Texts in Conversation
Ezekiel describes a future where rulers no longer oppress the people, and the land is fairly shared between Israel’s tribes. The Psalms of Solomon echoes this when describing a future Davidic king who will restore justice and share the land equally.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Ezekiel 45:8
Hebrew Bible
6 “‘Alongside the portion set apart as the holy allotment, you will allot for the city an area 1⅔ miles wide and 8¼ miles long; it will be for the whole house of Israel. 7 “‘For the prince there will be land on both sides of the holy allotment and the allotted city, on the west side and on the east side; it will be comparable in length to one of the portions, from the west border to the east border 8 of the land. This will be his property in Israel. My princes will no longer oppress my people, but the land will be allotted to the house of Israel according to their tribes. 9 “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Enough, you princes of Israel! Put away violence and destruction and do what is just and right. Put an end to your evictions of my people, declares the Sovereign Lord. 10 You must use just balances, a just dry measure (an ephah), and a just liquid measure (a bath).
Date: 600–501 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Psalms of Solomon 17:28
Pseudepigrapha, Wisdom and Poetry
26 And he shall gather a holy people, whom he shall lead in righteousness, And he shall judge the tribes of the people who have been made holy by the Lord his God. 27 And he shall not allow unrighteousness to live among them anymore, Nor shall any man who knows wickedness live with them, For he shall know that they are all sons of their God. 28 And he shall divide them according to their tribes on the land, And neither a temporary resident nor a foreigner shall live with them anymore. 29 He shall judge peoples and nations in the wisdom of his righteousness. Selah. 30 And he shall have the foreign nations serve him under his yoke; And he shall glorify the Lord in a place visible to (?) the whole earth; And he shall cleanse Jerusalem, making it holy as in ancient times:
Date: 65–30 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Psalms of Solomon 17 also uses imagery from Ezekiel 34. Psalm of Solomon 17 first affirms the kingship of God and his appointment of David (Psalms of Solomon 17:1-8), and then condemns the leaders of Israel. The psalmist’s prayed-for solution to the problem of Gentile incursion is the restoration of the Davidic line, described in terms derived from Ezekiel 34 (Psalms of Solomon 17:21 / Ezekiel 34:23; Psalms of Solomon 17:27 / Ezekiel 34:30; Psalms of Solomon 17:16-18 / Ezekiel 34:12). Besides the verbal parallels, there are also many conceptual parallels between Psalm of Solomon 17 and Ezekiel 34: the weak sheep (Psalms of Solomon 17:40, Ezekiel 34:4, 16), the pasture (Psalms of Solomon 17:40, Ezekiel 34:14, 18); judgment on the leaders (Psalms of Solomon 17:5-20; Ezekiel 34:1-10, 17-22), deliverance from the Gentile nations (Psalms of Solomon 17:22-25; Ezekiel 34:28-29), and the renewed covenant between God and his people (Psalms of Solomon 17:27; Ezekiel 34:30). The psalmist’s expectation that the coming king will perform a just reallocation of the tribes and the land (Psalms of Solomon 17:28, 43) is similar in concept and wording to the expectations found in Ezekiel 45:8, 47:13, 21 ..."
Gary T. Manning Jr., “Shepherd, Vine, and Bones: The Use of Ezekiel in the Gospel of John,” in After Ezekiel: Essays on the Reception of a Difficult Prophet, ed. P. Joyce and A. Mein, LHBOTS (London: T&T Clark, 2010), 1–31.
* 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.
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