Essenes, who withdrew from general society to a commune near the shore of the Dead Sea from approximately 160 B.C. to A.D. 70, took seriously such enjoinders to constant study. Their community rule explicitly mandated that at every hour of day or night someone should be studying and interpreting God’s torah.23 The psalmist clearly sees such purposeful immersion in the torah as an effective antidote to the inappropriate association with evil described in verse 1. Not only are students of torah occupied,