Page:03.BCOT.KD.HistoricalBooks.B.vol.3.LaterProphets.djvu/233

reading בּהיותכם, “when ye (sons of Jacob) were” (1Ch 16:19), instead of בּהיותם, Psa 105:12, “when they (the patriarchs) were,” since the narrative of what the Lord had done demanded בהיותם. Now the more likely the reference of the words to the patriarchs was to suggest itself, the more unlikely is the hypothesis of an alteration into בהיותכם; and the text of the Chronicle being the more difficult, is consequently to be regarded as the earlier. Moreover, the divergences of 1Ch 16:23 to 33 of our hymn from Psa 96:1-13 are such as would result from its having been prepared for the above-mentioned solemn festival. The omission of the two strophes, “Sing unto Jahve a new song, sing unto Jahve, bless His name” (Psa 96:1 and Psa 96:2), in 1Ch 16:23 of the Chronicle might be accounted for by regarding that part of our hymn as an abridgment by the chronicler of the original song, when connecting it with the preceding praise of God, were it certain on other grounds that Psa 96:1-13 was the original; but if the chronicler's hymn be the original, we may just as well believe that this section was amplified when it was made into an independent psalm. A comparison of 1Ch 16:33 (Chron.) with the end of the 96th Psalm favours this last hypothesis, for in the Chronicle the repetition of בּא כּי is wanting, as well as the second hemistich of Psa 96:13. The whole of the 13th verse recurs, with a single בּא כּי, at the end of the 98th Psalm (Psa 98:9), and the thought is borrowed from the Davidic Psa 9:9. The strophes in the beginning of Psa 96:1-13, which are omitted from 1Ch 16:16, often recur. The phrase, “Sing unto Jahve a new song,” is met within Psa 33:3; Psa 98:1, and Psa 149:1, and חדשׁ שׁיר in Psa 40:4, a Davidic psalm. את־שׁמו בּרכוּ is also met with in Psa 100:4; and still more frequently את־יהוה בּרכוּ, in Psa 103:2, Psa 103:22; Psa 134:1, and elsewhere, even as early as Deborah's song, Jdg 5:2, Jdg 5:9; while ליהוה שׁירוּ occurs in the song of Moses, Exo 15:1. Since, then, the strophes of the 96th Psalm are only reminiscences of, and phrases which we find in, the oldest religious songs of the Israelites, it is clear that Psa 96:1-13 is not an original poem. It is rather the re-grouping of the well-known and current thoughts; and the fact that it is so, favours the belief that all which this psalm contains at the beginning and end, which the Chronicle does not contain, is merely an addition made by the poet who transformed this part of the chronicler's hymn into an independent psalm for liturgical purposes. This purpose clearly appears in such variations as בּמקדּשׁו ותפארת, Psa 96:6, instead of בּמקמו וחדוה, [[Bible_(King_James)/1_Chronicles|1Ch 16: