The Psalms

of the

Sons of Korah

michael d. goulder

Journal for the Study of the Old Testament

Supplement Series, 20

Copyright © 1982 JSOT Press

ISSN 0309-0787

ISBN 0 905774 40 X (cloth)

ISBN 0 905774 41 8 (paper)

Published by

JSOT Press

Department of Biblical Studies

The University of Sheffield

Sheffield S10 2TN

England

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Goulder, M.D.

The psalms of the Sons of Korah.—(Journal for the Study of the Old Testament. Supplement Series, ISSN 0309-0787; 20)

I. Title II. Series

223′.206 BS1430.2

ISBN 0-905774 40 X

ISBN 0-905774 41 8 PbK

Contents

Preface

1 A Sequence of Festal Psalms

2 The Psalms of Pilgrimage (Psalms 42, 43, 84)

3 The Priesthood at Dan

4 The Pre-Festal Lament (Psalms 44, 85)

5 The First Days of the Feast (Psalms 45, 46)

6 The Middle of the Feast (Psalms 47, 48, 87)

7 The Nadir of the Feast (Psalms 49, 88)

8 The Climax of the Feast, and its Transfer South (Psalm 89)

9 From Canaan to Israel

Bibliography

Index of Passage References

Index of Names

Illustrations

Plates

Pl. I The End of the Highway to Dan

Pl. II The Throne-Base in the Dan Courtyard

Pl. III A Pumpkin-Shaped Base Capital

Pl. IV Ornamental Steps Leading to the Bamah

Pl. V A Proto-Aeolic Capital from Hazor

Figures

Fig. 1 Dan in the Time of Ahab

Fig. 2 The Roads in (Northern) Israel

Fig. 3 The Ninth-Century Gate Complex at Dan

Fig. 4 Reconstruction of the Bamah at Dan

Plates I, II, III, and IV, and Figs. 3 and 4 are copyright Tel Dan Excavations. Reproduced by kind permission of Professor A. Biran.

Plate V was first published in IEJ 19 (1959) by Y. Yadin. Reproduced with permission.

Preface

Disagreements on the interpretation of the Psalms, of which there are many, arise in large part from their apparent lack of context. For most of this century they have been treated as so many independent units, flotsam washed up by the tides of the late centuries before our era. Fame and acclaim have attended those who could convincingly group these scattered units into lots of similar form, and who could infer from the evidence of such groups the setting they once held in Israelite life. But one man’s selection and interpretation have often seemed as good as another’s, and the permutations in exegesis have turned out to be large. I have tried a different approach, by treating more seriously the context given to the psalms in the Psalter, that is, the collections in which they are gathered, the order in which they stand, and the technical notes—Maskil, Selah, על־שׁשׁנים, etc.—in the text. These matters are, of course, noted in all standard works, and a few authors, like John Peters and Gunther Wanke, have treated them as important; but I think that mine is the first attempt to offer a comprehensive theory of the psalms in which these contextual matters are determinative. I have begun with one of the earliest and most interesting collections, the psalms of the Sons of Korah, to which, for reasons to be explained, I have added Ps. 89; and I might suitably ...