Journal of the American Oriental Society

The Metrical Form of the Songs of Degrees.-By Dr. T. C. FOOTE, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.

Ir is a very general opinion that in the Songs of Degrees are to be found the most beautiful Psalms in the Psalter. While this popular estimation is no doubt due, primarily, to the character of the poetry itself, which is of the highest order, it also depends, in no small degree, upon a certain touching simplicity, brevity and clearness, which cannot fail to attract the reader.

There are many Psalms in the Bible which are far from clear, and apparently devoid of unity. Only an exegete can extract any connected meaning from them. The ordinary reader seizes upon some luminous couplet apart from the context, and values the Psalm for a few disconnected sentiments. The obscurities which disfigure the thought, and the redundancies which destroy the meter, are attributed to the original writer only by a rash reader. But such there are; and it is saddening to think of the years that have been spent by spiritual writers in the vain attempt to render intelligible the chaos which has often resulted from the incorporation, frequently in the wrong place, of superfluous, not to say irrelevant, marginal annotations. To these glosses and the attendant confusion is largely to be attributed that most cherished medieval production known as mystical interpretation.

From these disfigurements, Psalms 120-134 are free, to a remarkable degree; and to this fact we may trace much of their popularity. The thought is generally clear and simply expressed, and the rhythm is so far unencumbered by impossible combinations, that the student is emboldened to step, however tentatively, within the almost unexplored domain of Hebrew meters.

Although Professor Bickell's attempt to explain Hebrew meters on the basis of Syrian accentuation has not been generally accepted, yet he has no doubt forcibly shown that Hebrew poetry must have had a regularly prescribed meter. Nor ought it to require much consideration to convince us that the Psalms,

more than any other part of the Bible, were peculiarly liable to corruption. Copies were no doubt multiplied; and if in Jerome's lifetime his earlier version known as the Roman Psalter was so corrupted as to demand a new translation, how should not the Hebrew original have met with the same fate before the Greek version was made? Naturally a translation of the Psalter would tend to establish an authoritative text. This, however, was not done until many of the Psalms had reached a state which has caused not a few persons to deny to Hebrew poetry any regular meter, or strophic arrangement.

In the Songs of Degrees, however, we have a group of Psalms in which the larger number of lines (69 out of a total of 112) exhibit perfect metrical form, and furnish 21 complete strophes, where no emendation is necessary. Pss. 121, 124, 128 and 134 are almost perfect in metrical form. Ps. 132 seems not to belong to the collection; it has a different meter, is over twice as long as the longest of the other songs, and, according to Duhm, has nothing in common with them except the interest in Jerusalem.

A study of these 14 Psalms shows that they are all written in the elegiac meter-three beats in the first, and two in the second hemistich.' The strophe consists of two double hemistichs or M'shalim. The rhythm, as is natural to Hebrew accentuation, is uniformly iambic. In a few instances, which are commented on in the notes, two accented syllables come together, usually at the close of a hemistich. I have not felt justified in emending these lines to make them conform to the general rule. There are also a few lines where the unaccented syllables are rather awkward; but here also I have preferred to pursue a conservative course and let them stand.

In regard to the emendations it is interesting to note that the theory of Olshausen and E. v. Ortenberg as to the use of paseq to indicate a textual corruption, is borne out in these songs. Paseq occurs 17 times, and in 7 places (viz.: 122. 5, 125. 3, 127. 1, 131. 10. 12, 132. 17, 133. 3) it coincides with an apparent alteration. In 4 places (viz. : 129. 8, 131. 1a, 132. 11, 133. 2) the emendation seem to have been added to improve the

1 It need hardly be said that these songs do not invite the application of the name Qina to this meter.

meter; especially in Psalm 133. 2, where the addition of In was probably made later than the Vulgate.

The English version given in lieu of the Hebrew text makes no claim to present the beauty of the original, but to roughly illustrate the meter. I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to Duhm for his commentary and metrical version of the Psalms. The name which I have prefixed to my English version is based on the y in Ez. 11. 5. The weakness of the other renderings is due to lack of unity in the Psalms themselves. The present rendering does at least represent something which they all have in common.

The notes, which do not pretend to be a commentary, have been, as far as possible, appended to the English version, that they may be useful to non-Semitic readers. It is needless to say that, however dogmatically expressed, the explanations represent merely possible ways of accounting for the corruption of the text.