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About this book

Psalms of Solomon

About this book

The Righteous and the Sinner

Psalm 3

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. 4 The righteous person does not despise the Lord’s discipline; His desire is always in the Lord’s presence.

5 The righteous person stumbles and acknowledges that the Lord is righteous: He falls and watches for what God will do to him; He searches for where his rescue will come from. 6 The firm resolve of the righteous is from God their deliverer; Sin does not pile up in the righteous person’s house. 7 The righteous person continually searches his house, to remove completely (all) wrongdoing (done) by him unintentionally.⁠ 8 He makes atonement for (sins of) ignorance by fasting and humbling himself, and the Lord counts every faithful man and his household as free from guilt.⁠

9 The sinner stumbles and curses his life, the day he was born, and his mother's labor pains. 10 He adds sin to sin while he lives (?); He falls, his fall is truly terrible, and he never rises again. 11 The destruction of the sinner is forever, and he will not be remembered when God attends to the righteous person.

12 This is the fate of sinners forever. But those who fear the Lord shall rise to eternal life,⁠ And their life (shall be) in the light of the Lord, and will never end.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Job 1:5 and Psalms of Solomon 3:7

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Wisdom and Poetry

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Summary

The Psalms of Solomon develops a theme from Job where he offers sacrifices on behalf of his children in case they have sinned. In the Psalms of Solomon, this becomes a practice of constant self-examination that tries to remove unintentional sin.

Passages

Job 1:5

Hebrew Bible
4 Now his sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one in turn, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. 5 When the days of their feasting were finished, Job would send for them and sanctify them; he would get up early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job thought, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s customary practice. 6 Now the day came when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord—and Satan also arrived among them. 7 The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” And Satan answered the Lord, “From roving about on the earth, and from walking back and forth across it.”
500–401 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Job

Psalms of Solomon 3:7

Pseudepigrapha, Wisdom and Poetry
5 The righteous person stumbles and acknowledges that the Lord is righteous: He falls and watches for what God will do to him; He searches for where his rescue will come from. 6 The firm resolve of the righteous is from God their deliverer; Sin does not pile up in the righteous person’s house. 7 The righteous person continually searches his house, to remove completely (all) wrongdoing (done) by him unintentionally. 8 He makes atonement for (sins of) ignorance by fasting and humbling himself, and the Lord counts every faithful man and his household as free from guilt. 9 The sinner stumbles and curses his life, the day he was born, and his mother's labor pains.
65–30 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Psalms of Solomon

References

"... The idea of moral progress also starts to make more of an appearance in other works from the late Second Temple period, for example, in the Wisdom of Solomon ... There is sometimes also an emphasis on ascetic practices that will purify one's character. Thus in Psalms of Solomon 3 we read, 'The Righteous constantly searches his house to remove his unintentional sin' (a possible allusion to seeking out leaven before Passover). Compare Job 1:5 ..."
John Barton, Ethics in Ancient Israel (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 163.

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

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Job 1:5 and Psalms of Solomon 3:7

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