Psalms

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Psalm 148

1 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord from the sky. Praise him in the heavens.⁠ 2 Praise him, all his angels. Praise him, all his heavenly assembly. 3 Praise him, O sun and moon. Praise him, all you shiny stars.⁠ 4 Praise him, O highest heaven and you waters above the sky.⁠ 5 Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he gave the command and they came into existence. 6 He established them so they would endure; he issued a decree that will not be revoked.⁠ 7 Praise the Lord from the earth, you sea creatures and all you ocean depths, 8 O fire and hail, snow and clouds, O stormy wind that carries out his orders,⁠ 9 you mountains and all you hills, you fruit trees and all you cedars, 10 you animals and all you cattle, you creeping things and birds, 11 you kings of the earth and all you nations, you princes and all you leaders on the earth, 12 you young men and young women, you elderly, along with you children. 13 Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his majesty extends over the earth and sky. 14 He has made his people victorious and given all his loyal followers reason to praise—the Israelites, the people who are close to him. Praise the Lord!

Texts in conversation

Compare Psalm 148:1 and Ecclesiastes Rabbah 3:20

Hebrew Bible · Rabbinic

Summary

Psalm 148 calls first on the heavens to praise God and then on the earth. Rabbinic tradition in Ecclesiastes Rabbah interprets that as evidence that whatever was made in the heavens originates there and whatever was made on earth originates below.

Passages

Psalm 148:1

Hebrew Bible

1 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord from the sky. Praise him in the heavens. 2 Praise him, all his angels. Praise him, all his heavenly assembly. 3 Praise him, O sun and moon. Praise him, all you shiny stars. 4 Praise him, O highest heaven and you waters above the sky. 5 Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he gave the command and they came into existence. 6 He established them so they would endure; he issued a decree that will not be revoked.

600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

Ecclesiastes Rabbah 3:20

Rabbinic · Aggadah

“Everything goes to one place…” – Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua, Rabbi Eliezer says: Everything that the Holy One blessed be He created in the heavens, their origins are from the heavens, and everything that the Holy One blessed be He created on the earth, their origins are from the earth. What is the reason [for Rabbi Eliezer’s opinion]? [It is based on the verses:] “Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise Him in the heights, praise Him all his angels” (Psalms 148:1–2) until: “Praise the Lord from the earth, sea creatures and all depths, fire and hail, snow and vapor” (Psalms 148:7–8), until the end of the psalm.

700–950 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Ecclesiastes Rabbah

References

“... The pessimistic view of Eccl 3:19–20, where death constitutes the common fate for both rational and irrational worlds, is a stumbling block for the Rabbis who believe in afterlife and thus venture to harmonize interpretatively Solomon’s assertion with their own beliefs. In this tripartite type of multiform intertextuality we notice the change of the contextual meaning of Ps 148:1 that explains the rabbinic understanding of Eccl 3:20, while the pattern of question–answer adds vividness to the rabbinic exposition: [...] R. Eliezer expresses the idea of the existence of two worlds as the place from where the created world originates. He alters the pessimistic tone of Eccl 3:20 and uses the Psalmic verse to support the idea of man’s twofold nature; “man” is composed of body and soul and, therefore, bridges both worlds. In order to accomplish his goal, R. Eliezer uses Ps 148:1–14, whose main theme is God’s exaltation by his creatures in heaven and on earth, and which seems to support the concept of the existence of the intelligible and the visible words. ...”

Michail Kitsos, “Examples of Intertextuality in Ecclesiastes Rabbah: An Examination of the Book of Psalms in Ecclesiastes Rabbah with Methodological Nuances,” in Reading Ecclesiastes Intertextually, ed. Katharine Dell and Will Kynes (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2014), 278.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Psalms150 psalms

Compare Psalm 148:1 and Ecclesiastes Rabbah 3:20

Summary

Passages

Psalm 148:1

Ecclesiastes Rabbah 3:20

References

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