.
xlv. 7 . . 30 n. lxxvi . . xcvii. 10-12 . . 98 xvii. 2 . . . 76n.
. 95 n. ...
xlvi . . 86 n., 92 ff., 95 n. lxxvi. 2 f. . . 32 xcvii. I I . 127 n. XXIII. 22 . . 79n.
. . . . 6; n., 99 f. xxiv. 21 . . 16n.
xlvi. 2-4 . . 92 f. lxxvi. 3 . . . 47 n. XCVlll . .
xlvi. 5 . II lxxvi. 4 . . . 32 II. xcix . . . 70 ff.
xlvi. 5-8 . 94 lxxviii. 54 , . xcix. I . . . 118 n. Song of Solomon:
. . 79 IL
xlvi. 8 . . . 93 IL lxxx.2. . . . 72 n. xcix. 1-5 . . . 7of. i.13 . . . 51”.
xlvi. 9-12 . . . 95 lxxx.11 . . . 27 n. xcix. 3 . . . 76 n. i.15 . . . 30n.
xcix. 6-9 . 71 iv. I . , . 30n.

,.... “). .” ..,,.

164 Index Scripture References 165
Song of Solomon (cont.): lx. 14 . . . 114n. Jonah : ix. 9 f. . . . . 11 n.
v.12 . . . 30n. lxi.1 . . . 16 n. ii. 4 . . 67 n. xii. 10 . . r5n.
...
v111.4 . . . II2n. ii. 6 f. . . 60 n. xiv. 9 . . . . 58 n.
xiv. 16f. . . 58 f., 78 n.
Jeremiah : Micah : xiv. 16-19 . . . 56 n.
Isaiah : ii. 18 . . . 10 n.
vi. I ff. . . 64 n. v.1 . . 21n.
ix.2 . . . 104 n. vii. 12 . . Ion.
vii. 2 . . 3 n. xv. 4 . Malachi:
vii.13. . . 4 n. ...
111.10 . . . . 60 n.
3 n. xvii. 5 ff. . 113 n.
vii.17. . 3 n. xxi. I .
Habakkuk :
...
46 n., 47 n. 111. 13 . . 132 n.
vii. 20 . . . Ion. xxi.
. . . 12 . . . 116 n. Matthew:
viii. 6 . . . IIn. xX111. 5 . . 76 n. xxi.9 . . . . 127 n.
ix.5 . . . 30n. Zephaniah: xxi.15. . . . 127 n.
-.9 . . . 28 n. i.1 . . 45 n.
x.21 . . . 30 n. xxxii. 18 . . 30 n.
xi. I ff. . . 16 n. xxxii. 35
i.5 . - 43 n.
... . . 45 n. Mark:
xiv. 12-15 . . 94 n. xxxv111. I . 46 n., 47 n. xi. 9 f. . . . . 127 n.
xxiv. I8 . . 60 n. xxxviii. 6 . . 46 n.
Haggai:
xxvi. I9 . . 131 n. ... i.1 .
xxxviii. 7-13 . - 45 n. . $ :: ‘John:
xxvii. I . . . 108 n. i.12 .
xxxix. 15-18 . . . 45 n. vii. 2 . . . . 55 n.
xxvii. . 84 n. i. 14 . - 37 n.
II . xlix. 1 . . . . 43 n. xii.13. . . . 127 n.
xxvii. 12 . . Ion. ii. 2 . - 37 n.
xlix. 3 . . . . 43 n.
xXx.7. . . ro8n. ii. 4 . . 37 n.
1.2 . . . 38 n. 2 Corinthians:
xxx.33 * . 45 n. li. 44 . . . . 38 n. iii.18 . . . . 104 n.
xxxi. I ff. . . 113 n. Zechariah :
xxxii. I5 . . 15 n. iv. 6 . . 113 n.
... Lamentations: vi. 11 . Hebrews:
xxxlll. 21 . . 119 n. ... . 37”.
xxxvii. 14 ff. . . 13 n. 111. 44 . . . . 119 n. vii. 2 . . 45 n. vii. 2 . . . . 36
xxxvii. 16 . 72 n. iv. 20 . . . . 2
Xl-IV . . 61 n.
xl. 22 . . IIn. Ezekiel:
xl. 31 . . Io4n. i. 5-28 . . . . 118n.
xli. 14 . . 61 n. x. I-22 . . 118n.
xliii. I . 61 n. xvi.3 . . . .
xliii. 14 . 61 n. xxvi. 19-21 . . . 60:
xliii. 17
. . . 118 n.
. 125 n. xxviii. 11-19 . . .
xliv. 3 . . 15 n. xxxiv. 23 f. . . . 28 n.
xliv. 6 . . 61 n. xxxvii. 24 f. . . . 28 n.
xliv. 22 . . 61 n. xxxix. 29 . . 15 n.
xliv. 23 . . 61 n. xl.1 . . . 57 n.
xliv. 24 . . 61 n. xliii. 7-9 . . 54 n.
xliv. 27 . . 67 n. xlvii . . . II n.
xlv. IO . . 131 n.
xlvi. I . 38n. Hosea :
xlvii. 4 . . 61 n. ...
111. 5 . . . 28 n.
xlviii. 17 . 61 n.
xlviii. 20 . 61 n.
xlix. 7 . . 61 n. reel:
xlix. 26 . . 61 n. iii. I f. . . . 15 n.
li. 9 . . 108 n.
lii. 7 . . 65 n., 77 n. Amos:
lii. 9 . . . 61 n. i.15 . . . 43 n.
liv. 5 . . . 61 n. v.8 . . 60 n.
liv. 8 . . . 61 n. vii. 10-17 . . 54 n.
liv. 12 . . . 10.5 n. ix. 2 f. . . 108 n.
Iv. 3 . . II5n. ix.3 . . , 82 n.
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