Texts in Conversation
Psalms of Solomon 3 echoes the Greek Septuagint translation of Psalm 143, drawing on the image of singing a new song to God in response to deliverance. Both texts combine personal praise with national themes of rescue from foreign threats.
Share:
2500 BCE
1000+ CE
LXX Psalm 143:9
Septuagint
7 Send forth your hand from on high; rescue me, and deliver me out of great waters, out of the hand of strange children; 8 whose mouth has spoken vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of iniquity. 9 God, I will sing a new song to you: I will play to you on a lute of ten strings. 10 Even to him who gives salvation to kings: who redeems his servant David from the hurtful sword. 11 Deliver me, and rescue me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth has spoken vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of iniquity;
Date: 100–1 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Psalms of Solomon 3:1
Pseudepigrapha, Wisdom and Poetry
1 Why are you sleeping, my soul, and not blessing the Lord? Sing a new song to God who is worthy to be praised. 2 Sing and stay awake to watch for His awakening, for a psalm (sung) to God from a joyful heart is good. 3 The righteous remember the Lord at all times, with thanksgiving and by declaring that the Lord’s judgments are righteous.
Date: 65–30 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Search:
Notes and References
"... The singing of psalms was a prominent part of worship at the Second Temple, in relation to the daily and Sabbath cult and especially festival pilgrimage (Falk 1998: 194–9; e.g. 1 Chronicles 23:30–31; 2 Chronicles 30:21; Sirach 47:9–10; 50:18; 1 Maccabees 4:52–59; 2 Maccabees 1:30; 10:6–8; Philo, Special Laws 1.193–5). This involves formal performance by the Temple singers, but the use of refrains points to participation of pilgrims, and there are also references to popular singing by pilgrims, both at the Temple and on the way home. Other settings in which the singing of songs is attested include victory celebrations (e.g. 1 Maccabees 4:24; Josephus, Antiquities 12:349) and festival celebrations at home (especially Passover seder: Philo, Laws 2:148; Josephus, Antiquities 2:346; compare Jubilees 49:6; Wisdom 18:9; Mark 14:26; see Bokser 1984). It is difficult to know whether the celebration of the Alexandrian community with singing of hymns on the beach at the news of the arrest of Flaccus (Philo, Flaccus 116–25) is to be understood as an eruption of spontaneous victory songs or as also reflective of festival celebration which normally would have taken place in their synagogue. There is also perhaps an allusion to psalms in Sabbath assembly (Psalms-Philo 11:8; but compare McKay 1994: 13), and to private songs in the morning (Psalms of Solomon 3:1–3; 6:4–5) ..."
Daniel K. Falk, “The Contribution of the Qumran Scrolls to the Study of Ancient Jewish Liturgy,” in The Oxford Handbook of the Dead Sea Scrolls, ed. John J. Collins and Timothy H. Lim (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 1–25.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
Your Feedback:
Leave a Comment
Anonymous comments are welcome. All comments are subject to moderation.
User Comments
,