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Musical aspects of Old Testament canticles in their biblical setting

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2008

John Arthur Smith
John Arthur Smith
Affiliation:
Åssiden kirke, Drammen, Norway
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Extract

The Hebrew Old Testament contains, besides prose narratives and laws, a considerable amount of poetry. The books of Lamentations, Proverbs and Psalms and the Song of Solomon, together with the prophetic oracles that make up the books of Amos, Habakkuk, Joel, Micah, Nahum, Obadiah and Zephaniah, consist entirely, or almost entirely, of poetry. In several other books, especially Job and the books of the prophets Haggai, Isaiah and Jeremiah, poetry predominates, while in the books of history and law, although prose predominates, poetry is never entirely absent, brief though its manifestations sometimes are. The vast majority of the poetry is sacred, as would be expected from texts that occur within religious writings. The relatively small amount of profane poetry consists of a handful of short examples and the Song of Solomon.

Type
Research Article
Information
Early Music History , Volume 17 , October 1998 , pp. 221 - 264
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1998

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References

1 In the Hebrew text of the Old Testament it is sometimes difficult to differentiate between poetry and prose. On this problem and the criteria used to determine what is poetry and prose in biblical Hebrew, see e.g. Watson, W. G. E., Classical Hebrew Poetry: A Guide to Its Techniques, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Supplement Series 26 (Sheffield, 1984), pp. 44–65;Google ScholarFreedman, D. N., ‘Another Look at Biblical Hebrew Poetry’, Directions in Biblical Hebrew Poetry, ed. Follis, E. R., Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Supplement Series 40 (Sheffield, 1987), pp. 11–28;Google ScholarGillingham, S. E., The Poems and Psalms of the Hebrew Bible, Oxford Bible (Oxford, 1994), pp. 18–43, 122–35Google Scholar. The Hebrew Old Testament is cited here and The Hebrew Old Testament is cited here and throughout according to the Masoretic Text [MT] in the edition Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, ed. Elliger, K., Rudolph, W. and Rüger, H. P. (Stuttgart, 1984)Google Scholar, hereafter cited as ‘MT’ or ‘Hebrew’.

2 The Song of Solomon consists entirely of profane love poetry, but from Rabbinic times (first century CE) onwards some commentators have regarded it as sacred allegory. See Brenner, A., The Israelite Woman, The Biblical Seminar (Sheffield, 1985, repr. 1989), p. 47;Google ScholarGillingham, , Poems and Psalms, pp. 113–15Google Scholar.

3 See the discussion in Gillingham, , Poems and Psalms, pp. 136–69Google Scholar.

4 The general chronology used here and throughout is as given in Soggin, J. A., An Introduction to the History of Israel and Judah, trans. Bowden, J. (London, 1993), pp. 394–417Google Scholar.

5 Smith, J. A., ‘Which Psalms Were Sung in the Temple?’ Music & Letters, 71 (1990), pp. 167–86CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 For ancient Judaism, see below; for Christianity, see Velimirović, M. M., Steiner, R. and Temperley, N., ‘Canticle’, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Sadie, S. (London, 1980, repr. 1995), vol. iii, pp. 723–6Google Scholar.

7 The Septuagint is cited according to the edition Septuaginta, ed. Rahlfs, A. (Stuttgart, 1935)Google Scholar, hereafter ‘LXX’ or ‘Greek’. LXX parallels with MT are cited normally only where there is divergence or other noteworthy matter.

8 The New Revised Standard Version Bible, (Copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America), hereafter ‘NRSV’, from which most of the biblical quotations in English are taken. ‘EV’ = English Versions.

9 The dating and other background details presented here and henceforward are those generally accepted by the majority of present-day writers. The information is drawn mainly from the following: Watson, , Classical Hebrew Poetry, pp. 39–40;Google Scholar relevant volumes of the larger standard Bible commentaries such as those in the series The Anchor Bible (New York), The J[ewish] P[ublication] S[ociety] Torah Commentary (Philadelphia and New York), The Old Testament Library (London) and Word Biblical Commentary (Waco and latterly Dallas, Texas) and the excellent introductions and annotations by various authors in The Harper Collins Study Bible, ed. Meeks, W. A. et al. (New York, 1993)Google Scholar, hereafter ‘HCSB’. Writers sometimes differ widely in their dating of an individual item; the dates given here should not be regarded as finally settled.

10 I use the name that is traditional in EV; the Hebrew Old Testament has yam sûf, ‘sea of reeds’. The transliteration of Hebrew words follows the rules of scientific transliteration given in the Encyclopaedia Judaica, viii, p. 90 herein EJ, but with the following minor modifications for the sake of greater precision: (l)ṣērê+yôḏ = ê (given as ‘e’ for biblical Hebrew in EJ); (2) ḥîreq+yôḏ = î (given as ‘i’ in EJ); (3) ḥŌlem = Ō (given as ‘o’ in EJ); (4) simple shewa (here ĕ) transliterates unvocalised as well as vocalised shewa; (5) composite shewa ḥaṭef-qameṣ = ° (i.e. superscript ‘o’; not represented in EJ); (6) qāmeṣ-hē at the end of a word = â (not represented in EJ).

11 For detailed discussion of the points that follow, see Cross, F. M. Jr and Freedman, D. N., ‘The Song of Miriam’, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 14 (1955), pp. 237–50;CrossRefGoogle ScholarChilds, B. S., Exodus: A Commentary, Old Testament Library (London, 1974, repr. 1987), pp. 242–8;Google ScholarDurham, J. I., Exodus, Word Biblical Commentary 3 (Waco, Texas, 1987), pp. 202–5Google Scholar; Gillingham, , Poems and Psalms, pp. 118, 120, 145Google Scholar.

12 See, for example, Craigie, P. C., Psalms 1–50, Word Biblical Commentary 19 (Waco, Texas, 1983), p. 25;Google ScholarWatson, , Classical Hebrew Poetry, p. 40Google Scholar.

13 E.g. Brenner, A., The Israelite Woman, The Biblical Seminar (Sheffield, 1985, repr. 1989), p. 52Google Scholar; Sarna, N. M., Exodus, The J[ewish] P[ublication] S[ociety] Torah Commentary (Philadelphia and New York, 5751/1991), p. 82Google Scholar (Sarna here adduces also Judges 11:34, which relates the homecoming of the victorious warrior Jephthah, and his welcome by his daughter ‘with timbrels [ḇeṯupîm] and with dances’, but this passage does not mention song); Gillingham, , Poems and Psalms, p. 120Google Scholar.

14 See especially Gillingham, , Poems and Psalms, pp. 118, 145Google Scholar.

15 See further Smith, ‘Which Psalms Were Sung in the Temple?’, at pp. 182–4.

16 On the Hebrew syntax and its significance, see below.

17 Cited according to The Babylonian Talmud, trans. & ed. Epstein, I. (London, 1934–1960), Mo'ed, vol. vii, p. 147Google Scholar.

18 Cf. Soggin, , An Introduction to the History of Israel and Judah, pp. 108–27, especially pp. 122 (and note 31 there) and 124–7Google Scholar.

19 ‘Hygros b. Levi was over the singing’ (Mishnah Šeālîm 5:1); and, ‘Hygros b. Levi had a special art in singing but he would not teach it [to any other]’ (Mishnah, Yômâ 3:11). Quoted here from The Mishnah Translated from the Hebrew with Introduction and Brief Explanatory Notes, trans. & ed. Danby, H. (Oxford, 1933), pp. 157, 166Google Scholar.

20 Note that the first person singular formulations in 15:9 occur in a quotation of what an enemy said.

21 Although the penultimate verb of the preamble is plural (‘and they spoke’), it does not strike a discrepant note since it is naturally interpreted in the light of the information that precedes it and is therefore understood in the sense of ‘and they spoke severally’ (the NRSV does not translate the last two Hebrew verbs in the preamble, but replaces them by a colon). At Exodus 15:1 in the Septuagint, the Vulgate and certain other ancient Versions there is also a discrepancy of number between the preamble and the first line of the Song, but the opposite way round from in modern English translations: ‘Then Moses sang … “Let us sing to the Lord …”’. The Vulgate (the ancient Latin version of the Bible) is cited according to Biblia sacra iuxta vulgatam versionem, ed. Fischer, B., , O.S.B. et al. , (Stuttgart, 1969, repr. 1995)Google Scholar.

22 Sendrey, A., Musik in Alt-Israel (Leipzig, 1970), pp. 344–7Google Scholar.

23 Ibid., pp. 352–4.

24 Ibid., pp. 344–5. On these instruments see also ‘Biblische Musikinstrumente’ in Finscher, L. (ed.), Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, hereafter ‘MGG’, Subject Reference, vol. i (1994), cols. 1503–37, at cols. 1518–20, 1525–8, 1533; ‘Jüdische Musik’Google Scholar, ibid., vol. viii (1996), cols. 1511–69, at cols. 1521 [‘2. Israel und juda der Eisenzeit (ca. 1000–586 v.Chr.)’]–1524 [‘3. Die persische und hellenistisch-römische Zeit (586 v.Chr.–4. Jh.n.Chr.)’]. Eric Werner's statement in The New Grove, vol. ix, p. 619Google Scholar, that the tōf ‘was exclusively a women's instrument’ is incorrect: see MGG, Subject Reference, vol i (1994), col. 1526; cf. Sendrey, , Musik in Alt-Israel, pp. 344–5Google Scholar.

25 Cf. Mowinckel, S., The Psalms in Israel's Worship, trans. Ap-Thomas, D. R. (Oxford, 1962, repr. 1967), vol. ii, pp. 92–3Google Scholar.

26 See the remarks in Brenner, , The Israelite Womam, p. 51Google Scholar.

27 See above, p. 226, and the passages cited in note 18.

28 E.g. Psalms 42:5 (EV 42:4), 68:25–6 (EV 68:24–5); 1 Chronicles 15:25–9; Nehemiah 12:31–43; 1 Maccabees 13:15; 2 Maccabees 10:5–7; Josephus, , The Jewish War, vol. ii, 15:4; Mishnah, Bikûrîm 3:4, Sukâ 4:5, 5: 1–4Google Scholar.

29 Josephus, , The Jewish Antiquities, vol. ii, 16:4Google Scholar.

30 Mishnah and Jerusalem Talmud (= Talmud of the Land of Israel), Sôṭâ 5:4; Tosefta, , Sôṭâ; 6:2–3; Midrash Rabbah: Exodus Rabbah 23:9 on Exodus 15:1Google Scholar.

31 Exodus Rabbah 23:9 on Exodus 15:1. English from Midrash Rabbah, ed. Freedman, H. and Simon, M., vol. iii: Exodus, trans. Lehrman, S. M. (London, 1961), p. 288Google Scholar.

32 Tosefta, , Sôṭâ 6:4Google Scholar. English from The Talmud of the Land of Israel: A Preliminary Translation and Explanation, ed. Neusner, J., vol. xxvii: Sotah, trans. Neusner, J. (Chicago & London, 1984), p. 153Google Scholar.

33 Sarna, , Exodus, p. 82Google Scholar. Sarna does not name his source, but it is possible he is referring to Midrash Rabbah: Exodus Rabbah 23:7 on Exodus 15:1. English edn (as at note 31 above), p. 286.

34 Philo, of Alexandria, , On the Contemplative Life, 11:85–7Google Scholar. English from the Loeb Classical Library series, Philo, vol. ix, trans. Colson, F. H. (London, repr. 1985), pp. 165–7Google Scholar.

35 MT, LXX and Vulgate all have ‘sons’ (MT: see above; LXX: huioi; Vulgate: filii).

36 For various recent opinions about the date of the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32, see Gosse, B., ‘Deutéronome 32,1–43 et les rédactions des livres d'Ezechiel et d'Isaïe’, Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, 107 (1995), pp. 110–17, at p. 111Google Scholar.

37 The now widely accepted hypothesis of the Deuteronomic History was first developed by Noth, M. in his Überlieferungsgeschichtliche Studien, 1 (Halle, 1943)Google Scholar.

38 See Dahood, M., Penar, S.J. and Penar, T., ‘The Grammar of the Psalter’, in M. Dahood, Psalms III: 101–150, The Anchor Bible, ed. Albright, W. F. and Freedman, D. N., 17a (New York, 1970), pp. 361–456, at p. 456Google Scholar. The authors identify nine instances in the Psalms and one similar instance in a Ugaritic text.

39 Lindars, B., Judges 1–5: A New Translation and Commentary (Edinburgh, 1995), p. 228Google Scholar, identifies this word-pair (in Judges 5:3) but interprets it as meaning ‘sing-chant’ (see also his translation, ibid., p. 209). It is difficult to accept ‘chant’ as the translation of the second element. Singing and the playing of musical instruments are features of women's victory songs reported in the Old Testament (Exodus 15:20–1; 1 Samuel 18:6–7), and in one case where song is not specified, instruments are (Judges 11:34). In this light and in view of the meanings given by Dahood and Penar (see the preceding note), it is appropriate to render the present word-pair ‘sing-play’ (or ‘sing-make melody’ as in NRSV).

40 Lindars, , Judges 1–5, pp. 209, 218, 223–8Google Scholar.

41 Pseudo-Philo, , Liber antiquitatum biblicarum 32:1Google Scholar. English from D. J. Harrington's introduction to, and annotated English translation of, this work in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, ed. Charlesworth, J. H. (London, 1983–1985), vol. ii, pp. 297–377, at p. 345;Google Scholar Latin from Harrington, D. J., Caxeau, J., Perrot, C. and Bogaert, P.-M., Pseudo-Philon, Les Antiquités Bibliques, Sources Chrétiennes, 229 (Paris, 1976), p. 244Google Scholar.

42 The problems presented by the text are described and discussed in Fokkelman, J. P., Narrative Art and Poetry in the Book of Samuel, Studia Semitica Neerlandica 23 (Assen/Maastricht and New Hampshire, 1986), pp. 649–51Google Scholar.

43 Cf. Mays, J. L., ‘The David of the Psalms’, Interpretation, 40 (1986), pp. 143–55, at p. 148Google Scholar.

44 In Watson, , Classical Hebrew Poetry (1984), p. 40, it is assigned by implication to cGoogle Scholar. 1000 BCE on account of its very close identity with Psalm 18, which is assigned to that time. Some eighteen years earlier, M. Dahood wrote, ‘In both places [i.e. Psalm 18 and 2 Samuel 22] it [our item 7 is attributed to David and there is no internal evidence militating against such an attribution’ (Dahood, , Psalms 1: 1–50 (1966), p. 104)Google Scholar. The opinions of recent commentators, on the other hand, are reflected in the following sentence from the note by McCarter, P. K. Jr, on 2 Samuel 22:1–51 in HCSB (1993), p. 501Google Scholar: ‘The theme of conquest in the second section [verses 29–51] may have led to the poem's association with David, but features of the language show that it was composed centuries after his lifetime.’

45 Gillingham, , Poems and Psalms, pp. 184–6, 216Google Scholar.

46 Smith, ‘Which Psalms Were Sung in the Temple?’, at p. 171.

47 Dahood, , Psalms III: 101–150, p. 158Google Scholar, gives ‘my sentinel’ in Psalm 118:14, whereas several other English translations (but not NRSV) have ‘my song’. The LXX at the equivalent place (LXX Psalm 117:14) has humnēsis mou, literally ‘my hymning’.

48 See Watson, , Classical Hebrew Poetry, pp. 237–8; cf. Gillingham, , Poems and Psalms, pp. 22, 144Google Scholar.

49 Gillingham, , Poems and Psalms, pp. 141–2Google Scholar. The unity of Isaiah 42:10–17 is disputed: see Dion, P. E., ‘The Structure of Isaiah 42.10–17 as Approached through Versification and Distribution of Poetic Devices’, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 49 (1991), pp. 113–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

50 Allen, L. C., Ezekiel 1–19, Word Biblical Commentary 28 (Dallas, 1994), p. 287Google Scholar.

51 Mowinckel, E.g., The Psalms in Israel's Worship, vol. II, p. 209Google Scholar. Cf. Eaton, J. H., ‘The Origin and Meaning of Habakkuk 3’, Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, 76 (1964), pp. 144–171, at pp. 144, 146, 158–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Dahood, , Psalms I: 1–50, p. 41Google Scholar.

52 Smith, ‘Which Psalms Were Sung in the Temple?’, at pp. 173–4.

53 See ibid., the Table at p. 180.

54 See ibid., at pp. 169, 175–6.

55 Cf. Eaton, ‘The Origin and Meaning of Habakkuk 3’, at p. 159.

56 The textual differences between the present item and the portions of the psalms from which it is composed are noted in the commentaries and noted and discussed in detail in the study by Kleinig, J. W., The Lord's Song: The Basis, Function and Significance of Choral Music in Chronicles, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Supplement Series 156 (Sheffield, 1993), pp. 136–41Google Scholar.

57 Translation from Kleinig, , The Lord's Song, p. 92Google Scholar. The NRSV translation of this verse (1 Chronicles 16:7), crediting David with the appointment of ‘the singing of praises … by Asaph and his kindred’, is misleading.

58 Codex Vaticanus gr. 1209 (fourth century CE), Codex Alexandrinus (fifth century) and Codex Venetus (eighth century).

59 See Kleinig, , The Lord's Song, p. 141Google Scholar.

60 Myers, J. M., I Chronicles, Anchor Bible, 12 (New York, 1965), p. 121Google Scholar, as discussed and quoted in Kleinig, , The Lord's Song, pp. 133–4Google Scholar.

61 Kleinig, , The Lord's Song, p. 67Google Scholar.

62 The author gives the book a pseudo-historical background by conflating historical situations. The resultant historical impossibilities are succinctly summarised in Weiser, A., Introduction to the Old Testament, trans. Barton, D. M. (London, 1961), pp. 400–1Google Scholar.

63 Verse 74b (NRSV 52b) has humneitŌ (‘let it sing praise’).

64 Cf. Smith, ‘Which Psalms Were Sung in the Temple?’, at pp. 184–5.

65 The strength of the tradition represented by the formula may be judged by the fact that in the LXX versions of the present preambles the word order and syntax of the formulaic components are the same in the Greek texts as in the Hebrew of the MT.

66 In item 15 the naming of these three at LXX Daniel 3:88a (NRSV Apocrypha, The Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Jews, verse 66a) may be an addition. See HCSB, p. 1636 at the note on verse 66.

67 Cf. Mowinckel, , The Psalms in Israel's Worship, vol. ii, p. 208Google Scholar.

68 Gillingham, , Poems and Psalms, p. 108Google Scholar.

69 Watson, , Classical Hebrew Poetry, pp. 70–7Google Scholar.

70 Critical edition by Sanders, J. A., The Psalms Scroll of Qumran Cave 11, Discoveries in the Judaean Desert 4 (Oxford, 1965, repr. 1997)Google Scholar.

71 Historical details in Vermes, G., The Dead Sea Scrolls in English (4th edn, Harmondsworth, 1995), pp. 20–40Google Scholar.

72 This literature is surveyed in Gillingham, , Poems and Psalms, pp. 232–7Google Scholar.

73 Cf. note 6 above. The Greek text is available in Rahlfs's edition of the LXX (note 7 above), vol, ii, pp. 164–83.