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Page 1: Many Are Saying': The Function of Direct Discourse in the Hebrew Psalter (JSOT Supplement Series)
Page 2: Many Are Saying': The Function of Direct Discourse in the Hebrew Psalter (JSOT Supplement Series)

JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF THE OLD TESTAMENTSUPPLEMENT SERIES

397

Founding EditorsDavid J. A. Clines, Philip R. Davies and

David M. Gunn

Executive EditorCladia V. Camp, Texas Christian UniversityAndrew Mein, Westcott House, Cambridge

Editorial BoardRichard J. Coggins, Alan Cooper, John Goldingay,

Robert P. Gordon, Norman K. Gottwald, John Jarick,Andrew D. H. Mayes, Carol Meyers, Patrick D. Miller

Page 3: Many Are Saying': The Function of Direct Discourse in the Hebrew Psalter (JSOT Supplement Series)

For Amy

Page 4: Many Are Saying': The Function of Direct Discourse in the Hebrew Psalter (JSOT Supplement Series)

'Many are Saying'

The Function of Direct Discourse

in the Hebrew Psalter

Rolf A. Jacobson

T& T CLARK INTERNATIONALA Continuum imprintL O N D O N • N E W Y O R K

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Copyright © 2004 T&T Clark InternationalA Continuum imprint

Published by T&T Clark InternationalThe Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX15 East 26th Street, Suite 1703, New York, NY 10010

www.tandtclark.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or byany means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storageor retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress

Typeset by TMW Typesetting, SheffieldPrinted on acid-free paper in Great Britain by CPI, Bath

ISBN 0-567-08193-1

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgments xiAbbreviations xii

Introduction 1

Chapter 1THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS 5

1. Terminology 52. Quotation Theory 6

i. The 'Theatrical' Dimension of Quotation (Quotation as Role Play) 7ii. Quotations as Demonstrations 9

Demonstrations as Nonserious Actions 10Important Aspects of Quotations as Demonstrations 10Functions of Quotations 11Implications 13

iii. Meir Steinberg's 'Proteus Principle': Context is Everything 13iv. Speech-Act Theory 16v. Quotations as a Means of Characterizing 17

3. Direct Discourse in the Hebrew Psalter 19i. Identifying and Marking Direct Discourse in the Hebrew Psalter 19ii. The Relationship between the Quotation Inset and the Psalm 24

The Subordination of the Inset to the Frame 24

Chapter 2'THEY WHET THEIR TONGUES LIKE SWORDS':THE FUNCTION OF ENEMY QUOTATIONS 27

1. 'They Set Their Mouths Against Heaven':Quotations in which the Enemies Attack God 28

i. Quotations Asserting that God Lacks Effective Power toSave and Help 28

Psalm 9/10 28Psalm 12 30Psalm 11 31Psalms 14 and 53 33Psalm 22 33Psalm 59 34Psalm 64 34

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vi Many are Saying

Psalm 73 35Psalm 78 37Psalm 94 38

ii. Quotations Asserting that God Lacks Fidelity 38Psalm 3 39Psalm 71 39

iii. Quotations Asserting that the LORD has been Defeated 40Excursus: 'Where is your/their God?' 40

Isaiah 10.9-10 40Isaiah 36.18b-20 40Micah7.10 41Joel 2.17 411 Kings 18.27 42

Conclusions regarding 'Where is Your/Their God?' 42Psalm 79 42Psalm 115 44Psalm 42/43 44Psalm 74 46Psalm 83 46Psalm 137 47Psalm 2 48

iv. Conclusions about the Formal Role ofEnemy Quotations that Attack God 48

2. 'They Open Their Mouths Wide Against Me':Quotations in which the Enemies Attack the Psalmist 49

i. The Formal Roles of Quotations in which theEnemies Attack the Psalmist 50

Psalm 13 50Psalms 35, 40, and 70 50Psalm 41 51

ii. Conclusions about the Formal Role of Quotations thatAttack the Psalmist 52

3. The Rhetorical Function of Enemy Quotations 52i. Enemy Quotations as Personal Lament 52ii. Enemy Quotations as Reperforming the Blasphemy of the Enemy 56iii. Enemy Quotations as Instruction 58

Chapter 3'As FOR ME, I SAID' : THE FUNCTION OF SELF QUOTATIONS 60

1. The Formal Role of Self Quotations 61i. The Role of Self Quotations that Quote Words Spoken in the Past 61

Psalm 30 61Psalm 31 62Psalms 32 ands 41 63Psalm 39 64

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Contents vii

Psalm 116 65Psalm 40 66Summary 67

ii. The Role of Self Quotations that Quote Words Spoken in thePresent 67

'You are my God/Lord/My Refuge'—Psalms 16, 31, 140, 142 68

Psalm 38 69Psalm 102 70Psalm 42/43 70Psalm 55 71Psalm 77 72Summary 73

iii.The Role of Self Quotations that Quote Words Spoken in theFuture (Psalm 35) 74

iv. The Role of Self Quotations that Quote Hypothetical Words 75Psalm 73 75Psalm 94 75Psalm 139 76Summary 76

2. The Rhetorical Function of Self Quotations 77i. Self Quotations as Reperformances of One's Own Speech 77ii. Self Quotations as Self-Characterizations 79

The Self in Conversation with God 80The Self Assailed by Enemies 81

Chapter 4'THE LORD HAS SWORN' : THE FUNCTION OF GOD QUOTATIONS 82

1. A History of Interpretation of the God Quotations 83i. J. Begrich 84ii. S. Mowinckel 84iii. H. Gunkel 86iv. A. Johnson 87v. A. Haldar 87vi. J. Jeremias 88vii. W. Bellinger Jr. 88viii. H. Nasuti 89ix. K. Koenen 90x. S. Starbuck 90xi. Conclusions 91

2. The Formal Role of God Quotations 98i. The Role of God Quotations about the Davidic Monarchy or King 98

Psalm 132 98Psalm 89 101Psalm 2 103

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viii Many are Saying

Psalm 110 105ii. The Role of God Quotations of Admonishment

(in Festival and Liturgical Psalms) 106Psalm 50 107Psalm 81 108Psalm 95 109Psalm 75 109Summary and Conclusions 110

iii. The Role of God Quotations that Precede Petitions 113Psalm 82 113Psalms 60 and 108 114Summary and Conclusions 118

iv. The Role of God Quotations that Offer Assurance 118Psalm 46 118Psalm 91 120Psalm 12 121Summary and Conclusions 122

v. The Role of Quotations in which God's Word Represents God'sEffective Power 123

3. The Rhetorical Function of God Quotations 124i. God Quotations Used to Construct Society 125ii. God Quotations Used to Challenge God 127iii. God Quotations as Characterizations of God 128

God Speaks to the Community through the Cult 128The LORD of the Covenant Who Protects and Punishes 129

Chapter 5'LET ISRAEL SAY' : THE FUNCTION OF THE COMMUNITY QUOTATIONS 131

1. The Function of Quotations that Represent Liturgical Refrains orResponses 131

Psalm 118 131Psalms 124 and 129 133Psalm 29 134Psalm 66 135Summary 136

2. The Function of Quotations that the Psalmist Desires theCommunity to Say 136

Psalms 35, 40, and 70 136Psalm 52 138Psalm 58 139Psalm 96 139Psalm 91 140Psalm 129 141Summary 141

3. The Rhetorical Function of Community Quotations 142

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Contents ix

i. Community Quotations as Sociological Alignment 142ii. Community Quotations that 'Reproduce' Future Events 143iii. Community Quotations as the Voice of the Reader 144

CONCLUSION 1461. Enemy Quotations 1462. Self Quotations 1473. God Quotations 1484. Community Quotations 149

Bibliography 150Index of References 156Index of Authors 164

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This volume was originally formatted as my dissertation at Princeton TheologicalSeminary, and I wish to express my gratitude to all of my teachers there, especiallyto Patrick Miller, Dennis Olson, F.W. Dobbs-Allsopp, J.J.M. Roberts, Choon-Leong Seow, Katharine Doob Sakenfeld, Beverly Gaventa, Donald Juel, RichardWhitaker, and James Armstrong. I also owe a special debt to James Limburg,whose offhand comment planted the seed that grew into this project.

I am grateful to my family for love and support beyond measure: Amy andIngrid; Mom and Dad; Anne and Bill; Karen; Karl, Kristen, Hannah, and Sam;Derrald and Evon; Erich, Cari and Adam Josef; Gahlord and Megan; Helen; andPeona. I wish to express my thanks to Jen and Zach for proofreading parts of thismanuscript, to Shane Berg for special assistance, and to Amy and Uwe for lin-guistic considerations. All mistakes and errors are my responsibility. This volumeis for Amy.

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ABBREVIATIONS

ABDAfOBANETBibLebBTCADCBQCCConBOTExpTimFBFOILHALOTHATHSMHTRHUCAIBCJBLJQRJSOTSupNEchtBNIBCNJPSNRSVSBLDSVTWBCwwZAWzs

Anchor Bible DictionaryArchiv fur Orientforschung: BeiheftAncient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old TestamentBibel und LebenThe Bible TranslatorThe Chicago Assyrian DictionaryCatholic Biblical QuarterlyContinental CommentariesConiectanea Biblica: Old Testament SeriesExpository TimesForschung zur BibelForms of the Old Testament LiteratureThe Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old TestamentHandbuch zum Alten TestamentHarvard Semitic MonographHarvard Theological ReviewHebrew Union College AnnualInterpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and PreachingJournal of Biblical LiteratureJewish Quarterly ReviewJournal for the Study of the Old Testament: Supplement SeriesDie Neue Echter BibelNew International Biblical CommentaryNew Jewish Publication Society VersionNew Revised Standard VersionSociety of Biblical Literature Dissertation SeriesVeins TestamentumWord Biblical CommentaryWord and WorldZeitschrift fur die Alttestamentliche WissenschaftZeitschrift fur Semitistik

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INTRODUCTION

1. The Purpose of the Study

In recent years, Old Testament scholars have come to see that the aesthetic andrhetorical richness of Hebrew poetry goes far beyond simple synonomous, anti-thetic, and synthetic parallelism.1 Scholars have gone a long way toward investi-gating the aesthetic qualities, syntactical complexity, and theological significanceof Hebrew poetry.2 But the cruse is far from spent: many dimensions of Hebrewpoetry have yet to be investigated. One aspect of Hebrew poetry that has yet toreceive sustained treatment is the poetic device known as direct discourse orquotation—the direct citation of a person's speech. In fact, no serious discussion ofthe role of direct discourse in Hebrew poetry is available. Wilfred G.E. Watson, forexample, in his encyclopedic study of Hebrew poetry, treats such poetic devices asparallelism, imagery, sound technique, repetition, envelope figure, keywords, re-frain, allusions, ellipsis, irony, oxymoron, abstract for concrete, hyperbole,merismus, hendiadys, enjambment, delayed identification, and ballast variation. Atthe beginning of chapter 11, 'Poetic Devices', he writes, 'In a way this chaptercollects together and examines all the poetic devices not already discussed andanalysed.'3 Absent from his treatment of'all the poetic devices' is direct discourse.

Direct discourse, therefore, is to date a neglected feature of biblical poetry. Thepresent study seeks to fill this void and to make a contribution to Old Testamentstudies by offering a sustained investigation of the function of direct discourse inthe Hebrew Psalter. This will lead to a greater understanding both of the poeticdevice of direct discourse and also of those psalms in which direct discourseoccurs.

1. See for example, J. Kugel, The Idea of Biblical Poetry: Parallelism and its History (NewHaven: Yale University Press, 1981); A. Berlin, The Dynamics of Biblical Parallelism (Blooming-ton, IN: Indiana University Press, 1985); M. O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure (Winona Lake,IN: Eisenbrauns, 1980); W.G.E. Watson, Classical Hebrew Poetry: A Guide to its Techniques(JSOTSup,26; Sheffield: University of Sheffield, 1984); R. Alter, The Art of Biblical Poetry (NewYork: Basic Books, 1985); S.E. Gillingham The Poems and Psalms of the Hebrew Bible (Oxford:Oxford University Press, 1994).

2. Kugel and Alter exemplify the first, O'Connor, Watson, and Berlin the second, and P.O.Miller ('The Theological Significance of Biblical Poetry', in S.E. Balentine and J. Barton (eds.),Language, Theology, and the Bible (Oxford: Clarendon, 1994), pp. 213-30) the third.

3. Watson, Classical Hebrew Poetry, 173. Emphasis added.

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Many are Saying

2. Assumptions and Methods

One of the basic assumptions of this investigation is that when an author orspeaker—in this case, the authors of psalms—chooses to use direct discourse toreport the speech of another person, that choice will shape the rhetorical impact ofthe psalm differently than if the author had not used direct discourse. Tounderstand this assumption, it is helpful to realize that authors are not limited todirect discourse when they wish to describe the speech of others. A person mayreport another's speech verbatim by means of direct discourse: 'The witness said,"He did it"'. Or a person may report another's speech by means of indirectdiscourse: 'The witness said that I did it.' Or a person may simply describe thecontent of another's speech without explicit reference to what the original speakersaid: 'The witness accused me.' The present investigation assumes that therhetorical impact will differ when an author chooses direct discourse rather thanone of the other means of reporting on another person's speech. Note, for example,how it functions to create ambiguity and irony in the description of Jesus' trialbefore Pontius Pilate in the Gospel of Mark: 'Pilate asked Jesus, "Are you the Kingof the Jews?" He answered him, "You say so" ' (Mark 15.2-3). The words 'Yousay so' create ambiguity, in the sense that the words neither explicitly deny noraffirm Pilate's accusation. But these words also create irony, in the sense that Pilateunknowingly speaks the truth: Jesus is the king of the Jews, and Jesus' answerturns Pilate's accusing question into an ironic confession of the truth. Neitherindirect discourse nor a simple description of Pilate's accusation would have hadthe same rhetorical impact as direct discourse.

According to Bernard Lonergan's concise description, 'A method is a normativepattern of recurrent and related operations yielding cumulative and progressiveresults. '4 In this investigation, a pattern of recurrent and related interpretive opera-tions are applied to a defined set of texts with the aim of yielding cumulativeinterpretive results. The interpretive operations may be described as formal his-torical-critical interpretation and rhetorical interpretation. The historical-criticalinterpretation assumes the validity of the form-critical study of the Psalms in OldTestament scholarship, and it is especially dependent on the work of ClausWestermann and Patrick D. Miller.5 In particular, the present investigation assumesthat the psalms may be described in terms of formal categories (also known asgenre or Gattungen) such as prayers for help (laments), songs of praise, or royalpsalms. The rhetorical interpretation assumes that the theories of modern linguistswho have studied the rhetorical function of quotations can be applied to the

4. B.J.F. Lonergan, Method in Theology (New York: Seabury, 1979), p. 4.5. C. Westermann, Praise and Lament in the Psalms (trans. K.R. Crim and R.N. Soulen;

Atlanta: John Knox, 1981); The Psalms: Structure, Content and Message (trans. R.D. Gehrke;Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1980). P.D. Miller, Interpreting the Psalms (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986);They Cried to the Lord: The Form and Theology of Biblical Prayer (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1994).A concise summary of this approach is J. Limburg, 'Psalms, Book of, in D.N. Freedman (ed.),ABD (6 vols.; New York: Doubleday, 1992), pp. 522-36. Compare E.S. Gerstenberger, PsalmsPart 1, with an Introduction to Cultic Poetry (FOIL 14; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988), pp. 5-39.

2

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Introduction 3

occurrence of direct discourse in the Hebrew Psalter. The work of the most im-portant of these modern linguists is surveyed in Chapter 1. The set of texts consistsof those psalms in which direct discourse occurs. The recurrent nature of themethods of this investigation is that the historical-critical and rhetorical inter-pretation are applied to all of the passages in the Hebrew Psalter that contain directdiscourse.

Two specific issues must be mentioned in advance. The first is inclusive lan-guage. The present study does not use inclusive language when citing psalm textsbecause one of the main signals that a psalm passage is to be understood as directdiscourse is a shift in the person and number of the subject of a clause.6 Sometimesthe effort to provide inclusive language translations obscures. For example, theNRSV translation of Ps. 41.8 reads, 'They think that a deadly thing has fastened onme, that I will not rise again from where I lie.' A more literal translation of thisverse might read: 'A deadly thing has latched onto him, once he sleeps he shall notagain rise.' What has happened is that in order to avoid the third person masculine,singular pronouns of the Hebrew and provide an inclusive language translation, apassage of direct discourse has been turned into indirect discourse. The presentstudy retains the person and number of the Hebrew pronouns and subjects in orderto reflect clearly when a passage is direct discourse. However, in order to preservethe egalitarian goals of inclusive language translations, the present study alternatesbetween referring to the psalmists as 'he' or 'she'.

The second issue that needs to be addressed here is the term 'argument', whichis used in the present study to describe the persuasive impact of many psalms. Thepresent study assumes that many of the psalms were composed in order to persuadesome audience—for example, God, the community, or a group of students—to actin some way or to adopt some belief or way of life. Patrick Miller, for example, hasconvincingly argued that the prayers for help, or laments, 'have as a primaryfunction the effort to persuade and motivate God to act in behalf of the petitionerwho is in trouble and need's God's help'.1 According to Miller, the 'form andrhetoric' of the prayers for help are designed to persuade God to act. Miller pointedto such frequent features of the prayers for help as the listing of reasons set beforeGod as to why God should act (such as God's character) and the motivationalstructure of the prayers for help (such as the psalmists' protestations ofinnocence).8 Likewise, the wisdom psalms can be described as seeking to persuadetheir audience of certain beliefs, and some cultic psalms such as Psalms 15 and 24can be described as seeking to persuade their audience to live according to certainethical standards. When the term 'argument' is used in this study, it serves as ashorthand description of the persuasive aims of a particular psalm.

6. For more information on recognizing when a passage is to be understood as directdiscourse, see chapter 1, section 3.i, 'Identifying and Marking Direct Discourse in the HebrewPsalter'.

7. P.D. Miller, 'Prayer as Persuasion: The Rhetoric and Intention of Prayer', WWII (1993),356-62. Emphasis in original.

8. Miller, 'Prayer as Persuasion', pp. 356-60. Miller writes, 'Rarely does a prayer not seek tolay a claim on God in some way' (p. 361).

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Many are Saying

3. The Scope of the Study

As has already been mentioned, the scope of this study is those psalms in theHebrew Psalter in which direct discourse occurs. It has also been mentioned thatChapter 1 consists of a survey of the most important work of modern linguists whohave studied how quotations function. In each of the following chapters, the workof these linguists is applied to the rhetorical interpretation of a specific corpus ofpsalm texts. Chapter 2 treats quotations of the enemies, Chapter 3 those quotationsin which the psalmist quotes him or herself, Chapter 4 those quotations that reportthe words of God, and Chapter 5 investigates passages in which voices from thecommunity are quoted.

4

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Chapter 1

THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Several basic issues concerning the function of quotations and the identification ofquotations must be addressed before the actual psalm texts in which direct dis-course occurs may be considered. First, the problem of terminology will beaddressed in order to define a standard set of terms for the investigation. Second,the contributions of linguistic theories of quotation will be surveyed. One of themethodological assumptions of this investigation is that modern linguistic theoryabout quotations can make a contribution to interpreting the function of directdiscourse in the Psalter. The intent is not to provide a comprehensive account oflinguistic theories of quotations, but rather to describe those linguistic theories thatbest help to understand the function of quotations. Third, because all quotationsoccur within a specific historical-linguistic matrix, special issues pertaining tothe identification and function of direct discourse in the Hebrew Psalter will beaddressed.

1. Terminology

One of the problems that has plagued linguistic analysis of the biblical text is aconfusion of terms. This problem has arisen for a variety of reasons: different lin-guists use different terms for the same phenomena; different biblical scholars drawon different linguists and thus adopt different sets of terms (sometimes using thesame term for different phenomena); different biblical scholars invent their ownterms; and finally (and ironically), linguistic terms are often confusing. Because ofthis confusion, a set of standard terms is defined, which is then used throughout theinvestigation. These terms are used to describe the work of various scholars, eventhough those scholars may have employed divergent terminology.

The focus of the investigation is the function of direct discourse in the Psalter.Direct discourse is an act of speech that is embedded in another act of speech. Forexample, 'The fool says in his heart, "There is no God"' (Ps. 14.1). The entirephrase is an act of speech that contains another act of speech ('There is no God').In Ps. 14.1, there is only one layer of direct discourse. In theory, however, directdiscourse is infinitely recursive; one could theoretically have an act of speechwithin another act of speech within another act of speech, and so on.

In order to define further terms, a passage from Psalm 132 will be used:

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6 Many are Saying

A. The LORD swore to David a sure oath,from which he will not turn back:

B. 'One of the sons of your body1 will set on your throne.

If your sons keep my covenantand my decrees that I shall teach them,

Their sons also, forevermore,shall sit on your throne.' (vv. 11-12)

Inset: The quoted words proper will be called the inset—in thisexample, the section labelled 'B' is the inset.

Frame: The words that introduce the direct discourse will be called theframe—the section labelled 'A' is the frame.

Reporter: The voice reporting the direct speech will be called thereporter—in the example above and in almost all cases in thisinvestigation, the reporter will be the psalmist.

Implied The audience to whom the psalm as a whole is addressed willAudience: be called the implied audience—because Psalm 132 is a prayer

directed to God, God is the implied audience. For laments andpraise psalms, the implied audience is God. For liturgies, theimplied audience is the worshipping community. For wisdompsalms, the implied audience is one or more students.

Original The voice that speaks the inset will be called the originalSpeaker: speaker—in the example above, the original speaker is the

LORD.Original The words that the original speaker spoke will be called theSpeech: original speech—it is important to differentiate the original

speech from the inset, because the inset consists of a selectiveportion of the original speech.

Original If the psalm tells who heard the original speaker, that personAudience: will be called the original audience—here, David is the original

audience.Verb of If the direct discourse is introduced by a specific verb, that verbSpeaking: will be called the verb of speaking—in Ps. 132.11, the verb of

speaking is 'swore' . Note that a 'verb of speaking' doesnot necessarily connote speech; verbs such as 'to think', 'to re-joice', 'to hear', and the like also can introduce direct discourse.

Unmarked If no verb of speaking is present, then the direct discourse isDirect said to be unmarked.Discourse:

2. Quotation Theory

In recent years, linguists have published a variety of studies about the function ofquotations.1 These studies are useful for interpreting the function of direct

1. One of the merits of this group of studies is that the linguists have not limited their work to

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1. Theoretical Considerations 1

discourse in the Hebrew Psalter because they can shed light on why authors em-ploy quotations and on how those quotations contribute rhetorically to an argument.

i. The 'Theatrical' Dimension of Quotation (Quotation as Role Play)Anna Wierzbicka has identified one essential feature of direct discourse as

its 'theatrical', playful, imaginary character. The person who reports another'swords by quoting them, temporarily assumes the role of that other person, 'playshis part', that is to say, imagines himself as the other person and for a momentbehaves in accordance with this counter-factual assumption.2

She adds, 'The whole point of direct discourse is that the two [reporter and originalspeaker] are temporarily indistinguishable.'3 Thus in direct discourse, the reporterand the original speaker merge identities. In a similar vein, Florian Coulmas hasargued that the fundamental difference between direct discourse and indirectdiscourse lies in a shift of perspective that takes place only in direct discourse:'The fundamental difference between [indirect discourse and direct discourse] liesin the speaker perspective or point of view of the reporter: In direct speech thereporter lends his voice to the original speaker and says (or writes) what he said,

one language, but have intentionally studied quotation in a broad array of languages. See, forexample, the impressive set of studies published in F. Coulmas (ed.), Direct and Indirect Speech(Berlin: de Gruyter, 1986). In the vast body of work on quotations, many of the disputed issues arenot relevant to this dissertation, and will not be treated. For example, see A. Wierzbicka, 'TheSemantics of Direct and Indirect Discourse', Papers in Linguistics 1 (1974), pp. 276-307, in whichpart of her argument concerns an ongoing dispute about whether indirect discourse can be derivedlinguistically from direct discourse, and if so, how it can. Other significant studies of the functionof quotation that are not treated in-depth in this chapter include: B. Partee, 'The Syntax andSemantics of Quotation', in P. Kiparsky and S. Anderson (eds.), Festschrift for Morris Halle (NewYork: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971), pp. 410-18; E. Goffman, Frame Analysis (New York:Harper & Row, 1974); Y. Hirose, 'Direct and Indirect Speech as Quotations of Public and PrivateExpression', Lingua 95 (1995), pp. 223-38; S. Morawski, 'The Basic Functions of Quotation', inA.J. Greimas et al. (eds.), Sign, Language, Culture (The Hague/Paris: Mouton, 1970), pp. 690-705(Morawski's study suffers from two flawed assumptions. First, he assumes that the conventions ofquotation derive from courtroom use, where quotations served as evidence. Second, he assumesthat quotations are 'the literal reproduction of a verbal text...' (p. 691). Where appropriate, hisanalyses can supplement the better synthetic theories of other scholars, but his overall study isproblematic); A. Church, in Introduction to Mathematical Logic (Princeton: Princeton UniversityPress, 1956); D. Davidson, 'Quotation', in F. Coulmas (ed.), Inquiries in Truth and Interpretation(Oxford: Clarendon, 1984); C. Li, 'Direct Speech and Indirect Speech: A Functional Study', in F.Coulmas (ed.), Direct and Indirect Speech (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1986), pp. 29-46.

2. Wierzbicka, 'Semantics of Direct and Indirect Discourse', p. 272. Emphasis added. Li('Direct Speech and Indirect Speech: A Functional Study', p. 38) has whole-heartedly agreed withWierzbicka's view: Tn direct speech the reporter-speaker plays the role of the reported originalspeaker. The reporter-speaker intends for the hearer to believe that the form, the content and thenon-verbal messages such as gestures and facial expressions of the reported speech originate fromthe reported speaker. That is where the theatrical feature noted by Wierzbicka comes in: thereporter-speaker acts as the reported speaker when s/he utters the direct quote.' Li argues that thisquality makes direct discourse a natural vehicle for dramatic presentation. See also Wierzbicka's'Descriptions or Quotations?' in Sign, Language, Culture, pp. 627-44.

3. Wierzbicka, 'Semantics of Direct and Indirect Discourse', p. 273.

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8 Many are Saying

thus adopting his point of view, as it were.'4 As an example of Coulmas' point,consider the instance of direct discourse in Ps. 12.4-5:

May the LORD cut off all flattering lips,every tongue that boasts great things,

that says, 'By our tongues we will prevail,our lips are ours, who is lord over us?'

The reporter (the psalmist in this case) speaks about the 'flattering lips' and 'everytongue that boasts great things'. But when the direct discourse begins, the psalmisttakes on the perspective of the flattering lips and speaks from their perspective.One might even say that the psalmist speaks with them.

In other words, reporters employ direct discourse because it allows them to shedtheir own perspective and clothe themselves with the perspective of some otheroriginal speaker. This shift in perspectives affords the reporter great flexibility.Every different perspective that exists is just one more perspective that a reportercan assume through the device of quotation! Furthermore, every way that aperspective can be different—different theologically, different temporally, differenteconomically, and so on—gives the reporter a different way of taking on a newperspective.

Another function of direct discourse, according to Wierzbicka, is that directdiscourse has a double illocutionary impact as compared with other ways of re-porting what an original speaker said. In direct discourse, 'I want to cause you toknow what this person said, and I want to cause you to know how he said it. Ibelieve that it is this double purpose which is responsible for the fact that in thecase of direct speech both the meaning and the surface structure are syntacticallyand semantically relevant.'5 Indirect discourse communicates only the meaning ofthe quoted person's speech, while direct discourse communicates both the meaningand the form (that is, the actual words that the original speaker used). The reporter

who quotes another's speech may feel unable to separate the meaning from theform and to state it in his own words. Surely this is one of the reasons why peoplesometimes prefer to quote rather than to paraphrase the speech of others. Quotingdirectly one undertakes to portray the meaning together with the form, thusavoiding the responsibility for a correct representation of the meaning as such.

This 'double illocutionary' function of direct discourse is related to the 'theatri-cal' character of direct discourse:

In direct quotation one assumes the role of the original speaker, i.e. one imaginesoneself as that original speaker; in indirect speech one undertakes to state thecontent of the speech as though one were to assert it oneself, that is to say oneimagines that one wants to assert (ask, etc.) here, now, to the present addressee,whatever the first speaker asserted (asked, etc.) when he spoke to his addressee.7

4. F. Coulmas, 'Reported Speech: Some General Issues', in F. Coulmas (ed.), Direct andIndirect Speech (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1986), p. 2.

5. Wierzbicka, 'Semantics of Direct and Indirect Discourse', pp. 274-75.6. Wierzbicka, 'Semantics of Direct and Indirect Discourse', p. 279. Emphasis in original.7. Wierzbicka, 'Semantics of Direct and Indirect Discourse', pp. 284-85.

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The reporter wants the 'hearer to see for himself what [the quotation's form] is,that is to say, in a way, he shows this content (but not the naked content,...heshows the content still clothed in its original form)'.8 'Direct discourse is "show" aswell as speech, indirect discourse is speech only.'9

ii. Quotations as DemonstrationsIn two studies that he has coauthored, Herbert H. Clark has argued that quotationsare a form of demonstration.10

Clark also has written a full-scale theory of language, entitled Using Language(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996). In this work, Clark pursued manyof the same insights that he applied to his study of quotations (for example, thatlinguistic acts are made up of describing, indicating, and demonstrating) and ar-gued that language is a joint action carried out by an ensemble of people actingtogether. In a 1990 study, he and Richard R. Gerrig wrote: 'When people com-municate, they have three fundamentally different devices at their disposal. Theycan describe. They can indicate, or point. And they can demonstrate.'1 [ An examplewill help clarify the difference between describing, indicating, and demonstratingas means of communicating. Imagine that someone wishes to communicate some-thing of the way President William Clinton speaks, to a person who has neverheard him speak. One has three options. First, one could describe Clinton's speech,which would consist of the reporter using appropriate verbs, nouns, and modi-fiers—but these words would be the reporter's own words, and Clinton would bedescribed in the third person. Second, one could also indicate, which might consistof turning on a recording or a live broadcast of Clinton speaking. Third, one coulddemonstrate, which would consist of the reporter imitating Clinton's speech usingClinton's own words and perhaps his mannerisms. Clark and Gerrig wrote: 'Ourcontention is that quotations are a type of demonstration.'12

The important distinction for the purposes of this investigation is the onebetween description and demonstration. This is because in written discourse, thereporter (or author) does not have the option of indicating; this is even more thecase in the written discourse of the Hebrew Psalter, where no pictures, figures, orimages were available to 'depict' the original speakers. Thus the authors of thepsalms had to choose between describing (using indirect discourse) and demon-strating (using direct discourse).

8. Wierzbicka, 'Semantics of Direct and Indirect Discourse', p. 282.9. Wierzbicka, 'Semantics of Direct and Indirect Discourse', p. 300.10. H.H. ClarkandR.R. Gerrig, 'Quotations as Demonstrations \Language 66(1990), pp. 764-

805; E. Wade and H.H. Clark, 'Reproduction and Demonstration in Quotations', Journal ofMemory and Language 32 (1993), pp. 805-19. The first study relates to the function of quotationsand directly informs this project. The second study is a social-scientific study designed to prove theaccuracy of the first study. In this latter effort, Wade and Clark performed three experiments withgroups of people, the data of which supported the conclusion that people use quotations todemonstrate and not merely to reproduce.

11. Clark and Gerrig, 'Quotations as Demonstrations', p. 802.12. Clark and Gerrig, 'Quotations as Demonstrations', p. 802.

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Demonstrations as Nonserious Actions. According to Clark and Gerrig, demonstra-tions differ from descriptions in two ways. First, they are 'nonserious' actions.'Nonserious actions are "transformations" of serious actions.'13 An example of aserious action is when two people fight or when one person walks with a limp. Anexample of a nonserious action is when two people play at fighting or whensomeone imitates another person's limp.14 According to Clark and Gerrig, 'Demon-strations are nonserious actions... Demonstrations belong to a family of nonseriousactions that includes practicing, playing, acting, and pretending.'15

Quotations are a nonserious subsection of a greater, serious whole. 'Demon-strations must be distinguished from the serious actions they are parts of. Theirboundaries—their beginnings and ends—must be clear.' For example, in thestatement, 'The fool says in his heart, "There is no God"' (Ps. 14.1), the whole ofthe statement is serious—because the psalmist is asserting that the fool (and not thepsalmist!) says, 'There is no God.' The subsection, 'There is no God' isnonserious—because the psalmist is only demonstrating the words of the fool. Theboundary between the inset and the frame must be clear so that the boundarybetween the nonserious subsection and the serious whole can be understood. If thisboundary is obscured, the subsection will no longer properly serve the argument ofthe whole.

Similar to the views of Wierzbicka and Coulmas, Clark and Gerrig recognized a'presenting' or theatrical function to demonstrations. They argued that people usedemonstrations in order for 'an event, state, process, or object to be present. Bydepicting how a thing looks, sounds, or feels, they can refer to the thing itself.'16

Important Aspects of Quotations as Demonstrations. Several unique elements ofdemonstrations that Clark and Gerrig identified are especially important for inter-preting direct discourse in the Psalter. First, demonstrations (and thus quotations)depict selectively. This means that they depict only part of the original. The authorcan—indeed must—choose which aspects of the original speech to quote. Spokenwords are by definition singular events that cannot be exactly repeated in everydetail. Even if the original speaker repeats her own words, she cannot exactlyreplicate the pitch, rate, inflection, and context of her original speech. Thus areporter is forced to choose which aspects of the original speech she wants toreproduce. Clark and Gerrig distinguished between the depictive, supportive,annotative, and incidental aspects of demonstrations. The depictive aspectscomprise the demonstration proper, that is, what the reporter is trying to show theimplied audience. The supportive aspects are not the demonstration itself, but arenecessary to the demonstration. The annotative aspects consist of commentary on

13. Clark and Gerrig, 'Quotations as Demonstrations', p. 766.14. The terminology 'serious' and 'nonserious' comes from E. Goffman, Frame Analysis. This

terminology is misleading, because ' imitations' can be performed for reasons that are not playful orhumorous. Clark and Gerrig, however, retain this terminology, and in lieu of a better set of terms itis used here also.

15. Clark and Gerrig, 'Quotations as Demonstrations', p. 766.16. Clark and Gerrig, 'Quotations as Demonstrations', p. 766.

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the demonstration. The incidental aspects are irrelevant to the demonstration, andthe implied audience knows to ignore them. For example, if a demonstrator isdemonstrating how John McEnroe served a tennis ball, the way he positions hisfeet, the way he rocks his arms prior to tossing the ball, the way he wipes hisforehead with his shirt sleeve, and the way he grunts when hitting the ball might bethe depictive aspects. The way he arches his back to hit the ball and bends hisknees to complete the serve are supportive aspects, because they are necessary tothe demonstration but not what is being demonstrated per se. Any descriptions thataccompany the imitation are the annotative aspects. And whether the demonstratorwore tennis shoes, had on a white or a blue shirt, actually tossed a ball and used aracket or merely used imaginary ball and racket might be the incidental aspects.

In terms of quotations, the crucial point is that the reporter chooses whichaspects of the original speech to quote based on the experience that the authorwishes the reader to have. To return to the example of President Clinton speaking,if the reporter wanted to emphasize how Clinton speaks, then a Southern drawl anda gravelly tone might be the depictive elements of the quotation, and the content ofthe speech might be a supportive aspect. But if the reporter wanted to emphasizewhat Clinton said on a given topic, then the content of the choice of words mightbe the depictive aspects and the accent of the reporter would simply be supportive.The implied audience is expected to distinguish between the various aspects of aquotation, and every quotation must be considered individually. For example, inthe Psalter enemies are quoted several times as saying 'Aha, aha!' to the psalmist(Pss. 35.21,25; 40.15; 70.3). Here, the content of the enemies' speech is incidental,and their mocking, triumphant attitude seems to be the depictive aspect. Bycontrast, in Psalm 71, when they say, 'God has abandoned him, pursue and capturehim, for there is no deliverer' (v. 11), the content of the original speech is adepictive aspect. Again, it is important to stress that the reporter chooses whichaspects of the original speech to quote based on the impact she wishes to have onher implied audience.

Third, quotations usually depict illocutionary acts. 'An illocutionary act is "themaking of a statement, offer, promise, etc. in uttering a sentence.'"17 The reason areporter quotes an original speaker often has to do with the illocutionary actperformed by the original speech, which may or may not be connected with thecontent of the original speech. In the example of the enemies saying 'Aha, aha', theillocutionary act of mocking or taunting is what is important, not necessarilythe content of the enemies' original speech. In other cases, however, the content ofthe original speech is the crucial matter. Thus, when interpreting direct discourse inthe psalms it will be useful to analyse the statement being quoted in order todetermine what sort of speech act is being reported, and then to interpret the largerwhole of the psalm in light of this.

Functions of Quotations. Clark and Gerrig identified two classes of functions ofdirect discourse: detachment and direct experience. Note that within each of these

17. Clark and Gerrig, 'Quotations as Demonstrations', p. 778. The citation within Clark andGerrig is from S. Levinson, Pragmatics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), p. 236.

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classes of functions, several secondary functions are contained. The first class offunction, detachment, arises because quotations are depictions.

When speakers describe, they take responsibility for their wording except inopaque contexts. But when they quote, they take responsibility only for presentingthe quoted matter—and then only for the aspects they choose to depict. Theresponsibility for the depicted aspects themselves belongs to the source speaker.So with quotations speakers can partly or wholly detach themselves from whatthey depict.18

This detaching function of quotations makes direct discourse valuable for threethings: 1. Verbatim Reproduction, in which the words of the original speaker arereproduced as accurately as possible. 2. Dissociation of Responsibility, in whichthe reporter can express sentiments that might otherwise be deemed unacceptable:'Many attitudes that are impolite or inappropriate for speakers themselves toexpress are quite acceptable in the mouths of others.'19 3. Solidarity, in which thereporter allies herself with the original speaker: 'To quote is to depict only part of amore extended event. This property allows direct quotations to serve well in theexpression of solidarity, or positive politeness.'20 Note that the second function,dissociation of responsibility, and the third function, solidarity, are opposites! Areporter can use quotation to create distance between herself and reported speechbut also can use quotation to claim ownership of reported speech. The context of aquotation is the only way to determine which of the various functions is in effect.

The second class of functions of quotations that Clark and Gerrig identified isdirect experience. This class of functions arises because quotations depict ratherthan describe.

Quotations also differ from descriptions in the experience they give addressees.When we hear an event described, we interpret the speaker's words and imaginethe event described. But when we hear an event quoted, it is as if we directlyexperience the depicted aspects of the original event.21

This direct experience function of direct discourse makes it useful for: 1. In-effability, because it is easier to demonstrate (than describe) 'emotion, urgency,indecision, and sarcasm in tone of voice; gestures, facial expressions, or other bodyactions; level of formality; and disfluencies'.22 Since speakers try to minimize

18. Clark and Gerrig, 'Quotations as Demonstrations', p. 792. Emphasis added.19. Clark and Gerrig, 'Quotations as Demonstrations', p. 792.20. Clark and Gerrig, 'Quotations as Demonstrations', p. 793.21. Clark and Gerrig, 'Quotations as Demonstrations', p. 793. Clark and Gerrig's theory is too

'realistic' at this point. Neither demonstrations or quotations allow the hearer to experience directlyeven partial aspects of the original. However, a valid point still remains. Quotations direct thehearer/reader to a separate (albeit inaccessible) 'other' external to the speaker. Compare MeirSternberg: 'In no form of quotation...not even in the direct style, may we identify therepresentation of the original act of speech or thought with that act itself... What is cited in thesubject's name is one thing; what that subject originally said or thought is another.' 'Proteus inQuotation-Land: Mimesis and the Forms of Reported Discourse', Poetics Today! (1982), p. 108.Emphasis added.

22. Clark and Gerrig, 'Quotations as Demonstrations', p. 793.

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difficulty, ineffability is a major reason for direct discourse. 2. Engrossment, whichis a concept similar to Coulmas' understanding of perception: 'Direct and indirectquotation contrast in whose perspective the addressees are to get engrossed in.'23 3.Impossible Demonstrations'. 'Some events are impossible to demonstrate in theirentirety, yet speakers can depict some of their aspects.'24 Thoughts, body language,and the like are included here.

Implications. One of the main implications of understanding quotations as demon-strations is that such an understanding undermines the assumption that when re-porters quote an original speaker, they reproduce an original utterance verbatim.25

To understand correctly how quotations function, one must allow for the fact that aquotation can be true without assuming that a quotation must reproduce a priorspeech act verbatim. In fact, in oral speech, verbatim repetition is impossible(recall the impossibility of perfectly recreating pitch, tone, inflection, exact words,precise context, and so on).26 Accuracy is certainly one aspect of the truth of aquotation, but it is not the only one, and may not even be the primary one.

A second implication of understanding quotations as demonstrations is that thefunction of a quotation will depend on its context. In terms of this investigation, itis the context of the particular psalm and not any conjectured original context of aquotation that controls the meaning of the quotation, and is thus the primary pointof investigation. When a reporter quotes an original speaker, the reporter imposes anew context on the original act of speech; it is this new context that primarilygoverns the meaning of the inset. No scholar has made this latter point moreemphatically than Meir Sternberg.

iii. Meir Sternberg's 'Proteus Principle': Context is EverythingIn a series of studies, Meir Sternberg has argued convincingly that when a reporterquotes an original speaker, the original speaker's perspective is erased and replaced

23. Clark and Gerrig, 'Quotations as Demonstrations', p. 793.24. Clark and Gerrig, 'Quotations as Demonstrations', p. 794.25. The assumption that quotations reproduce original words verbatim is widespread, and is

connected with the less helpful ways in which other quotation theorists have studied quotations.W.V.O. Quine (Mathematical Logic (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1951)) and A.Church (Introduction to Mathematical Logic) understand quoting as a form of mentioning, relyingin part on a verbatim understanding of quotation. This 'mention theory' approach to quotation failsto explore the depictive, supportive, annotative, and incidental aspects of the ways quotations citeoriginal speech. D. Davidson ('Quotation', '^Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation) argues fora'demonstrative' theory of quotations. He approaches the clarity of understanding expressed inClark, Gerrig, and Wade. He understands the quotation marks of the frame to be referring to theinset, and the inset to be picturing, which one can see is very similar to Clark et al. But Davidsondoes not investigate how the inset pictures, and his analysis completely ignores the function ofquotations. Further, Davidson makes the mistake of assuming the correspondence betweenlinguistic structure and communicative act. For a devastating critique of this mistake (although notspecifically of Davidson), see M. Sternberg, 'Proteus in Quotation-Land', pp. 145-47.

26. The social scientific research of Wade and Clark ('Reproduction and Demonstration inQuotations') is especially important in showing the fallacy of the verbatim assumption ofquotations.

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by the reporter's perspective.27 Sternberg has argued that representation of speechis always from a perspective. 'In no form of quotation, therefore, not even in thedirect style, may we identify the representation of the original act of speech orthought with that act itself... What is cited in the subject's name is one thing; whatthat subject originally said or thought is another.'28 'Even if the original could becopied down to the last detail, its transplanting and framing in a new environmentwould impose on it a new mode of existence.'29 The new mode entails manifoldshifts, indeed sometimes complete changes in meaning:

The framing of an element within a text entails a communicative subordination ofthe part to the whole that encloses it. However accurate the wording of thequotation and however pure the quoter's motives, tearing a piece of discoursefrom its original habitat and recontextualizing it within a new network of relationscannot but interfere with its effect.30

Sternberg has argued that to imitate or to quote is to interfere with the perspectiveof the original speaker. Recall from the work of Wierzbicka and Coulmas that theperspective of the reporter and the original speaker become 'as one' in quotation.Sternberg augments this insight and argues that the duelling perspectives ofreporter and original speaker can never exist peacefully; one must interfere withthe other. According to Sternberg, the original speaker 'always subserves theglobal perspective' of the reporter, 'who adapts it to his own goals and needs'.31

Sternberg named this phenomenon 'perspectival montage'. Sternberg rejectedany narrow definition of the function of this perspectival montage, and drewattention to 'the interplay of unity and variety in quotation... The many-to-manycorrespondence between linguistic form and representational function.'32 In orderbest to understand Steinberg's dynamic 'many-to-many' understanding of thefunction of quotations, it will be helpful to understand the rigid view of quotationsthat Sternberg criticized. Previous scholars, in Steinberg's opinion, had in-adequately associated direct discourse with one set of rhetorical functions andindirect discourse with an opposite set of functions. A table of the typology thatSternberg was against might look like this.33

27. M. Sternberg, 'Proteus in Quotation-Land', Poetics Today 3 (1982), pp. 107-56. See alsothe following works by Sternberg: Expositional Modes and Temporal Ordering in Fiction(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978); The Poetics of Biblical Narrative: IdeologicalLiterature and the Drama of Reading (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987); 'DoubleCave, Double Talk: The Indirections of Biblical Dialogue', in Not in Heaven (Bloomington:Indiana University Press, 1991), pp. 28-57.

28. Sternberg, 'Proteus in Quotation-Land', p. 108.29. Sternberg, 'Proteus in Quotation-Land', p. 108.30. Sternberg, 'Proteus in Quotation-Land', p. 108.31. Sternberg, 'Proteus in Quotation-Land', p. 109.32. Sternberg, 'Proteus in Quotation-Land', p. 112.33. In one of his typically terse criticisms, Sternberg wrote that 'typology is less than useless

where divorced from teleology'. Sternberg, 'Proteus in Quotation-Land', p. 130.

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An Inadequate Typology of Direct Discourse

Function of Direct Discourse Function of Indirect discourse

Sympathetic Representation Distanced RepresentationSpecific Representation Abstract RepresentationRealistic Representation Unrealistic RepresentationDistinctive Representation Indistinctive RepresentationVerbatim Reproduction Summarizing Reproduction

Sternberg savaged any default identification of direct discourse with one set offunctions and indirect discourse with the other. He argued convincingly that localcontext always governs the function of both direct discourse and indirect discourse:'Given the appropriate conditions in the frame—and only these shape the inset—any form, whether polar or intermediate, may be made to go with any repre-sentational affect.'34

Sternberg suggested a specific logic for determining the function of a quotation:'Where the function goes "against" the original, nondirect reporting becomes thenatural choice, as the form giving the reporter the greatest freedom of interferenceand counteraction.'35 Steinberg's logic can only be accepted as a general rule ofthumb and not as a rigid rule. And even then, it can only be accepted if werecognize that reporters not only use the frame to interfere with the perspective ofthe original speaker, but that they will also interfere directly and intentionally withthe original speech itself—reporters will often retain the mode of direct discourse,but will summarize (and so interfere with) the original speech.

Sternberg argued, then, that the task of the interpreter is to pay attention to theprocess in which the reporter recontextualized the original speech in the inset:

Three facts about reported discourse are, I believe, beyond dispute. First, thereporting and reported event are (and remain) essentially distinct and independententities... [Second,] that in transmission the reported event is never replaced orsubsumed but only imaged by the reporting discourse, where the image takes theform of an inset version. Hence, third, the inset is simultaneously but differentlyrelated to both, as part to the framing whole and as image to the representedoriginal.

It is the interplay between the old perspective and the new perspective that makesquotation such a versatile weapon in the reporter's arsenal. Because recontextualiz-ing can subsume an original speech act in a completely new world, this makesquotation useful for more than merely giving information about what someonesaid. Recontextualization renders quotation useful for irony, parody, polemics,allusion, and even subtle lying.

Sternberg's contribution to the understanding of quotation, then, is that there is adynamic interplay between the context of the original speech and its new home asthe inset of a quotation. The quotation has now, as it were, two natures; it lives

34. Sternberg, 'Proteus in Quotation-Land', p. 119.35. Sternberg, 'Proteus in Quotation-Land', p. 122.36. Sternberg, 'Proteus in Quotation-Land', p. 130.

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now, as it were, fully in both worlds. Sternberg coined this the 'Proteus Principle':'In different contexts—reporting frames as well as nonreporting frameworks—thesame form may fulfill different functions and different forms the same function.'37

iv. Speech-Act TheoryIn a series of lectures given at Harvard in 1955, the British linguist J.L. Austinintroduced the world to a linguistic theory known as speech-act theory.38 Speech-act theory does not deal specifically with direct discourse. However, speech-acttheory's emphasis on the way words work can help us understand the effect ofactually quoting speech, and for this reason it is an important theory forinterpreting the function of direct discourse in the Psalter.

According to Austin, for too long western philosophers assumed that speechmerely describes, and as such, words effect meaning by referring to objects orconcepts. Against this dominant view, Austin emphasized that words can do morethan signify, words can perform events. Austin distinguished between words thatstate information and words that perform actions. Austin supported his theory byisolating first-person, singular, active, indicative utterances that neither describenor state simple true/false statements, but rather perform actions. For example,consider utterances such as 'I do' (when spoken as part of a wedding), 'I name thisship the Queen Elizabeth' (when spoken at a ship christening), 'I give andbequeath' (when spoken as a last will and testament), or 'I bet you' (when makinga wager). Austin called these performative sentences. According to Austin, each ofthese utterances 'is not normally thought of as just saying something', nor can theybe thought of as true or false in a referential sense, rather each 'utterance is theperforming of an action'.39 One could argue with this, that such actions can beperformed without words or that the words in each case must be accompanied byother actions. But the uttering of the words is in each case the leading incident inthe act.40 Austin said that performative utterances can either be contractual (I betwith you) or declarative (I declare war against you).

Austin further distinguished between the locutionary, illocutionary, andperlocutionary actions one can perform in speaking. First, there are locutionaryacts, which are

roughly equivalent to uttering a certain sentence with a certain sense and refer-ence, which again is roughly equivalent to 'meaning' in the traditional sense.Second, we said that we also perform illocutionary acts such as informing, order-ing, warning, undertaking, &c., i.e. utterances which have a certain (conventional)

37. Sternberg, 'Proteus in Quotation-Land', p. 148.38. J.L. Austin, How to Do Things with Words (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,

1962). For a concise summary of speech-act theory, see D. Robinson, 'Speech Acts', in M.Grondenl and M. Kreiswirth (eds.), The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994).

39. Austin, How to Do Things with Words, pp. 6-7.40. Against the objection that promises can be insincere or contracts can be broken, Austin

distinguished between the concept of a voided contract and a false statement. Performativeutterances, he argued, cannot be false but rather can only be void.

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force. Thirdly, we may also performperlocutionary acts: what we bring about orachieve by saying something, such as convincing, persuading, deterring, and even,say, surprising or misleading.41

An example may help clarify the difference between these three types of acts. Con-sider the sentence: 'The house is on fire!' The locutionary action of this utterance isto convey meaning to a listener who will understand from this utterance that aparticular house is on fire. The illocutionary action of this utterance is to warn thelistener of a danger, namely fire. The perlocutionary action of this utterance is toproduce certain actions on the part of the hearer, such as fleeing the house, and soon.42 These actions cannot be divorced from each other and the lines between themare often blurry, but it is heuristically helpful to distinguish between the threeactions.

The important point for the purpose of understanding the function of directdiscourse in the Psalter is to understand that speech acts can do more than de-scribe—they can perform actions—and these actions can be understood as con-tractual or declarative, and consist of locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionaryactions. When considering the function of direct discourse in the Psalter, it will behelpful to note that the original speech in any given psalm may consist of a speechact (contractual or declarative, with locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionaryactions) and also that the act of recontextualizing the quotation in a new frame mayconsist of a separate speech act (contractual or declarative, with locutionary,illocutionary, and perlocutionary actions).

v. Quotations as a Means of CharacterizingIn recent years, the literary study of biblical narrative has investigated theconventions and logic of biblical narrative. Literary approaches to studying the OldTestament have offered the helpful insight that direct speech is one of the centralmeans that the biblical authors use to portray the inner thoughts and motives of acharacter.43 That is, often the main way that Old Testament authors characterize themen and women in their stories is by letting those characters speak. Quotationsdepict character well because they 'let the characters speak for themselves. For, ofcourse, what characters say and how they say it may tell us much about the kind of

41. Austin, How to Do Things with Words, p. 108. Austin coined the term 'illocutionary act'.The concept has been the focus of much debate. For two studies, see J.R. Searle, 'Austin onLocutionary and Illocutionary Acts', Philosophical Review 77 (1968), pp. 405-24; B. Fraser, 'OnAccounting for Illocutionary Forces', in Festschrift for Morris Halle, pp. 287-307.

42. See J.R. Searle, Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 1969), especially pp. 22-53.

43. See A. Berlin, Poetics and Interpretation of Biblical Narrative (Sheffield: Almond Press,1983), especially pp. 23-82; Sternberg, The Poetics of Biblical Narrative; D. Gunn and D.N.Fewell, Narrative in the Hebrew Bible (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), especially pp. 63-89; R. Alter, The Art of Biblical Narrative (New York: Basic Books, 1983), especially Chapters 4and 6; P. Trible, Rhetorical Criticism (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1994); H.C. Brichto, Toward aGrammar of Biblical Poetics: Tales of the Prophets (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992),especially Part I.

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people they are.'44 Quotations work so well to depict character that Adele Berlinconcluded: 'Direct speech.. .is the most dramatic way of conveying the characters'internal psychological and ideological points of view.'45

In a sense, what Berlin and the other literary exegetes are doing is applying thetypes of conclusions drawn by Clark and Gerrig and the other quotation theorists tothe biblical story. Berlin has written: 'The way a character is "shown" is throughhis own words—his speech—and his actions (these are in the words of the narrator,of course).'46 Herbert Chanan Brichto described the phenomenon similarly: 'Acharacter will be made to show himself by the specificity of his direct discourse, asagainst our having to take the word of the narrator in the less concrete formulationof indirect discourse... '47 Both Berlin and Brichto use the word 'show' to describehow direct discourse functions to portray the inner character of an actor or actress,and both contrast showing with telling. These words 'show' and 'tell' are analogousto Clark and Gerrig's terms 'demonstrate' and 'describe', who argued that quota-tions demonstrate rather than merely describe. Berlin, Brichto, and the other literarytheorists are operating along much the same lines as Clark and Gerrig because theypoint to the ability of quotations to show rather than merely tell. The crucial pointto understand is that direct speech can be a more nuanced and more vivid means ofportraying the inner character of a biblical figure than merely describing.

While many biblical exegetes have fruitfully applied the above insight to theinterpretation of biblical narrative, the potential that the insight holds for theinterpretation of biblical poetry has been left untapped. In the Psalter, as in biblicalnarrative, direct discourse also functions to portray the character of those whosespeech is quoted: the psalmist, the enemies, God, and the congregation. Just as inbiblical narrative, in the Psalter the different characters speak with differentmotives, with different degrees of truthfulness, from different perspectives, withdifferent faith perspectives, and with different authority. By putting different wordsin different characters' mouths, the psalmists portray people differently. Cor-responding to this, by paying attention to what different characters say in differentcircumstances, the interpreter can navigate the tangled channels of the humancharacter as the psalmists map it.

Interpreting the character of the different people who are quoted in directdiscourse in the Psalter, however, means more than simply lining up all of thequotation insets of the enemies, or of the psalmist, or of God. As Robert Alter hasaptly noted, 'the biblical writers are quite as aware as any James or Proust thatspeech may reflect the occasion more than the speaker, may be more a drawnshutter than an open window'.48 Attention must therefore be paid not only to whatpeople say, but to whom they say it, the circumstances in which they say it, andwhat actions accompany the bare words.49 Where more than once voice is quoted

44. Gunn and Fewell, Narrative in the Hebrew Bible, p. 63.45. Berlin, Poetics and Interpretation of Biblical Narrative, p. 64.46. Berlin, Poetics and Interpretation of Biblical Narrative, p. 38.47. Brichto, Toward a Grammar of Biblical Poetics, p. 11.48. Alter, The Art of Biblical Narrative, p. 117.49. M. Sternberg offers a list of the type of questions that an interpreter should ask: 'Who

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in direct discourse in the same psalm, it will be useful to compare what thedifferent voices say: 'Since biblical characters seldom appear alone, we cancompare and contrast characters, take note of how they speak to each other, and, inthe end, see how one person can help to define another.'50 It will also be useful toask why the psalmist reported (demonstrated) a particular quotation in directspeech, as opposed to using indirect speech or simply describing the speaker'scharacter: 'At every point, then, where the biblical narrator reports a character'sthought (even God's, or perhaps especially God's), we should ask what subtle pur-port is conveyed in the direct discourse, as contrasted with a possible formulationin indirect discourse.'51

Some of the assumptions and methods that interpreters have found useful ininterpreting biblical narrative cannot be applied to the interpretation of poetry. Forexample, in biblical narrative the narrator is assumed to be omniscient and alignedwith God.52 In the Psalter, the psalmist is self-evidently not omniscient, and oftenbelieves that God has turned against him. One specific application this differencemakes to the interpretation of direct speech is that in biblical narrative, quotationsof thought or 'interior monologue' are assumed to contain the most trustworthyinformation about a person's character: 'With the report of inward speech, we enterthe realm of relative certainty about character: there is certainty, in any case, aboutthe character's conscious intentions, though we may still feel free to question themotive behind the intentions.'53 Such an assumption does not hold in the Psalterbecause whenever the psalmist quotes the thoughts or secret conversations ofothers, the psalmist is certainly not omniscient.

3. Direct Discourse in the Hebrew Psalter

Two special aspects pertaining to direct discourse in the Hebrew Psalter need to beaddressed. The first of these areas is the problem of the identification or marking ofdirect discourse in the Psalter. The second area is the relationship between thequotation inset and the psalm as a whole.

i. Identifying and Marking Direct Discourse in the Hebrew PsalterIn order to analyse the function of direct discourse, passages containing directdiscourse must first be isolated from the poetry surrounding it.54 Every language

stands behind this piece of language and what does it project? From what viewpoint does thataction or description unfold, and why? Can the perceiver be identified and evaluated by the field ofperception? Where does the subject end and the object begin? Is this particular reflector ironic orironized, reliable or biased or even mendacious, or in short, how does his interpretation stand to thetext's and ours? These are among the typical questions arising throughout.' The Poetics of BiblicalNarrative, pp. 129-30.

50. Gunn and Fewell, Narrative in the Hebrew Bible, p. 63.51. Brichto, Toward a Grammar of Biblical Poetics, p. 11.52. See Sternberg, The Poetics of Biblical Narrative.53. Alter, The Art of Biblical Narrative, p. 117.54. Several studies that have been helpful in identifying direct discourse in Hebrew poetry and

in evaluating criteria for making decisions about what is and what is not a quotation are: S.A.

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has its own conventions and customs for signalling the presence of direct dis-course. English, for example, frequently uses a switch in tense as one of the signalsof direct discourse, whereas German often uses the subjunctive mood to signaldirect discourse. In Biblical Hebrew, which did not employ either of these customsfor signalling direct discourse, a different set of indicators signals the occurrence ofdirect discourse.

Michael O'Connor has written,

Direct discourse is not consistently indicated in Classical Hebrew; shifts in andout of quotations are marked erratically in prose with I'mr 'saying' and the like,and, if there is enough material, in both verse and prose, by alterations in theanaphora network. A further guiding principle, useful in reading of prose, is thatverses which introduce direct discourse other than 'mr are usually mediated bysome form of it. The unspoken consensus has it that this principle fails for poetry,or at least that it is a less reliable guide; this consensus is reflected in any biblicaltranslation, though not in systematic grammatical study.55

Samuel A. Meier has published a comprehensive treatment of the problems ofmarking direct discourse in the Old Testament. He points out that in poetry, directdiscourse is often marked with a medially positioned or post-positioned verbinstead of the customary pre-positioned verb (Ps. 12.5 contains an example ofmedially marked direct discourse). In addition, he has summarized the followingtendencies that Hebrew poetry has in regard to direct discourse: 'a tendency toavoid , the possibility of no DD [direct discourse] marker at all (with thecorollary of the frequent dispensability of the root ), parallelism permitting thedouble marking of speech with verbs in sequences unattested in prose, and medialmarking of DD'.56 In Biblical Hebrew, direct discourse is indicated by acombination of external and internal markers. First, the external markers will beconsidered and then the internal markers.

The most important external markers are verbs of speaking; other externalmarkers include a subject other than the psalmist such as 'the fool', or 'myenemies', and a marking particle such as . The most common verb of speaking is

, which marks direct discourse over seventy-five times in the Psalter. All ofthe other verbs of speaking combined mark direct discourse in the Psalter barely

Meier, Speaking of Speaking: Marking Direct Discourse in the Hebrew Bible (New York: Brill,1992); M. O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure; G.W. Savran, Telling and Retelling: Quotation inBiblical Literature (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988); C. Miller, The Representationof Speech in Biblical Hebrew Narrative: A Linguistic Analysis (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1996); C.Miller, 'Introducing Direct Discourse in Biblical Hebrew Narrative', in R. Bergen (ed.), BiblicalHebrew and Discourse Linguistics (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1994), pp. 199-241; C. Miller,'Discourse Functions of Quotative Frames in Biblical Hebrew Narrative', in W.R. Bodine (ed.),Discourse Analysis of Biblical Literature (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995), pp. 155-82; R. Gordis,'Quotations as a Literary Usage in Biblical, Oriental and Rabbinic Literature', HUCA 22 (1949),pp. 157-220; R. Gordis, 'Quotations in Wisdom Literature\JQR 30 (1939), pp. 123-47; M. Fox,'The Identification of Quotations in Biblical Literature', ZAW92 (1980), pp. 416-31; K. Crim,'Hebrew Direct Discourse as a Translation Problem', BT24 (1973), pp. 311-16.

55. O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure, pp. 409-10. Emphasis added.56. O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure, pp. 49-50.

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more than thirty times. These other verbs of speaking include, and . As mentioned above, these verbs of speaking may

occur in the middle or at the end of a passage of direct discourse, but normally theyprecede the direct discourse that they mark.

When a passage of direct discourse lacks a verb of speaking, it is consideredunmarked. Examples of unmarked direct discourse in the Psalter include Pss. 2.3,10.4, 46.10, 50.7-15, 59.7, 77.7, 87.7, 89.3-4, 91.14, 105.15, and 132.14-18. Inthese cases, the direct discourse is indicated by context and by internal indicators.These internal indicators may be divided into two types: deictic indicators andsyntactic indicators.57 Deixis refers to the change in personal, temporal, spatial, orhierarchical perspective that is reflected when a different speaker is speaking. Theprimary deictic indicators of direct discourse are personal pronouns.58 For example,'He said to me, "You are my son, today I have begotten you"' (Ps. 2.7a). The dualpronominal shifts—from 'he' to T and 'me' to 'you'—indicate that the speaker isnow God rather than the psalmist; this is called pronominal deixis. An example of ashift in temporal deixis is found in Psalm 30. The psalm as a whole gives thanks toGod for deliverance from peril. In vv. 8-10, however, the psalmist quotes her cryfor help: 'What gain is there in my blood?.. .Hear, O Lord, and be gracious...' Thiscry only makes sense within the larger context of the psalm—if it has occurred inthe past. Thus, it is an example of a shift in temporal deixis. An example of spatialdeixis is found in Ps. 122.1-2:

I was glad when they said to me,'Let us go to the house of the Lord'.

Our feet are standing within your gates,O Jerusalem!

Even though the pronouns do not shift but stay in the first person plural, the end ofthe direct discourse is indicated by a different spatial reference—the psalmist is notin Jerusalem. Finally, direct discourse can be signalled by a shift in hierarchicaldeixis.59 For example, note the beginning of the direct discourse in Ps. 89.2-3:

I declare that your steadfast love is established forever;your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens.

' I have cut a covenant with my chosenI have sworn to David my servant...'

Neither the pronominal nor spatial deictic indicators necessitate a different speaker,but the shift of hierarchy between verses 2 and 3 does necessitate a differentspeaker—only God cuts covenants with 'my chosen' and 'David my servant'.

In addition to these deictic indicators, syntactic indicators may signal that aphrase should be understood as direct discourse. These syntactic indicators consist

57. Miller, The Representation of Speech in Biblical Hebrew Narrative, pp. 61-90. See alsoMiller's other works related to direct discourse listed in the above footnote.

58. Miller, The Representation of Speech in Biblical Hebrew Narrative, p. 68.59. Miller calls this type of deixis 'deferential', but I prefer the term 'hierarchical' because

deference suggest merely politeness, while hierarchy suggests a difference in sovereignty betweenthe psalmist and God.

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of a change in the syntax of a psalm that necessitates that direct discourse beunderstood. These syntactic changes include a verbal shift to the jussive (forexample, Ps. 2.3) or to the imperative (Ps. 105.15).

As was mentioned above, the most reliable indicator of when a quotation ends inHebrew poetry is pronominal deixis (a shift in the person and/or number of thesubject and object of the verbs). One problem that results from this, however, isthat deciding where a quotation ends is more problematic for the self quotationsthan for the enemy quotations or God quotations because in self quotations thisreliable indicator is missing. In the case of the self quotations, by definition thespeaker is the same before, during, and after the quotation. Two examples illustratethe problem and point toward criteria for deciding the issue. The first exampleconsists of three parallel self quotations from Psalms 16, 31, and 140:

I say to the LORD, 'You are my Lord;I have no good apart from you'.

As for the holy ones in the land,they are the noble,in whom is all my delight. (Ps. 16.2-3; NRSV)60

But I trust in you, O LORD;I say, 'You are my God'.

My times are in your hand;deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors.Let your face shine upon your servant;

save me in your steadfast love. (Ps. 31.14-16; NRSV)

I say to the LORD, 'You are my God;give ear, O LORD, to the voice of my supplications'.

O LORD, my Lord, my strong deliverer,you have covered my head in the day of battle.

Do not grant, O LORD, the desires of the wicked;do not further their evil plot. (Ps. 140.6-8; NRSV)

The NRSV translations are used here in order to show the difficulty in decidingwhere the self quotations end. All three quotations consist of the verbfollowed by a confession of trust in God: orNRSV consistently renders these as quotations but is less consistent in decidingwhere these quotations end.61 In Psalm 16, the parallel phrase that follows 'You aremy Lord' is included in the quotation: 'You are my Lord, I have no good apartfrom you.'62 In Psalm 31, however, NRSV does not include the parallel phrase in

60. Most of the textual difficulties in Psalm 16 are not pertinent to this example. One ispertinent: The verb in MT should be read this reading and both LXX and Syriac presume this vocalization, morevoer, the quotation inset'you are my Lord' necessitates T as the speaker.

61. Other versions are even less consistent. NJPS, for example, renders Pss. 16.2 and 31.14 asquotations but for some reason does not treat Ps. 140.6 as a quotation.

62. The meaning of the phrase is uncertain and widely debated. For thepurposes of this example, it is enough to recognize that the phrase is clearly some sort ofexpression of trust in God and is the poetic parallel to the phrase, 'You are my Lord'.

multiple Hebrew manuscripts support

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the quotation: ' "You are my God." My times are in your hand.' In Psalm 140, aseries of petitions follows the confession of trust. Strangely, the NRS V includes thefirst petition within the quotation, but not the following petitions (note that a seriesof petitions also follows the quotation in Psalm 31). The quotation in Psalm 140should either be understood to consist only of 'You are my God' or to extend allthe way through verse 8. The series of petitions should not be split; they shouldeither be entirely included or excluded from the quotation.

So where do the three self quotations end? Two solutions seem most likely. Oneoption would be to end all three quotations immediately after the phrases 'You aremy God/Lord'. A second option would be to include the parallel stichs that followthe quotations but not to include the series of petitions in Psalms 31 and 140. Thesecond option would produce:

'You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you' (16.2)

'You are my God; my times are in your hand' (31.14-15a)

'You are my God' (140.6)

In this solution, both Pss. 16.2 and 31.14-15a would be read as tricola:

Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge, But I trust in you, O LORD;I say to the LORD, 'You are my Lord; I say, 'You are my God,I have no good apart from you'. my times are in your hand'.

The structure of Psalm 31 makes this solution unlikely, however, because theparallelism of 31.15 includes a play on the word 'hand' that suggests the verseshould not be split: 'My times are in your hand; deliver me from the hand of myenemies and persecutors.' Thus, the best solution is to regard only the phrases 'Youare my God/Lord' as quotations.

A second example of the problem of determining the end of self quotations isfound in Psalm 39. At the beginning of the psalm, the psalmist vows to keep quietand says, 'I was silent and still' (v. 2). A quotation begins in verse 4, but it isunclear where it ends. NRSV understands the quotation to run the entire remainderof the psalm:

Then I spoke with my tongue:'LORD, let me know my end,

and what is the measure of my days;let me know how fleeting my life is.

You have made my days a few handbreadths,and my lifetime is as nothing in your sight.

Surely everyone stands as a mere breath.Surely everyone goes about like a shadow.

Surely for nothing they are in turmoil;they heap up, and do not know who will gather.

And now, O LORD, what do I wait for?My hope is in you.

Deliver me from all my transgressions.Do not make me the scorn of the fool.

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24 Many are Saying

I am silent; I do not open my mouth,for it is you who have done it.

Turn your gaze away from me, that I may smile again,before I depart and am no more.' (vv. 3b-9, 13)

Three factors suggest that the NRSV is mistaken, and the quotation does not runthe remainder of the psalm. First, in verse nine, the psalmist repeats the earlierstatement, 'I am silent'. The psalmist was silent in verse 2, then began to speakstarting in verse 4, and is silent again in verse 9. The repetition of the claim 'I amsilent' signals that the quotation must end before verse 9. Second, verse 7 beginswith one of the regular disjunctive markers in the psalms: 'And now' . It isunlikely that the quotation extends across this major disjunctive transition; it surelymust end before verse 7. Third, if this quotation is compared to those selfquotations for which the end of the quotation is clear, or indeed with any of theenemy quotations, one sees that quotations in the Psalter are normally quite short.If the quotation in Psalm 39 were to run from verses 4 through 13, its length wouldbe unprecedented. One might legitimately enquire whether the psalmist's audiencewould have been able to follow a quotation of such length. The longer a quotation,the more likely it is that an audience will lose track of who is speaking.

The quotation in Psalm 39 should be understood as comprising only verse 4:'Lord, let me know my end, and what is the measure of my days; let me know howfleeting my life is!' Ps. 39.5-6 make better sense as the answer given to the petitionasked in verse 4, rather than as a continuation of the petition (which is the sense ifthese verses are contained within the quotation).

These examples illustrate several criteria for determining the end of a quotation.First, a comparison with other quotations helps determine where any givenquotation ends. Second, the larger context of a psalm is important for determiningthe end of a quotation. The overall argument of the psalm gives clues as to wherethe quotations end; the quotations should work with, not against, the formalsections of a psalm (such as series of petitions, or major disjunctive markers suchas 'and now', parallelism in the poetry, and so on). In later chapters, when specifictexts are treated in which the end of a quotation is uncertain, the specific issues willbe discussed in a footnote.

ii. The Relationship Between the Quotation Inset and the PsalmThe goal of this study is to assess the rhetorical function of direct discourse in thePsalter. That is, the goal is not just to study instances of direct discourse in thePsalter but to study and interpret how those instances of direct discourse contributeto the overall arguments of various psalms. In order to accomplish this goal, weneed conceptual ways of analysing how the quotation inset interacts both with itsimmediate frame and with the rhetorical argument of the psalm in which it occurs.

The Subordination of the Inset to the Frame. One of the most important con-clusions that emerged from the above survey of quotation theory is that thequotation inset is subordinated to the frame. That is, the reporter constructs the

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1. Theoretical Considerations 25

frame so as to control the original speech quoted in the inset and to interpret theinset for the implied audience.

Cynthia Miller has argued persuasively that the reporter controls direct discourseno less than he or she controls indirect discourse. 'While the direct representationof speech adds a sense of vividness and immediacy to biblical narrative, directspeech, no less than indirect speech, remains ultimately within the control of thebiblical narrator.'63 Direct discourse 'represents a metapragmatic interpretation onthe part of the reporting speaker (or narrator) in terms of the syntactic shape of thequotative frame that introduces it'.64 Indirect discourse and direct discourse do notdiffer in that they control the original speaker's words; they merely differ in howthey do so. 'Indirect speech is differentiated by the syntax of the quotation and itsintegration into the frame; varieties of direct speech, by contrast, are differentiatedby the degree of syntactic complexity of the quotative frame.'65 That is, when areporter quotes an original speaker's words, she interferes with those words bymeans of the frame in which she places the inset. Miller would certainly agree thatthe reporter also interferes with the inset by choosing which words and how muchof the original speech to quote.

Miller develops a complicated, hierarchical structure for defining how heavilythe reporter interferes with the inset. She distinguishes between single-verb frames,multiple-verb frames, and frames. Although Miller's work is exceedinglythorough and very helpful, her typology cannot be applied directly to this study fortwo reasons. First, she did not consider quotations in the Psalter or Hebrew poetrywhen developing her typology. Second, she concentrated primarily on the verbs ofspeaking, and this limits her typology's application to Hebrew poetry, which hasdifferent syntactical conventions.66

Using Miller's thorough work as a departure point, I suggest that there are fouraspects of a quotation by which the psalmist controls the inset. These four aspectsgovern the range of ways in which the frame interacts with the inset in order tocontrol it. These four aspects are: the content of the inset, the verbs of speaking inthe frame, the identity of the speaker, and any modifying words or phrases presentin the frame. Initial explanations of these aspects are as follows:

The Content of the Inset. Often, the content of the quotation inset is the mostimportant of these four aspects. For example, the psalmist will often quote hisenemies uttering blasphemous words: 'They say, "The Lord does not see, the Godof Jacob does not perceive"' (94.7). Or, the psalmist quotes herself uttering piouswords: 'I say to the Lord, "You are my lord, I have no good except by you"'(16.1).

63. Miller, The Representation of Speech in Biblical Hebrew Narrative, p. 144.64. Miller, The Representation of Speech in Biblical Hebrew Narrative, p. 145.65. Miller, The Representation of Speech in Biblical Hebrew Narrative, p. 145.66. Miller, The Representation of Speech in Biblical Hebrew Narrative, pp. 143-232 and 299-

398.

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Verbs of Speaking. The verbs of speaking often interpret the inset for the impliedaudience. In Ps. 22.7-8, the audience would not know to interpret the content of theinset as sarcastic if the psalmist did not use the verb 'to mock': 'All who see memock me, they make mouths at me, they wag their heads; "Commit to the Lord thathe might deliver, may he rescue him who trusts in him."'

Identity of the Speaker. In places, the identity of the speaker is a key tounderstanding the quotation. For example, 'the nations' are usually heard onlyspeaking discouraging words such as 'Where is their God?' (Pss. 79.10, 115.2;compare 42.3). But in Ps. 126.2-3 we read:

Then it was said among the nations,'The Lord has done great things for them'.The Lord has done great things for us,

and we rejoiced.

Note the irony of the situation—the nations praise the work of the Lord, and then'we' speak those identical words. The irony of the passage is communicated by theidentity of the speakers: the nations.

Modifying Words and Phrases. Finally, the frame often contains words and phrasesthat modify the inset. 'The fool says in his heart, "There is no God"' (14.1). Or, 'Isaid in my prosperity, "I shall never be moved"' (30.6). Or, Ps. 35.8-10:

Let ruin come upon [my adversaries] unawares,

Then, all my bones shall say, 'O LORD, who is like you?You deliver the weak from those too strong for them,the weak and needy from those who despoil them'.

Such phrases often indicate the circumstances or conditions in which the quotedspeech did occur or will occur and as such are vital to understanding the interactionbetween the frame and the inset.

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Chapter 2

'THEY WHET THEIR TONGUES LIKE SWORDS' :THE FUNCTION OF ENEMY QUOTATIONS

In the Psalter, the voice that is quoted most often in direct discourse is the voice ofthe enemy.1 The enemy is quoted thirty-four times in twenty-six different psalms.2

In this chapter, the function of these enemy quotations is considered. For thepurpose of this analysis, the enemy quotations are divided into two groups: (1)quotations in which the enemies attack God, and (2) quotations in which theenemies attack the psalmist. First, an analysis of the psalm texts in which these twogroups of enemy quotations occur is presented and conclusions are drawn about theformal function of each type of quotation (Sections 1 and 2). Second, thetheoretical material from the previous chapter is drawn upon in order to analyse therhetorical function of these quotations.

1. Included under the rubric of 'enemy quotations' are those quotations in which the originalspeaker is identified as 'the wicked', 'my enemy', 'my enemies', 'the fool', 'the speakers of lies','the people', 'those who seek to snatch away my life', 'my adversaries', 'those who watch for mylife', 'the arrogant', 'your foes', 'their ancestors', 'the nations', 'all evil-doers', 'theEdomites',and'our captors'. Also included are those quotations in which the speaker is not specifically identified,but in which the content of the quotation demands that the speaker be understood as a hostile party(such as the 'you' in Psalm 11).

2. Some passages that others have understood as enemy quotations should not be regarded assuch.

Ps. 4.6: It is unclear whether the voice quoted in Ps. 4.6 should be understood as that of the enemyor of friendly persons in the community. Because of that confusion, the citation is excluded fromthis study.

Ps. 55.22-3: R. Gordis proposed that these verses be understood as a sarcastic enemy quotation,perhaps akin to Ps. 22.8 ('Quotations as a Literary Usage', 157-218). These verses contain nointernal deictic or semantic markers, however, that support this reading.

Ps. 109.6-19: Many commentators understand as a lengthy enemy quotation. Against this, there isno verb of speaking, and the accusations in vv. 6-19 better fit the psalmist's attack on his enemythan their attack on him. The switch to the singular for the collective is not an indication of directdiscourse in this case; it is a common grammatical feature of the psalms. Furthermore, if this werean enemy quotation, its length would be unprecedented. It is better to understand these verses asthe psalmist's imprecation against the enemy. Even if these passages were included, however, theywould not materially affect the results of this investigation.

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1. 'They Set Their Mouths Against Heaven':Quotations in which the Enemies Attack God

The first category of enemy quotations to be considered comprises those quotationsin which the enemies attack God. This category of enemy quotations is the mostsignificant numerically, including twenty-five different quotations in nineteendifferent psalms.3 This category is also the most significant theologically, becausein these quotations the enemies assert the powerlessness of God. These quotationsmay be further divided into three groups of assertions: 1. Assertions that God lacksthe effective power to save and help; 2. Assertions that God lacks fidelity; 3.Assertions that Israel's God has been defeated by foreign gods. First, an analysis ofthe psalm texts in which these three groups of enemy quotations occur is presentedhere in order to identify the formal role that these quotations play in the argumentsof the psalms. In almost every psalm in which such quotations occur, the quotationeither becomes the central formal and theological point around which the psalmturns, or it marks a major turning point in the argument of the psalm. This analysisfurther serves to identify a set of rhetorical devices by which the enemy quotationsare integrated into the argument of the psalm. The analysis of the types of psalmsand of the component elements of the 'lament' or 'prayer for help' is especiallydependent on the analyses of Claus Westermann and Patrick D. Miller.4

i. Quotations Asserting that God Lacks Effective Power to Save and HelpThe most frequent charge that the psalmist quotes the enemies as making is thatGod lacks the ability to judge the wicked or save the innocent. The charge ischaracteristically stated in phrases such as 'God will not seek', 'God does not see','God does not hear', and 'There is no God'. Almost all of the psalms in which thistype of enemy quotation occurs are individual prayers for help (individual laments)or individual psalms of trust, a type of psalm closely related to the individualprayer for help. Where these quotations occur in other types of psalms, it will benoted.

Psalm 9/10.5 Psalm 9/10 is an excellent lead example of how quotations in whichthe enemies attack God function in the psalms because in Psalm 9/10 some of the

3. Pss.2.3;3.2; 10.4,6,11, 13; 11.1-3; 12.4-5; 14.1:22.8; 42.3, 10; 53.1; 59.7; 64.5-6; 71.10;73.11; 74.8; 78.19; 79.10; 83.4, 12; 94.7; 115.2; and 137.3,7.

4. C. Westermann, Praise and Lament in the Psalms; The Psalms: Structure, Content andMessage; P.O. Miller, Interpreting the Psalms; They Cried to the Lord. See also the introduction toJ.L. Mays, Psalms (IBC; Louisville: John Knox, 1989).

5. Psalms 9 and 10 are treated here as a single unit. LXX has them as a single psalm.Together, the two psalms make up one continuous acrostic poem. Psalm 10 lacks a superscription,and no other psalm between Psalm 3 and Psalm 32 lacks one. For all of these reasons, Psalms 9 and10 should be read as a single psalm. It is possible that Psalm 9 and 10 were once separate prayers,however. The opponents in Psalm 9 are plural and there is a sustained focus on the nations as aproblem, whereas in Psalm 10 the opponent is singular and the one reference to the nations in v. 16is of a completely different tone than the multiple references to the nations in Psalm 9. The

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2. 'They Whet Their Tongues like Swords' 29

most common features of these quotations occur. The psalmist quotes 'the wicked'four times in the midst of an extended they-complaint (10.1-11):

The wicked snorts in his pride,'He will not seek, there is no God', are all his thoughts, (v. 4)

He says in his heart, 'I shall not be made to stagger,from generation to generation there shall be no evil.' (v. 6)

He says in his heart, 'God has forgotten,he has hidden his face, he will not see forever.' (v. 11)

Why does the wicked renounce God,and say in his heart, 'You will not seek'? (v. 13)

One of the frequent features of the enemy quotations is that they occur at the end ofan extended they-complaint. Earlier in the psalm, the wicked denounced Godindirectly, 'He will not seek.' The they-complaint builds in intensity, however, andat the close the wicked dares to renounce God directly: 'You will not seek.'Another common feature of this type of quotation is closely related to its role as theculmination of the they-complaint: the quotation occurs at the turning point of thepsalm, as the psalmist moves from complaint to petition or to confession of trust.In Psalm 9/10, immediately following the enemy quotation in verse 13, thepsalmist moves to confession of trust. The psalmist takes the vocabulary of theenemy and reverses that vocabulary in the petition and confession of trust sectionsof the psalm. (As is demonstrated below, this rhetorical device is one of the mostfrequent features of the psalms in which enemy quotations occur.) The wicked hadclaimed that 'God has forgotten '. But the psalmist prays, 'Do not forget

the poor' (v. 12). The wicked is confident in his plans because he believesthat God 'will not see forever'. In contrast, the psalmist expresses herfirm confidence in God: 'You, indeed you do see ' (v. 14).8 The wickedhad twice affirmed that God 'will not seek ' evil-doers topunish them. Again, the psalmist confesses her confidence in God: 'You will seek

language and ideology of Zion theology are more pronounced in Psalm 9 than in Psalm 10. Thetechnical plea for God to 'rise up' occurs in 9.19 and is repeated in 10.12, and in no otherpsalm is that plea repeated. Psalm 9 is a psalm of thanksgiving, while Psalm 10 is an individuallament. Finally, the rhetorical device of the enemies being quoted in direct discourse occurs fourtimes in Psalm 10 and never in Psalm 9.

6. Although MT reads , the reading here follows Syriac, Targum, and multiple Hebrewmanuscripts, which assume . The verb 'to snort' is supplied to make the prideful image of

, literally 'his nose', more palpable.7. The subject of the verb 'to seek' I might be understood as either of the two masculine

singular nouns in the verse: the wicked, or God. In a parallel phrase in 10.13, however, it is clearly'God' who does not seek: 'Why does the wicked renounce God, and say in his heart, "You will notseek ." ' This parallel indicates the subject of the verb in verse 4 should also be understoodas God: 'He [God] will not seek.'

8. is translated as intensifying the subject of the verb , meaning somethingsuch as 'Yes, indeed you do see.'

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out his wickedness, until you find none'9 (v. 15). A final common featureof this type of enemy quotation that Psalm 9/10 exemplifies is that in the quotation,the enemies name the central theological problem that the psalm is addressing. Thecombined meaning of the four enemy quotations in this psalm is that God lacks theability to judge the wicked or to save the innocent. The fourfold repetition suggeststhat this is the central theological problem of the psalm. The psalmist answers theproblem by petitioning God to prove divine power and fidelity by acting to bothjudge the wicked and save the innocent, and the psalmist confesses her firm trustthat God will act.

Thus, Psalm 9/10 is a good example of several of the common features of quo-tations in which the enemies attack God. First, the enemies' assertion provides thecentral theological problem that the psalm addresses. Second, the enemy quotationserves as the culmination of the they-complaint. Third, the enemy quotation isfound at the turning point between complaint and trust. Fourth, the vocabulary ofthe quotation inset is reversed in the petition and confession of trust.

Psalm 12. In Psalm 12, the psalmist contrasts the speech of the enemy with thespeech of God. The psalm is structured chiastically, with the speech of Godstanding as the answer to the speech of the wicked at the centre of the psalm:

1—Opening petition2-3—Description of the wicked's speech

4—Speech of the wicked quoted in direct discourse5—Speech of God quoted in direct discourse

6—Description of God's speech7-8—Closing confession of trust

As can be deduced from verse 7, the psalm is a prayer on behalf of a community orgroup of individuals who have been falsely accused: 'You, O LORD, will protectus; you will guard us from this generation forever.' The community is suffering athreat posed by false accusations; note that the threat is described exclusively interms of speech: 'They speak falsely' (v. 2), 'with flattering lips and a double heartthey speak' (v. 2), 'May the LORD cut off all flattering lips, every tongue thatboasts great things' (v. 3). Then the enemy quotation serves as the culmination ofthe they-complaint (w. 2-4): 'By means of our tongues we prevail,10 our lips areours, who is lord over us?'11

9. The verse continues There is some debate as to how this clause should beunderstood. P. Craigie understands an affirmative use of (Psalms 1-50 (WBC, 19; Waco: WordBooks, 1983), p. 123). See also: L. Koehler and W. Baumgartner, HALOT (5 vols.; New York:Brill, 1994) I, p. 131; B.K. Waltke and M. O'Connor, An Introduction to Hebrew Syntax (WinonaLake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1990), p. 660 n. 58; C.F. Whitley, 'The Positive Force of the HebrewParticle \ZAW84 (1972), pp. 213-19. Another option is to supply some modifying word suchas 'until' as does NRSV, 'seek out his wickedness until you find none'. This seems a better option,analogous to the use of in Isa. 44.8, 'I do not know [any]'.

10. The precise meaning of the hiphil of is not clear. The qal meaning is 'to be superior' or'to be strong'. The only other attested use of the hiphil is Dan. 9.27, where there is a direct object('he will establish a covenant').

11. S. Mowinckel understands these quotations as curses: 'All such words were considered to

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This quotation in which the wicked assert that the LORD lacks effective power tojudge and punish also names the central theological problem of the psalm: Whichreality and whose speech is stronger? The wicked, who surround the psalmist andwhom the psalmist can hear? Or God, who is invisible and whose promises oftenseem meagre? The wicked assert that they trust in their own power. In the psalm'sstructure, the speech of the wicked is answered by the speech of God: 'Because ofthe hurt of the poor, because of the groaning of the needy,12 now I will arise!' saysthe LORD, 'I will put in safety the witness in his behalf.'13 It may be that the senseof the enemy quotation is again reversed by the psalmist. The enemy had boasted,'Who is 'ddon over us?' The psalmist responds with the speech of the LORD, and inthe confession of trust the psalmist says, 'You, O LORD, will protect us'. Later inthe tradition, the proper name of the LORD was vocalized as 'ddon. More to thepoint, the content of God's speech directly counters the content of the wicked'sspeech: God does see the suffering of the downcast, God does have effective powerto intervene on their behalf, and God will soon act.14 The psalmist does not merelyjuxtapose the speech of the wicked with that of the LORD. The psalmist thoroughlydefines both the speech of the wicked and the speech of God. The wicked lie, theyspeak with flattering lips and a double heart, and their tongues make great boasts.The 'utterances of the LORD', on the other hand, are seven-times pure.

Thus, Psalm 12 demonstrates some of the characteristic features of the enemyquotations. First, the quotation is the culmination of the they-complaint. Second,the quotation provides the central theological problem that the psalm addresses.Third, the quotation marks the turning point of the psalm.15

Psalm 11. In Psalm 11, a human voice quoted in direct discourse asserts that thewicked reign unchallenged on earth. As in the above psalms, this quotation be-comes the central organizing feature of the psalm because it presents a theologicalviewpoint against which the remainder of the psalm argues. In Psalm 11, however,

be powerful and fatal "curses"... In the eyes of those who are the objects of such words, they arenaturally looked upon as evil curses, unlawful supernatural harmful words and operations,"sorcery" and "devilry".' The Psalms in Israel's Worship (trans D.R. Ap-Thomas; 2 vols.; Nash-ville: Abingdon, 1962) I, p. 199. In order to sustain this interpretation, Mowinckel has to under-stand the individual laments in which these quotations occur as 'national psalms'.

12. For the causal use of the preposition , see Waltke and O'Connor, Biblical Hebrew Syntax,p. 213. See also Ps. 59.12: 'Because of the curses and because of the lies that they recount...'See also Ezek. 28.18 and Lam. 3.18.

13. On the translation of ** as 'witness', see P.O. Miller, 'yapiah in Psalm XII 6', FT 29(1979), pp. 495-500.

14. G.T.M. Prinsloo ('Man's Word—God's Word: A Theology of Antithesis in Psalm 12',ZA W110 (1998), pp. 390-402) proposes a similar reading of the function of the enemy and Godquotations in Psalm 12, in which he argues that the psalm's turning point is the speech of God thatanswers the human speech.

15. The language of 'turning point' comes from Miller. He writes that the God quotation 'is theturning point of the Psalm as it announces Yahweh's decision to intervene in this situation...Yahweh will act because of the violence done to the poor and in response to their groaning underthis oppression' ('yapiah in Psalm XII', p. 499).

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the speakers are not the wicked ones, but are misguided counsellors who tell thepsalmist to flee because the innocent have no defence against the wicked:

In the LORD I take refuge. How can you say to me,'Flee like a bird to a mountain.

For the wicked ones draw the bow,they have fixed their arrow upon the string,to shoot in the dark at the upright of heart.

If the foundations are torn down,what can the righteous one do?'

In this psalm, the enemy quotation does not merely serve as the culmination of thethey-complaint; it is the entire they-complaint. The misguided counsellors saysomething remarkably similar to what the wicked say in Psalms 9/10 and 12: Thereis no power on earth that can check the strength of the wicked. This statementprovides the central theological problem of the psalm. But even before this speechis heard, the psalmist has already qualified it by the way that the quotation frameintroduces the quotation inset: 'In the LORD I take refuge. How can you say tome...'. The psalmist subordinates the advice of the counsellors theologically byfirst confessing her own trust and also subordinates their advice grammatically bymaking it part of her question.

Following the quotation, the remainder of the psalm consists of an extendedconfession of trust, in which the psalmist spells out her reasons for not fleeing. Thisis a rhetorical device that also occurs frequently: an enemy quotation opens thepsalm, and the remainder of the psalm is an answer to the enemy's assertion. InPsalm 11, the psalmist's answer may be summed up in one phrase: 'The LORD'Seyes see, his gaze tests.' Note again that the enemy quotation assumes that Goddoes not see wicked acts or punish them, but the psalmist answers that God doessee and does act. In a variety of ways, the advice of the counsellors that was quotedin direct discourse is reversed in the rest of the psalm. In the quotation, the friendsadvised the psalmist to flee. But the psalmist says, 'I take refuge in the LORD'.Specifically, the friends tell her to flee to 'the mountain'. The psalmist respondsthat 'The LORD is in his holy temple'; in Zion theology the temple is 'the mountainof the house of the LORD' (Isa. 2.2), 'your holy mountain (Ps.15.1), or 'Themountain of the LORD' (Ps. 24.3). Thus, the counsellors advise that the psalmistflee to a mountain, and the psalmist responds that she takes refuge in the mountain.In the quotation, the counsellors warn that 'the wicked bend the bow'and they ask the question, 'What can the righteous one do?' The psalmistresponds, 'The LORD tests the righteous and wicked alike'. In thequotation, the psalmist is warned that the wicked intend 'to shoot in the dark at theupright of heart ' The psalmist replies, 'the upright one will see[God's] face'.

16. There is a difficulty in the first phrase. MT consonants are: ('flee to yourmountain, O bird'). LXX, Syriac, Qere, and multiple Hebrew manuscripts read the verb as "HI].LXX reflects the following consonants: rendering the following reconstruction:'flee like a bird to a mountain'. The translation in the text follows this reconstruction: lil "HI]

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Psalms 14 and53. Because Psalms 14 and 53 are almost identical, they are treatedtogether here.17 As in Psalm 11, the direct discourse is quoted in the first verse, andthe rest of the psalm is an answer to the fool's belief that 'There is no God'.18 Thepropositional content of the fool's assertion that 'There is no God' should not beunderstood as theoretical atheism. Rather, the statement means that the foolbelieves God is not active and present in the world in any effective way. This isshown by the parallel occurrence of the phrase in Psalm 10: 'The wicked snorts inhis pride, "[God] will not seek, there is no God," are all his thoughts' (v. 4). Inresponse to this assertion, the psalmist again confesses his trust that God is presentand active: 'The LORD looks down from heaven upon humanity, to see whetherthere is any who is wise, any who seeks God' (14.2). Against the fool's claim thatGod is not present, the psalmist asserts, 'God is with the generation of therighteous' (14.5). The psalmist offers up the petition, 'O that salvationmight come from Zion for Israel' (14.7). The Hebrew root , 'help/save/deliver', is one of the most frequent words in the Psalter, occurring in almost halfof the psalms. The subject of the word is always God, except where the ability ofhumans to provide 'help' is denied.19 The word implies the coming of help to onewho is in trouble.20 Salvation is understood as the present manifestation of thepower of the lore? to judge the wicked and rescue the righteous. The fool denies thepossibility of salvation when he says, 'There is no God'. But salvation is the hopethat the psalmist confesses and the reality for which the psalmist prays.

Psalm 22. In Ps. 22.8, the enemies are quoted: 'Commit to the LORD, let him rescuehim, let him deliver him, for he delights in him.' The reader knows that this adviceis sarcastic rather than sincere because in the quotation frame the psalmist definesthese as mocking, scornful words. Once these words are recognized as mockingwords, it is recognized that here the enemies are asserting that the LORD is not ableto deliver those who trust in him. This is, of course, once again the centraltheological problem of the psalm. It would be too strong, however, to claim that inPsalm 22 the enemy quotation provides the theological issue for the psalm; theproblem is present throughout the psalm even without the enemy quotation. But thequotation does provide a transitional point for the movement of the psalm. As hasbeen the case in previous psalms the enemy quotation comes as the culmination of

17.There are two main differences between the two psalms. First, Psalm 14 uses the divinename ' while Psalm 53 substitutes . Second, there are differences between 14.4-5 and53.4-6.

18. The 'fool' is often seen as a concept borrowed from Israel's wisdom tradition. However, inPsalm 74, a psalm that does not have motifs from the wisdom tradition, the foreign nation thattaunts the LORD and despises God's name is twice called Since both Psalm 74 and Psalms 14and 53 use the word in conjunction with enemy quotations that taunt God, it is better not toassume that the use of the word in these psalms is dependent on the wisdom tradition.

19. Cf. Pss. 60.13; 108.13; 146.3; 33.16-7; 44.4, 6.20. See the articles on in G.J. Botterweck and H. Ringgren (eds.), Theological Dictionary

of the Old Testament (trans. J.T. Willis; 13 vols.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, rev. edn., 1977), VI,pp. 441-63; and in E. Jenni and C. Westermann (eds.), Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament(trans. M.E. Biddle; 3 vols.; Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1998), II, pp. 584-87.

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a section of they-complaint; a section of they-complaint occurs in w. 7-8, and thequotation comes at the end of the they-complaint, immediately before a confessionof trust. Following the quotation, the psalmist takes up the vocabulary of the enemyand reverses it in his petition. The enemy mocked, 'let [God] deliver him

. The psalmist prays, 'Deliver my life from the sword' (v. 20).

Psalm 59.21 In Psalm 59, the enemy quotation occurs as the culmination of a sec-tion of they-complaint. The they-complaint is then followed by the confession oftrust:

They return every evening,they growl like dogs and surround the city;

They belch forth22 sharp swords from their mouths:'Who can hear us?'

But you, O LORD, you laugh at them! (vv. 6-8a)

Once again, the force of the enemy quotation is that God is not an effective force inthe world; God does not hear their taunts, God will not call them to account. Aswas the case in Psalm 22, it would be too strong to claim that the enemy quotationprovides the central theological problem of the psalm. But, as in Psalm 22, theenemy quotation is an integral part of the theological problem and occurs at theturning point of the psalm. The shift from the enemy quotation to the confession ofconfidence occurs as the psalmist answers the assertion of the enemies: 'But you, OLORD, you laugh at them!' It is implicit in the statement 'you laugh at them' thatGod does hear the enemies' speech: Only if God hears their speech can God laughat them. Again in this psalm, the enemy quotation conies as the culmination of thethey-complaint.

Psalm 64. In Psalm 64, the enemy quotation occurs at the end of an extendedsection of they-complaint:

They whet their tongues like swords,they bend bitter words like arrows;

To shoot from shelter at the blameless,they fire suddenly, they do not fear;

They steel themselves to their evil word,they discuss in order to conceal traps,

They say, 'Who can see us?Who can search out crimes?

21. H.-J. Kraus deletes the phrase in v. 7 that contains the direct discourse because it exceedsthe meter of the psalm. This seems too facile a reason to omit this phrase because meter withinHebrew poetry is not so rigid as to allow this sort of emendation. Kraus, Psalms 1-59: ACommentary (trans. H.C. Oswald; CC; Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1986), p. 239.

22. The hiphil of is also used of the enemy's speech in Ps. 94.4, see below.23. is understood here as intensifying the speech, 'Indeed, who hears?' Compare Ps. 116.10.

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We have perfected a scheme,the human interior and heart are deep.'

God will fire an arrow at them;suddenly they will have their wound! (vv. 3-7)

As in previous psalms, the psalmist immediately follows the enemy quotation witha confession of trust in which she contradicts the enemy. As in other psalms, thepsalmist employs the vocabulary of the quotation inset to show the reversal thatGod will effect. In the enemy quotation, they say, 'Who can see ( ) us?' In theconfession of trust, the psalmist says, 'Everyone who sees ( ) them willshudder' (v. 8). And in a bit of ironic reversal, those who earlier had spoken inpride of their secret plots will now 'declare what God has done' (v. 9).25

Psalm 73. Psalm 73 is not an individual prayer for help, but is a psalm withwisdom elements in which the psalmist meditates on the process by which he cameto grips with the problem of why the wicked flourish. In Psalm 73, the psalmistquotes both the wicked and himself in direct discourse. Before the enemy quota-tion, in an extended they-complaint the psalmist offers familiar lamentations aboutthe enemies' speech: 'They scoff and speak evil; they speak oppression from onhigh. They set their mouths against heaven, and their tongues traverse the earth'(vv. 8-9). In verse 11, the psalmist quotes the wicked asserting the familiar chargethat God is not present in any effective way: 'They say, "How can God know? And

24. The text of v. 6 is problematic. M. Tate has commented: 'The text of v. [6] is extremelydifficult and no translation should be treated with confidence, including [his translation]. MT hasliterally "they search out/devise/think out evil acts; we have perfected a thought-out-device, andthe inner part of a man and a heart is deep" ' (Psalms 51-100 (WBC, 20; Dallas: Word Books,1990), p. 131). Syriac reads 'Who can see us?' Even though MT and other versions read'to them'(referring to the secret plots), it is better to read to 'to us'. Most likely, the mistake arose whenwas replaced by , the consonants being mistakenly transposed from the phrase at the beginningof the verse: . Some have emended to ; others, including JPS, amend to('to hide') with some manuscripts. Kraus abandons his usual restraint and follows Gunkel'sreconstruction , 'and sees through our secret plans' (Psalms 60-150: A Com-mentary (trans. H.C. Oswald; CC; Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1989), p. 23). This solution is nottenable. Another crux is the meaning of . HALOT understands this as 'disguise'.Finally, there is the question of where the direct discourse ends. NJPS limits the quotation to thephrase 'Who will see them?' NRSV extends it through v. 6b, but inexplicably does not include v.6c. Verse 6c must be included, because the phrase makes little sense as the psalmist's ownassertion but fits well with the content of the enemy quotation. serves double-duty for the firsttwo questions: 'Who can see us? Who can search out crimes?' Because of the textual difficulties inthe inset of the quotation, an extended section of the psalm is quoted above to clarify the role of theenemies' speech in the psalm. In spite of the enormous textual difficulties, it is clear that the directdiscourse plays a key role in the psalm as a whole.

25. The reversal motif is not limited to the enemy quotation. In the they-complaint, the enemieswhet their tongues. In the confession of trust, '[God] will cause ruin for them because oftheir tongues...' In the they-complaint, the enemies aim arrows I and 'fire suddenly'

at the psalmist. In the confession of trust likewise, '[God] will fire an arrow at them; suddenly they will have their wound.' In the they-complaint, the

enemies 'do not fear'. In the confession of trust, 'all humanity will fear' (v. 9).

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is there knowledge in the Most High?"' The psalmist notes that in spite of theirwickedness and in spite of their sin, the enemies seem to thrive, while the righteoussuffer:

Such are the wicked;eternally prosperous, they acquire strength.

Surely in vain have I cleansed my heart,and washed my hands in innocence!

And I am smitten all day long,and punished every morning.

If I had said, 'I will talk on like them',I would then have been falseto the generation of your children, (vv. 13-15)

Describing the movement of this psalm, Walter Brueggemann has said that thepsalmist comes to the 'provisional conclusion' in verse 13 that' "pure heart" and"clean hands" are foolish virtues producing nothing... '.26 The psalmist is temptedto reject God's way of Torah obedience and fall in step with the wicked. In verse15, the psalmist recalls how he resisted the temptation to speak like the wickedspeak: 'If I had said, "I will talk on like them,"271 would then have been false tothe generation of your children.' The turning point of the psalm follows thisrecollection. According to Brueggemann, this turning point comes as the psalm'pivots' around the 'present reality of worship', as the psalmist recounts anepiphany he experienced in the temple: 'I perceived their end. Surely you set themin slippery places, you cause them to fall into ruin' (v. 17).28 The psalmist haspassed through the temptation to become like the wicked and remained true to 'thegeneration of your children'. As Brueggemann concluded, 'In the accustomedplace of worship where Israel's memory prevails and Israel's hope resides, thespeaker reperceives reality'.29

Perhaps because this is not a prayer for help, but an instructional psalm, thepsalmist's refusal to speak 'like them' replaces the enemy quotation at the turningpoint of the psalm. But the direct discourse of the enemies does play an importantrole in this psalm, because the hypothetical self quotation in which the psalmist

26. Brueggemann, 'Bounded by Obedience and Praise: The Psalter as Canon', in P.D. Miller(ed.), The Psalms and the Life of Faith (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995), p. 207.

27. The 3ms suffix (lit.: 'like him') does not refer to the manner in which the enemiesspeak, but to the enemies themselves. Even though the enemies are plural in this psalm, it iscommon in Hebrew poetry for singular suffixed pronouns to refer to plural antecedents. In fact,later in Psalm 73, a 3ms suffix and a 3mp suffix occur in the same verse, both referring back to theplural antecedent: 'You set him in slippery places, you make them fall...'. See also Ps. 59.9: 'Youlaugh at him', with the 3ms suffix referring to the plural subject of verse 8. See also 59.12, wherethe 3ms and 3mp suffixes are mixed together: 'For the sin of his mouth, the word of his lips, maythey be trapped in their pride." See also Ps. 59.13, Ps. 12.6, Isa. 28.6, etc.

28. Brueggemann, 'Bounded by Obedience and Praise', 207. Brueggemann argues that Psalm73 is the turning point of the entire Psalter, and verse 17 is the turning point of Psalm 73: 'In thismoment of fresh discernment, the psalm (and I dare say the Psalter as a whole) moves beyond thecentral claim of Psalm 1 to a quite different agenda' ('Bounded by Obedience and Praise', p. 208).

29. Brueggemann, 'Bounded by Obedience and Praise', p. 208.

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pointedly refuses to speak 'like them' depends on the previous enemy quotation tomake sense. Further, the psalmist's vocabulary is reversed in the vow of praise.Whereas earlier the psalmist had said, 'If I talk on like him...', in thelast words of the psalm, the psalmist vows 'to tell of all your works'.

Psalm 78. Psalm 78 is also not an individual prayer for help but is one of the so-called historical psalms.30 The implied audience of the psalm is the Jerusalemcommunity who are called by the psalmist to hear 'my instruction' (v. 1). Thecentral problem that the psalm takes up is God's rejection of the northern tribes.The psalm rehearses the history of Israel in order to explain and defend God'srejection of the northern tribes and sanctuaries and God's choice of Judah, the Zionsanctuary, and the Davidic monarchy.31 A key part of the argument of the psalm isto explain the sins that the northern tribes committed, which 'provoked' God toanger. It is in this context that the psalmist quotes the 'children of Ephraim' indirect discourse:

They spoke against God, they said,'Is God able to spread a table in the wilderness?

Although he smote rock and water gushed forth and streams flowed,is he also able to give food, or provide meat for his people?'

Therefore when God heard, he became angry,and a fire was kindled against Jacoband also anger rose against Israel,

Because they did not have faith in God,and they did not trust in his salvation, (vv. 19-22)

Several features of this quotation should be noted. First, even though the originalspeakers of this quotation are Israelites, it belongs with the enemy quotationsbecause the passage is used to show why God rejected the northern tribes. It is oneof the idiosyncracies of this psalm that only the Ephraimites are portrayed asturning back on the day of the battle (probably a reference to the tradition reportedin Numbers 13), sinning in the wilderness, building high places, and so on. Thepsalmist is implying that by rejecting the Jerusalem temple and the Davidicmonarchy, the northern tribes were rebelling against God in the same way thatIsrael's ancestors rebelled in the wilderness. Second, as we have come to expect, inthe quotation the people deny the effective power of God to act; the key concept isagain 'his salvation' (v. 22; ). Third, the passage with the direct discourseagain marks a turning point in the psalm. Although the sins of the Ephraimites arementioned as early as vv. 9-11 (turning back on the day of battle, forsaking thelaw, forgetting God's mighty deeds), it is not until after the enemy quotation in vv.19-21 that the congregation is told 'therefore' God's rage was kindled. Thus, thedirect discourse marks a key shift in the argument of the psalm. Fourth, the passage

30. See Westermann's discussion of historical psalms in Praise and Lament in the Psalms,pp. 214-49. See also Mays's comments on the historical nature of Psalm 78 (Psalms, pp. 254-55).

31. 'He abandoned his dwelling at Shiloh, the tent where he dwelt among mortals' (v. 60). 'Herejected the tent of Joseph, he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim; but he chose the tribe of Judah,Mount Zion, which he loves... He chose his servant David' (vv. 67-70a).

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specifically mentions that 'God heard'. This affirmation should be understood inlight of the frequent assertion in the enemy quotations that God does not hear, doesnot see, and so on. As such, it shows another point of contact with the other enemyquotations in which the enemies assert the powerlessness of God.

Psalm 94. In Psalm 94, the enemies again attack God:

They belch forth, they speak arrogance,all the evildoers boast.

They crush your people, O LORD,they persecute your inheritance.

They slay the widow and the sojourner,and they murder orphans,

They say, 'The LORD does not see,and the God of Jacob does not discern'.

Discern, O dullest of people!

The LORD knows human thoughts,that they are vanity, (w. 4-8a, 11)

Several comments are in order. First, as in earlier psalms, the direct discoursecomes at the end, or at the culmination, of the they-complaint. Second, the contentof the enemy quotation is again that God lacks the effective power to 'see' or'discern' evil acts as well as the effective power to exact vengeance. Third, theenemy quotation marks the transition from complaint to trust, or in this case, thetransition from complaint to instruction in trust. As in previous psalms, thevocabulary for the shift is provided by the quotation inset. The wicked say, 'theGod of Jacob does not discern '. The psalmist immediately calls uponthe people to 'discern!' . Fourth, the psalmist contradicts the wicked andconfesses her faith that God does have the effective power to help the distressedand punish the wicked.33

ii. Quotations Asserting that God Lacks FidelityAnother charge that the psalmist quotes the enemies as making is that God hasproven unfaithful to the psalmist. This charge is found in two psalms, both of themindividual prayers for help. Perhaps the reason that this charge occurs less fre-quently is because the charge has a more narrow scale. The accusation that Godlacks the power to judge the wicked and help the weak operates on a universalscale. But the charge that God is not faithful to the psalmist operates on an indi-vidual, or a personal scale. Here the issue is not that God would like to helpthe psalmist and is unable, but that God can help the psalmist and for some reasonwill not.

32. The hiphil of, is also used of the enemy's speech in Ps. 59.7, see above.33. The self quotations examined in this section have parallels outside of the Psalter. The data

outside of the Psalter do not contribute new insights into the function of such quotations, but theydo confirm the analysis presented above. See Jer. 5.12; 12.4; Isa. 14.12-14; 29.15.

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Psalm 3. Psalm 3 begins with a threefold they-complaint that ends in an enemyquotation:

O Lord, how many are my foes,Many are rising against me,

Many are saying of me,'There is no salvation for him in God', (vv. 1-3)

The assertion of the enemies is not that God cannot save, but that God will not savethe psalmist. In a word, this accusation is a charge against God's fidelity. Many ofthe common features of the enemy quotation are exemplified in this psalm. First,the enemy quotation provides the central theological problem that the psalmaddresses.35 Second, the enemy quotation serves as the culmination of the they-complaint. Third, the enemy quotation occurs at the turning point of the psalm,immediately before the confession of trust. Fourth, the psalmist borrows the vo-cabulary of the enemy's assertion and reverses it in the petition and in theconfession of trust. Whereas the enemy declared 'there is no salvationfor him', the psalmist prays 'save me '.36 The enemy's assertion is alsoreversed in the psalmist's confession of trust: 'To the LORD belongs salvation

Psalm 71. Psalm 71 is the prayer of an aged person in severe distress. For thepsalmist, the issue is whether God has abandoned him in his old age. The enemyquotation occurs at the end of the they-complaint:

For my enemies speak of me,those who watch over my life consult together,

saying, 'God has abandoned him,pursue and capture him,for there is no deliverer', (v. 10)

The enemies name the theological problem of the psalm: Has God abandoned thepsalmist in the time of his old age? The issue is not God's power but God's fidelity.This analysis is borne out by the fact that the psalmist never says the enemies havepitted themselves against God, a charge so frequent in the earlier psalms. Rather,the psalmist repeatedly argues that the enemies have pitted themselves against him(see vv. 4,7,10-11,13 and 24). Once again, the enemy quotation comes at the end

34. The Syriac has 'for you in your God'. LXX has 'for him in his God'. 'For him' in MT andLXX is to be preferred; the idea is that the 'many' are not talking to the psalmist, but about him asif he were not a person, as if he were not present. Both the 2fs suffix of the Syriac and the 3mssuffix of the LXX on 'God' are to be understood as expansionistic and not original.

35. Mays has put the issue well: 'The central theological issue of the prayer is what many aresaying about the petitioner: "There is no salvation for him in God" (v. 2)' (Psalms, p. 52).

36. For the enemies God is simply God but for the psalmist God is 'the LORD.. .myGod i '. This is a consistent distinction in the enemy quotations. When the enemiesspeak of God they consistently use and almost never use '. In those quotations that Ihave designated as enemy quotations, there are only two taunts in which the enemies use the name

: 'Commit to the LORD, that he might deliver him; may he rescue him who trusts in him'22.7-8), and 'The LORD does not see, and the God of Jacob does not discern' (94.7).

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40 Many are Saying

of the they-complaint at a transitional point in the psalm as the psalmist moves topetition. The psalmist borrows the enemies' vocabulary twice in his petitions: 'Donot discard me in the time of old age, do not abandon me as soon as mystrength fails' (v. 9). And, 'O God, do not abandon me' (v. 18).

iii. Quotations Asserting that the LORD has been DefeatedA third charge that the psalmist quotes the enemies as making is that the LORD hasbeen defeated. This type of enemy quotation occurs either in communal prayers forhelp (communal laments; Psalms 74, 79, and 83), or in psalms that haveunmistakable liturgical characteristics (Psalms 2,42/43,115, and 137). The chargecharacteristically occurs in contexts where a conflict between the LORD and foreigngods is assumed, and it is characteristically made in taunts such as 'Where is yourGod?' or quotations in which the enemies express their intent to destroy theLORD'S sanctuary.

Excursus: 'Where is your/their God?''Where is your/their God?' is a formulaic taunt in the Old Testament. The enemiesare quoted as speaking these words in three different psalms ('Where is your God?'(Ps.42.3,10); 'Where is their God?' (Pss. 79.10; 115.2)). Similar enemy taunts arealso found in Isa. 10.9-10; 36.18b-20; Mic. 7.10; Joel 2.17; and 1 Kgs. 18.27.Before discussing the formal role that this formula plays in Psalms 42/3, 79, and115, a brief investigation of the use of this taunt in these other Old Testamentpassages can help define the formula's meaning.

Isaiah 10.9-10. Isa. 10.5-19 is an oracle of judgement from Isaiah of Jerusalemdirected against Assyria. As part of the oracle, Isaiah quotes the king of Assyriaspeaking boastfully against God:

Are not my commanders all kings? Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamathlike Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus? As my hand has reached out for thekingdoms of the idols, and their images were greater than those of Jerusalem andSamaria, shall I not do to Jerusalem and her graven images exactly what I havedone to Samaria and her idols?

Note the similarity between the taunt, 'Where is their God?' and the Assyrianking's boast that the gods of Hamath, Arpad, Samaria, and Damascus were not ableto save their lands from his power. The taunt assumes the powerlessness of thegods of those countries to save the countries from Assyrian conquest. It isimportant to note that the taunt occurs in the context of a conflict between twonations, in which the gods of the two nations were assumed to be involved. Thedefeat of the nation is understood as the defeat of the nation's gods, thus demon-strating the powerlessness of the nation's god(s).

Isaiah 36.18b-20. In Isa. 36.18b-20 (see also 2 Kgs. 18.33-35 and 2 Chron. 32.13-15), the commander of the Assyrian army taunts the defenders on the walls ofJerusalem:

Has any of the gods of the nations saved his land from the hand of the king ofAssyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of

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Sepharvaim? Indeed, did they deliver Samaria from my hand? Who from amongall the gods of these lands saved their land from my hand? Indeed, can the LORDsave Jerusalem from my hand?

Note the similarity of the Assyrian taunt 'Where are the gods of...' to the taunt inthe Psalter: 'Where is their God?' In Isaiah 36, the taunt is a rhetorical questionasked following the defeat of the nation in question. The taunt asserts thepowerlessness of the gods of those nations in the face of Assyrian power. Note alsothat the context of a conflict between nations is implicitly understood as a conflictbetween the gods of the opposing nations.

Micah 7.10. Since 1924,Mic. 7.8-20 has normally been understood as an exilic orpost-exilic prophetic liturgy.37 Within this liturgy, the enemy quotation occurs inthe context of the people confessing their trust:

Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy,although I fall, I shall rise,although I sit in darkness, the LORD is my light.

I now bear the indignation of the LORD,because I have sinned against him,

Until he adjudicates my dispute,and establishes my judgment.

[The LORD] will bring me into the light,I shall see his righteousness.

And my enemy will see, and shame will cover herTO

who said to me, 'Where is the LORD your God?'

The T in this passage is a collective, representing the nation of Israel. While Israelwas defeated and in exile, the enemy, who is portrayed as a woman (perhaps'daughter Babylon', see Ps. 137.8; Isa. 47.1; Jer. 50.42; 51.33; and Zech. 2.7),taunted Israel. The taunt assumes that Israel's defeat and exile are proof of thedefeat of Israel's God.

Joel 2.17. The Book of Joel describes a plague of locusts that is compared to aninvading 'nation' (1.6) and an 'army' (1.4, 11; 2.20). In the face of the invasion,the prophet implores the people to turn to God in repentance. As part of a liturgy ofrepentance, the prophet says:

The priests and ministers of the LORD shall weep,and they shall say, 'Spare your people, O LORD,

Do not give your inheritance over to mockery,to become a proverb among the nations,

37. H. Gunkel, 'Der Micha-Schluss', ZS 2 (1924), pp. 145-78. See also D. Millers, 'Micah,Book of, in D.N. Freedman (ed.), ABD (6 vols.; New York: Doubleday, 1992), IV, p. 808;J. Limburg, Hosea-Micah (IBC; Atlanta: John Knox, 1988), pp. 193-98.

38. Among the reasons for a late exilic or post-exilic date for this passage are the understandingof Israel's shame as the result of its own sin (Mic. 7.9, compare Isa. 43.22-28), the motif of theincomparability of God (Mic. 7.18, compare Isa. 40.18,25), the motif of the rib (Mic. 7.9, compareIsa. 41.21-24), and the exchange of Israel's shame for Babylon's shame (Mic. 7.10, compare Isa.45).

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Why should it be said among the peoples,"Where is their God?"' (v. 17)

Within the context of the Book of Joel, the foreign taunt, 'Where is their God?' ispart of Joel's rhetorical description of the locust invasion as an invading nation. Asin the other passages, here the nations look upon Israel's devastation at the handsof this 'invading nation' as proof that Israel's God lacked the power to save it.

1 Kings 18.27. Another passage that sheds light on the semantic range of the taunt,'Where is your God?' comes from 1 Kings 18. Here, however, a Yahwistic prophettaunts foreign prophets! 1 Kings 18 describes the conflict between Elijah and theprophets of Baal. As with the earlier passages, the earthly conflict between thehuman agents (the prophet Elijah versus the prophets of Baal) is understood asmirroring a larger conflict between gods (The LORD versus Baal). The fact that theprophets of Baal are killed is accepted as proof that Israel's God defeated Baal.While the prophets of Baal are receiving no answer from their god, Elijah mocksthem:

He said, 'Cry with a great voice! Surely he is the true god; either he is meditating,or he has wandered away,39 or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and mustbe awakened.'

Elijah's taunt that perhaps Baal has gone off somewhere is equivalent to the taunt,'Where is your God?' The context again underscores that the taunt assumes a dual-level conflict between nations and between their gods, and the taunting partyassumes victory.40

Conclusions regarding 'Where is Your/Their God? The following conclusions maybe drawn: First, the question is a victor's taunt that occurs during or after a conflictbetween nations. Second, the conflict between nations is understood also as a con-flict between national gods, and the taunt is directed as much toward the defeatednation's god as it is toward the defeated nation itself. Third, the victors speak thetaunt because they interpret the defeat of the foreign nation as the defeat of theforeign god.

Psalm 79. In Ps. 79.10, the nations taunt Israel: 'Where is their God?' Psalm 79 is acommunal lament, which scholars have often argued was composed following thedestruction of Jerusalem in 587 BCE.41 Walter C. Bouzard Jr, however, has arguedthat

39. The meaning of the phrase is disputed; see HALOT111.1319, 1321. Thetranslation 'either he is meditating, or he has wandered away' reflects the NRSV.

40. The conflict in Exodus between Israel's God and Pharaoh has often been seen as a conflictto determine who is truly God, or at least to determine who is lord of Israel, since in Egyptian royalideology Pharaoh was understood as a demi-god. In this context, Pharaoh's statement Exod. 5.2might also be understood as a taunt similar to the 'Where is your God?' taunts: 'Who is the LORD,that I should heed him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and I will not let Israel go.'

41. For example, Kraus concludes, 'it surely seems obvious to connect Psalm 79 with thecatastrophe of the year 587 B.C.E.' Psalms 60-150, p. 134.

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one can reasonably infer that actual historical incursion or invasions were notprerequisite to [Psalm 83] or the other communal lamentations' composition. Thatis, while these psalms provide what appears to be detailed and graphic historicalreminiscences of actual foreign invasions and of destruction subsequent to thoseattacks, there is no inherent reason to suppose that a specific historical event stoodbehind the descriptions. Indeed, given a nearly identical phenomena [sic] in theMesopotamian laments, one is led toward the conclusion that the references toforeign invaders had a cultic rather than an historical significance.

Although it seems likely to me that Psalm 79 and other communal laments werecomposed in response to specific invasions and incursions, Bouzard's emphasis onthe possibility that these psalms were used cultically in a setting divorced from anyhistorical invasion is well-taken. Bouzard interprets the enemies in these psalms asrepresenting cosmic powers in conflict with Israel's God:

The success of the enemies signals the triumph of chaos with which the alieninvaders are aligned. Both the destructive activities of the foes and their tauntsare in several instances explicitly coordinated with the manifestations of theprimordial chaotic forces such as the raging sea monster, fire, and earthquake.

The latter point provides an indication of why the foes' taunts play such aprominent role in these psalms. As a cosmogonic divine warrior, God engages inmortal combat with the chaos dragon as a means of establishing divine control ofthe world... One should therefore understand references to the foreign enemiesand their destructive activities as a reemergence of the threat posed in themythological past by the chaos dragon.

Even if the communal laments were composed in response to historical invasionsof Israel, Bouzard's interpretation of the enemies as representing cosmic forces inconflict with the LORD is instructive for understanding the role of the enemyquotation: 'Where is their God?' Bouzard's conclusion places the nations' tauntwithin the same context of the conflict between Israel's God and foreign cosmicpowers that we have seen in other passages that contain this formulaic taunt.Within the overall argument of the psalm, the taunt is the major reason that thepsalmist gives for why God should answer the prayer. In verse 4, the psalmistcomplains: 'We are taunted by our enemies.'44 The actual taunt is quotedin verse 10, as a subordinate element of the petition (the petition runs from vv. 6-12) and functions as part of the motivating clause that supports the petition. Inverse 12 the psalmist adds: 'Return to our neighbors sevenfold to their bosoms,their taunts with which they taunted vow '45 Patrick Miller has

42. W.C. Bouzard Jr, We Have Heardwith Our Ears, O God(SBLDS, 159; Atlanta: ScholarsPress, 1997), p. 131, see also pp. 138-40, 147-200.

43. Bouzard, We Have Heard, p. 170. Emphasis added.44. The lamed in should not be translated as 'to', because it is surely not a directive

lamed. Better to understand this as a lamed of agent, with the lamed marking the agent who tauntsthe psalmist. See R.J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax: An Outline (Toronto: University of Toronto Press,2ndedn., 1976), pp. 48-51.

45. The plea to return their taunts sevenfold indicates completeness. Compare this with thesevenfold purity of God's speech in Psalm 12 (see above).

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argued persuasively that 'the term herpd, "reproach," "taunt," "insult" and itsrelated verbal forms regularly refer to a challenge of the power of the one beingtaunted or of his or her god'.46 The second masculine singular pronomial suffix onthe verb taunt shows that the psalmist understands the taunt in verse 10 asa taunt against the LORD, as an assertion that the LORD has been defeated. Theenemies, who represent cosmic powers in conflict with the LORD, believe thatthe LORD has been defeated along with Israel. By quoting this enemy taunt, thepsalmist names a pressing theological problem: Has the LORD been defeated, assome people believed? The psalmist, who believes otherwise, quotes the taunt inorder to move God to establish salvation for Israel.47 One may conclude that, as inprevious psalms, the enemy quotation is the key element in the argument of thepsalm. Further, the enemy quotation and the plea to repay the enemies sevenfoldare the last two references in the psalm to the enemies. Thus, as in some previouspsalms, the enemy taunts occur as the culmination of the they-complaint.

Psalm 115. Psalm 115 is a liturgical prayer in which the enemies' taunt is quoted inthe opening thought of the psalm:

Not to us, O LORD, not to us,but to your name give glory.

Why do the nations say,'Where is their God?' (vv. 1-2)

The psalm takes the nations' taunt literally and responds with a confession of trustin the LORD: 'Our God is in the heavens, he does whatever he pleases' (v. 3). Justas the nations' taunt asserts the powerlessness of Israel's God, Israel's answerasserts not only God's location but God's power to act effectively: 'he doeswhatever he pleases'. Then there follows a lengthy polemic against foreign gods(w. 4-8). This is not a surprising development because (as was argued above) thenations' taunt assumes a conflict between Israel's God and foreign gods; thepolemic against the foreign gods is Israel's confession that her God is the true God.The enemy quotation functions in familiar ways in Psalm 115. First, in the sameway that Psalms 14 and 53 are structured as an answer to the fool's assertion that'There is no God', Psalm 115 is structured as a response to the nations' taunt:'Where is their God?' Second, the enemy quotation attacks the LORD, and thepsalmist reverses this both by literally answering the nations' question and in herpolemic against the false gods.

Psalm 42/43. Psalm 42/43 is a single poem with three stanzas (42.1 -4,6b-10; 43.1 -4) and a refrain that is repeated three times (42.5-6a, 11; 43.5). Mays has arguedthat: The best clue to the social and theological setting is the taunting question that

46. Miller, They Cried to the Lord, 79. See also Miller, 'Psalms and Inscriptions', in J.A.Emerton (ed.), Congress Volume: Vienna 1980 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1981), 326-8, and Interpretingthe Psalms, pp. 54-56.

47. It should be noted that the psalmist believes that the defeat had been caused by Israel's sins.The psalmist asks God, 'Will you be angry forever?' (v. 5), and prays, 'forgive our sins' (v. 10).

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the singer puts in the mouth of the adversaries: "Where is your God?" (42.3,10)' ,48

As in the above psalms, the taunt implies a conflict between Israel's God and otherpowers. The poet locates himself, at least rhetorically, far from Jerusalem in 'theland of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar' (42.6). It is unclear preciselywhat location is envisioned (Mount Hermon and the land of Jordan suggest alocation in the north of Palestine), but the implication is that the psalmist is farfrom the temple (42.4) and far from the presence of Israel's God (43.3). Theimplication of this description is that the poet is stranded in the land of foreigngods. The psalmist also complains that he is surrounded by 'an ungodly nation'(43.1; NRSV translates 'people'), which implies that the psalmist is surrounded bynon-Yahwists. The psalmist also complains of the 'enemies' and 'adversaries'. AsBouzard concluded: 'One should... under stand references to the foreign enemiesand their destructive activities as a reemergence of the threat posed in the mytho-logical past by the chaos dragon.'49 Based on the psalmist's complaints about hisenemies and his separation from the temple, it may be reasonable to assume thathis exile is enforced against his will.

Within this context, the twice-repeated taunt 'Where is your God?' might best beheard as an assertion that Israel's God is powerless in this distant land. In terms ofthe structure of the psalm, the quotations direct the psalmist toward the dwelling ofGod. In response to the first time that the taunt of the enemies is quoted in thepoem, the psalmist remembers previous pilgrimages made to the temple inJerusalem (42.4). In response to the second time that the taunt is quoted, thepsalmist petitions God to 'vindicate me' from the 'ungodly nation' and vows to go'to your holy hill, to your dwelling place.. .to the altar of God' (43.3-4). Thus, eachtime the enemies ask where the psalmist's God is, the psalmist makes a mentalpilgrimage to Zion. This mental journey spurs the psalmist to repeat the refrain ofthis psalm and exhort himself not to give up the hope that he will again find hisway to the presence of God:

Why are you cast down, O my soul?Why are you disquieted within me?

48. Mays, Psalms, 174. Mays continues: 'In all its occurrences in the Old Testament, thequestion appears in liturgical material (Pss. 79.10; 115.2; Joel 2.17; Mic. 7.10), where it is a featureof the description of trouble. The question is a formulaic motif used to characterize the situation inwhich those who trust in the LORD are put to shame in the presence of others because of sometrouble that calls their faith into question.' It is true that the 'best clue to the social and theologicalsetting is the taunting question that the singer puts in the mouth of the adversaries: "Where is yourGod?" ' As the above passages from Isaiah 10, Isaiah 36, and 1 Kings 18 show, however, not allinstances of the question do occur in liturgical material. And even in its liturgical occurrences,the taunt is not necessarily a feature of the description of trouble, since in Joel 2.17 it is part ofthe petition and in Mic. 7.10 it is part of the confession of trust. As a formulaic motif, the tauntsuggests a social and theological setting of conflict between Israel's God and the god(s) of aforeign nation.

49. Mays, Psalms, p. 170. The chaos motif may be present in the psalmist's description of hissurroundings: 'Deep calls to deep at the sound of your cataracts, all your waves and your billowshave passed over me' (42.7).

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Hope in God! For I will again praise himmy help and my God. (42.4, 11; 43.5)50

Psalm 74. In Psalm 74, the enemy quotation occurs as the culmination of anextended they-complaint. The they-complaint occurs in w. 4-8, with the enemyquotation occurring in the last verse: 'Let us destroy [the LORD'S sanctuaries]altogether, burn all the meeting places of God in the land! '51 This enemy quotationnames the central theological problem that the psalm addresses. This issue iswhether the LORD has been defeated by foreign gods; to destroy a god's dwelling(his or her temple) was to defeat that god. The enemies' boast that they will destroyall of the sanctuaries and meeting places of the LORD is an assertion of victory overthe LORD. As in Psalm 79, the nations here represent cosmic forces in conflict withthe LORD. This is substantiated by the fact that when the psalmist turns to theconfession of trust, she returns to the motif of the cosmic conflict: 'You divided thesea by your might, you broke the heads of the dragons in the waters. You crushedthe heads of Leviathan' (vv. 13-14a). Although the psalmist does not borrow theexplicit vocabulary of the enemies' taunt to use in her petition, she does makethose taunts of the enemies the central concern: 'Remember this: The enemytaunted , O LORD, a foolish people rejected your name!' (v. 18). And again,'Remember how the fool taunts you all day long!' (v. 22b).

Psalm 83. Psalm 83 is also a communal lament, which pleads with God to destroythe nations that have attacked. The nations are quoted twice. In verse 4 they say,'Come, let us destroy them from being a nation, so that the name of Israel will notbe remembered!' In verse 11 they say, 'Let us possess for ourselves the dwellingplaces of God.'52 If taken at face value, the first quotation need not be understood

50. Imperatives addressed to the self are rare in the psalms. Compare this self-exhortation withthe one in Ps. 116.7: 'Return, O my soul, to your rest', which may also reflect the psalmist'sdecision to pay his vows in the temple.

51. The text of the quotation inset is very problematic. The first problem has to do with howone understands . MT literally reads 'their progeny altogether', but this makes littlesense. Dahood preserves this, but has to change the following verb 'burn' to a passive to render'Let their progeny be burned' (Psalms 51-100, p. 202). LXX has: 'Their kindred altogether, comeand let us burn all of the feasts of God in the land.' NRSV, Tate and others read this as a simpleIcp imperfect of ', with 3mp suffix: 'to oppress/destroy them' (Psalms 51-100, pp. 240-43).Kraus follows Gunkel and emends to 'We will destroy all their place';Kraus understands as referring to God's residence (cf. Exod. 15.13; 2 Sam. 15.25; Jer. 25.30;Kraus, Psalms 60-150, pp. 94-96). It is tempting to agree with Kraus and Gunkel, because then theenemy quotation here would present a striking parallel with the quotations in Psalm 83, in whichthe enemies say 'let us destroy them ', and 'let us possess the dwellings , related tothe root ] of God for ourselves'. This would be ideal for the present analysis. However, becausethis solution is not sure, a more conservative solution must be followed: the opinion of the majorityof scholars that this is a verb meaning 'destroy'. However, the suffix must be taken as referring tothe divine sanctuaries of Judah, both because of the preceding verses and because of the rest of theverse. Kraus, Dahood, and LXX are correct that the direct discourse extends to the end of the verse,but the verb should be pointed as a qal imperative.

52. The word is related to the root , which literally means 'pasture', but is used for the

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as an assertion of God's impotence. However, in the quotation frame, the psalmistdefines the quotation as precisely this; the speakers are 'your enemies' who 'hateyou', who have attacked 'those you protect', and who conspire 'against you'. Bysetting the enemies against God in this way, the psalmist makes the enemies'statement an attack on God. Further, since it was God who called Israel into beingas a nation and made them a people, in the quotation the enemies set themselves inGod's place, unmaking what God has made.

In the second quotation, the enemies express their intention to take possession ofGod's dwelling place. As in Psalm 74, this quotation is an assertion of victory overthe LORD; the enemy boast that they will destroy the dwelling place of the LORD isa boast that assumes victory over the LORD. Against these enemies, in anotherallusion to the cosmic dimension of the conflict between the LORD and theenemies, the psalmist implores God to take control of creation in order to destroythe enemies. The psalmist prays for God to marshal fire, tempest, and hurricane todestroy the enemies.

Psalm 137. Psalm 137 is set, at least rhetorically, in the Babylonian exile. Theenemies are quoted twice. In verse 3, the captors mockingly ask for a song: 'Singfor us one of the songs of Zion.' In verse 7, the psalmist quotes the words that theEdomites spoke as they razed Jerusalem: 'Lay it bare! Lay it bare! Even unto itsfoundations!' In the first quotation, the captors ask for a 'song of Zion'. This mostlikely refers to those psalms that glorify Zion, such as Psalms 46, 48, 76, 84, 87,122, and 132. In order to understand this taunt, it is helpful to understand theprominent features of the theology of the songs of Zion. In Zion theology: TheLORD was celebrated as 'the great king' (Ps. 48.2); Zion was celebrated as thedwelling place of the LORD; and because of the LORD'S choice of Zion for adwelling place, the Zion psalms celebrated the assurance that Jerusalem would beprotected.53 Against this background, the enemy taunt to 'sing for us one of thesongs of Zion' can be heard as ridiculing the power of Zion's God. To ask an exileto sing a song celebrating the LORD'S power and the LORD'S protection of thedestroyed city is to mock the LORD'S power. As Mays has written:' [The taunt] wasintended as an insult to the exiles' God, similar to the derogatory question, "Whereis your God?" '54

The second quotation contains a quotation similar to those in Psalms 74 and 83,in which the nations express their intention to destroy God's dwelling place. Thenations see the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple as evidence that the LORDhas been defeated. As in previous psalms, these taunts name the central theologicalproblem of the psalm: Has the LORD been defeated? The central role that these

dwelling of the LORD in Exod. 15.13; 2 Sam. 15.25; Jer. 25.50; and perhaps in Ps. 74.8 (see abovediscussion).

53. See J.J.M. Roberts, 'Yahweh's Foundation in Zion', JBL 106 (1987), pp. 27-45; 'TheDavidic Origin of the Zion Tradition', JBL 92 (1973), pp. 329-44; 'Zion in the Theology of theDavidic-Solomonic Empire', in T. Ishida (ed.), Studies in the Period of David and Solomon(Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1982), pp. 93-108.

54. Mays, Psalms, p. 422.

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taunts play in the argument of the psalm is reflected by the fact that the onlypetition that the psalmist prays is for God to 'remember' what the enemy said.

Psalm 2. Psalm 2 is a royal psalm that was probably used at the coronation of anew king in Jerusalem. The enemy quotation occurs at the beginning of the psalmand at the end of the they-complaint:

Why do the nations agitate,and the peoples plot in vain?

Earthly kings set themselves,and rulers conspire together,

Against the LORD and against his anointed:'Let us burst their bonds,

and cast their chains off us!' (vv.1-3)

If the speech of the nations is taken at face value, it might not seem to be speechagainst God. But the quotation frame defines the plots of the nations as plots'against the LORD'. Although it would be too strong to say that this quotationasserts that Israel's God has already been defeated, the speech of the nations doesamount to a rebellion against God by the nations (and their gods). Similar to thestructure of Psalm 115, the enemy quotation here occurs toward the beginning ofthe psalm, and the rest of the psalm is in effect an answer to the issue posed in theenemy quotation. The argument of this psalm turns immediately following theenemy quotation, when the psalmist refutes the rebellion of the nations: 'The Onewho dwells in the heavens laughs!' This response is reminiscent of the response inPsalm 59, where the enemies' question, 'Who hears?' is 'answered' by the asser-tion that God laughs. Psalm 2 also answers the enemy quotation with a God quota-tion (w. 6, 7b-9), as does Psalm 12 (more will be said about the speeches of Godin the chapter on God quotations). Finally, the vocabulary of the enemies isreversed by the psalmist. The enemies plot to 'cast their chains off us',but the psalmist warns them: 'Serve the LORD' (v. 11).55

iv. Conclusions about the Formal Role of Enemy Quotations that Attack GodSeveral conclusions may be drawn about the quotations in which the enemiesattack God. First, the enemy quotations attack God in three ways. They assert thepowerlessness of God to intervene as an effective presence in the world (to judgewickedness, to save the innocent, and so on); they attack the fidelity of God whoallows God's servants to suffer; and the quotations assert that the LORD has beendefeated. The accusations that God lacks power to protect the weak and that God isunfaithful are characteristic accusations of the individual prayer for help and ofpsalms related to the individual prayer for help (such as the psalm of trust, orinstructional psalms that take up the motifs of the individual prayer for help). The

55. The psalmist may also be reversing the vocabulary of the enemy with a pun. The nationssay,' Let us burst their bonds'. The verb burst is from the root . The psalmist warns the nations:

. The meaning of this latter phrase is uncertain, but it is clearly a continuation of thewarning to the nations, a reversal of their plot to escape servitude.

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accusation that God has been defeated is characteristic of the communal prayer forhelp and psalms related to the communal prayer for help (such as psalms that haveboth liturgical and lament elements).

Second, the enemy quotations often provide the central arguments that drive thepsalms in which they occur, by naming a pressing theological problem and thenaddressing this problem through petition, confession of trust, and instruction.Examples of this are Psalms 2, 3, 9/10, 11, 12, 14 and 53, 64, 74, 79, 83, 94, and115.

Third, a variety of strategies are used to integrate the enemy quotations intothe arguments of the psalms in which they occur. A common strategy is for thevocabulary of the enemy quotation to be reversed by the psalmist in the petitionand the confession of trust. Prominent examples of this are Psalms 2, 3, 9/10, 11,22, 59, and 94. Another common strategy is for the enemy quotation to occur inthe opening phrase or thought of the psalm in order to set up a theological problemthat the psalmist answers in the remainder of the psalm. Examples of this arePsalms 2, 3, 11, 14 and 53, and 115. Another rhetorical strategy is juxtaposing theenemy quotation with a God quotation, as in the chiastic structure of Psalm 12 or inPsalm 2.

Fourth, the enemy quotations often come as the culmination of the they-com-plaint or comprise the entire they-complaint. Examples of this include Psalms 2,9/10, 11, 12, 59, 64, 79, and 94. In these examples, the they-complaints gain mo-mentum and build toward the concluding enemy quotations. The consistentoccurrence of the enemy quotations as the culmination of the they-complaintssuggests that the enemy quotations were considered among the strongest com-plaints that the psalmists could raise against the enemies.

2. 'They Open Their Mouths Wide Against Me':Quotations in which the Enemies Attack the Psalmist

The second category of enemy quotations to be considered are those quotations inwhich the enemies express antagonism toward the psalmist. This type of enemyquotation occurs less frequently than the quotations in which the enemies assertGod's powerlessness, consisting of only seven different quotations in five differentpsalms, all of them prayers for help.56 The fact that this type of quotation occurs somuch less often than the quotations in which the enemies assert God's impotencecan be accounted for by the fact that it is less theologically charged. And, perhapsfor the same reason, this type of quotation plays a more subtle role in thearguments of the psalms in which it occurs.

56. Pss. 13.5; 35.21, 25; 40.15; 41.5, 8; 70.3. The classification of Psalm 41 is a problem. Itappears that later beginning and ending verses (vv. 1-3, 11-13) have been added to a prayer forhelp, in effect transforming it into a song of thanksgiving. The direct discourse occurs within theolder psalm.

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i. The Formal Role of Quotations in which the Enemies Attack the Psalmist

Psalm 13. In Psalm 13, the enemy quotation is a subordinate element of the plea.The psalmist prays, 'Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep unto death, lest my enemiessay, "I have prevailed over him"; my foes rejoice that I have stumbled'. If thequotation inset is considered by itself—'I have prevailed over him'—what theenemies say may have nothing to do with God, it may be considered as simply anexpression of glee at the psalmist's demise. It is upon the basis of this glee that thepsalmist forges the turning point of his argument: The psalmist contrasts the waythe enemies rejoice and take glee at his downfall with the way he rejoices in God.The psalmist asks God to intervene lest the enemies 'rejoice that I havestumbled'. The psalmist confesses of himself: 'My soul shall rejoice | in yoursalvation.' The psalmist contrasts his piety with the enemies' lack of pity. Heargues, in effect, that if the enemies prevail over him, then they also prevail overhis God, in whom he trusts for help. Note that the words that the enemies speak donot name a theological problem per se, such as God's power or impotence, as didthe quotations considered in Section 1. Nor does the psalmist reverse the enemies'vocabulary in the confession of trust. Rather, the argument of the psalm rests onthe psalmist demonstrating that he is on God's side, while his enemies are not. Or,to put it another way, the psalmist argues in order to convince God to be on hisside, over against the assumption of the enemies.

Psalms 35, 40, and 70. Psalms 35,40, and 70 contain enemy quotations so similarthat they are treated here together.57 In these psalms, the speech of the psalmists'enemies is contrasted with the speech of the righteous in the congregation. BecausePsalm 40.13-17 is almost identical to Psalm 70, for the purposes of this analysisthey are considered as being one psalm.58 Where the Hebrew text is parallel, thetranslation is italicized:

Psalm 35 Psalms 40.13-17 and 70

Let them be put to shame and be confused Let them be put to shame and be confused...who rejoice at my misfortune, (v. 26) ...who delight in my misfortune. (40.15)

They open their mouths against me, Let them be appalled because of theirshame,

who say, 'Aha, aha! who say, 'Aha, aha!' (40.16)Our eyes have seen!' (v. 21)

57. The greatest difference between these psalms is their original setting. Psalm 35 appears tobe the prayer of an individual who has been unjustly accused and is seeking justice from God andfrom the community. The original setting of Psalms 40 and 70 is less clear; like Psalm 35,however, the psalmist is clearly being beset by enemies of some sort and is seeking deliverancefrom God and from the community. Because of these different settings, the petitions of the psalmsare different. In Psalm 35, the psalmist prays for God's help, using phrases such as 'say to my soul'and 'do not be silent'. In Psalms 40 and 70, the psalmist prays for deliverance, using phrases suchas 'deliver me' and 'help me'.

58. Psalm 70 is the elohistic version of Ps. 40.13-17. The case is very similar to that of Psalms14 and 53.

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Let them not say in their hearts,'Aha, our souls' [delight]!'

Let them not say,'We have swallowed him!' (v. 25)

Let them shout and let them rejoice Let them exalt and let them rejoicewho delight in my vindication, all who seek you

Let them say continually, Let them say continually,'Great is the LORDl who delights 'Great is the LORD\'in the welfare of his servant!' (v. 27) all who love your salvation. (40.16)

In these psalms, the psalmist contrasts those who rejoice at her misfortune withthose who rejoice at her vindication. The former say, 'Aha, aha!' while the lattersay, 'Great is the LORD!' In these psalms, what the enemy says is less importantthan the spirit in which the enemies say it. That is, there is little or no noeticcontent to the exclamations, 'Aha, aha!' or 'Aha, aha! Our eyes have seen', or'Aha, our souls' [delight]!' The word 'aha' is simply an exclamation of joy atanother's downfall. The phrases, 'Our eyes have seen', and 'our souls' [delight]!'also express little more than the glee that the enemies take in the psalmist's demise.Even the exclamation, 'We have swallowed him!' is less important for its content(the assertion that the enemies destroyed the psalmist) than for the way it portraysthe enemies as ravenous adversaries, who surround the psalmist with wide-openmouths. For certain, there is no theological content to what the enemies say.

In contrast, there is theological content to what those who rejoice in thepsalmist's vindication say: 'Great is the LORD!' By deftly placing these words ofdivine praise in the mouths of those who 'delight in my vindication' and 'love yoursalvation', the psalmist aligns herself with the community and with God. Byextension, this means that the psalmist aligns both the worshipping community andGod with herself and against her enemies.

It should be noted that in Psalm 35, the vocabulary of the enemies is turnedaround in the plea. The enemies say, 'Aha, aha, our eyes have seen!' In the verynext phrase, the psalmist reverses this vocabulary in a confession of trust: 'Yousee, O LORD!'

Psalm 41. In Psalm 41, the enemies are quoted twice, both times as part of thethey-complaint. In verse 5: 'When will he die and his name perish?' In verse 8: 'Adeadly thing has latched onto him, once he sleeps he shall not again rise.' Neitherof these enemy quotations broach upon the central theological issue of the psalm,which is the forgiveness of sins for which the psalmist prays (see vv. 4, 12). If thewords of the enemies are considered by themselves, they have nothing to do withGod but are strictly about the psalmist. More to the point, the words that theenemies speak need not be understood as mocking, or even as malicious. Thesewords might simply be the words that any person who keeps vigil near a deathbedmight say as death draws nigh: 'When will he die?', 'Death is near, once he sleepshe won't wake again.' The issue is not what the enemies say about God; the issueis rather who is saying things about the psalmist and what is being said about the

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psalmist. As in the previous psalms in which the enemies are quoted as attackingthe psalmist, the psalmist does not cast the primary issue in theological terms but insociological terms. That is, the psalmist quotes the enemies' words in order toestablish for God that she has no one on her side but God. The psalmist's strategyis subtle. The psalmist calls upon God to act on her behalf because she is on God'sside, rather than allow the enemies—who are not on God's side or her side—tooutlive her.

ii. Conclusions about the Formal Role of Quotations that Attack the PsalmistBecause enemy quotations in which the enemies attack the psalmist are both lessfrequent and more subtle than the quotations in which the enemies attack God, lessuniform conclusions can be drawn about their formal role. These quotations do notseem to occur as the culmination of the they-complaint nor do they function as sig-nificantly at the turning point of the psalm. Nor does the content of these quotationsplay a central role in the psalms in which they occur. In fact, the content of thesequotations can be said to be extraneous to the argument of the psalms in which theyoccur. In Psalm 13, it is not what the enemies say but how they say it that matters.In Psalms 35, 40, and 70, the enemy quotations are less important for the contentthey have, than for the way they portray the enemies as brooding threats. In Psalms40 and 70, the enemies merely say, 'Aha!', suggesting that it is not what theenemies say but the spirit in which they say it that is central to the psalmist'sargument. The 'aha!' quotation is repeated in Psalm 35, along with quotations inwhich the enemies rejoice because they delight in the psalmist's misfortune. InPsalm 41, the enemies say something no different than anyone might say at a deathvigil. All of this suggests that the function of enemy quotations in which theenemies attack the psalmist has less to do with what the enemies say and more todo with who speaks and how they speak. The psalmist bases her argument on thehope that God cares about what happens in society. The psalmist hopes that Godwill vindicate those who are on God's side and that God will vanquish all others.Perhaps these quotations should be understood as similar to the quotations in whichthe enemies attack God's fidelity. The issue appears to be whether God will befaithful to those who have been faithful to God. The psalmist expects this kind ofcovenant loyalty from God and bases her hope for the future upon it.

3. The Rhetorical Function of Enemy Quotations

i. Enemy Quotations as Personal LamentOne aspect of the function of quotations on which all of the modern linguists whowere surveyed in the previous chapter agree, is that when a reporter quotes anotherspeaker in direct discourse, she speaks from the perspective of that other speaker.Wierzbicka called this 'role play', highlighting the 'theatrical' dimension of directdiscourse: 'The person who reports another's words by quoting them, temporarilyassumes the role of that other person.'59 Coulmas pointed to the perspectival shift

59. Wierzbicka, 'Semantics of Direct and Indirect Discourse', p. 272.

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that occurs when one quotes: 'In direct speech the reporter lends his voice to theoriginal speaker and says (or writes) what he said, thus adopting his point of view,as it were.'60 Sternberg made a similar point as part of his description of the'perspectival montage' that occurs in quotation.61

According to Clark and Gerrig, one useful function that arises from this 'theatri-cal' quality of quotations is that when quoting, a reporter can dissociate herselffrom the content of the quotation inset:

When speakers describe, they take responsibility for their wording except inopaque contexts. But when they quote, they take responsibility only for presentingthe quoted matter—and then only for the aspects they choose to depict. Theresponsibility for the depicted aspects themselves belongs to the source speaker.

Because a reporter does not have to take responsibility for the content of thequotation inset, the reporter can use quotations to express sentiments that mightotherwise be deemed unacceptable: 'Many attitudes that are impolite or inappro-priate for speakers themselves to express are quite acceptable in the mouths ofothers.'63 And again, 'People who wouldn't ordinarily utter taboo words can do soas long as they attribute them to others'.64 Clark and Gerrig's statement can bealtered slightly and combined with the work of Wierzbicka, Coulmas, and Stern-berg, then applied to the Psalter to produce the following application: 'Manyattitudes that are heretical or blasphemous for the psalmists themselves to expressare quite acceptable when placed in the mouths of the enemies.' That is, throughthe device of quotation, the psalmists are able to speak words to God that wouldotherwise be impossible to speak.

When the psalmist 'temporarily assumes the role' of the enemy of the LORD, thepsalmist can speak words that no servant of the LORD can speak. The psalmistcannot say, 'There is no God'. But the psalmist can say, 'The fool says in his heart,"There is no God." ' The psalmist cannot say, 'The LORD does not hear us'. But thepsalmist can say, 'They say, "The LORD does not hear them." ' When the psalmistquotes the enemy asserting that God is powerless, it is possible to hear in thepsalmist's quotation an echo of his own unspoken and indeed unspeakable doubt—the doubt that God cares, the doubt that God sees, the doubt that God is aneffective presence in the world. Through direct discourse, the psalmist is literally'giving voice' to words to which the pious person cannot give voice. And yet,because the actual words belong to the fool, the enemy, the wicked, and so on, thepsalmist bears no responsibility for speaking those words.

Against this, some might argue that the psalmist does indeed utter strong wordsto God in laments such as Ps. 22.1, 'My God, my God, why have you forsakenme?' These are indeed strong words, but there is a delicate qualitative differencebetween asking, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' and asserting,

60. Coulmas, 'Reported Speech', p. 2.61. Sternberg, 'Proteus in Quotation-Land', pp. 108-09.62. Clark and Gerrig, 'Quotations as Demonstrations', p. 792. Emphasis added.63. Clark and Gerrig, 'Quotations as Demonstrations', p. 792.64. Clark and Gerrig, 'Quotations as Demonstrations', p. 793.

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'There is no God', or 'God does not care'. The former is an outcry born of faith,the latter are acts of derision born of unbelief. There is a line the psalmist cannotcross on her own. She is, however, willing to place such words in the mouths ofother people who have crossed the line on their own. The words that the psalmistattributes to the enemies are of a completely different class than any complaintsthat the psalmist speaks on her own behalf. Consider the following partial list ofenemy quotations:

'He will not seek; there is no God.' (Ps. 10.4)'God has forgotten; he has hidden his face, he will not see forever.' (Ps. 10.11)'You will not seek.' (Ps. 10.13)There is no God.' (Pss. 14.1; 53.1)'Who can see us? Who can search out crimes?' (Ps. 64.5-6)'How can God know? And is there knowledge in the Most High?' (Ps. 73.11)'The LORD does not hear us, and the God of Jacob does not perceive.' (Ps. 94.7)

Nowhere in the Psalter can statements like these be found, which assert thepowerlessness of God, except in the mouths of the enemies. It is instructive thatthree times in the Psalter the phrase 'There is no God' occurs, and all three times itis placed in the mouths of the wicked or the fool. The same point can be made ofphrases that assert that God cannot see or hear: They only occur in the mouths ofthe enemies. Several prophetic passages also support this interpretation. In Ezek.8.7-13, the prophet condemns those 'elders of the house of Israel' who practise'abominations' in the court, 'For they say, "The LORD does not see us, the LORDhas forsaken the land" ' (v. 12). In Ezek. 9.10, the prophet reports that the 'guilt' ofIsrael and Judah is great, 'For they say, "The LORD has forsaken the land, and theLORD does not see." ' In Isa. 29.15, Isaiah mocks and condemns those who say,'Who sees us? Who knows us?' In these passages, the vocabulary is identical tosome of the words that the psalmists place in the mouths of the enemies. Suchwords as 'The LORD does not see us', 'There is no God', 'The LORD hasabandoned/forsaken', or 'The LORD does not hear' apparently expressed forbiddenbeliefs. However, by placing these words in the mouths of the enemies and quotingthem, the psalmist can speak them and make them part of her own complaintagainst God.

If this analysis is correct, it has two implications for modern understanding ofthe genre of the lament psalm. First, the analysis suggests that these enemies'quotations should be recognized not only as part of the they-complaint, but also aspart of the you-complaint of the lament psalms. The quotations are normally under-stood as part of the they-complaint, and as I argued above, the enemy quotationsare a constituent part of the complaint against the enemy, often occurring as theculmination of the they-complaint. But the quotations serve double-duty, function-ing both as complaint against the enemy and also as complaint against God.

Second, this analysis suggests that in ancient Israel there were theologicallydetermined limits that delineated how far the psalmist could go in her complaintagainst God. It is often said that in lament prayers, there were no limits on theaccusations that the psalmist could level against God. But this study argues boththat there were limits, and that the psalmist had means of circumventing those

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limits. The theologically determined limits were that the psalmist could not accuseGod of impotence or infidelity, or of having been defeated. The psalmist couldaccuse God of neglect and absence, but not of impotence or rank infidelity. But thepsalmist had two ways to circumvent these theological limits that were set on hiscomplaints. First, the psalmist could question God: question God's power, questionGod's strength, question God's care. As has long been recognized, the questionsdirected to God were a central element in the prayers for help: 'The heart of thelament.. .in ancient Israel lies in these accusatory questions and statements directedat God.'65 This is because although questioning God's fidelity and power maycome perilously close to asserting that God is powerless or unfaithful, it falls justshort of being such an assertion. Second, the psalmist could quote the enemyuttering genuine assertions of God's powerlessness because the act of quotingdissociates the psalmist from the responsibility for the assertions.

It is, of course, impossible to prove that the psalmists used the device of quo-tation to speak these 'unspeakable' complaints against God. That is precisely thepoint of using quotations, to defer responsibility! The very reason for usingquotation was that the psalmist could not be accused of speaking those words. Butsome textual alterations that were made to the Hebrew text of the Old Testamentsupport the interpretation that quotation was a way for the psalmist to speaklamenting words that were otherwise beyond the theologically determined limits.These textual alterations show that for the ancients, there was an awareness thatwhen a reporter quotes an original speaker's words, the content of those wordsbecomes to some extent owned by the reporter. The textual alterations in questionare those in which the scribes, who read the text out loud, altered the words of thetext so that they would not have to speak blasphemous words. Two examples of thephenomenon will suffice.

The first example comes from 1 Samuel 3. God announces that the house of Eliwill be condemned because of the sins of Eli's sons: The NRSV translation of 1Sam. 3.13 reads: 'For I have told him that I am about to punish his house forever,for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he didnot restrain them.' The phrase that the NRSV translates as 'blaspheming God'literally reads 'blaspheming themselves' . Here, the text wasaltered so that no scribe would have to utter the phrase 'curse God'. The text mustoriginally have read 'blaspheming God'

The second example comes from Psalm 10. The NRSV translates, 'those greedyfor gain curse and renounce God'. The word translated 'curse' is again literally'bless' Once again, the text was altered so that scribes would not be forcedto speak the words, 'curse God'. More examples could be added, but these suffice.

These textual alterations bear witness to an awareness on the part of ancientIsraelites that when a reporter quoted an original speaker (in this case the reporterbeing a scribe and the original speaker being the biblical text), the reporter boresome responsibility for the content of the quotation. And if awareness of the nega-tive dangers of quoting impious statements existed, then it is plausible to conclude

65. Westermann, Praise and Lament in the Psalms, p. 177, see also, pp. 176-88.

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that there may have been a parallel awareness of the positive possibilities ofquoting impious statements. It is impossible to know exactly when these texts werealtered, and thus it is impossible to know when this awareness arose in Israel. Butthere is no reason to think that the ancients thought of quotation merely as areporting device, and there is no reason not to think that the psalmists wereemploying quotation for the purpose of speaking unspeakable words.

ii. Enemy Quotations as Reperforming the Blasphemy of the EnemyAustin's speech-act theory and Clark and Gerrig's understanding of quotations asdemonstrations point to a second function of the enemy quotation in the Psalter.Austin argued that words can do more than refer to objects or concepts; words canperform actions. Not all words perform actions, but some words do. Austin dis-tinguished between two types of acts that can be performed by words: illocutionaryacts and perlocutionary acts. Illocutionary acts consist of 'informing, ordering,warning, undertaking', and the like. Perlocutionary acts consist of'what we bringabout or achieve by saying something, such as convincing, persuading, deterring,and even, say, surprising or misleading'.66 In the example of the sentence, 'Thehouse is on fire', the illocutionary act is to warn and the perlocutionary act is topersuade the hearer to flee the burning house and call for help.67

One use to which quotation can be applied, therefore, is that a reporter can quotethe words of an original speaker that perform any given illocutionary act, but byquoting those words in a new context the reporter forces that old illocutionary actto serve her new perlocutionary goal. Recall again that Clark and Gerrig arguedthat quotations are a form of selective demonstration by means of which a reporterselectively demonstrates for an audience certain words that an original speakeronce spoke,68 and that Sternberg argued that to quote is to re-contextualize. Whenquoting, 'even if the original could be copied down to the last detail, its trans-planting and framing in a new environment would impose on it a new mode ofexistence'.69 When the insights of Austin, Sternberg, and Clark and Gerrig informeach other, it can be argued that sometimes when a reporter quotes an originalspeaker, what the reporter is achieving is the reproduction or re-creation of someillocutionary action that the original speaker's words performed in order to achievesome perlocutionary action that the reporter desires. The reporter is selectivelydemonstrating for an audience some action that the original speaker performed inthe past. This will only be the case when the original speaker's words can be saidto have originally performed an illocutionary act.

In reference to enemy quotations in the Psalter, when the psalmist quotes words

66. Austin, How to Do Things with Words, p. 108.67. See Searle, Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language, pp. 22-53.68. Recall that Clark and Gerrig argued that demonstrations depict selectively. They dis-

tinguished between the depictive, supportive, annotative, and incidental aspects of a demonstration;the depictive aspects are the demonstration proper. They emphasized that a reporter chooses whichaspects of the demonstration are depictive based on what experience the reporter wants theaudience to have.

69. Sternberg, 'Proteus in Quotation-Land', p. 108.

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in which the enemy originally performed an illocutionary act, the psalmist isreperforming that original illocutionary action for her current audience—God—inorder to persuade God (perlocutionary act) to answer her prayer. In the enemyquotations that have been considered so far, the illocutionary action that theenemies performed with their assertions of God's impotence was that they attackedGod; and when the psalmist quotes those words, she reperforms that action in orderto serve her own perlocutionary goal: to persuade God to deliver her from danger,and rise up to judge the enemy.

In Psalm 79, for example, the nations are quoted as saying 'Where is their God?'The psalmist then prays: 'Return to our neighbours sevenfold to their bosoms, theirtaunts with which they taunted you!' When the psalmist quotes to God the taunt ofthe nations, 'Where is their God?', the psalmist is reperforming for God the actionin which the nations challenged the power of the LORD to save Israel. The psalmistbelieves that the LORD will be angered by this attack on the LORD'S power, and thatGod might respond by arising in power and wrath. By literally re-speaking the oldspeech-act of the enemy, the psalmist renews the old challenge in hopes of movingthe LORD to take vengeance on the nations.

The passages from Ezekiel 8 and 9 and Isaiah 29 that were cited above supportthis interpretation. In those passages, the prophets condemn people for speaking thesame words that the psalmists place in their enemies' mouths: 'The LORD does notsee us', 'The LORD has abandoned/forsaken', and 'The LORD does not hear us'(compare Pss. 10.11; 64.5-6; 94.7; and so on). By speaking the taunts of the ene-mies, the psalmists place the blasphemous words of the enemies before God inorder to spur God to rise up against them.

The account of Hezekiah's prayer to the LORD in Isaiah 37 supports thisinterpretation of the function of the enemy quotations. As was mentioned above, inIsaiah 36, the Rabshakeh had asserted that the LORD could not save Jerusalem fromhis army. King Sennacherib later sent a letter containing a similar challenge:

Thus you shall speak to King Hezekiah of Judah: 'Do not let your God deceiveyou, in whom you trust, saying, "He will not give Jerusalem into the power of theking of Assyria." You have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all thelands, completely destroying them. Shall you be delivered? Have the gods of thenations, which my ancestors destroyed, delivered them...? Where is the king ofHamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena,or the king of Ivvah?' (37.10-12a, 13)

Isa. 37.14-17 describes that in response to this taunt,

Hezekiah went up to the temple of the LORD and he spread out [the letter] beforethe LORD. Hezekiah prayed to the LORD saying... 'Incline your ear, O LORD, andhear! Open your eyes, O LORD, and see! Hear all the words of Sennacherib, whichhe sent to taunt70 the living God.'

70. It is worth noting that as in so many of the psalms, the word used in Isa. 37.17 is again, denoting a challenge to God's power (see also Isa. 37.4). See Miller, They Cried to the Lord,

p. 79.

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Hezekiah is said to have brought the letter that contained the taunt and spread it outbefore the LORD. He begged God: 'See! Hear all the words of Sennacherib, whichhe sent to taunt you.' He closed his prayer by asking God to 'save us.. .so that allthe kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the LORD'. This descriptionoffers a striking parallel to the lament psalms in which the psalmists quote theblasphemous words of the enemies and then often call upon God to 'see' and'hear!'. Just as Hezekiah presented the taunting words of the king of Assyria toGod so that God would be moved to act against Sennacherib, the psalmists quotethe taunting words of their enemies to God, in order to move God to act againstthose enemies.71

The account of Hezekiah's prayer in Isaiah 37 supports the interpretation that thepsalmists quote their enemies' assertions of God's powerlessness in order toreperform for God the enemies' acts of blasphemy. The enemies' original speech-act was one of blasphemy or one of challenging God's effective power. When thepsalmists quote those words, the psalmists are reperforming that speech-act forGod so that God will be moved to act on the psalmists' behalf.

iii. Enemy Quotations as InstructionClark and Gerrig's understanding of quotations as selective depictions that 'directthe experience of the audience', and Steinberg's view that to quote an originalspeaker is to rip an act of speech out of its context and to place it in a new context,also point the way toward understanding the enemy quotations as instruction for ahuman audience. In the above sections, the implied audience of the psalms wasunderstood as God, and the psalms were understood as prayers to God. But inaddition to being genuine prayers to God, the psalms are also religious texts thatspeak to human communities. As J. Clinton McCann has argued, as religious texts,the psalms are directed at an implied human audience. When the audience of thePsalter is imagined as a human audience, the enemy quotations within the psalmscan be understood as instruction in how not to speak and how not to act.72

The enemy quotations in Psalms 73 and 78 are especially instructive for thinkingabout how such enemy quotations function as instruction. Psalms 73 and 78 are notprayers for help spoken to God but are psalms that were intentionally composed toinstruct. Psalm 73 is an instructional psalm with wisdom elements, and Psalm 78 isa historical psalm. Psalm 78 explicitly begins: 'Give ear, O my people, to myteaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth' (v. 1). In these psalms, theenemy quotations function as negative role models; they teach the audience hownot to act. In Psalm 73, the psalmist instructs the audience not to speak 'like them'.

71. This description of Hezekiah's re-contextualization of Sennacherib's taunt confirms Stern-berg's analysis of the function of quotations. The perlocutionary goal that Sennacherib pursuedthrough his taunt was to demoralize the defenders of Jerusalem and perhaps to convince the peopleto rebel against Hezekiah. Hezekiah quoted Sennacherib's words, but toward an oppositeperlocutionary goal: to persuade God to defend the city.

72. J.C. McCann, A Theological Introduction to the Book of Psalms (Nashville: AbingdonPress, 1993), p. 21.

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In Psalm 78, the psalmist instructs the audience what happens when a peoplespeaks against God in rebellion.

If the function of the enemy quotations in these psalms is taken as a clue to theinterpretation of all of the enemy quotations, the other enemy quotations can alsobe understood as instruction. The audience is being instructed not to be like theunfaithful people whom God will surely 'call to account'. People should not saywords such as 'There is no God', for those are the words of the fool. They shouldnot say, 'We are our own lords', for those are the words of the wicked. Likewise,they should not taunt the sick and wish for the demise of others, nor should theytake delight in the misfortune of others, for God will intervene to thwart suchimpious joy. The enemy quotations present the audience with a human option forspeaking that is not an option for God's people. The enemy quotations also teachus that people should not place trust in false gods, as do the nations that believe theLORD has been defeated.

In one ironic enemy quotation, the enemies actually serve as a positive rolemodel. As was mentioned in the last chapter, Ps. 126.2-3 reads:

Then it was said among the nations,'The LORD has done great things for them'.The LORD has done great things for us,

and we rejoiced.

This is clearly an ironic reversal of the normal use of the enemy quotations.Normally the vocabulary of the enemies is borrowed but reversed by the psalmist.Here, the statement of the nations is borrowed word for word. The nations look onthe help that the LORD has given Israel, and they praise the work of the LORD! Theirony of the passage continues as Israel then takes up the praise of the nations: 'TheLORD has done great things for us!'

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Chapter 3

'As FOR ME, I SAID': THE FUNCTION OF SELF QUOTATIONS

The psalmist frequently quotes her own voice.' The psalmist quotes herself twenty-five times in twenty different psalms.2

1. Included under the rubric of self quotation' are those quotations that are marked by a firstperson singular verb of speaking, such as or as well as Ps. 35.10, wherethe speaker is identified as 'my bones'.

2. Several passages that are often understood as self quotations should not be and are excludedfrom this investigation. Even if these passages were understood as self-quotations, they would notmaterially affect the conclusions of this study. These passages follow.

Ps. 27.8: MT reads: :. Dahood and others emend twice: to andto , This translates:' "Come," my heart says, "seek his face!"' LXX seems to

be reading 'I have sought your face'. NJPS, 'In your behalf my heart says, "Seekmy face,"' interprets the MT as it stands. The text is corrupt and no solution is satisfactory.

Ps. 40.5: The verbs could be understood as marking direct speech, but the syntaxof the phrase is better understood as 'I would declare and tell [of your wondrous deeds] but theyare too many to recount.'

Ps. 77.7-9: There is no verb of speaking in the passage, and no internal or syntactic signals thatdemand this be understood as a quotation. It is better to understand this passage in continuity withthe preceding verses (vv. 4-6).

Ps. 119.82: The infinitive should be deleted as a dittography from the previous wordis out of place as a marker of direct discourse in poetry, certainly in the middle

of a verse. As Meier has pointed out, 'in the 300 chapters represented by Psalms, Hosea 1-2,4-14,Joel, Obadiah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Isaiah 40-66, Jeremiah 46-51, Lamentations,Song of Songs, Job 3-41, and Proverbs' only marks direct discourse five times (Speaking ofSpeaking, p. 49, cf. p. 97). Further, Ps. 119.123, a parallel to Ps. 119.82, lacks direct discourse.

Ps. 120.2: It is possible to understand1 in 120.1 as marking direct speech (thus NRSV), butnot necessary. The verse is best understood in continuity with the preceding verse.

Ps. 122.8-9:

Based on the parallel structure, the phrase at the end of v. 8 should not be translated as directdiscourse. Rather, the verses should be translated similar to the phrase 'They do

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In this chapter, the function of these self quotations is considered. First, as in thechapter on enemy quotations, an analysis of the psalm texts in which these quo-tations occur is presented. Second, following the procedure of the last chapter, thetheoretical material from Chapter 1 is engaged in order to analyse the rhetoricalfunction these quotations play.

Because self quotations are, by definition, quotations in which an individualspeaker quotes her own voice, it follows that all of the self quotations in the Psalteroccur within psalms where the voice quoted in direct discourse is also the speakerof the larger psalm. Because the reporter and the original speaker are the sameperson, self quotations tend to place less emphasis on the identity of the originalspeaker than do those quotations in which the psalmist quotes the enemies or inwhich the psalmist quotes God. Rather, self quotations tend to highlight otheraspects of the original speech act: the circumstances of the words that are quoted,the time frame—past, present, or future—of the words that are quoted, the contentof the words that are quoted, and the like. Because of this, the following analysis ofthe psalm texts is organized mainly according to the time frame of the quotations:(1) The role of self quotations that quote words spoken in the past. (2) The role ofself quotations that quote words spoken in the present. (3) The role of selfquotations that quote words spoken in the future. (4) The role of self quotationsthat quote hypothetical words.

1. The Formal Role of Self Quotations

i. The Role of Self Quotations that Quote Words Spoken in the PastEleven times in seven different psalms, the psalmist quotes words that were spokenin the past.3 As will be shown, when words spoken in the past are quoted, the mainfunction of the quotation is to narrate some event that happened in the past in orderto support the present argument of the psalm.

Psalm 30. Psalm 30 is built around three speech acts of the psalmists: two oldspeech acts that are reported in self quotations and the current speech of thepsalmist, which comprise the present psalm as a whole.

The first speech act of the psalmist is the first self quotation, which recounts thepsalmist's earlier attitude of self-confident arrogance.4 For this speech act, thepsalmist is her own audience; she talks to herself: 'As for me, I said in my

not speak peace', in Ps. 35.10: 'For the sake of my kindred and neighbours, I will pray for yourwell-being. For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, 1 will seek good for you.'

3. Pss. 30.6, 9-10; 31.22; 32.5; 39.1, 4; 40.7; 41.4; 116.4, 10, 11.4. J.C. McCann ('The Book of Psalms: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections', in L.

Keck(ed.), The New Interpreter's Bible: A Commentary in Twelve Volumes (Nashville: Abingdon,1996), IV, p. 796) calls this first speech act 'a sort of flashback in which the psalmist reviews theformer distress (vv. 6-10) and deliverance (vv. 11-12), even quoting a portion of the prayer for helpmentioned in v. 2 (vv. 9-10)'. McCann notes that although the psalmist had earlier said he wouldnever be shaken, he was in fact shaken by the distress that he faced.

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prosperity, "I shall not be made to stagger forever" ' (v. 6). This quotation shouldnot be understood merely as an expression of an earlier attitude of security but asthe expression of an earlier sin that led to trouble. By reporting her previous boast,the psalmist here acknowledges that the boast was a sin. In the Old Testament, thephrase 'I shall never be made to stagger ' occurs both as a correctexpression of trust in God and as an incorrect expression of over-confidence inone's self. The key is whether one bases one's confidence on God or on one's self.If one bases one's confidence on God, the phrase is a correct expression of trust:'Because God is at my right hand, I shall not be made to stagger ' (Ps.16.8b; see also Pss. 62.2; 96.6; 121.3). But if one bases one's confidence in oneself,the phrase is a sinful boast: '[The enemy] says in his heart, "I shall not be made tostagger " ' (Ps. 10.6; cf. Deut. 8.17). The boast that the enemy issues inPs. 10.6 is exactly the same sin that the psalmist confesses in Ps. 30.6. In thequotation frame, the psalmist qualifies her earlier boast as something she said 'inmy prosperity . This qualification is important for two reasons. First, itwill be seen that such qualifications are frequent features of self quotations thatquote words spoken in the past. Second, by qualifying her boast as something shesaid 'in prosperity', the psalmist underscores that the old boast was said at adifferent time, one in which she trusted in her own powers rather than in God's.

The second speech act of the psalmist is the second self quotation, whichrecounts words that the psalmist spoke after her powers failed her: 'What gain isthere in my blood...? Hear, O LORD, be gracious to me; O LORD be my helper!'(vv. 9-11). Within the narrative in which the psalmist tells of her distress anddeliverance from that distress, this quotation marks the point at which her fortuneswere reversed for the better. Once she prayed to God for help, God delivered herfrom trouble: 'You have turned my mourning into dancing' (v. 11). As the psalmistnow recalls her journey from prosperity to distress to deliverance; the negativeturning point came because she spoke sinfully, and the positive turning point camewhen she cried to the Lord.

The third speech act of the psalmist is the psalm as it now stands: a song ofthanksgiving that praises God for turning mourning into dancing. Note that thepraise sections of the psalm bracket the description of distress and deliverance:

Praise of God (vv. 1-5)Account of the psalmist's distress and deliverance (vv. 6-8)

Praise of God (vv. 9-10)

The earlier speech acts serve the larger purpose of the psalm, which is to praise.Both the arrogant sin and the penitent confession are now surrounded by andsubsumed within the praise of God.

Psalm 31. Psalm 31 is an individual prayer for help that closes with an extendedsong of thanksgiving (Ps. 31.19-24). Similar to Psalm 30, the song of thanksgivingat the end of Psalm 31 is composed in an envelope structure:

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3. 'As for Me, I Said' 63

Praise of God (vv. 19-2la)Account of the psalmist's distress and deliverance (vv. 21b-22)

Praise of God (vv. 23-24)

Within the psalmist's account of his distress and deliverance, a self quotationoccurs: 'As for me, I said in my panic, "I am cut off from your sight."' The use ofthis self quotation shares several features with Psalm 30. First, the psalmist quali-fies his old words as something that he spoke in a different situation; in this case,they were spoken 'in my panic '.5 Second, as the psalmist narrates hisjourney through the valley of the shadow of death, he describes his cry to God asthe turning point: 'But you heard my voice and had mercy on me, when I cried toyou for help' (v. 22). Although the quotation inset does not recall an explicitrequest for help, its formulaic lament language ('I am cut off from your sight',(compare with Jon. 2.4 and Lam. 3.546)) certainly implies a plea to God in time ofdistress. And because God heard that cry and delivered the psalmist, he nowpraises God.

Psalms 32 and 41. Psalms 32 and 41 share many features. Both begin with 'Happyare' sayings ( ; 32.1-2; 41.1-3); both recount a past time of illness andrecovery (32.3-7; 41.4-12); both understand the illness as the result of sin; bothinclude self quotations (32.5b; 41.4); both close in praise of God (32.11; 41.13).Both psalms also are probably composite poems, in which beginning and endingverses were added to an existing psalm to create a new psalm. Although the'earlier' prayers within Psalms 32 and 41 are recognizable as a song of thanks-giving and a prayer for help, respectively, both psalms as they exist now are bestunderstood as songs of thanksgiving.

The self quotations in the two psalms occur in the middle of descriptions ofillness (understood as caused by some sin) and recovery (granted through God'sforgiveness). In Psalm 32, the psalmist says that because she refused to confess hersin to God, her illness grew worse: 'Because I kept silent, my bones withered whileI groaned all day. For day and night your hand weighed heavily against me' (vv. 3-4a). The psalmist then quotes how she broke her silence, which made all thedifference: 'I said, T will confess my transgressions to the LORD,' and you indeedforgave the guilt of my sin' (v. 5b). In Psalm 41, the psalmist also quotes an earlierconfession of sin: 'As for me, I said, "O LORD, be gracious to me; heal me, for I

5. The phrase is repeated verbatim in Ps. 116.11 (see below). The wordhas the sense of panic, an emotion that includes both fear and haste (see Deut. 20.3; 1 Sam.

23.26; 2 Sam. 4.4; 2 Kgs. 7.15; Pss. 48.6; 104.7; Job 40.23).6. There is a dispute about how to handle' which would be a hapax legomenon, but is

probably corrupt. One option is to read , meaning '1 am cut off (cf. Ps. 88.5; Isa. 53.8;Lam. 3.54!). An equally likely option is to read meaning 'I am driven out' (cf. Jon. 2.4:

. Both readings have manuscript support, although moremanuscripts support ; LXX seems to be r e a d i n g B a s e d on the metaphor in v. 21 ofthe city under siege, the meaning of 'cut off would fit slightly better. In either case, the meaning ofthe phrase is roughly equivalent.

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have sinned against you'" (41.4). Although the psalmist does not specify theconfession of sin as the moment when the tide turned, the fact that she does recallthe earlier confession marks it as an important moment in her journey from distressto recovery.

Psalm 39.1 Psalm 39 is a composition in which the psalmist narrates his journeyfrom silence to speech to renewed silence and from guarding against sin to givingin to sin, to repenting from sin. Similar to Psalm 30, this journey is narrated bymeans of three speech acts of the psalmist: two old ones and the current prayer forforgiveness.

The first speech act is the first self quotation, which consists of an old vow thatthe psalmist made: 'I said, "I will guard my ways, to keep from sinning with mytongue". '8 As in Psalm 30, for this first speech act the psalmist is his own audience,he speaks to himself. His trust is in his own ability to 'keep from sinning'. Hereports that for a time he did 'remain silent', but then his heart grew hot, fireburned inside of him, and he spoke.9

Then the psalmist quotes a second speech act. The psalmist reports,

Then I spoke with my tongue'LORD, make me to know my end,

and what is the measure of my days;let me know how fleeting my life is.' (vv. 3b-4)

In the first quotation, the psalmist had vowed not to sin 'with my tongue '.The fact that the psalmist introduces his second self quotation with these exactwords suggests that the psalmist viewed his second speech as sinful. This inter-pretation is supported by the fact that later in the psalm, the psalmist speaks of hissufferings as the result of sin (v. 1 la) and he asks for forgiveness (v. 8a). It isdifficult to understand what might have been sinful about a request to 'know myend'.10 Perhaps the psalmist's demand to know 'my end' was a demand forforbidden knowledge of the future, which is reserved only for God. Or perhaps thedemand 'make me to know' was in itself sinful. Job also confrontedGod with the demand to know Job 10.2; 13.23). God threw that demandback in Job's face (38.3; 40.7), and in the end Job confessed that, 'I uttered that

7. On the question of where the quotation that begins in verse 4 ends, see the discussion inChapter 1, section 3.i.

8. Gerstenberger refers to this quotation of an old vow 'a rather strange meditation' (Psalms:Part ], p. 165). McCann sees the psalmist as wanting to avoid the sin of accusing God of wrong-doing ('The Book of Psalms', p. 837).

9. Some commentators, such as Gerstenberger (Psalms: Part J, p. 166) have seen a parallelbetween the sequence of keeping silent and then speaking in this psalm with a similar sequence inExek. 3.26-27; 24.27; 33.22; and Dan. 10.15. In this psalm, however, the speaker keeps silent of hisown accord, whereas in the cited passages, God keeps the speakers silent and then opens theirmouths as part of prophetic revelation. Thus the supposed parallels exemplify quite differentphenomena.

10. See, for example, McCann, 'The Book of Psalms', p. 838.

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which I did not understand, things too marvellous for me, which I did not know,[when I said]...cause me to know pDlTTin]' (40.3b-4). If Job is an adequateparallel, perhaps the psalmist's sin was simply his demand to know. When thepsalmist quotes his second speech act, he is quoting words that he regarded assinful. By quoting that old speech, the psalmist acknowledges the old sin and asksfor forgiveness.

The third speech act of the psalmist is the psalm as it now stands (especially vv.5-13), in which he asks for forgiveness. The psalmist started in silence and hasreturned to silence; yet it is no longer a proud silence based on trust in his ownability to keep from sinning, but it has become a humble silence based on hope inGod's mercy. The 'audience' of the psalmist's earlier silence was himself. Theaudience of his renewed silence is God:

I am silent; I do not open my mouth, because you have done it.Remove your punishment from me,

because of the blows of your hand I am perishing.You chastise a human in punishment for sin. (vv. 9-1 la)

There is an important difference to note between the three speech acts of Psalm 30and the three speech acts of Psalm 39. In Psalm 30, the first speech was the act ofsin, the second speech was the act of repentance, and the third speech is praise forforgiveness and deliverance. In Psalm 39, the psalmist is, as it were, one stepbehind: The second speech was the act of sin, and the third speech is the act ofrepentance. The author of Psalm 39 awaits the mercy that the author of Psalm 30has already received.

Psalm 116.u The psalmist quotes himself three times in Psalm 116. All of thequotations occur in the midst of descriptions of distress and deliverance, and all arethe quotations of the psalmist's earlier prayer:

And on the name of the LORD I cried,'O LORD, save my life!'

I kept faith, even when I said,'Indeed, I am greatly afflicted',

As for me, I said in my panic,'Every human is a liar', (vv. 4, 10-11)

11. According to the LXX, a new psalm begins at v. 10. If this division were followed, the twopsalms would both be individual psalms of thanksgiving, and both psalms would have selfquotations in which the psalmist quotes his old prayers in times of distress. The division of MT isfollowed here. As Mays and others have argued, the psalm should be read as a whole with parallelparts: 'Each part.. .concludes with a performance statement: going to the house of the Lord (v. 7);offering of libation, the cup of salvation (v. 13; cf. the "drink offerings" in Numbers 28); offeringof thanksgiving sacrifice (v. 17). Each part is introduced by a report of salvation combined inchiastic arrangements with statements of praise.' Mays, Psalms, p. 369.

12. The translation and meaning of v. 10 is very uncertain. LXX translates the verbs as aoristsand understands the link between believing and speaking as causal: 'I believed, therefore I said, "Ihave been greatly humiliated".' Many other options have been proposed. It seems clear, however,

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The three quotations each recall a different element of the psalmist's earlier prayer:The first quotation recalls the petition, the second quotation recalls the I-complaint,and the third quotation recalls the they-complaint. Together, they constitute thepsalmist's report of the prayer he spoke, which God answered: 'I was weak, and hesaved me' (v. 6b). It is worth noting that in addition to reporting his earlier prayer,the psalmist also insists that the prayer was spoken as an act of faith ('I kept faith')and in a situation of dire need ('in my panic'; cf. Ps. 31.22). Mostimportantly, as the psalmist narrates his escape from 'the snares of death', heremembers his prayer to God as the turning point of his struggle.

Psalm 40. The meaning of the self quotation in Ps. 40.7-8 is widely disputed,therefore it is treated last in this section. Because of the uncertainty of the quota-tion's meaning, its contribution to our understanding of the function of self quota-tions must be qualified. I follow the interpretation that the quotation reflects wordsthat the psalmist spoke as part of a liturgy in which she fulfilled her vow to praiseGod for help that she had received.13 The psalmist comes forward and presents awritten record that describes her distress and deliverance:

Then I said, 'Here, I have come,in this scroll is recorded what happened to me.'

I delight to do your will, my God,and your instruction is within me.

I have told the righteous event in the great congregation,I have not swallowed my words, O LORD, surely you know it!

I have not hidden your righteous help within my heart,Your faithfulness and your deliverance I have declared,

I did not hide your steadfast love,or your faithfulness from the great congregation, (vv. 7-10)

If this passage does indeed describe a liturgy of thanksgiving, then the scroll thatthe psalmist presented stands in place of the description of distress and deliverancethat the psalmist normally narrates in psalms of thanksgiving. Rather than quotingthe words of petition or complaint that she spoke in distress, the psalmist quotes thewords that she spoke when she brought forward the record of how God deliveredher. The reason for the difference may be that the argument of Psalm 40 buildstowards a renewed prayer for help in w. 13-17. Therefore, rather than reporting adeliverance from distress, which is a regular feature of a song of thanksgiving, thispsalm reports vows of thanksgiving that the psalmist faithfully fulfilled. This

that the verse must be understood in parallel with verse 11. Both quotations are quotations of pastcomplaints. As was the case in Ps. 31.22, the words were spoken in panic.

13. I find the suggestion of E. Zenger a particularly appealing interpretation. He compares thepassage with the writing of the law on the heart in Jeremiah 31: 'That this is the sense of v. 7, v. 8confirms: The doing of the Torah is the 'Offering' with which the pray-er will give thanks for hisrescue; with the Torah in his heart, his steps have a firmness, of which v. 2 tells.' (F.-L. Hossfeldand E. Zenger, Psalmen I: Psalm 1-50 (NEB; Wiirzburg: Echter Verlag, 1993), p. 256), mytranslation.

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would make sense, since the main issue on the psalmist's agenda is the presentsituation of distress, from which she seeks deliverance.14

Summary. Several conclusions can be drawn about the role of self quotations inwhich the psalmist quotes words that were spoken in the past. As was mentionedabove, when words that were spoken in the past are quoted, the main function ofthe quotation is to narrate some event that happened in the past in order to supportthe present argument of the psalm. The most important variable concerning thesequotations, therefore, is what type of argument the psalm as a whole is making. Onthe one hand, when these quotations occur in psalms where the main point is togive thanks, they occur as part of the description of distress and deliverance. Inthese cases, the psalmist quotes some part of the prayer that he prayed and that Godheard and answered in order to fuel the praise that he is currently singing. Thepsalmist often qualifies these past words as spoken 'in panic', 'in prosperity', 'inanger', and so forth. As the psalmist narrates the time of distress and deliverance,he describes the turning point of his plight as the moment when he raised his voiceto God in prayer. On the other hand, when these quotations occur in psalms wherethe main point is to pray for help, the psalmist quotes either his earlier act offaithfulness in fulfilling a vow to praise (Psalm 40) or quotes his earlier act of sinfor which he is now asking forgiveness (Psalm 39) in order to drive the currentrequest for help.

ii. The Role of Self Quotations that Quote Words Spoken in the PresentNine times in nine different psalms, the psalmist quotes words that are spoken inthe present.15 As will be shown, when words that are spoken in the present arequoted in a psalm, one of the main functions of the quotation is to emphasize someaspect of the quotation. Biblical Hebrew could express emphasis in a number ofways. In prose, the most common means to express emphasis were to use theinfinitive absolute and a finite verb of the same verbal root, or to use a finite verband an independent personal pronoun.16 This second means of emphasizing aphrase is essentially emphasis through repetition: the subject of the verb isrepeated. A speaker who quotes words that she is speaking in the present createsemphasis in an analogous fashion: both the fact of the speech and the subject whois speaking are repeated. For example, Ps. 31.14:

14. The self quotations examined in this section have parallels outside of the Psalter. The dataoutside of the Psalter do not contribute new insights into the function of such quotations, but theydo confirm the analysis presented above. See, for example, the quotation spoken in the past thatoccurs in the context of the song of thanksgiving in Jon. 2.4.

15. Pss. 16.2; 31.14; 38.16; 42.9; 55.6-8; 77.10; 102.24; 140.6; 142.5. One must take care, ofcourse, in speaking of tenses or time frames in Hebrew poetry. Especially in poetry, one cannotassume that perfect and imperfect verbs correspond with past and perfect tenses. In these psalms,however, there seems to be enough warrant to describe the quotations as citing words spoken in thepresent.

16. Emphasis could also be expressed through the use of inverted word order, adverbs,prepositions, or repetition. See Williams, Hebrew Syntax, §§ 16,106,205,314,325,379,385,393,438, 573-75.

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('But I, in you do I trust O LORD; I say, "You are my God."') The identity of thespeaker is already contained both in the phrase twice in the first clause ('But I, in you do I trust, OLORD').17 Likewise, since the entire psalm is speech directed to God, the verb

is not necessary to mark the words as speech. The main function ofis to provide emphasis. Exactly what these self quotations emphasize and how theyemphasize depends on the contexts in which they occur. In the following passages,the different ways that quotations of words spoken in the present emphasize is oneof the main issues that is explored.

'You Are My God/Lord/My Refuge'—Psalms 16, 31, 140,142. In three prayers forhelp, the psalmist says, 'I say, "You are my God/Lord"' (Pss. 16.2; 31.14; 140.6).18

In a fourth prayer for help, the psalmist says something almost identical, 'I say,"You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living"' (Ps. 142.5). In all ofthese psalms, the quotation consists of the verb plus a verbless clause:

The phrase, 'You are myGod/Lord/my refuge' is a typical confession of trust that occurs in many prayersfor help (Pss. 22.10; 25.5; 43.2 (see below); 63.2; 86.2, 5, 15; 118.28). In Psalms16, 31, and 140, however, the phrase is additionally marked as a self quotation: '/say, "You are my God."'

The effects of marking these confessions as quotations in these psalms aretwofold. First, by quoting his own words, the psalmist emphasizes that these arehis words over against the words that others speak. In each of these psalms,the psalmist's faith is juxtaposed with the infidelity of others. In Psalm 31, thequotation immediately follows and is contrasted with the scheming whispers ofthose who plot against the psalmist. In Psalm 16, the quotation immediatelyprecedes and is contrasted with the ritual actions of the unfaithful.19 In Psalm 140,the quotation immediately follows and is contrasted with the scornful accusationsof false witnesses. In Psalm 142, the quotation is bracketed by and contrasted withdescriptions of the psalmist's persecutors.

Second, by quoting these words of trust, the psalmist emphasizes that he trustsin God in spite of the distress that he suffers. In each of these psalms, some evilgrips the psalmist: illness, persecution, slanderous accusations, and the like. Inspite of his suffering, the psalmist trusts.

17. Many commentators interpret the function of the self-quotations as creating emphasis. OnPsalm 31, for example, see McCann, 'The Book of Psalms', p. 801.

18. See the discussion in Chapter 1, sections.i. Especially note the rationale for understandingeach of the quotations as simply consisting of the phrase, 'You are my God'.

19. The exact meaning of Ps. 16.2b-4 is uncertain. It does seem certain, however, that thepsalmist is contrasting her own faithfulness with the infidelity either of those who choose falsegods or with Yahwists who engage in forbidden cultic acts:

'you are my God') and

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Frequently in the psalms, the confessions of trust are set off by disjunctiveparticles such as 'But...', 'Yet...', 'As forme...', 'Nevertheless...', and the like.The effect of prefacing the confession of trust with these disjunctive particles is toset them over against the description of distress or over against the taunts and jibesof the enemies. That is, compared to the enemies who taunt and deride, thepsalmist emphasizes that 7 trust'. And compared to the situation of distress inwhich he finds himself, the psalmist emphasizes that 'I trust''. The act of quotingperforms the same syntactic function in these psalms as these disjunctive markers.By quoting his present confession of trust, the psalmist sets it off and emphasizesthat '/trust' in the midst of those who do not, and that 'I trust' in the midst of anuncertain situation.

Psalm 38. Frank-Lothar Hossfeld makes note that the four verses of Ps. 38.15-18all begin with

For I am waiting upon you, O LORD,only you can answer, my Lord, my God,

For I say, 'Lest they rejoice over me,lest they exalt over me when my foot staggers!'

For I am ready to fall,and my pain constantly before me.

For I will confess my sin,I am sorry for my sin.

As Hossfeld has also noted, these verses are motivational clauses, in which thepsalmist lists the reasons why God should heal him of his disease.20 Hossfeld'sinsights can be augmented by noting that these four motivational clauses cor-respond to the three typical dimensions of the complaint. The complaint sections ofthe prayers for help typically have three elements: you-complaints pertaining toGod, I-complaints pertaining to the self, and they-complaints pertaining to theenemies. The first clause concerns God, the second clause concerns theenemies, and the third and fourth clauses concern the self. But only the clausethat concerns the enemies is quoted in direct discourse. The main request of thepsalm, as can be seen in vv. 1-4, and 18, is a request for forgiveness. By quotingthis motivational clause, however, the psalmist places an added urgency andemphasis upon it, and in so doing gives God an extra reason to forgive his sin: toforestall the rejoicing of the enemies.21 That is to say, the use of attributed speechhere functions to emphasize the reason the psalmist holds before God in hisattempt to persuade God to answer the plea. Hossfeld has aptly interpreted thelogic of this reason: 'Where enemies triumph, the pray-er and his God have lost.'22

20. Hossfeld and Zenger, Psalmen I, p. 244.21. The psalmist is not quoting a prayer he spoke in the past (thus Craigie, Psalms 1-50,

p. 304). The syntax of the four verses is parallel in that in the first clause of vv. 16, 17, and 18,there is a first person perfect verb, and in the second clause of each verse there is a first personimperfect verb. In these clauses, the aspects of these verbs do not indicate tense; thus the quotationshould not be understood as a past prayer.

22. Hossfeld and Zenger, Psalmen /, p. 244, my translation. Gerstenberger (Psalms: Part 1), on

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Psalm 102. Although Psalm 102 as it now stands is most likely a composite poemcomprised of two strands, it has an impressive overall unity based on the motif oftime.

A motif of time runs through the whole. The theme of days that vanish opens andcloses the description of trouble (w. 3,11) and is resumed in verses 23-24. God'severlasting reign is set in direct contrast to the ephemeral time of the psalmisttwice (w. 12, 24b-27), as if in that contrast lay some resolution for the distress.The psalm asserts that the time has come for the LORD to have compassion onZion (v. 13). And the psalm looks forward to a future time when coming gene-rations. . .will praise him and dwell in security (w. 18-20,28). Further, the prayerof the afflicted one in strand two (v. 17) corresponds to the prayer of the afflictedone in strand one (v. 1); and those doomed to die (v. 20) correspond to the oneabout to die in the midst of his days (v. 24).23

The one 'about to die in the midst of his days' is the one whose voice is heard inself quotation:

[God] has broken my strength in midcourse,He has shortened my days,

I say, 'My God, do not take me up in the middle of my days!' (vv. 23-24a)

Once again, the direct discourse is not the quotation of an older prayer, as somehave interpreted it, but is the quotation of a present cry to God. By quoting herpresent outburst, the psalmist emphasizes the urgency of her prayer.

Psalm 42/43. Psalm 42/43 is a single poem with three stanzas (42.1 -4,6b-10; 43.1 4). Twice in the psalm, the psalmist quotes the enemies asking, 'Where is yourGod?' (42.3, 10).25 In the second stanza, the psalmist quotes himself questioningGod. One signal of the function of this self quotation is that the second half of thequotation is repeated in the third stanza.26 Compare the passages:

the other hand, understands vv. 16-17 as 'a sort of liturgical interlude, meant to express confidencin Yahweh's helping and revenging power'. Rather than expressing confidence, it makes moresense to see the quotation as functioning to emphasize that God's enemies will triumph if Godallows the psalmist to die.

23. Mays, Psalms, pp. 323-24.24. The end of this self quotation is again an issue. NRSV translates: ' "O my God," I say, "do

not take me away at the mid-point of my life, you whose generations endure throughout all gene-rations." ' Kraus has helpfully pointed out that the closing hymn of praise actually starts in v. 24bwhich means that v. 24b should not be severed from the rest of the hymn (Psalms 60-150, p. 286).NJPS agrees with this and includes the entire remainder of the psalm in the direct discourse,treating the closing five verses as a response to the shortening of the psalmist's days. A bettersolution is to understand only the petition as direct discourse. This solution does not sever thehymn of praise in two parts and it clearly sets off the petition as a desperate cry to God.

25. See the discussion of the enemy quotations in this psalm in Chapter 2, section 1 .iii.26. The only difference between the two passages is that the stem of the verb changes. In

42.9 it is ; in 43.2 it is . Some have proposed emending the verb in 42.9 so that bothverses would be identical. This harmonization should be avoided. The switch in 43.2 to the

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I say to God, my rock, For you are my God, my refuge,'Why have you forgotten me? Why have you cast me off?Why must I walk about mournfully, Why must I walk about mournfully,oppressed by the enemy?' (42.9) oppressed by the enemy? (43.2)

The two passages are almost completely parallel: the final clauses are identical; thequestions—'Why have you forgotten me?' and 'Why have you cast me off?'—arevirtually indistinguishable;28 the introductory clauses both refer to God as 'my'(my God, my refuge, my rock). The main difference between the two passages is inthe first line of each. The first phrase in Ps. 43.2 is clearly a confession of trust. If itis assumed that the two opening lines are also approximately equal in meaning,then the self quotation in Ps. 42.9 also functions as a confession of trust. The selfquotation emphasizes to whom the psalmist speaks. Thus, the quotation of wordsdirected to God fulfils essentially the same function as confessing trust in God: Thepsalmist underscores that he is speaking to God.29 In spite of his suffering and theenemies who torment him, he has not given himself over to despair and he is still indialogue with 'God, my rock'. Furthermore, the self quotation anchors the psalm-ist's complaints against God in his trust in God. The complaining questions'Why...?' are themselves expressions of faith.

Psalm 55. In Psalm 55, the psalmist quotes words that he cries in the grip ofdespair. The psalmist first describes the fear that wells up within him and thenbreaks into speech. The verb, 'I say', shows that the speech that the psalmist criesout is the result of terror that has accumulated within:

My heart is in anguish within me,the terrors of death have fallen upon me.

Fear and trembling come upon me,and horror overwhelms me,

So that I say, 'O that wings like a dove were given to me,so that I might fly away and come to rest!

Surely, I would flee far away,I would lodge in the wilderness!

hithpael suggests an intensification of the psalmist's complaint, reflecting the heightening of thecomplaint as the poem builds to its conclusion.

27. Some commentators understand only the initial question, 'Why have you forgotten me?' asdirect discourse. This would break up the parallel structure of the poetry, however. It is better toextend the direct discourse through the end of both questions.

28. The verbs and are both typical vocabulary of the lament psalms.29. Two aspects of the prayers for help—the confession of trust and the complaint—are closely

related. To complain to God is not a sign of lack of trust in God, but a sign of trust that the psalmistbelieves God will hear and respond to the psalmist's plea. Thus the complaint of 42.9 and theconfession of trust in 43.2, although technically different, function similarly to express confidencein God's deliverance. Compare Gerstenberger (Psa/ms: Part 1, p. 180)on42,9: '[The verse] seemsto serve as a confident reflection on the presence of the Lord in the community.'

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I would hurry to find a shelterfrom the wind and the storm!' (vv. 4-8)

The quotation functions to distinguish between the symbolic wishes of w. 6-8 andthe literal requests of the rest of the psalm. The psalmist does not literally pray tobe given the wings of a bird, nor should this be understood as a desire to escape.Rather, the self quotation expresses the despair that has seized him because of thebetrayal of his friends. Jeremiah employs similar symbolic language (9.1-2) whenhe complains of the treachery of his people. The literal request of the psalmist isfor God to intervene against his neighbors (w. 9, 15, 23; compare Jer. 9.3-9).What the self quotation does is emphasize the wish to 'fly away' as hypotheticalrather than as literal. In a sense, the function of the quotation may even be de-scribed as de-emphasizing the quotation inset: these are the psalmist's spontaneousthoughts, his instinctive 'reaction' to danger; they reflect his emotions. But they donot reflect his faith or the resolution of his will, once he has decided to stay andwait on the deliverance of the Lord:

But I will call upon God,and the LORD will save me.

Evening and morning and at noonI consider and I meditate.

He will hear my voiceand redeem my life in peace, (vv. 16-18a)

Psalm 77. Psalm 77 is a prayer for help, but even more it can be described as ameditation on the nature of God. There are no petitions for help and no complaintsagainst the enemies or the self; there is only a description of distress followed by ameditation on God's saving deeds of old on Israel's behalf. A further indicationthat the psalm is essentially a meditation on the nature of God is found in theproliferation of the verbs of reflection: The distressthat drives the psalmist to this mediation is presumably some national tragedy, suchas the Babylonian exile. The national disaster leaves the psalmist with difficultquestions about God:

Will the Lord spurn forever?Will he no longer be gracious?

Has his steadfast love ceased forever?Has the promise failed from generation to generation?

Has God forgotten to be gracious?Has he shut up his mercy in anger?

I say, 'This is my affliction:The right hand of the Most High has changed.' (vv. 7-10)

30. That this is a quotation is marked by the verb of speaking in v. 6: 'I say'. The end of thisquotation is signalled by a shift in the verbs of v. 9. The verbs shift from the first person, singular,indicative verbs of the quotation to third person imperative verbs: 'Confuse, O LORD! Confoundtheir speech!'

31. Once again, the self quotation consists of a difficult passage, the meaning of which isuncertain. At the end of a lengthy passage in which the psalmist questions God's fidelity, the

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The self quotation functions to indicate the conclusion that the psalmist'smeditations produced: The God who called Israel into being has turned away fromIsrael—there is no visible evidence that God is acting on Israel's behalf. Thus, inthis psalm, the self quotation functions to express the psalmist's thoughts: thisis not a petition, or even a complaint, but simply the one thought to which thepsalmist's reflections have been reduced.

In terms of the whole psalm, however, the self quotation represents only anintermediate conclusion for the psalmist. Following the quotation, the psalmistmeditates on the past and recalls the Exodus, when humans could not see Godacting, but God was nevertheless present: 'The waters saw you, O God, the waterssaw you and trembled.. .yet your footprints were unknown' (w. 16a, 19b). Thus,the psalm essentially has three parts. In part one, w. 1-9, the psalmist meditates onthe present in which there is no visible evidence of God's presence. In part two,verse 10, the psalmist comes to the conclusion that God has turned against Israel.In part three, vv. 11-20, the psalmist meditates on a time in the past in which therewas also no visible evidence of God's presence, but in which God was proven to bepresent, nevertheless. Thus, the psalm viewed as a whole actually de-emphasizesthe psalmist's conclusion that was quoted in direct discourse. The second half ofthe psalm undermines the rationality of the psalmist's conclusion. It is thereforeimportant that the psalmist marked his earlier conclusion as his own speech orthought, because by doing such, he set up the possibility that it could be in-correct—human thought being by nature ever incomplete. Similar to Psalm 55,what the quotation actually emphasizes, therefore, is the fallibility of the thoughtexpressed in the quotation inset.

Summary. Several conclusions can be drawn about the role of self quotations inwhich the psalmist quotes words that are spoken in the present. This type of selfquotation occurs in individual prayers for help. These self quotations function inseveral ways. First, when the quotation inset contains a confession of trust, the selfquotation emphasizes this expression of trust as the psalmist's trust over againstboth his dire circumstance and the psalmist's trust over against others who lacktrust. In Psalm 42/43 the quotation emphasized that the complaint of the quotationinset was itself an act of trusting faith. Second, when the quotation inset contains apetition for help, the quotation emphasizes the plea by weighting it with extraurgency. Third, as in Psalms 55 and 77, the self quotations serve to de-emphasizethe quotation inset. Thus, self-quotations can both emphasize and de-emphasize;the context in which a self quotation occurs determines its function.

psalmist says: . The versions offer little or no help to attemptsto emend the text (the versions either do not support suggested emendations or only one or twominor witnesses support any given emendation). NJPS implies a confession of guilt: 'It is my faultthat the right hand of the Most High has changed.' This is an attractive solution, but unfortunatelyit is one that cannot be accepted because it is very unlikely that can be construed as anadmission of guilt. The above translation understands as apiel infinitive of with alessuffix (compare Deut. 29.21).

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iii. The Role of Self Quotations that Quote Words Spoken in the Future (Psalm 35)Only in Psalm 35, an individual prayer for help, does the psalmist employ directdiscourse in a vow of praise:

Then my soul shall rejoice in the LORD, exulting in his salvation.All my bones shall say,

'O LORD, who is like you?Delivering the weak from the one stronger than him,and the weak and needy from the one who robs him.' (vv. 9-10)

Two aspects of this quotation are interesting. First, if the psalmist's plight isunderstood as an illness (see w. 13-15), then the vow that 'all my bones' willpraise you may be a poetic flourish that plays on the psalmist's illness; in both Joband Lamentations, 'bones' are a site of extreme pain. But in Psalm 35, the 'bones'that are sick now will praise you after you heal them. Second, the stanza of praisethat the psalmist vows to sing is so typical of the songs of thanksgiving (compareExod. 15.11; 1 Sam. 2.2-8; Pss. 71.18; 89.8; 113.5), that here it can be said that thepsalmist is actually quoting a song of thanksgiving. This means that the quotationhere is more than a rhetorical device—it is an actual borrowing from a praise psalmthat functions as an allusion to such a hymn of praise.33 The vow of praise wouldhave been complete without the quotation, if the psalmist had stopped with thepromise to 'rejoice in the LORD'. But by quoting the song of praise, the psalmist ina sense ups the ante: She has begun singing the hymn! She made a down paymenton her vow; she trusts so greatly in God's help that she has begun to sing God'spraise even before God has delivered on the help.

32. Psalm 35 is arranged in three roughly equal parts, each of which features direct discourseand each of which culminates in a vow of praise: vv. 1-10, 11-18, 19-28.

33. The vow of praise is a typical element not only in the biblical prayers for help but also inthe prayers of Israel's neighbours. In the Akkadian prayers for help, the vow to praise is regularlythe closing element of the composition. The 'Great Prayer to Ishtar' may end with a similar selfquotation in the vow to praise. I do not, however, regard this as a self quotation analogous to theones being investigated in the Hebrew Psalter, because there is no verb of speaking and nosyntactical feature that demands that this be understood as anything but a continuation of thenormal voice of the poet.

u ana-ku ana al-mat qaqqadi ilu-ut-ki it qur-di-ki lu sa2~pi^is-tar-ma i-rat ^is-tar-ma sar-rat"beltu-ma i-rat "beltu-ma sar-rat"ir-ni-ni ma-rat "sin qa-rit-ti ma-ha-ri la tisi

And that I too may proclaim your divinityand valour to the black-headed folk,'Ishtar is preeminent, Ishtar is queen,'The lady is preeminent, the lady is queen,'Irnini, the valiant daughter of Sin, has no rival.'

Transliteration from E. Ebeling (ed.), Die Akkadische Gebetsserie 'Handerhebung' (Berlin:Akademie, 1953), pp. 134-36. Translation from B.R. Foster (ed.), Before the Muses: An Anthologyof Akkadian Literature (Bethesda, MD: CDL Press, 2nd edn., 1996), II, p. 509.

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iv. The Role of Self Quotations that Quote Hypothetical WordsOne of the functions of direct discourse is that it can quote words that never havebeen and never will be spoken. In three psalms, the psalmist employs self quota-tions to that end. In these psalms, the self quotation is introduced by ,34

Psalm 73. As was mentioned in the last chapter, Psalm 73 is a wisdom psalm inwhich the psalmist meditates on the process by which he came to grips with theproblem of why wicked people seem to flourish while good people suffer. In thispsalm, the psalmist quotes both the wicked and herself in direct discourse. First thewicked are quoted, expressing the belief that God lacks effective power on earth:'How can God know? And is there knowledge in the Most High?' (v. 11). Then thepsalmist recalls how she surveyed the lay of the land and came to the conclusionthat fidelity to God has no reward:

Such are the wicked;eternally prosperous, they acquire strength.

Surely in vain have I cleansed my heart,and washed my hands in innocence!

And I am smitten all day long,and punished every morning.

If I had said, 'I will talk on like them',I would then have been falseto the generation of your children, (vv. 13-15)

As I argued in the last chapter, the turning point of the psalm follows upon theheels of this hypothetical self quotation, as the psalmist recounts how she went tothe temple and realized that God does cause the wicked to fall to ruin. As I alsosuggested in the last chapter, perhaps because this is a wisdom psalm, the selfquotation replaces the enemy quotation at the turning point of the psalm. As thepsalmist looks back on her journey through temptation, she identifies the pointwhere others went astray—but where she managed to tread the safe path—at themoment when she refused to 'talk on like them'. The hypothetical self quotationestablishes that when she refused to buckle to the temptation to speak that sort ofblasphemy, she found her way to the temple to behold the truth of God's ways.Rather than talking on I like the enemies, the psalmist learned the wisdomof talking on about the wondrous deeds of God.

Psalm 94. In Psalm 94, a prayer for help, the self quotation expresses a hypo-thetical prayer for help:

If the LORD is not my help,I would dwell in silence.

34. Pss. 73.15; 94.18; 139.11. In Psalm 139, the particle is found in verse 8 and the selfquotation in verse 11. From the syntax of the psalm, however, it is clear that serves multipleduty for all of the hypothetical clauses in vv. 8-11. Compare also the hypothetical self quotationsintroduced by in 2 Kgs. 4.24; 7.4.

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If I say, 'My foot is slipping!'your steadfast love, O LORD, would uphold me.

Psalm 94 as a whole is an individual prayer for help. The particular passage inwhich the quotation occurs is a lengthy confession of trust (w. 12-23). Thepsalmist expresses the reasons for his confidence in the deliverance of God in avariety of ways: unequivocal declarations, rhetorical questions, conditional clauses,and the like. The conditional clause in which the self quotation occurs may reflectpast experiences of God answering petitions in times of distress. More likely, itsimply reflects confidence in the mercy of God upon those who cry out in times ofneed. In this context, the function of the hypothetical self quotation is to confesstrust in God.

Psalm 139. The final hypothetical self quotation occurs within the well-knownpassage in Psalm 139 that praises the universal presence and power of God. Thepsalmist asks a rhetorical question of God and then provides his own answers:

Where can I go from your spirit?And where can I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, there you are.If I descend to Sheol, there you are again.If I take the wings of the dawn,

and lodge in the farthest limits of the sea,Even there your hand will lead me,

and your right hand will hold me fast.If I say, 'Surely the darkness will cover me,

and the light around me turn to night',Even the darkness is not dark for you,

night is as light as day,the darkness is as the light to you. (vv. 7-12)

The function of this self quotation is clear enough. The psalmist uses it to expressthe hypothetical 'possibility' of hiding from God, which the psalmist then dis-misses as impossible. The psalmist does not, of course, wish to pass out of God'spresence—the self quotation simply functions to set up a false premise, which thepsalmist can then deny.

Summary. Hypothetical self quotations are such a flexible device, that theirfunction should not be defined too narrowly. Their basic function is to posit apossibility that has not yet come into existence so that the psalmist can play off ofthis 'possibility' in some way. In the case of Psalm 77, the quotation posits a wayof life that the psalmist rejected. In Psalm 94, the quotation posits a prayer that Godwould answer if the psalmist asked. In Psalm 139, the quotation posits somethingabout God, which the psalmist confesses to be an impossibility.

35. For the pleonastic use of compare Isa. 1.9. normally functions in aconditional sense. To translate it as 'when' lends the clause a temporal sense that is inappropriate.Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 74.

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2. The Rhetorical Function of Self Quotations

i. Self Quotations as Reperformances of One's Own SpeechOne of the most important features of direct discourse is that it allows a reporter totake on the point of view of a different speaker and to reperform the speech act ofanother person.36 With the device of self quotation, however, the reporter and theoriginal speaker are the same person: a speaker quotes herself as if she were anotherperson. This rhetorical device, therefore, allows a speaker to take on a point ofview that she may have held at a different time, under different circumstances, andto reperform speech acts that she performed in those different circumstances.

The best way to describe the impact that these self quotations create is todescribe the contrast that they create. Although the concept of contrast does not docomplete justice to the impact of this sort of self quotation, contrast hints well atthe way in which these self quotations recreate times that are now gone and themanner in which these self quotations literally give voice to words spoken indifferent circumstances. No rigid typology can adequately summarize the dynamicfashion in which the psalmists employ this ability of self quotations to contrastcircumstances. Sternberg correctly stated that 'typology is less than useless wheredivorced from teleology' .37 Therefore, rather than proposing a typology for the wayself quotations create contrast in the psalms, a short exposition of Psalm 30 isoffered as an example of the way self quotations reenact words that the psalmistspoke in previous circumstances, with an eye on the way these quotations createcontrast. Brief comments on several other psalms follow.

Psalm 30 is a song of thanksgiving in which the psalmist praises God fordelivering him from danger. But the psalmist does more than simply describe hispast fall into sin and deliverance from trouble. The psalmist transports the audienceback in time to the moment of sin—or rather, the psalmist transports the pastmoment of sin forward in time to the audience by reenacting the moment throughquotation: 'I said in my prosperity, "I shall not be made to stagger forever"' (v. 6).The psalmist takes on the point of view of his earlier 'prosperity' (note that theformer circumstance is explicitly described—'in my prosperity') and speaks fromthat perspective: 'I shall not be made to stagger'. The effect of this exchange ofperspectives is that the old speech act of boasting in the context of the psalmist'sprosperity is spoken again, giving it new life in the present.

The psalmist's sin led to a new circumstance—'you hid your face'—and a newspeech act of repentant prayer. Once again, the psalmist takes on the point of viewof his earlier circumstance—this time the circumstance of suffering—and speaksfrom that perspective: 'What gain is there in my blood...? Will the dust praise you?

36. See Wierzbicka, 'Semantics of Direct and Indirect Discourse'; Coulmas, 'Reported Speech';Sternberg, 'Proteus in Quotation-Land'; Austin, How To Do Things With Words; Searle, SpeechActs.

37. Sternberg, 'Proteus in Quotation-Land', p. 130.

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Will it tell of your faithfulness? Hear, O LORD, be gracious to me; O LORD, be myhelper!' (w. 9-10). By speaking in the present moment as if he were still in thecircumstance of need, the facts of the old circumstance exist again for a moment inthe present.38

But this exchange of perspectives is only brief, and both of these old speech actsare, of course, subsumed in the present moment of the psalm. As Sternberg ada-mantly maintained, the perspective of the reporter always dominates the per-spective of the original speaker.39 This is no less true when the reporter and theoriginal speaker are the same person. The present point of view and circumstancedominate the previous points of view and circumstances. In Psalm 30, of course,the present circumstance is health and the present speech act in which the psalmistis engaging is praise: 'You have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,so that my soul may praise you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will givethanks to you forever' (w. 1 lb-12). The earlier speech acts and points of view arereenacted in order to fuel the fire of the psalmist's praise. They function tohighlight the contrast between the present moment and the psalmist's earlier speechact of self-confidence born out of prosperity as well as his earlier speech act ofrepentant prayer born of suffering. The different times and circumstances of thepsalm could have been merely described: pride and prosperity, sin and trouble,health and thanksgiving. But by quoting the words spoken at each of thesemoments, the contrasting moments are more vivid and real.

In several other psalms, self quotations are employed to create vivid contrastsbetween past and present circumstances. Similar to Psalm 30, in Psalm 39, thepsalmist reenacts past circumstances of confidence and sin through self quotationsand contrasts those times with the present moment. In Psalm 39, however, the pastcircumstances are reenacted in order to serve as a prayer for help rather than a songof thanksgiving. In Psalm 32, a self quotation reenacts the moment when it dawnedupon the psalmist that the path from sickness to health is to be found in confessingone's sin to God: 'I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD. .."' (v. 5).In Psalm 116, a past circumstance of trouble is re-enacted with three different selfquotations. The past circumstance is specifically described as a time of 'panic' inwhich the psalmist nevertheless 'kept faith', and the old speech acts vividly re-create the psalmist's cry in that moment: 'I am greatly afflicted', 'Every human is aliar!' and 'O LORD, save my life!' (vv. 4, 10, 11). In each of these psalms, ratherthan simply describing old circumstances, the self quotations recreate such circum-stances. The psalmist uproots words that were spoken in one circumstance, and re-plants them in a new context. The result is a poetic depth that exceeds meredescription.

38. Recall that in Wierzbicka's theory of quotations as theatrical role play, when a personquotes another, he 'imagines him as the other person and for a moment behaves in accordance withthis counter-factual assumption'. 'Semantics of Direct and Indirect Discourse', p. 272.

39. Sternberg, 'Proteus in Quotation-Land', p. 108. Clark and Gerrig make a similarpoint whenthey insist that reporters choose what to quote and how much to quote based on the impact thatthey wish to have on their audience. Clark and Gerrig, 'Quotations as Demonstrations'.

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It would be inappropriate to close the analysis of self quotations as reper-formances of the psalmist's own speech without mentioning Psalm 35, the onlypsalm in which the psalmist quotes words that she intends to speak in the future.As was argued above, in Psalm 35, the psalmist's self quotation is actually aquotation from, or an allusion to a hymn sung in the temple:

Then my soul shall rejoice in the LORD,exulting in his salvation.All my bones shall say,

'O LORD, who is like you?Delivering the weak from the one stronger than him,and the weak and needy from the one who robs him', (vv. 9-10)

In this passage, the different circumstance that the psalmist 'reenacts' is a momentthat has not yet occurred. This vow to praise is a promise; only if and when Goddelivers the psalmist from her woes will she be able to fulfil her promise to join thechoir and sing, 'O LORD, who is like you?' In this sense, the psalmist is reenactingan event that cannot be reenacted because it has not yet been acted! The contrasthere is not between the present and some circumstance in the past but between thepresent and some hoped-for time to come.

ii. Self Quotations as Self-CharacterizationsA second way that self quotations function in the Psalter is to characterize thepsalmists for their audiences. Biblical scholars who employ literary techniques tointerpret Old Testament narrative have agreed that direct speech was one of themain devices that biblical authors used to portray the inner character of the menand women of their tales.40 According to David Gunn and Danna Nolan Fewell,direct speech is useful for characterization, because it lets

the characters speak for themselves. For, of course, what characters say and howthey say it may tell us much about the kind of people they are. Furthermore, closeattention to the context of a character's speech, the circumstances in which thespeech takes place, can help us to decide what to make of it. Since biblicalcharacters seldom appear alone, we can compare and contrast characters, take noteof how they speak to each other, and, in the end, see how one person can help todefine another.

Quotations that occur in the Psalter can also be interpreted as a means of depictingthe inner character of the men and women that the psalmists encountered. BecauseHebrew narrative and Hebrew verse differ significantly in certain features, itcannot be assumed that rhetorical features of Hebrew narrative (such as the use ofquotations to depict character) can automatically be extended to Hebrew verse. Inthe case of self quotations, however, there is legitimate warrant for such anextension. Because the psalmists regularly use self quotations to narrate past

40. See the discussion in Chapter 1, section 2.v.41. Gunn and Fewell, Narrative in the Hebrew Bible, p. 63.

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events, the narrative functions of quotations can be applied to the interpretation ofself quotations in the Psalms.

Character may be an individual trait, but it is a social phenomenon—personalcharacter is defined in relation to norms that are established within community andin relation to the needs, vices, and virtues of others in community. Therefore, inorder to interpret the self-characterizations of the psalmists, as the above quotationfrom Gunn and Fewell suggests, an interpreter must examine more than just thewords quoted in the inset. An interpreter must also consider the context of acharacter's speech, consider the circumstances in which the speech takes place, andcompare what the psalmist says with the speech of other voices quoted in the samepsalm. In addition, the concern for character in the Psalter is not limited to the selfquotations. Rather, the self quotations are part of a larger concern for internalcharacter. In many psalms, the psalmists reflect upon their inner life: they asserttheir innocence, confess their guilt, complain about their mental state, express theirconfidence, and so on. Character is extremely significant to the psalmists—bothfor them and for the God to whom they pray. The self-characterization effected byself quotations must be understood within the context of the larger concern forcharacter.

The self quotations consistently portray the psalmists as people in conversationwith God and as people assailed by enemies.

The Self in Conversation with God One of the important aspects of character thatthe self quotations establish is that the psalmists are people in conversation withGod. Or, to put the thesis negatively (as the psalmists do), those who fall out ofconversation with God fall into danger. The self quotations in Pss. 30.6 and 39.1illustrate this point:

As for me, I said in my prosperity,'I shall not be made to stagger forever'. (Ps. 30.6)

I said, 'I will guard my ways,to keep from sinning with my tongue'. (Ps. 39.1)

As was argued above, in both of these quotations, the psalmist talks to herself, andboth quotations reflect points in life in which the psalmist relies on herself and herown abilities. In both of these psalms, the psalmist moves away from reliance onherself toward reliance on God, and in both psalms the psalmist moves fromtalking to herself to talking to God. Later in both psalms, the psalmist quotes wordsthat she spoke directly to God, and these later words are recalled as the turningpoints in the psalmist's suffering. The danger of falling out of conversation withGod is also illustrated by the enemy quotations, in which characteristically theytalk to themselves. The psalmist often quotes words that the fool or the enemyspeaks'in his heart' ; Pss. 10.6, 13; 14.1; 35.25; 53.1; compare Job1.5). These quotations are important not only for what they reveal about the contentof the enemy's speech but also because they characterize the fool and the enemy aspeople who have fallen out of conversation with God, as those who trust in

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themselves. Recall also that one of the characteristic assertions of the enemy is thatGod does not hear what humans say.

The Self Assailed by Enemies. As the above comparison of the psalmist's selfquotations with the enemy quotations suggests, the self quotations also characterizethe psalmists as people surrounded by and assailed by enemies. Gunn and Fewelladvise interpreters to 'compare and contrast characters, [and] take note of how theyspeak to each other'.42 The psalmists often play off present speech against pastspeech in order to show change and growth. In the last section, the quotations inPsalms 30 and 39 were treated, in which the psalmist recalls earlier sinful words. Inthese psalms, the psalmists show growth in character over time. A similardevelopment of character occurs in Psalm 32, where the psalmist quotes his pastresolve to confess his sins to God (v. 5). The psalmists also often play off their ownspeech against the speech of the enemies—the psalmists establish their owninnocence, faith, and piety in part by playing themselves off against the enemies,who are shown to be guilty, unfaithful, and impious.

42. Gunn and Fewell, Narrative in the Hebrew Bible, p. 63.

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Chapter 4

'THE LORD HAS SWORN':THE FUNCTION OF GOD QUOTATIONS

The psalmist often quotes the speech of God. God is quoted twenty-seven times ineighteen psalms.1 Unlike the enemy quotations and the self quotations, for which

1. Pss. 2.4-6, 7-9; 12.6; 35.3; 46.10; 50.5, 7-15,16-23; 60.6-8; 68.22-23; 75.2-5, 10; 81.6-16;82.2-4,6-8; 89.3-4,19-37; 90.3; 91.14-16; 95.10-11; 105.11,15; 108.7-9; 110.1,4; 132.11-12,14-18. Once again, some passages that others have understood as God quotations are excluded fromthis investigation. If these passages were included, they would not materially affect the conclusionsthat are reached.

Ps. 14.5 //Ps. 53.5: Many commentators (see Hossfeld, 'Das Prophetische in den Psalmen: ZurGottesrede der Asafpsalmen im Vergleich mit des der ersten und zweiten Davidpsalters', in F.Diedrich and B. Willmes (eds.), Ich bewirke das Heil und erschaffe das Unheil (Jesaja 45.7),Studien zur Botschaft der Propheten: Festschrift fur Lothar Ruppert zum 65. Geburtstag (FB, 65;Wurzburg: Echter, 1998), pp. 223-43) understand these verses as the speech of God spoken by apriest in answer to the petition of the psalmist. There is no verb of speaking, however, and nointernal deictic signal to suggest a change in speaker. It is better to understand these verses as thepsalmist's own answer to the theological question posed by the psalm.

Ps. 27.8: Hossfeld ('Das Prophetische in den Psalmen', p. 232) understands this verse as thevoice of God. His reading is not accepted here. See the comment in the previous chapter.

Ps. 32.8-9: These verses may be plausibly understood either as the speech of God or as thepsalmist's instruction about proper living. There is no verb of speaking to mark a shift in speakers.It is possible to interpret the phrase, 'I will counsel you with my eye upon you' as a shift inhierarchical deixis, indicating that God is now speaking. But the case is ambiguous. Note that thepassage is similar to Pss. 32.6-7 and 34.11-14 (see below), which are best understood as theinstruction of the psalmist. Because the passage is ambiguous, it is best to leave it out of thisinvestigation of the function of direct discourse in the Psalter. (See R.J. Tournay, Seeing andHearing God with the Psalms: The Prophetic Liturgy of the Second Temple in Jerusalem(JSOTSup, 118; Sheffield: Sheffield University Press, 1991), pp. 167-68.)

Ps. 34.11-14: These verses also may be plausibly understood either as the speech of God or asthe psalmist's instruction about proper fear of the LORD. Because the LORD is referred to in thethird person and because there is no verb of speaking to mark a change in speakers, it is preferrableto understand this as the psalmist's instruction. Note also that there is no hierarchical deixis tomark a change to God speaking.

Ps. 68.12: The verse probably quotes the speech of God, but this is not certain; therefore theverse is excluded from the investigation (see P. Miller, The Divine Warrior in Early Israel (HSM,5; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1973), p. 108).

Ps. 87.6: NRSV and others understand this passage as describing what God records in a divinebook. As such, this could be understood as a God quotation. The meaning of the verse is far from

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there is little or no history of scholarly investigation, the God quotations have beenthe subject of a tremendous amount of research. It is necessary, therefore, to reviewsome major features of this history of interpretation before addressing the psalmpassages in which the God quotations occur. The history that follows does not seekto be comprehensive. Rather, it seeks to be representative of the state of researchand especially seeks to review important methodological contributions.

I . A History of Interpretation of the God Quotations

Old Testament scholars have been uncharacteristically uniform in their approach tothe God quotations in the psalms. First, these God quotations have been con-sistently labelled as 'oracles'. The term oracle is problematic, because it denotesforms and functions of divine communication that do not do justice to some of theGod quotations in the Psalter. More will need to be said about the term 'oracle'later. At this point, it is enough to note that the term is a fixed feature of scholar-ship. Second, scholars have largely interpreted these oracles in relation to mediat-ing figures who are understood to have been active in the ancient Israelite cult.That is, the God quotations are usually understood as 'oracles' that were deliveredby a cultic prophet or priest. While scholars have offered differing reconstructionsof the activities and identities of such cultic prophets, the recourse to such prophetsas the best way to explain the function of the God quotations is a widely heldposition. As W.H. Bellinger has noted, 'Today it is virtually the orthodox positionto understand cultic prophecy as the explanation of prophetic elements in thePsalms.'2 At the outset, it should be noted that the history of interpretationreviewed here is not the history of interpretation of the God quotations in thePsalter per se, but a history of scholarly theories regarding the relationship betweenpsalmody and prophecy. Because the God quotations in the Psalter are routinelyunderstood under the rubric of the relationship between psalmody and prophecy,this history is relevant to the current study. But it must be stressed that the scholars

certain, however, and it is best excluded from the present study. (See H.P. Nasuti, TraditionHistory and the Psalms ofAsaph (SBLDS, 88; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1988), pp. 127-36.)

Ps. 110.3b: Kraus argued that this verse is an oracle to the king, similar to the oracles in Ps 110.1and 4. He translated the phrase: 'On holy mountains, from the womb of the rosy dawn, have I be-gotten you like the dew' (Psalms 60-150, p. 344; cf. Ps. 72.6). Unlike the other two God quotationsin Psalm 110, however, this verse has no introductory verb of speaking. The psalm as a whole isfraught with textual problems, including this verse. Understanding this as a God quotation disruptsthe balanced twofold structure of the psalm (vv. 1-3, 4-7) in which each half of the psalm beginswith a quotation formula ('The LORD says' and 'The LORD has sworn'), followed by divinespeech, and then 'a declaration of the LORD'S policy with respect to the addressee' (Mays, Psalms,p. 350). Although the meaning of v. 3 is obscure, it is better not to understand it as the speech ofGod. S. Starbuck's atomizing interpretation of the psalm as containing seven different Godquotations is too conjectural to follow (Court Oracles in the Psalms: The So-CalledRoyal Psalmsin their Ancient Near Eastern Context (SBLDS, 172; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 1999),pp. 142-61).

2. W.H. Bellinger, Psalmody and Prophecy (JSOTSup, 27; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1984),p. 16.

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reviewed below did not conduct synthetic studies of divine speech in the Psalter.It is a safe historical conclusion that Israelite prophets did operate in and around

the cult, as passages such as 1 Samuel 1-3 and Isaiah 6 make clear. Furthermore,prophetic activity in the cult was a common feature of religious life in the ancientNear East, as prophetic texts from Mari and Neo-Assyrian prophetic texts attest.3

The precise roles and identities of these prophets is, however, far from certain.More to the point, the automatic recourse to such cultic prophets as the best way toexplain the function of the God quotations needs to be re-evaluated.

i. J. BegrichIn an extremely influential article, Joachim Begrich argued that the turn of moodfrom complaint and petition to trust and the intention to praise that occurs at theend of lament psalms is best explained by supposing that a priest spoke an oracle ofsalvation or an oracle of assurance to the petitioner.4 Begrich argued:

When an individual, who had entered into a sanctuary with a lament for Yahweh,had exhausted his laments and prayers, then a priest came out. Perhaps on thebasis of an offertory answer, he would turn to the pray-er with an oracle of Yah-weh and, referring to his laments and prayers, he would assure him of God'shearing and help.5

Begrich drew upon texts from Second Isaiah and elsewhere in order to reconstructthese priestly oracles of salvation.6 According to his reconstruction: the priestemployed direct address to deliver God's message of assurance,7 some reference tothe petitioner's situation or complaint was often incorporated into the divineanswer, the oracle began with 'fear not' or 'peace', a sentence followed that beganwith listing the basis for the assurance given, and often the oracle mentioned thespecific way in which the LORD would help the petitioner.

ii. S. MowinckelMowinckel largely agreed with Begrich's interpretation, but rather than focusingon psalms of the individual, Mowinckel shifted his attention to psalms that seemedto indicate a liturgical context (such as Psalms 2, 50, 53, 72, 81, 82, 89, 110, and132). Mowinckel assigned these psalms to the New Year's festival, and he inter-preted the God quotations within them as fixed prophetic elements that were

3. See R.R. Wilson, Prophecy and Society in Ancient Israel (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1980),pp. 98-123.

4. J. Begrich, 'Das priestliche Heilsorakel', ZAW 52 (1934), pp. 81-92. For an excellentdiscussion of pertinent issues, including the form of the salvation oracle, extra-biblical salvationoracles, oracles in Old Testament prose texts, and oracles in the psalms, see Miller, They Cried tothe Lord, pp. 135-77.

5. Begrich, 'Das priestliche Heilsorakel', p. 82, my translation.6. ThetextsthatBegrichcitesare:Isa.41.8-13, 14-16; 43.1-31,5; 44.2-5; 48.17-19; 49.7, 14-

15; 51.7-8; 54.4-8; Jer. 30.10-1 (= 46.27-8); Ps. 35.3; and Lam. 3.57.7. Note that some of the passages that are often cited as examples of this type of oracle are

address to an audience, but are not direct discourse (cf. Pss. 21.8-12; 27.14; 34.7-10; 85.8-13).

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spoken by priestly/prophetic figures.8 Mowinckel pointed out that prophetic guildswere active in the temple, and that priest and prophet were overlapping categories.As Begrich had reconstructed a salvation oracle as an answer to an individual'sprayer, Mowinckel proposed

that the ritual of a particular festival would provide that at a certain point theprophet was to announce Yahweh's answer to the [communal] prayer, and that thesubstance of the answer was prescribed by the festival, whereas the wording andcomposition were left to the free and instantaneous inspiration of the prophet. Butit is just as possible that the wording of the promise would be prescribed by theritual...9

Mowinckel pointed out that the God quotations in the Psalter did not follow thetypical apodictic style of the priestly writing, but 'distinctly kept in the usual pro-phetic style. This seems to show a likelihood that they arose within the propheticcircles and the basis of prophetic style and traditional ideas, consequently that theywere also announced by one of the temple prophets in the cult liturgy.'10 Thus,Mowinckel concluded that the oracles had a 'permanent place within the ritualframework of the festal cult', that they 'gave expression to the psalmist's evidentconsciousness of being inspired', but also show that the prophet was allowed acertain degree of 'free, spontaneous prophetic inspiration'.11

It is important to note that in Mowinckel's interpretation, the moment of divine'inspiration' occurred as the psalm was performed in the cult. That is, the propheticfigure who spoke in God's voice was inspired during the cultic liturgy. Mowinckelunderstood these psalms as generic liturgies that were used again and again indifferent years—he even called Psalm 132 'the libretto of a holy drama'.12 Mow-inckel's location of the God quotations within the liturgy is very important. Whilethese psalms cannot be used—as Mowinckel thought they could—to reconstructthe liturgies of the Jerusalem temple, a liturgical setting of some sort is often im-plied by the psalms. His understanding of the function of the quotation within theliturgy (to give an affirmative answer to a congregational prayer), his understand-ing of the 'inspired moment' taking place during the liturgy, and his interpretationof a prophetic figure as the speaker of these passages remain problematic.

8. On the New Year's Festival, see S. Mowinckel, Psalmenstudien II: Das Thronbesteig-ungsfest Jahwas und der Ursprung der Eschatologie (Kristiania: Jacob Dybwald, 1923); ThePsalms in Israel's Worship, I, pp. 106-192. On the prophetic element in the psalms, see Mow-inckel, Psalmenstudien III: Kultprophetie undProphetische Psalmen (Kristiania: Jacob Dybwald,1922); The Psalms in Israel's Worship, II, pp. 53-73. Mowinckel was not the first scholar to locatethe God quotations in the cultic liturgy, but he offered the first comprehensive study and histheories have been the most influential.

9. Mowinckel, The Psalms in Israel's Worship, II, p. 57.10. Mowinckel, The Psalms in Israel's Worship, II, p. 58.11. Mowinckel, The Psalms in Israel's Worship, II, p. 65.12. Mowinckel, The Psalms in Israel's Worship, II, p. 76.

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iii. H. GunkelGunkel understood the 'prophetic' elements in the psalms largely in terms of a sup-posed 'eschatological' theme.13 According to Gunkel, this eschatology was com-prised of seven 'joys': the restoration of Zion and the people of Israel, 'theoverthrow of the nations', 'the great natural calamities of the end time', the'overthrow' of the eschatological chaos waters, the establishment of'the kingdomof righteousness' without war, the universal extension of Zion's domain, and thesovereignty of the LORD in heaven.14 Gunkel dated all of these prophetic/eschato-logical psalms to the postexilic period.15 Gunkel thought that this eschatologicalelement in the cult (and thus in the psalms) was not evidence of prophetic activityin the cult, but of prophetic influence on the cult. According to Gunkel, the culticpsalms imitated prophetic speech, but had broken away from prophecy: 'Theirexternal situation is not affected by the prophets.'16

When Gunkel imagined the cultic settings of the psalms with God quotations, heassigned them to cultic performances. He identified these psalm types mainly asliturgies (Psalms 50, 53, 72, 81, 82, and so on). Gunkel agreed with Mowinckelthat the quoted 'word of YHWH' in these psalms betrays a 'cultic reality',17 but hestrongly objected to the idea of cultic prophets.18 Gunkel could discover 'nothingmore than prophetic influence upon the postexilic cult'.19 He also pointed out thatthe speech forms of the God quotations (admonitions, warnings) mimic not thecultic prophets but the prophets of judgement, who 'do not presuppose the holysite'.20 These speech forms were 'adopted' in the liturgy.

The adoption of these speech forms into the liturgies suggests that one accept thatthe prophetic words were spoken by the same persons who would otherwise haveproclaimed the oracle in the liturgy. One should thus think of a priest or a templesinger, but not a prophet.. .This consideration gains weight when one realizes thatthese prophetic psalms were designed for repeated performances, requiring thattheir content be fixed.

Thus, Gunkel interpreted the God quotations mainly as imitations of propheticspeech forms. Gunkel, like Mowinckel, understood these psalms as the generictexts of 'stock liturgies' that could be reused. Another of Gunkel's important con-tributions is his stress on ancient Near Eastern parallels that shed light on the God

13. Gunkel, Introduction to Psalms: The Genres of the Religious Lyric of Israel (completed byJ. Begrich; trans. J.D. Nogalski; Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1998), pp. 251-92.

14. Gunkel, Introduction to Psalms, pp. 251-63.15. Gunkel, Introduction to Psalms, pp. 290-9216. Gunkel, Introduction to Psalms, p. 282.17. Gunkel, Introduction to Psalms, p. 284.18. Gunkel accused Mowinckel of confusing form and setting. According to Gunkel, Mow-

inckel collapsed the offices of priest and prophet, failing to see that priests and prophets obtainedtheir divine revelations in different manners and thus performed in different settings. Gunkel,Introduction to Psalms, pp. 284-87.

19. Gunkel, Introduction to Psalms, p. 286.20. Gunkel, Introduction to Psalms, p. 286.21. Gunkel, Introduction to Psalms, p. 287. Emphasis in original.

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quotations in the psalms. He pointed out that the ancient Near Eastern corpuscontains many oracles to rulers, prayers for kings, royal laments, hymns to kings,and so on.22

Gunkel's reconstruction of psalmic eschatology cannot be accepted, nor can hispostexilic dating of many of these psalms, but his understanding of liturgy—especially his understanding of the 'repeated performance' of the God quotations—is a contribution that must be considered in any interpretation of the God quota-tions in these psalms. To be more specific, if a psalm in which a passage of divinespeech occurs shows signs that it was a liturgy that was used repeatedly in the cult,then one's interpretation of the divine speech must make allowances for suchrepeat performances—it is unlikely that a prophet under the influence of any sort oftrance would have functioned in this sort of setting; thus divine speech in liturgieswill have to be explained in some other way.

It is important to note at this point, that between Begrich and Gunkel, descrip-tions of the God quotations as 'oracles' were applied to divine direct discourse thatoccurs in both individual and communal psalms.

iv. A. JohnsonIn a series of studies over a long career, Aubrey Johnson interpreted the speakingvoice of the God quotations mainly as prophetic figures.23 Johnson was primarilyinterested in the relation of prophecy to kingship and cult and not in the psalms perse. He began his argument about the relationship of prophecy to cult with the Godquotations to show the activity of prophets in the psalms, and then argued for anexpanded role for those prophets. The relevant point for the purposes of the presentinvestigation is that Johnson interpreted the speakers of the God quotations asprophetic figures, and he imagines that the psalms in which the quotations occurwere performed in a liturgical setting.

v. A. HaldarIn 1945, Alfred Haldar published an important study in which he compared the cul-tic activity of prophetic figures in various ancient Near Eastern cultures.24 Haldarargued that Israelite prophecy was part of a larger Sumero-Akkadian propheticphenomenon. He concluded that the in Israel, like the 'baru', 'salu', 'sabru',and 'mahhu' in Mesopotamia, were 'ecstatic' figures who often operated within thecult. The ecstatics were organized in groups under a prophetic or royal leader.Haldar did not treat the God quotations in the Psalter explicitly, but did cite themas evidence of prophetic activity in the cult. Haldar's study is dated and in many of

22. Gunkel, Introduction to Psalms, pp. 113-34.23. A. Johnson, 'The Prophet in Israelite Religion', ExpTim 47 (1935-36), pp. 312-19; The

Cultic Prophet in Ancient Israel (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1944); The Cultic Prophetand Israel's Psalmody (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1979); see also Johnson's SacralKingship in Ancient Israel (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1955).

24. A. Haldar, Associations of Cult Prophets among the Ancient Semites (Uppsala: AlmqvistandWiksells, 1945).

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the specific conclusions cannot be followed, but remains important to the extentthat the God quotations in the psalms are understood in relation to propheticactivity in the cult. Robert Wilson's later study of prophecy is both more carefuland more up to date, and it reached similar conclusions.25

vi. J. JeremiasJorg Jeremias argued that the cult prophets in the Jerusalem temple reported theword of God through oracles and interceded on behalf of people.26 They sought topurify the nation of sin in order to save the nation. The activity of these prophets isexhibited in certain Klageliturgien ('lament liturgies') such as Psalms 12, 14, and75, in which the prophets sought an oracle from the LORD. In terms of the oraclesin three psalms, however, Jeremias argued that Psalms 50, 81, and 95—'the greatfestival psalms'—arose in Levitical circles, and their speakers would have beenLevitical priests, rather than cult prophets. Jeremias's contribution is importantbecause of his sensitivity to the different functions of God quotations withindifferent psalm genres (a sensitivity that Gunkel also showed). In terms ofmethodology, Jeremias's study implied that both the form of the psalm in which aGod quotation occurs and the specific role of that God quotation within the psalmmust be considered.

vii. W. Bellinger Jr.In 1984, Bellinger published a study of the prophetic elements within the psalms oflament.27 Bellinger argued for a cultic setting for the individual laments (Psalms 7,9/10,28,31,36, 55,57, and 64) and the communal laments (Psalms 12, 14,60, 85,and 126). Bellinger followed Begrich in understanding an oracular 'certainty of ahearing' as a 'uniform phenomenon in the laments'.28 An important contributionof Bellinger is his focus on the function of the oracular saying, rather than on theidentity of the speaker:

It is important to note that it is not the identity of the cultic functionary whodelivered the expression of certainty, nor any type of assurance leading to thatexpression, which determines that the text has a prophetic character. It is ratherprimarily the function which the language of the text conveys and that function inthis case can be considered prophetic... However, it is important to note that thefunction in this case is also clearly in a liturgical context rather than an explicitlyhistorical one. So the function of the certainty of a hearing in the individuallaments in Israel's cult is to anticipate deliverance for the worshippers and the

?Qdownfall of the enemies.

25. Wilson, Prophecy and Society in Ancient Israel. It should be noted that Wilson conceivedof the Mesopotamian oracular speakers as far more peripheral to the cult than Haldar did.

26. J. Jeremias, Kultprophetie und Gerichtsverkundigung in der spdten Konigzeit(WMANT, 35; Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener, 1970).

27. Bellinger, Psalmody and Prophecy.28. Bellinger, Psalmody and Prophecy, p. 91.29. Bellinger, Psalmody and Prophecy, pp. 58-59.

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Although Bellinger identified the God quotations as 'oracular forms' in the Psalter,he denied both that these forms necessarily involved a prophet and that the 'origin-ally cultic forms' were always bound to the cult.30

viii. H. NasutiIn a study of tradition history in the Psalms of Asaph, Harry Nasuti made importantmethodological contributions to the study of the God quotations in the Psalter.31

Nasuti employed 'formal criteria' to distinguish between a 'quotation type' ofdivine direct discourse in the psalms and a 'non-quotation type'. Nasuti pointed outthat the quotation frames that mark some of the God quotations imply that thedivine speech that is quoted occurred in the past rather than the present. He citedsuch quotation formulas as in Ps. 2.7, in Pss. 60.8 and108.7, and in Pss. 110.4 and 132.11, as well as similar formulas inPsalms 68,108, and possibly Psalms 12 and 89, as implying a past communicationfrom the deity rather than a present encounter with the deity.32 'In contrast to thesequotation examples are those cases of divine speech which seem to imply a.presentencounter with the Deity.,'33 To this category, Nasuti assigned the divine speechesin Psalms 46, 50, 75, 81, 82, 85, 91, 95, and perhaps 87. He pointed out that all ofthese psalms betray a communal or liturgical-cultic character, and that almost all ofthese psalms belong to the Psalms of Asaph or Korah—the singer groups of thetemple. According to Nasuti,

This [type] is not a mere quotation used to buttress an ongoing argument. Rather,it is only by envisioning a cultic situation in which the speech of the Deity is apresent reality that one can explain such a verse. Put in another way, it is theexpectations of the original cultic audience which allow such a transition to bemeaningful.34

Nasuti classified these non-quotation divine speeches as 'oracles or proclamationsof salvation', and concluded on the basis of comparative ancient Near Eastern datathat 'possession' or some sort of 'trance behavior' was the best way to explainthem.35 Nasuti's main contribution to the present study lies in his use of the 'formalcriteria' of the quotation frames to distinguish between those God quotations thatimply a past communication and those that imply a present communication fromGod. Nasuti is correct that the quotation formulas in some psalms imply that thequoted divine speech occurred in the past rather than in the present. Nasuti'smethodological concern for 'the expectations of the original cultic audience' is alsoto be commended. Nasuti's attention to the formal analysis of the psalms and hismethodological concern may be pushed further than he pushed them, however.There are other important formal markers in addition to the quotation formulas that

30. Bellinger, Psalmody and Prophecy, p. 93.31. Nasuti, Tradition History and the Psalms of Asaph.32. Nasuti, Tradition History and the Psalms of Asaph, pp. 128-30.33. Nasuti, Tradition History and the Psalms of Asaph, p. 130. Emphasis added.34. Nasuti, Tradition History and the Psalms of Asaph, p. 130.35. Nasuti, Tradition History and the Psalms of Asaph, pp. 140-49.

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may indicate a given divine speech represents the quotation of a past communi-cation from the deity. For example, as Gunkel warned, if a psalm is in the form of aliturgy, then interpretation of the divine speech within that psalm will have to allowfor the repeated quotation of that divine speech as the liturgy was reused overtime.36

ix. K. KoenenIn a 1996 form-critical study of the God quotations in the Psalter, Klaus Koenenanalysed the function of the God quotations in the psalms.37 Koenen paid particularattention to the function that the God quotations play in different contexts: 'Thewords of God in the psalms are very diverse and have in their individual contextsdifferent functions.'38 For the present study, this attention to function is especiallyimportant. Similar to Nasuti, Koenen distinguished between those God quotationswhose function he understood as being spoken in the psalmist's present momentand those quotations that consisted of quotations from an older tradition. Koenendivided the quotations spoken in the present moment into two groups: announce-ments of salvation (in Psalms 12, 32, 35, 46, 87, and 91) and exhortations (inPsalms 50, 75, 81, and 95). Koenen thought that these present-moment quotationsare best explained by prophetic activity in the cult. According to Koenen, thequotations that cite from earlier tradition were often used in situations of need andpreceded petitions directed to God. This function might be best described astheological reflection.39 The psalmist would cite earlier oracular promises in orderto motivate God to act in the present. An approach very similar to Koenen's isfollowed below.

x. S. StarbuckIn a study of the royal psalms, Scott R. A. Starbuck argued that the oracles in Psalms2, 89, 110, and 132 are not original to those psalms, but had been 'reappropriated'from other contexts.40 Starbuck pointed out that the royal psalms of the HebrewPsalter bear one marked difference from the royal hymns and prayers of the ancientNear East: they never mention the personal name or regnal name of a sovereign.Starbuck argued that this lacuna points to a 'reworking' of these hymns and

36. Hossfeld ('Das Prophetische in den Psalmen', pp. 223-43) holds that most of the speechesattributed to God in the Asaph psalms do not reflect cultic prophecy but rather theologicalreflection.

37. K. Koenen, Gottesworte in den Psalmen: Eine Formgeschichtliche Untersuchung (BTS, 30;Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener, 1996).

38. Koenen, Gottesworte in den Psalmen, p. 67, my translation.39. A similar view is taken by Hossfeld ('Das Prophetische in den Psalmen') and H.

Spieckermann ('Rede Gottes und Wort Gottes in den Psalmen', in K. Seybold and E. Zenger (eds.),Neue Wege der Psalmenforschung: Fur Walter Beyerlin (Herders Biblische Studien, 1; Freiburg:Herder, 1994), pp. 157-73). Spieckermann investigated some of the God quotations in the Psalteras a way of getting at the theology of the Psalms as the Word of God.

40. Starbuck, Court Oracles in the Psalms, especially chapter 4. Starbuck also argued thatPsalm 91 contains a democratized royal oracle that had been reappropriated for common worship.

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prayers.41 Starbuck marshalled an impressive array of ancient Near Easternparallels to the 'royal oracles' of the Psalter. He discovered that all of the extra-biblical ancient Near Eastern royal oracles specifically mention the king to whomthe oracle was given by name. Therefore Starbuck concluded that the oracularsections in the Psalter (which never mention any king by name except David, thefounder of the dynasty) had been reworked to eliminate specific mention ofpersonal and regnal names. Starbuck rejected Gunkel's idea that the lack of royalnames in the royal psalms (including those with oracular sections) indicates thatthese psalms comprised generic 'stock liturgies' that were used for many differentkings.42

Instead, in each case where the reuse and reappropriation of royal materials can beobserved, the reappropriation has occasioned significant alterations of the originaltext. Given the fact that the [royal psalms] do not name the protagonist king, it isclear that the [royal psalms] are not simply historical artifacts that have beencopied into the Psalter.43

Starbuck's proposal is important to the present study because it underscores thefact that the oracles in such psalms as Psalms 2, 89, 110, and 132 may have beenreworked prior to their inclusion in those psalms. This means that rather thanbasing the interpretation of the function of these God quotations on any imaginedor reconstructed 'original' liturgical or enthronement setting, the function of theseGod quotations must be determined based on their role within the final forms of thepsalms in which they occur.44

xi. ConclusionsSeveral methodological conclusions may be drawn from this history of interpre-tation. First, the function of the God quotations must be evaluated primarily basedon the role that the quotations play in the final form of the psalms, rather than on

41. According to Starbuck, the reworking of these texts shifted the propagandistic effects of thetexts away from a specific king or royal house to the 'office' of kingship in general. Starbuck alsoargued that the reworking of these texts should be understood as functioning to democratize theconcept of kingship.

42. Starbuck, Court Oracles in the Psalms, p. 94: 'According to the remains of the ancient NearEast, and according to what is attested in the Hebrew Bible, monarchs did not reuse in toto hymnsand prayers from other monarchs.' See Gunkel, Introduction to the Psalms, pp. 99-120.

43. Starbuck, Court Oracles in the Psalms, p. 98.44. The interpretation of R. J. Tournay (Seeing and Hearing God with the Psalms) should at

least be noted. Tournay argued that the speaking voice of both the 'oracles' and the psalms inwhich those oracles occur should be understood as 'Levitical singer(s)' (p. 93). Using thebooks of Ezra, Nehemiah, and 1-2 Chronicles, Tournay reconstructed the proper 'place in thereligious life of the Jewish people' in which the psalms were performed (p. 29). Tournayargued that in the postexilic period, the Levitical singers took over both royal functions thathad previously belonged to the king and oracular functions that had previously belonged to theprophets. He interpreted the Davidic superscriptions as evidence that the speaking voice of thepsalm should be understood prophetically, since David spoke prophetically. He interpreted theoracles that occur in liturgical psalms as answers to the community's prayers.

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any reconstructed original setting.45 In some psalms, it is evident that a Godquotation from an older tradition has been quoted in a later psalm. While the oldertradition is a valid topic of research, the focus here is on the rhetorical function ofthe God quotations in the final forms of the psalms. This does, however, relate to asecond methodological conclusion. As Nasuti and Koenen argued, at least someGod quotations seem to imply the quotation of a past divine communication ratherthan a present communication from the deity through some oracular speaker. Thisinsight is accepted here, and is taken as a point of departure for the present investi-gation. This has ramifications for how an interpreter understands the 'moment ofrevelation' of the relevant divine speeches: for those speeches that quote oldermaterial, the moment of revelation should not be understood as occurringsimultaneously with the performance of the psalm. Nasuti's attention to the formalfeatures of the psalms and his methodological warning about the expectations ofthe original cultic audiences also lead to two more conclusions. Third, where theformal features of a psalm indicate an implied liturgical setting for a given psalm,the interpretation of the divine speech in that psalm must account for the repeatedperformances of the psalm. This also has ramifications for how the moment ofrevelation is understood, since a God quotation that is repeated numerous times inthe liturgy will not imply a present communication from God. Fourth, the way thata God quotation interacts with the formal elements of the psalm types will beimportant. For example, the 'oracles of salvation' as Begrich imagined them weresupposed to have occurred between the petition and the final confession of trust.The present investigation pays significant attention to the placement of the Godquotations within the psalms, and especially to their placement with respect to thepetitions in the prayers for help.

Two other issues raised by the history of interpretation merit more discussionhere: the use of the term oracle to describe the God quotations in the psalms andthe extent to which ancient Near Eastern parallels can be considered 'similar' to theGod quotations found in the psalms.

Are the God quotations 'oracles'? The term oracle should only be applied to theGod quotations in the Psalter with the greatest care. This is because—for better orworse—the term usually implies a present communication from the deity, often inresponse to specific questions or concerns.46 For example, the NRSV consistentlyuses 'oracle' to translate the Hebrew word in contexts that imply a presentcommunication from God in a specific situation (see 2 Kgs. 9.25-26; Isa. 13.2-14.23; 14.29-32; Zech. 9.1-11.3; and so on). The term is used in the secondary

45. Hossfeld applied this functional analysis to the God quotations of the first and secondDavidic Psalters and the Asaph psalms. It is striking that by asking the question of the function ofthe God quotations in these psalms, Hossfeld reversed at least one of his earlier published opinionson the God quotations (the opinion in question being whether a priest spoke the oracle mentionedin Ps. 35.3; 'Das Prophetische in den Psalmen', pp. 223-43).

46. See 'Orakel', in H.Haag(ed.),Bibel-Lexikon (Zurich: Benziger, 1968), p. 1271;R.D. Weis,'Oracle: Old Testamet', inABD V, pp. 28-29; F.T. Miosi, 'Oracle: Ancient Egypt', ABD V, pp. 29-30; C. Westerman, Prophetic Oracles of Salvation in the Old Testament (trans. K.R. Crim;Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1991).

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literature for the sort of enquiring of God through Urim and Thummim (a practicespecifically associated with priests, it should be noted; see Exod. 28.30; Lev. 8.8;Deut. 33.8; Ezra 2.63; Neh. 7.65), through mediums (such as Saul is described asdoing in 1 Samuel 28), or through lots (such as the sailors are described as doing inJonah 1), or through various sorts of divination and omens (such as the manyprophetic texts at Mari and throughout Mesopotamia bear witness). As Starbuckpointed out, even in the case of ancient Near Eastern royal oracles, thecommunication from the deity was a communication to a particular sovereign in aparticular context, as the following text makes clear:

Thus did he (Sennacherib) ask of Samas and Adad by divination [ina biri]: 'Is thisthe heir to my throne?' and they responded to him with a strong affirmative: 'He is

,47your successor.

Note that in this text the divine communication is in response to a specific questionand gives a specific, time-bound answer. Begrich's original theory of the 'salvationoracles' delivered by cultic prophets also understood the concept of 'oracle' as aspecific communication to a specific individual—he based his theory on the beliefthat a cultic figure addressed an oracle to a petitioner in the midst of the petitioner'sprayer. All of this suggests that the term oracle often implies a present communi-cation from the deity. This connotation is not appropriate for all of the Godquotations in the Psalter, because most of them cannot be understood as a presentcommunication from God.

The terms 'oracle' and especially 'oracle of salvation'48 are also inappropriate tomany of the God quotations of the Psalter from a form-critical perspective. Accord-ing to Begrich's reconstruction of the oracle of salvation, 'The oracle normallybegins with the words, "Do not fear" '.49 Begrich is surely correct that one ofthe formal indicators of the oracle of salvation is the opening imperative('fear not!'). However, the phrase occurs only twice in the entire Psalter (Pss.49.16; 91.5) and never in one of the God quotations. Moreover, Begrich developedthis theory to account for the shift in mood ('Umschwung der Stimmung') betweenthe petition and the confession of trust that occurs in individual lament psalms.50

Only one of the God quotations in the Psalter occurs at this position in a psalm(Psalm 12, see below). It is true that some of the God quotations, such as Pss. 46.10and 91.14-16, do function to assure the cultic audience of God's protection. Butneither of these passages occurs in a prayer for help, and both quotations come atthe end of their respective psalms, rather than at a turning point within the psalm.For these reasons, the terms 'oracle' and 'oracle of salvation' should only beapplied to the God quotations of the Psalter with the greatest care.

47. Starbuck, Court Oracles in the Psalms, p. 122. Starbuck cites R. Borger, Die InschriftenAsarhaddons, Konigs von Assyrien (AfDB, 9; Osnabriick: Biblio-Verlag, 1967), p. 40. Starbuckmultiplies the example, see pp. 68-82, 122.

48. Against Nasuti, Tradition History and the Psalms ofAsaph, pp. 140-49.49. Begrich, 'Das priestliche Heilsorakel', p. 83, my translation. See also Westermann,

Prophetic Oracles of Salvation in the Old Testament.50. Begrich, 'Das priestliche Heilsorakel, p. 81.

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To what extent do the God quotations have ancient Near Eastern parallels? Itwill be recalled that an important aspect of the history of interpretation is thereliance on ancient Near Eastern parallels to explain the God quotations: Gunkelargued that the parallels bear 'a great deal of similarity' to the God quotations ofthe royal psalms;51 Mowinckel used such parallels in his reconstruction of theIsraelite New Year's festival;52 Haldar used them to argue for prophetic involve-ment in the cult and in his understanding of the organization of prophetic groups;53

Nasuti concluded on the basis of the comparative data that those divine speechesthat imply a 'direct encounter' with the deity can best be explained by prophet-ecstatic behaviour;54 and Starbuck used the comparative data to argue that the'oracles' in the royal psalms had been reworked prior to their 'reappropriation' inthose psalms.55

There is no question that comparative material from ancient Near Easterncultures is helpful in understanding many aspects of the God quotations in thePsalter. The comparative material can help modern interpreters to understandmythological language and symbols, to reconstruct historical contexts, to decipherimages and metaphors, to understand royal language, to interpret poetic genres, andso on. But most ancient Near Eastern parallels are not perfect parallels. That is, theparallel material usually is both similar and dissimilar to the biblical material towhich it is being compared. This means that the interpreter needs to be honestabout both the similarity and the dissimilarity of the comparative data.

Five examples can illustrate this issue in terms of the God quotations.First, in Ps. 2.7, God says to the king: 'You are my son, today I have begotten

you.' Egyptian parallels help to explain the concept of the king as God's son, themythological conception of a deity begetting the king, and possible historicalsituations (such as the king's enthronement) in which Psalm 2 might have beenused.56 An example of such an Egyptian parallel is an oracle from the god Ptah-Tatenen to Ramses III:

I am thy father. I begot thee, so that thy entire body is of the gods, for I assumedmy form as the Ram, the Lord of <Mendes>, and I cohabited with thy Augustmother.. .1 begot thee, appearing like Re, and I exalted thee before the gods; theKing of Upper and Lower Egypt: Usermare-Meriamon; Son of Re: Ramses III.57

51. Gunkel, Introduction to Psalms, pp. 113-14.52. Mowinckel, The Psalms in Israel's Worship, I, pp. 106-92.53. Haldar, Associations of Cult Prophets among the Ancient Semites, especially chapter 1.54. Nasuti, Tradition History and the Psalms ofAsaph, pp. 140-49.55. Starbuck, Court Oracles in the Psalms, especially chapter 4.56. See G. von Rad, 'The Royal Ritual in Judah', in The Problem of the Hexateuch and Other

Essays (trans. E.W. Trueman Dicken; London: SCM Press, 1966), pp. 222-31; and J.J.M. Roberts,'Whose Child Is This? Reflections on the Speaking Voice in Isaiah 9.4', HTR 90 (1997), pp. 115-29.

57. W.F. Edgerton and J.A. Wilson, Historical Records of Ramses III: The Texts in MedinetHabu (Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization, 12; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1936),pis. 105-106 Ins. 3-5. Cited in Starbuck, Court Oracles in the Psalms, p. 152.

Many are Saying

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Second, in Psalm 2, the nations are described as preparing to revolt 'against theLORD and his anointed' and God responds by promising the king: 'I will give thenations as your inheritance' (v. 8a). An Assyrian oracle regarding Ashurbanipalcan help to explain the social phenomenon of rebelling vassals, the language inPsalm 2 of the king as God's son, and the role of God in granting victory overthose nations:

[The kings] of the countries confer together (saying), 'Come, (let us rise) againstAshurbanipal.. .The fate of our fathers...' [Nin]lil answered saying, '[The kings]of the lands [I shall overthrow, place under the yoke, bind their feet in [strongfetters]...

'Ninlil is his mother. Fear not! The mistress of Arbele bore him. Fear not. Fearnot, my son, whom I have raised.'5

Even more importantly, the Assyrian parallel can explain the role of the deity asthe one who supports and legitimates the king in the face of rebelling vassals.

Third, in Ps. 110.1, 'The LORD says to my lord, "Sit at my right hand, until Ihave made your enemies into your footstool."' Egyptian iconography provideshelpful images that illumine the meaning of God's speech here. In one image,Pharaoh Horemheb and the god Horus are shown sitting next to each other on athrone—Horemheb is literally sitting on the right hand of Horus.59 Another widelyattested iconographic motif depicts a king sitting on his throne, with his feet restingon a footstool—in the footstool, there appear nine human figures representingdefeated enemies.60 These parallels help the interpreter to understand the symbol-ism of Ps. 110.1, and they make it clear that the figure to whom God speaks in Ps.110.1 must be the king.

Fourth, in Ps. 91.15, God announces: 'When he calls to me, I will answer him; Iwill be with him in distress, I will deliver him and grant him honour.' Astela erected by King Zakkur of Hamath is often cited as an important parallel forunderstanding this God quotation and various other aspects of the speech of God inthe Psalter.61 In the stela, the king describes help that he received from his god. Thestela begins, 'I am [Zakkur], king of Hamat and Lu'ath. A humble man I am.Be'elshamayn [helped me] and stood by me...' The king tells of an enemycoalition that besieged him in his city.

But I lifted up my hand to Be'elshamayn, and Be'elshamayn heard me.Be'elshamayn [spoke] to me through seers and diviners. Be'elshamayn [said tome]: Do not fear, for I made you king, and I shall stand by you and deliver youfrom all [these kings who] set up a siege against you.. ,62

58. 'Oracle of Ninlil Concerning Ashurbanipal', ANET, p. 451.59. See the drawing of this image in O. Keel, The Symbolism of the Biblical World: Ancient

Near Eastern Iconography and the Book of Psalms (trans. T. J. Hallett; New York: Seabury Press,1978), p. 263.

60. Keel, The Symbolism of the Biblical World, pp. 254-56.61. For example, see Miller, They Cried to the Lord, pp. 150-52.62. 'Zakir of Hamat and Lu'ath', ANET, p. 655.

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The king later reports how in gratitude for Be'elshamayn's help, 'I built houses forthe gods everywhere in my country'.63 As Miller has pointed out, the Zakkurinscription shows the same sequence as Ps. 91.15: calling out to a god, receiving ananswer from the god (evidently through a seer or oracular speaker), and experienc-ing deliverance. Miller specifically noted that the two passages use the same verb'deliver' (j*7r7/hls), which 'appears in the Bible almost exclusively in the psalmprayers for help'.64 Delbert Hillers pointed out that the self-designation of kingZakkur as a humble man whose prayer was answered is similar to the sequence inPsalm 132 (a royal psalm that contains two God quotations), in which David isdescribed as humble, and then God is petitioned 'for the sake of David' not to turnaway from 'your anointed'.65 Further, Zakkur's claim to have built temples for thegods in his land is similar to Ps. 132.3-7, which describes David's efforts to bringthe ark of the LORD to a new resting place.

Fifth, Ps. 69.35-36 has been described by Miller as alluding to a 'salvationoracle'.66 Miller argued that two inscriptions written on the wall of a cave atKhirbet Beit Lei near Samaria in the sixth century BCE are parallel to the openingand closing verses of Psalm 69:

Khirbet Beit Lei Psalm 69hwsc [yjhwhSave, O LORD!67 Save me, O God (v. 1)

f'n(k)y] yhwh 'Ihykh . 'rshcry yhdh wg 3lty yrslm[I am] the LORD your God. For God will save ZionI will accept the cities of Judah and rebuild the cities of Judah (v. 35)

•TO

I will redeem Jerusalem.

According to Miller, 'The petition at the beginning of Psalm 69 is answered in anoracle of salvation, not preserved in the psalms itself but alluded to in the versequoted above (Ps. 69.35)'.69 Miller concluded from this that an individual prayerfor help could be and was answered by 'a salvation oracle referring to Jerusalemand the cities of Judah... '.70 This parallel may also explain the divine speech at theend of Psalm 60:

63. 'Zakir of Hamat and Lu'ath', ANET, p. 656.64. Miller, They Cried to the Lord, p. 151. Miller also pointed out that the description of the

king as 'humble' mirrors the frequent self-designation of those who pray the prayers for helpas1]!?.

65. Hillers, The Ritual Procession of the Ark and Ps. 132', CBQ 30 (1968), p. 53.66. Miller, They Cried to the Lord, p. 152; see also Miller, 'Psalms and Inscriptions'.67. J. Renz and W. Rollig (eds.), Handbuch der althebrdischen Epigraphik (3 vols.;

Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche, 1995-), I, p. 249.68. Miller, They Cried to the Lord, pp. 104, 152-53. Compare the reading ofthis inscription in

Renz and Rollig, Handbuch der althebrdischen Epigraphik, I, p. 245:

69. Miller, They Cried to the Lord, p. 15270. Miller, They Cried to the Lord, p. 152. Emphasis in original.

cr1™

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God has promised in his sanctuary:'I will exult, I will divide Shechem,

I will measure out the vale of Succoth.Gilead belongs to me, Manasseh belongs to me,

Ephraim is my helm, Judah is my stylus,Moab is my wash basin,

upon Edom I cast my shoes,and over Philistia I rejoice.' (vv. 6-8)

Psalm 60 is a communal prayer for help. In Ps. 60.5, the request of the communityis spoken: 'Give victory with your right hand, and answer us, so that those whomyou love may be rescued.' It is plausible to understand the speech of God in w. 6-8as the answer to the community's petition, spoken by priest or prophet in a culticsetting.

These five examples could be multiplied, but there is no need, because theseexamples suffice to show both the similarity of comparative material and thedissimilarity. In spite of the great similarity of these parallels, two questions shouldbe asked about the dissimilarity. First, it is legitimate to ask whether it might not bepossible for an interpreter to draw inadequate conclusions by failing to accountsufficiently for the dissimilar genres in which the speeches of the deities occur.Second, it is legitimate to ask if there are not aspects of the function of the Godquotations in the psalms to which no adequate parallels exist in the ancient NearEastern corpus.

To address the first question, it is necessary to begin with the routine observationthat every quotation of a deity's speech has to occur in some context. As Sternbergargued so forcefully, the context in which a quotation occurs largely determines thefunction of that quotation.71 It follows, therefore, that some degree of care must betaken when comparing quotations of gods that are contextualized in differentgenres. In the above biblical and ancient Near Eastern examples, the speech ofdeities are attested in a number of different genres: The Zakkur inscription is aroyal monument; the speech of Ptah-Tatenen to Ramses III occurs in a royalceremony text (but not an enthronement text!); the iconographic data cited above istaken from a variety of different settings including reliefs in temples, tombs, andpyramids; the Khirbet Beit Lei inscription was written on the wall of a cave thatapparently served as a hiding place in a time of danger;72 Psalms 60, 69, and 91may be classified as a communal prayer for help, an individual prayer for help, anda wisdom psalm, respectively; the life settings of (royal) Psalms 2, 110, and 132are widely debated, but all seem to imply some sort of royal liturgical setting.Further, speeches of gods are quoted in prophetic texts in biblical and extrabiblicaltexts (for example at Mari), in royal legitimation texts, in building inscriptions, andso on. One cannot assume that identical deity quotations will function the same in aprayer for help, a tomb inscription, a royal monument, a temple building inscrip-tion, and so on. Because the goal of the present investigation is to analyse therhetorical function of the God quotations in various psalms, this observation must

71. Sternberg, 'Proteus in Quotation-Land', see the discussion of Sternberg in Chapter 1.72. See Miller, 'Psalms and Inscriptions', p. 320.

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serve as a methodological warning to take care when applying parallels to theinterpretation of a God quotation. The citation of parallels needs to be aware ofsimilarities and differences in both the content of God quotations and also thecontext and function of God quotations. The point being made here is that aninterpreter has not finished interpreting a passage once an appeal to an ancient NearEastern parallel has been made. An interpreter must also account for the presentcontext of a passage.

The second question is whether there are some aspects of the God quotations inthe Psalter to which no adequate parallels exist. Another way of putting this is toask whether the speech of any deity is attested as functioning in a similar manner ina similar or identical genre. The answer to this is that no adequate parallel can befound for some of the uses of the God quotations in the Psalter. In Psalm 89, forexample, a lengthy 'royal oracle' regarding the Davidic monarchy precedes aprayer for help. While there are numerous parallels that shed light on the language,symbolism, and ideology of the 'royal oracle' itself, no adequate parallel exists forthe reuse of such an oracle prior to a prayer for help. Or again, Psalm 82 quotes ajudgement speech of the LORD in the divine council, but the psalm closes with apetition for help. There are numerous parallels for helping understand the idea ofthe divine council, the juridical concepts of the ancient world, the specific chargesthat the LORD levels against the other gods, the description of those gods as'children of the Most High', and so on. However, no adequate parallel can befound to the psalm as a whole; specifically, no parallel can be found to explain theplacement of the petition at the end of the psalm.

2. The Formal Role of God Quotations

For the purposes of analysing the formal function of the God quotations, thequotations are divided into the following groups according to content: quotationsabout the Davidic monarch or monarchy (in royal psalms), quotations of admonish-ment (in festival or liturgical psalms), quotations that precede petitions, quotationsthat offer assurance, and quotations in which God's word represents God'seffective power.

i. The Role of God Quotations about the Davidic Monarchy or KingFour psalms contain quotations in which God speaks about David, the Davidicmonarchy, or the Davidic king: Psalms 2, 89, 110, and 132. Because the Godquotations function differently in each of these four psalms, the function of eachGod quotation is evaluated separately.

Psalm 132. Psalm 132 is a poem with two halves often lines each: w. 1-10 and11-18.73 The second half consists entirely of two God quotations (see below). The

73. This is the common understanding of the psalm's structure. The two strophes share manyparallel features: The words (literally: 'The LORD to David') occur in the first phraseof each strophe (vv. 1 and 11); identical oath formulas feature prominently near thebeginning of each strophe (vv. 2 and 11); the two oaths share similar structure w. 3-5

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first half begins with a petition: 'O LORD, remember for David's sake' (v. 1). Thepetition is for God to recall David's fidelity to an old promise. The psalm thenquotes that old promise, in which David swore to the LORD that hewould not sleep until he found a place for the LORD (vv. 3-5). Next, the psalmquotes a tradition about how David rediscovered the ark and relocated it toJerusalem: 'Rise up, O LORD, to your resting place Let your priestsbe clothed with righteousness, and let your faithful rejoice

(vv. 6-9). C. L. Seow is most likely correct in understanding the arkmaterial of w. 6-9 as the reuse of older liturgical material in the composition of thepsalm: 'I believe that the psalm contains an old liturgy used with the procession ofthe ark under David.'74 The first half of the psalm then closes with a secondpetition: 'For the sake of David, your servant, do not turn away fromthe face of your anointed one (v. 10). Both petitions call on God to befaithful to David's descendants for the sake of the fidelity that David showed toGod in the past. The first half contains two quotations: an oath of David and thefulfilling of that oath.

The second half of the psalm also contains two quotations: an oath of God toDavid about the Davidic monarchy (vv. 11-13), and an oath of God to David aboutGod's dwelling on Zion (vv. 14-18). The first quotation echoes the language of thefirst half of the psalm, especially the language of the oath and the closing petition:'The LORD has sworn to David a true oath, he will not turnaway from it' (v. 11 a). The petition had been for 'your anointed'. Thislanguage is also echoed—albeit more faintly—in God's oath: 'One from among thefruit of your loins will I set upon your throne. If your sons keep my covenant...their sons also shall forever sit on your throne' (w. 1 Ib-12a). The second quotationalso echoes the language of the first half of the psalm: 'This is my resting place

its priests will I clothe with salvation and its faithfulshall greatly rejoice ' (w. 14-16); and 'I have prepared a lampfor my anointed one (v. 17).

The second half of the psalm in essence quotes God's promises to the effect thatGod will never turn away from David's descendants or break the covenant withthem. Given the numerous ways in which the second half of the psalm takes up thelanguage of the first half, and especially given the way that the language of thepetition of v. 10—'do not turn away' is immediately 'reversed' byGod's oath in v. 11—'he will not turn away' -it is clear that the divine

and 12); the first strophe ends with the petition 'do not turn away from...' ; v. 10)and the second strophe likewise begins with the assurance that God 'will not turn away from'God's oath v. 11); both strophes depict 'priests clothed' in righteousness/salvationand the faithful rejoicing (parallel uses of the words , vv. 9 and 16); theimportant words 'rest' and 'anointed one' appear in both strophes vv. 8, 10, 14,and 17). T. Fretheim argued that the psalm should be divided into three parts: vv. 1-9,10-16, with17-18 as a conclusion ('Psalm 132: A Form-critical Study', JBL 86 (1967), pp. 289-300).Fretheim's proposal is appealing, but it would require that the continuous speech of God in vv. 14-18 be separated into two parts (vv. 14-16 and 17-18). This seems unlikely.

74. C.L. Seow, Myth, Drama, and the Politics of David's Dance (HSM, 46; Atlanta: ScholarsPress, 1989), p. 174.

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speech of the second half of the psalm in some way corresponds to the prayer forhelp voiced in the first half. But in what way? The interpretations of scholars canbe divided into two groups. One interpretation understands the second half of thepsalm as divine response or answer to that petition. Gunkel is characteristic of thisinterpretation: 'A voice then proclaims YHWH's response. It accepts the people'spetition and praises David's endeavors. It speaks of David's dynasty enduring andthe enduring majesty of Zion (132.11-18).'75 A second—less common—interpre-tation understands the second half of the psalm as motivating and urging God toanswer the petitions of the first half. This view is reflected in Mettinger's state-ment: 'That Ps. 132 is an intercession for the king is all too often overlooked butappears from v. 1 and v. 10.. .The reference to the two divine oracles in Ps. 132 ismade as part of the argument of the intercessor.'76

The main difference between the two interpretations of the psalm concerns the'implied audience' that the interpreters imagine for the psalm. If the impliedaudience of the psalm is God, then the divine speech of the second half is likely tobe understood as a motivating reason for God to answer the prayer. If the impliedaudience of the psalm is the worshipping community, then the second half is likelyto be understood as an answer to the prayer. There is no reason to choose betweenthese two options—both interpretations are valid for their respective impliedaudiences, and neither implied audience need exclude the other. In fact, both im-plied audiences (and both interpretations) are necessary to an adequate under-standing of worship. In public worship, a person who leads a prayer at once directsa genuine prayer to God and at the same time speaks to the congregation. Toaccount for the dual audience of a public prayer it is helpful to understand thesecond half of the psalm as both 'answering' the first half in that it assures thecongregation that God will do what God has promised, and motivating God byreminding God of promises made in the past.

It is important to note that when the second half of the psalm is considered an'answer' to the community's prayer, then this answer is taken from the religioustradition of the Jerusalem temple. The authority is not located in the present in anysort of ecstatic revelation or priestly divination; rather, it is lodged in the past, inGod's previous promise to David. As Gunkel concluded, the promise that is placedin the LORD'S mouth 'requires no special revelation. Rather the material restsupon.. .the word of YHWH to David given in 2 Sam 7.'77 The God quotation in thispsalm therefore is a quotation that has been reappropriated from some (lost?)original context and placed here to serve a new function—either to answer thecommunity's prayer or to urge God to answer a prayer. In either case, one canwitness the process of reappropriating an old promise of God.

75. Gunkel, Introduction to Psalms, p. 316. Many scholars follow this interpretation includingA. Weiser (Psalms, A Commentary (trans. H. Hartwell; OTL; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1962),pp. 779-80); Leslie Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC, 2; Waco, TX: Word Books, 1983), p. 204);Fretheim ('Psalm 132', p. 299); Mays (Psalms, p. 410); and Seow (Myth, Drama, and the Politicsof David's Dance, p. 201).

76. T.N.D. Mettinger, King and Messiah: The Civil and Sacral Legitimation of the IsraeliteKings (ConBOT, 8; Lund: CWK Gleerup, 1976), p. 100 n. 7.

77. Gunkel, Introduction to Psalms, p. 316.

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Psalm 89. Psalm 89 is a composite poem comprising three different sections: vv.1-18 are a hymn of praise in which a God quotation concerning the Davidic mon-archy (vv. 3-4) occurs; vv. 19-37 quote a lengthy God quotation concerning theDavidic monarchy; vv. 38-51 are an anguished prayer for help by (or for) theDavidic king.

The hymn of vv. 1-18 praises God's steadfast love. This section of the psalm canbe divided into four parts: vv. 1-4 begin the hymn and quote God's covenantalpromise to David; vv. 5-8 extol the LORD for his incomparability among the gods;vv. 9-14 rehearse the LORD'S victory in the chaos conflict; and w. 15-18 return tothe theme of the LORD'S work through the Davidic king:

By means of your favor our horn is exalted,For our shield belongs to the LORD,Our king belongs to the Holy One of Israel.78 (vv. 17b-18)

The parallel terms 'our horn' (compare Ps. 132.17) and 'our shield' are metaphorsfor the king. The hymn of praise, therefore, begins and ends by extolling God'swork through the Davidic king. The God quotation in vv. 3-4 places the basicpromises of Davidic monarchy in God's mouth. That this quotation comes from anolder Davidic tradition and does not imply a present revelation in the cult can beseen from the fact that the 'you' of the quotation must refer to David himself, towhom God speaks:

I have made a covenant with my chosen one,I have sworn to David my servant.

'Forever will I establish your seed,I will build your throne for all generations.' (vv. 3-4)

By opening and closing the hymn of praise with the motif of the Davidic mon-archy, the hymn links the power of the God who is incomparable and victorious inthe chaos conflict with the fortunes and fate of the Davidic kings. This royal motifalso provides a point of contact between the hymn and the second section of thepsalm, which is another God quotation about the Davidic monarchy. One otheraspect of the hymn of praise worth noting is the stress on the permanent nature ofGod's work: it is 'forever' three times, vv. 1, 2, and 4); 'as firm as theheavens' (v. 2); 'for all generations' (v. 4, see also v. 1). The extended descriptionof God's work in the chaos battle in vv. 5-14 implies both the eternal duration anduniversal scope of God's work. This motif of the permanence of God's work setsup a contrast that is exploited in the prayer for help in vv. 38-51.

The second section of the psalm consists entirely of a second, extended promiseof God regarding the Davidic monarchy. The quotation is introduced: 'Then youspoke in a vision to your faithful ones, and you said... (v. 19a).79 The quotation

78. P.M. Cross is probably correct that v. 17a, not included above, should read 'For you are theglory of our strength', rather than 'their strength'. Cross (Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic:Essays in the History of the Religion of Israel (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1973),p. 161 n. 71) argued that the mem and nun were often confused orthographically, especially in theseventh and sixth centuries. 'Our strength' is thus a metaphor for the king.

79. ('then') also introduces the God quotation of Ps. 2.5. It probably implies a past

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that follows cites the basic promises of the Davidic covenant. The central promiseof the quotation is that God promised David that his dynasty was to be permanent:

Forever will I keep my steadfast love for him,my covenant with him will be firm.I will establish his seed forever,and his throne for as long as the heavens, (vv. 28-29)

The language of permanence, which was central to the first section of the psalm, isrepeated throughout the quotation and culminates in a concluding promise:

Once and for all I have sworn by my holiness,I shall certainly not lie to David!His seed will remain foreverand his throne as the sun before me.It will be established forever like the moon,which is an eternal witness in the skies, (vv. 35-37)

Other aspects of the quotation include the following: the covenant is partly con-ditional—God will punish Davidic kings for disobedience but will not completelyreject them or break the covenant (vv. 30-34); God promised victory in battle (vv.22-23); the king is God's son and God is the king's father (v. 26); and the king mayask freely of the LORD and the LORD will answer (v. 26). It is also worth notingthat throughout the quotation, attributes that are similar or identical to those thatwere applied to the LORD in the first section of the psalm are applied to the king:

I will set his hand on the sea,his right hand on the rivers, (v. 25, compare vv. 9-10)

I will make him the firstborn,the most high of the kings of the earth, (v. 27, compare vv. 6-7)

My hand shall always remain with him,my arm shall also strengthen him. (v. 21, compare v. 13)

My faithfulness and steadfast love will be with him,and in my name shall his horn be exalted, (v. 24, compare vv. 14 and 17)

The term especially bears theological weight; here it is applied to the king,but everywhere else in the Psalter it refers only to the LORD. This transfer of divineattributes and language to the Davidic king functions to link the power andsovereignty of the LORD to the duration of the Davidic monarchy. The logic of thisconnection, as Tate has correctly seen, is that 'the stability of the Davidic dynastyshould be as lasting as the faithfulness of God in the heavenly realm... '.80

The third and final section of the psalm contains a prayer for help for the king,

communication in both contexts. , 'to your faithful ones', reading with the majority ofMasoretic texts, although some have the singular has 'your holy ones', 4QPs 89 has

, both of which reflect the plural rather than singular. It is possible that the original readand that later scribes altered the text to and for the apologetic reason that

speaking of God's 'sons' came to be seen as blasphemous.80. Tate, Psalms 51-100, p. 420. Emphasis added.

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which is the key element in the psalm: 'The key to the interpretation of the psalmin its present form is found in the lament in vv. 39-52. The hymn and oracle mustbe read in relation to the distress reflected in these verses.'81 The prayer for helpbegins with a shocking outcry:

You! You have spurned! You have rejected!You are wroth with your anointed.

You have renounced the covenant of your servant,You have defiled his crown in the dirt. (vv. 38-39)

This opening complaint borrows the vocabulary of the God quotation—'covenant''anointed' ,'servant' ,'crown' which should also be

read in v. 19 instead of —and turns it against God. In the verses that follow,the prayer continues to complain that promises that God made have not been kept:the king is scorned by his neighbours, rather than being the 'most high' amongthem (vv. 40-42, compare v. 27); the right hand of the enemy is exalted rather thanthe hand of the king (v. 42, compare vv. 21 and 25); God did not deliver victory inbattle (vv. 43-45, compare vv. 22-24). Then comes the request: 'Remember!' (vv.47 and 50). The prayer calls on God to remember how brief human life is, toremember the steadfast love that was promised to David, and to remember thetaunts that 'your enemies' have directed against 'your servant', against 'youranointed'. And with that bleak petition, the psalm ends.82

The two important God quotations in Psalm 89 function to set up the final prayerfor help and give motivational reasons for God to answer that prayer. There areseveral reasons for this conclusion. First, the God quotations precede the prayer forhelp and the prayer for help reverses the vocabulary of God in flat accusationsagainst God. Second, the semi-conditional nature of the Davidic covenant is usedagainst God: God had promised that disobedience by the king would be dis-ciplined—note that the psalmist does not maintain the king's innocence—but thatthe covenant would never be broken. Having quoted God's promise regarding theconditional nature of the covenant, the psalmist accuses God of having gone too farin divine discipline. Third, the eternal nature of God's work that was so heavilyaccented in the first and second sections of the psalm contrast sharply with thefinality of the king's humiliation. As Mays has seen, 'God's everlasting reign andthe oracle concerning David have been introduced to form a precise and unbearablecontrast to the present'.83 Finally, because the only petition in the psalm is toremember, the implication is that God should remember the promises that weremade to David—promises that the psalmist has conveniently quoted in case Godhas forgotten them—and God should prove faithful to these promises.

Psalm 2. Psalm 2 is a poem made up of four strophes: vv. 1-3,4-6,7-9, 10-11. Aswas discussed in the chapter on the enemy quotations, the first strophe culminates

81. Tate, Psalms 51-100, p. 416.82. The doxology of v. 52 is an editorial insertion that marks the end of Book Three of the

Psalter and should not be considered a part of Psalm 89.83. Mays, Psalms, p. 287.

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by quoting the rebellious intentions of the 'kings of the earth': 'Let us burst theirbonds, and cast their chains off us!' (v. 3). The next two strophes effectivelyprovide the LORD'S answer to this rebellion. As the first strophe ends in the enemyquotation, so the second and third strophes end with God quotations:

84The One who sits enthroned in heaven laughs!The Lord derides them!

Then he spoke in his anger,in his wrath he terrified them.85

'I have consecrated my kingupon Zion my holy mountain.'

I will recount the decree of the LORD, he said to me,'You are my son, today I have begotten you.

Ask of me and I will give nations as your inheritance,the ends of the earth as your possession.

You shall break them with an iron rod,and like potter's vessels you shall dash them.' (vv. 4-9)

The function of the God quotations is to 'answer' the speech of the enemies.Similar to the ideology attested in the first two sections of Psalm 89, God is under-stood as working through the Davidic king. The way that God manifests anger andfury on earth is to anoint a king on Zion. Also similar to Psalm 89 are the fol-lowing: the king is the LORD'S son (v. 7); the king can 'ask' of the LORD and theLORD will answer (v. 8a); the LORD places the king over the kings of other nations,which are to be the king's possession (v. 8); and the LORD will grant the kingvictory. The psalm ends with warnings for those considering rebellion: 'Nowtherefore, O kings, be wise.. .serve the LORD with fear' (vv. 10-11).

The speaker of the entire psalm should be understood as a Davidic king, as thephrase 'He said to me' indicates.87 The setting of the psalm is probably the day ofcoronation, as the phrase 'today I have begotten you' indicates.88 It is also possible,however, to understand the psalm as a cultic text for use in a ceremony related to

84. For the translation of the epithet as 'the One who sits enthroned', see S. Paul,Amos: A Commentary on the Book of Amos (Hermeneia; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991), pp. 51-52. See Pss. 9.8; 29.10; 123.2; Mic. 1.5. See also F.W. Dobbs-Allsopp, 'The Syntagma of batFollowed by a Geographical Name in the Hebrew Bible: A Reconsideration of Its Meaningand Grammar', CBQ 57 (1995), p. 465.

85. also introduces the speech Of God in Ps. 89.19. The verbs and are to beunderstood as preterite forms, as is often the case when a yqtl form follows (see Waltke andO'Connor, An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax, p. 558).

86. The translation of' as'anoint'assumes that the Hebrew root has a meaning thathas to do with rulers. There is no need to assume the root as does Dahood (Psalms 1,10), whorepoints to The LXX also assumes a passive, which would make this the speech of thehuman king rather than God. Biblical Hebrew has a noun 'leader, chieftain' (Josh. 13.21;Ezek. 32.30; Ps. 83.11; Mic. 5.4). The noun is of the qatil pattern, which 'is used forprofessional terms, some passive in sense' (Waltke and O'Connor, An Introduction to BiblicalHebrew Syntax, p. 88). Akkadian attests a similar noun, nasiku, 'chieftain' (CAD A, 11.27).

87. See Mowinckel, The Psalms in Israel's Worship, II, p. 136.88. See von Rad, 'The Royal Ritual in Judah', and Roberts, 'Whose Child Is This?'

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the coronation of the king, such as Mowinckel's New Year's Festival or Kraus'sRoyal Zion Festival. For the purposes of this study, it is enough to recognize aworship setting in which the king addresses the community and in which repre-sentatives of foreign nations are at least symbolically addressed. In such a setting,the function of the God quotation as an 'answer' to the intention of the nations torebel is quite clear. Thus the God quotation in Psalm 2 functions in comparisonwith the parallel quotation from the oracle to Ashurbanipal that was quoted above.In the Ashurbanipal text, no public setting is implied, the deity's speech is designedto assure the king of his security: Ashurbanipal's oracle repeats 'fear not' severaltimes, and the oracle is directed to the king. In Psalm 2, a public setting is impliedand the distinctive sign of the oracle of salvation—'fear not'—is missing. In theimplied cultic setting of Psalm 2, the oracle functions both to warn the nations notto rebel and to legitimate the Davidic king's reign by stating that God has chosenhim.

Psalm 110. Psalm 110 also contains God quotations related to the Davidic mon-arch. Unfortunately, the confused nature of the text renders a confident assessmentof the function of the God quotations in Psalm 110 impossible. As Kraus has aptlyput it, 'No other psalm has in research evoked so many hypotheses and discussionsas Psalm HO'.89 The proliferation of interpretive suggestions is evidence of theconfused nature of Psalm 110: the identity of the implied speaker of the psalm andthe implied setting of the psalm are both unclear.90 Given this reality, the inter-pretation that is offered here can only be provisional.

The psalm consists of two parts (vv. 1-3 and 4-7), each part contains an intro-ductory quotation frame (vv. la and 4a), a quotation of the speech of God (vv. Iband 4b), and an interpretation of the quotation with respect to the king (vv. 2-3 and5-7).91 The first part of the psalm reads:

The LORD said concerning my lord:'Sit at my right hand,until I place your enemies as a footstool for your feet.'

The sceptre of your strength, the LORD will send out from Zion.Rule in the midst of your enemies!Your people are willing on the day of your strength.In holy splendour, from the womb of the dawn,

your youth shall be dew for you. (vv. 1-3)

89. Kraus, Psalms 60-150, p. 345.90. Among the many proposals, Mowinckel represents the most widely accepted. 'In Ps. 110

the situation is that the poet-prophet stands before the king, who is sitting on his throne...'; Psalm110 has its place within the anointment ritual, belonging 'to the moment when the king is led forthto ascend his throne' (The Psalms in Israel's Worship, I, pp. 48, 63). Another widely heldinterpretation of the setting is that of preparations for battle (for example, see K. Seybold, DiePsalmen (HAT, 15; Tubingen: Mohr, 1996), pp. 436-40; Starbuck, Court Oracles in the Psalms,pp. 142-61). Space is not permitted here for a discussion of the legion of textual problems. Fordiscussions of the textual problems and various solutions, see the standard commentaries as well asStarbuck, pp. 142-61. For a recently suggested solution, see W.G. Brown, 'A Royal Performance:Critical Notes on Psalm 110.3a-b', JBL \\1 (1998), pp. 93-96.

91. Thus Mays, Psalms, p. 350.

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According to the interpretation followed here, v. 2 quotes a promise of God, mostlikely quoted from the enthronement ceremony of the king. The next verses theninterpret that promise as a promise of success in battle. Note that the promise ofsuccess in battle has already been seen to be a central element of the promises thatGod makes to the Davidic king (see Psalms 2 and 89). The second part of thepsalm reads:

The LORD has sworn, and he will not renounce:'You are a priest forever,according to the order of Melchizedek.'

The Lord is at your right hand.He will shatter kings on the day of his anger.He will judge the nations, filling them with corpses.He will shatter heads over the wide earth.From the stream on the way he will drink,

therefore he will raise up heads, (vv. 4-7)

Again, a promise of God that probably stems from the enthronement of the king isquoted and then explicated. The promise recalls that the LORD conveyed to theking the office of priesthood. The interpretation of the divine promise interpretsthis in terms of victory in battle.

Given the manifold problems, it is wise to cite Mays's warning that 'the per-spicuity of Scripture is missing here'.92 If the above interpretation is correct,however, the God quotations in Psalm 110 originated in a cultic ceremony of theking but were reused and reinterpreted in the psalm. If this is the case, the Godquotations are cited because of their authority. That is, the authoritative voice ofGod as revealed in the cult (in the past) is quoted in Psalm 110 and interpreted inrelation to new circumstances (probably impending battle). This process ofreappropriating older oracular material that is witnessed in Psalm 110, as well as inPsalms 89 and 132, might be described as the 'scripturalization' of the God quo-tations. The God quotations—most likely drawn from the theological tradition—are functioning as authoritative texts and are being used and reused in new contextsfor new rhetorical goals.

ii. The Role of God Quotations of Admonishment(in Festival and Liturgical Psalms)

Psalms 50, 81, and 95 are very similar and are often treated in relation to eachother as the 'great festival psalms'.93 Among the similarities in these psalms are animplied cultic worship setting, a 'sermonic tone' with admonitions, the call for thepeople to 'hear/obey' as God testifies against them, the call to follow God's 'ways',the placement of the God quotation as the culmination and main point of the psalm,and the actualization of divine commandments within the God quotations. Psalm75, which also contains God quotations, is so similar in form, content, and functionto the God quotations in these 'festival psalms', that it is treated with them here.

92. Mays, Psalms, p. 352.93. Kraus, Psalms 1-59, p. 61. Kraus borrows the term from Jeremias, Kultprophetie und

Gerichtsverkundigung in der spdten Konigszeit Israels, p. 125.

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Because the God quotations in these psalms share a similar function, that functionis evaluated after all four psalms are treated.

Psalm 50. Psalm 50 has three sections. In each of the three sections, God speaks:God issues a summons for judgement (vv. 1-6); God speaks about correct sacrificeand worship (vv. 7-15); God speaks about proper obedience (vv. 16-23).

In the first section of the psalm, God summons 'his people' for judgement:'Gather before me my faithful ones, those who made a covenant with me bysacrifice' (v. 5). The coming of God employs theophanic language: 'God shinesforth' (v. 2b) and 'a fire devours in front of him, a great tempest surrounds him' (v.3b). The heavens and earth are called as witnesses (vv. 1, 4, 6; this languagepresumably is a monotheistic adaptation of the role of the gods as witnesses tocovenant agreements). The role of God as judge is emphasized.

The second and third sections of the psalm consist of extended speeches by God.The second section (vv. 7-15) is addressed to 'my people'. The imperative 'Hear,O my people' is reminiscent of Deut 6.4, where God also directscommandments to the people in the context of the covenant. Both passages rely onthe well-known double meaning of as both 'listen' and 'obey': the implica-tion here is that the people have failed to obey. Then God declares 'I will testifyagainst you' But God is testifying against the people not becausethey have neglected to offer sacrifices, but because the people have reduced theirrelationship with God to only sacrifice, imagining that God can be controlled throughsacrifices. The psalm makes the point that sacrifice is a legitimate part of thecovenantal relationship with the LORD, but sacrifice is only apart of the relation-ship with God and not the entire relationship. Sacrifice was how the covenant wasmade (v. 5), and sacrifice is part of the ongoing covenant relationship:

Sacrifice to God thanksgiving,and fulfil your vows to the Most High.

Call on me in the day of distress,I will deliver you and you will glorify me. (vv. 14-15)

The tone of judgement or warning is much more pronounced in the third section ofthe psalm (vv. 16-23). Although this section of the psalm is addressed to 'thewicked', the term here does not signify a group separate from 'my people' (v. 7).Rather, 'the wicked' are a subset of God's people, those within the chosen peoplewho 'forget God' (v. 22), who know the statutes and commandments of God but donot obey them, who sacrifice to God but ignore God's commandments:

Why do you recite my statutesand lift my covenant upon your mouth?

Surely you hate discipline,and you cast my words behind you.

If you see a thief, you befriend him,and you take up with adulterers.

With your mouth you scatter evil,and with your tongue you harness deceit.

You sit and speak against your relative,against the child of your mother, you give slander, (vv. 16b-20)

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The covenant offences with which the people are explicitly charged relate to thecommandments against stealing, committing adultery, and bearing false witness(see Exod. 20.14-16). Then God is quoted as saying, 'These things you have doneand I remained silent; you thought I was like you' (v. 21). This verse is a helpfulclue to the interpretation of the God quotation. God's admission of past silence inthe face of the sin of the wicked is a response to the frequent accusation that thewicked make in the enemy quotations: 'God does not hear.' It is also an answer tothe typical plea that the supplicants make in the prayers for help: 'Answer me!'God now breaks silence and does answer. The LORD'S closing words promisepunishment for those who forget God and salvation for those who 'determined inthe right way [of God]' 94 and who keep the covenant.

Psalm 81. In Psalm 81, similar to Psalm 50, after an introductory section, Godspeaks. Psalm 81 is also similar to Psalm 50 in that it implies a worship setting. Incontrast to Psalm 50, however, in which the introductory section describes thecoming of the LORD for judgement, the introductory section may be classified as ahymn: 'Sing to the God of our strength, shout to the God of Jacob' (v. 1). Thelanguage of this hymn permits a more precise construal of the implied setting:

Blow the horn at the new moon,at the full moon, on our festal day

For it is a statute for Israel,an ordinance of the God of Jacob, (vv. 3-4)

The phrase is normally taken to refer to the Festival of Tabernacles, theautumn festival (see Exod. 23.16-19; Lev. 23.24-25, 33-43).95 Even if aninterpreter wishes to deny such a precise liturgical setting for the psalm, the psalmcertainly implies a communal worship gathering. In this gathering, the speaker ofthe psalm declares, 'I hear a voice that I did not know' (v. 5c). Then the speech ofGod is quoted. The quotation begins by rehearsing the divine deliverance of theExodus and the waywardness of the generation in the wilderness. 'In distress youcalled, and I rescued you.. .1 tested you at the waters of Meribah' (w. 6-7). Thenthe voice turns to admonition:

Hear, O my people I will testify against youO Israel, if you would only obey me.

You shall not have any strange god,You shall not worship any foreign god.

I am the LORD your God who brought you upout of the land of Egypt.

Open wide your mouth and I will fill it. (vv. 8-10)

The vocabulary here is almost identical to Ps. 50.7: 'Hear, O my people...I willtestify against you.' The call to 'obey/hear' is repeated in the God quotation to the

94. The interpretation of the phrase is disputed. Craigie's suggestion is followed here(Craigie, Psalms 1-50, p. 363). Kraus, following Gunkel, emends to 'he who prepares the way'(Kraus, Psalms 1-59, p. 488).

95. See Kraus, Psalms 60-150, p. 148.

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point that it can be considered the quotation's 'unifying theme'.96 'My people didnot obey my voice' (v. 1 la); 'O that my people would obey me' (v. 13a). God'splea 'that Israel would walk in my ways repeats the motif of the 'way'found in Ps. 50.23. Also similar to Psalm 50, the call to 'hear/obey' is followed bya citation of part of the Decalogue, in this case, the first and second words(according to the Jewish reckoning). God laments the waywardness of the people,and the psalm ends with the promise of the good that God would do for those whoobeyed the commandments: defeat their enemies and feed them the choicest foods.

Psalm 95. Like Psalm 81, Psalm 95 consists of a hymn of praise followed by a Godquotation. The psalm begins with two parallel sections that consist of calls to praise(vv. 1-2 and 6) followed by reasons for praise (vv. 3-5 and 7). Then the speech ofGod follows:

O that today you would obey his voice!'Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah,

as on the day at Massah in the wilderness.Then your ancestors tested me,

and tempted me although they had seen my work!For forty years I loathed that generation,

and said, "They are a people of wandering heart,they do not know my ways

Then I swore in my anger,"You will never enter into my rest." ' (vv. 7c-l 1)

The quotation is introduced by the injunction to obey/hear God. The speech of Godconsists of the command for the people not to harden their hearts, followed by arehearsal of the tradition in which the people did harden their hearts and failed toobey. The psalm ends by citing the punishment that the wilderness generationearned for not obeying God. This ending serves to warn the present generation tochoose a better way.

Several motifs from the previous two psalms occur in Psalm 95: The call toobey/hear the voice of God (v. 7c), the citation of the failure of the people atMeribah in spite of God's 'works' on their behalf (vv. 8-9), the citation of anapodictic commandment (v. 8: 'do not harden your hearts', although in this casethe commandment is not part of the Decalogue), the admonishing tone of the Godquotation (especially vv. 10-11), and the call for the people to follow God's ways(v. 10). (A special feature of this God quotation is the two embedded quotations invv. lOb and lib, in which the voice of God quotes words God spoke to thewilderness generation.)

Psalm 75. Like the previous two psalms, Psalm 75 begins with a praise introduc-tion (v. I)97 that leads into a God quotation (vv. 2-5, 10). The God quotation is

96. So Mays, Psalms, p. 81.97. MT has which can be translated either as 'your name is

near, they tell of your wonder', or 'your name is near, your wonders tell of it', or if the phrase isunderstood as an impersonal passive, 'your wonders are recounted'. LXX and Syriac, both of

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interrupted by the words of an individual who reflects on the glory of God'sjudgement (w. 6-9).

Those who call on your name tell of your wonders:'I will take action at an appointed time,

with equity I will judge.When earth totters, with all its inhabitants,

I, indeed, I keep steady its pillars.I say to the boastful, 'Do not boast.'To the wicked, 'Do not exalt your horn,

Do not exalt your horn on high,or speak with a stiff neck.' (vv. 2-5)

The psalmist describes the judgement of God as a 'wonder' to which the faithful ofGod look forward and for which they give praise. As in the above psalms, God'swords contain commandments ('Do not exalt your horn') and, again, althoughGod's words are directed explicitly to the wicked, they are meant for the entirecommunity: serving both as admonishment and warning to the wicked and aspromise to the righteous.

In w. 6-9, God's judgement is pictured as a cup, and 'the wicked of the earthwill drink it all!'98 But the psalmist says, 'I, indeed, I will rejoice forever, I willsing praises to the God of Jacob.' Then the psalm closes with the voice of God:'All the horns of the wicked I will cut off, but I will exalt the horns of therighteous' (v. 10). Part of the logic of the psalm is that the moment of God'sjudgement is unknown; it is in the future and it is God who sets the time (v. 2). Themystery of the time of the judgement feeds the dual threat-promise with which thepsalm ends, because mystery and the unknown feed fear. And, of course, the threatof punishment and promise of reward are intended to induce obedience to thecommandments. The leading motif of the psalm is 'exalting' or 'lifting up',especially of 'the horn'. God commands the wicked not to exalt their own horn(v. 5), the psalmist preaches that 'exaltation' comes not from the desert (v. 6) but itis God who puts down one and 'exalts' another (v. 7), God threatens that the hornsof all the wicked will be cut off, and God promises to exalt the horns of therighteous. The familiar themes of obedience, an apodictic commandment realizedin God's speech, the punishment of the wicked, and God's speech as theculmination of the psalm are repeated here.

Summary and Conclusions. In Psalms 50, 75, 81, and 95, the God quotationsfunction primarily to admonish and teach the gathered community: the dominant

which have 1 st person plural forms, may presuppose ' calling on/in your name,one will recount'. If this is followed, the 'one' who speaks might be thought of as a prophet/priestspeaking in God's name. This requires moving the beth from the end of the first word and affixingto the second word, and dropping the wow off of the third word. Many commentators make the firstchange but not the second, reading: 'those who call on your name tell of...'.(See, for example, Kraus, Psalms 60-150, pp. 102-03). This reading is adopted here.

98. As many have pointed out, the image may rely on the cultic judicial ordeal in which anaccused was forced to drink a toxic mixture; see Num. 5.11-28.

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theme is the call for the people to obey. In the latter three psalms, the Godquotations follow hymnic introductions, while in Psalm 50, there is a liturgicalintroduction that describes God's coming in judgement. Too much should not bemade of this different beginning of Psalm 50, because all four psalms imply a wor-ship setting. Three points are stressed here. First, the function of the God quota-tions in these implied cultic settings transfers the act of worship out of the purelyhuman realm and into the divine realm. The God quotations function to emphasizethat in worship, worshippers encounter God (not simply other humans). The Godquotations in effect 'realize' the encounter with the deity, because in them God'speaks' to the community. Second, in all four psalms, the God quotations areresponses to liturgical actions of the people, such as praising God, and in all fourpsalms a commandment or commandments are included in the God quotation. Thisfunctions to connect the liturgical and ethical dimensions of life. The two responsesthat God demands of the people—sacrifice/worship and obedience/ethics—are notseparated but are rather held together. Third, the God quotations in these psalmsfunction as a response to the theological problem of sin. These psalms are awarethat law-breakers thrive in God's world, and even within God's covenant com-munity. By placing the accusations, warnings, commandments, and threats in themouth of God, these psalms give a divine answer to the problem of sin and theseeming absence of God. It is especially noteworthy that in the three 'festivalpsalms' God calls for the people to obey and to follow 'the way'. In these psalmsGod also cites the apodictic law and recalls the people's rebellion in the wilderness(cited in Psalms 81 and 95). When the context of the entire Psalter is considered,these divine answers can be heard as God's response both to the frequent charge ofthe enemies that 'God does not hear' and to the frequent plea of the psalmist,'Answer me, O God!' The fact that God's answer occurs during worship inresponse to the people's praise reminds one of the epiphany that the writer ofPsalm 73 experienced. That person, it will be recalled, considered 'talking on' inthe 'way' of the enemies, 'untill went into the sanctuary of God...' (vv. 15, 17)."

One other issue about the God quotations in these psalms needs to be addressed.It will be recalled that Nasuti (followed by Koenen and Hossfeld) argued that theintroductory formulae of the quotation frames in psalms such as 2, 89, 110, and132 suggest that the divine speeches in those psalms are 'quotations' of pastoracular communications rather than present oracular experiences mediatedthrough the cult. For Psalm 50, 75, 81, 91, however, Nasuti argued that the divinespeeches should be understood as 'present cultic' realities.100 Nasuti's argumentabout Psalm 81 can be taken as illustrative of his position. Nasuti argued thatPsalm 81's quotation frame—'I hear a voice I had not known'—because 'it is a

99. Brueggemann ('Bounded by Obedience and Praise', pp. 203-10) interprets Ps. 73.17 as the'turning point' of the entire Psalter. It is worth noting that when the divine answer of Psalm 50 isconsidered from a canonical point of view, it is seen to follow Psalm 49, which contains a humananswer to the same problem. This placement is also similar to the shape of the Book of Job, whichculminates when God finally breaks silence and speaks following lengthy human 'answers' to thequestions of Job's suffering.

100. Nasuti, Tradition History and the Psalms ofAsaph, p. 131.

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"voice previously unknown"', indicates the presence of an intermediary who wasreceiving a divine speech to deliver to the community.101 There are two problemswith this view. First, it takes the poetic utterance 'I hear a voice I had not known'too literally (too much like prose). Poetic utterances should not be forced into suchrigid logical frameworks. Poetry means in different ways than prose means.Expressions that might imply strict logical sequence in prose need not imply suchthings in poetry. The poetic expression 'I hear a voice I had not known' need notimply that the speaker is speaking words that had literally never been heard before.The fact that the quotation that follows seems to be drawing upon the Decaloguesuggests, in fact, that both the speaker (God) and the content of the divine quota-tion were previously known to the psalmist: the commandments had been 'heardbefore' by the community. Second, this interpretation does not give sufficientweight to the forms of these psalms. The four psalms are clearly liturgicalcompositions, and in all likelihood, they were used repeatedly in the cult (as Ps.81.1-5 suggests). As Mays noted, 'The divine speech would be repeated every timethe psalm was performed.'102 This led Mays to conclude that 'the sentence repre-sents more a liturgical than a prophetic phenomenon'.103 It should also be notedthat Nasuti drew on comparative ancient Near Eastern material to aid his conclusion:

These [extrabiblical] texts clearly show that.. .such [divine] speech had a definiterole in the near eastern cult, where it was actualized by a number of prophetic orquasi-prophetic figures. This speech often seems to have occurred in response toboth an inquiry (or prayer) and sacrifice. Such a response could be positive or

104negative.

In terms of form, Psalms 50, 81, 75, and 95 do not fit this pattern because theycontain no enquiries and the speeches of God do not consist of 'positive or nega-tive' responses.105 It is better to understand these divine speeches either as quota-tions of words of God that had been communicated in the past (as the occurrence ofthe commandments in these speeches indicates) or as artistic liturgical compo-sitions that drew upon the theological traditions of Israel's past. None of this is tosuggest that quoting the words of God in the cult would not be interpreted orexperienced by the worshippers as a present encounter with God. The opposite isthe case! The God quotations in these psalms and the royal psalms treated abovesuggest that in the cult, quotation of divine speech from the tradition functionedprecisely to effect for the community a present encounter with the deity.

101. Nasuti, Tradition History and the Psalms of Asaph, and personal communcation fromNasuti (13 March 2000).

102. Mays, Psalms, p. 266. Emphasis added. This view, of course, agrees with the view ofGunkel that interpretation of the divine speeches of the Psalter should take into account therepeated use of the liturgical psalms.

103. Mays, Psalms, p. 266.104. Nasuti, Tradition History and the Psalms of Asaph, p. 144.105. It might be possible to argue that the introductory praise sections of Psalms 81 and 95 could

have been considered 'sacrifices' of praise, as Ps. 50.23 might suggest, and that in response tothese sacrifices God speaks. This interpretation would require an understanding of the evolution ofsacrifice in Israel that is widely disputed, however. Moreover, the speeches of God still do not fitthe forms of 'positive or negative' answers to which the comparative material attests.

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iii. The Role of God Quotations that Precede Petitions

Psalm 82. According to Miller, 'Psalm 82 is one of the most overtly mythologicaltexts in Scripture...'.106 The psalm could well be included with the above fourpsalms because, as will be seen, it shares several important characteristics withthose psalms.107 It is treated separately here, however, because of the importantdifference in the way the psalm ends: Psalm 82 closes with a petition.

The psalm begins with the statement: 'God has taken his place in the divinecouncil, in the midst of the gods he judges' (v. 1). Mowinckel and others may becorrect in seeing this as an allusion to the ancient Near Eastern concept that at thenew year, the gods met in assembly to determine the destiny of the year.108 Thepsalm may play on that notion by depicting God (Yahweh) rising in such a NewYear's assembly to judge the other gods, who have failed in their responsibilities:

'How long will you judge unjustly,and show favour to the wicked?

Judge justly for the poor and the orphan,for the poor and the destitute, establish righteousness.'

Rescue the poor and the needy,from the hand of the wicked ones, deliver them! (vv. 2-4)

Similar to the speeches of God in the festival psalms, God functions here as judge:God both accuses the other gods of sin (v. 2) and gives the commandments thatthey should follow (w. 3-4). Unlike those psalms, however, God's accusations aredirected against other gods and not against humans. (Another important differenceis that Psalm 82 contains no explicit language necessitating a liturgical setting.)Perhaps v. 5 continues the speech of God to the other gods, but because of the shiftin pronomial deixsis from second to third person, the verse should more likely beunderstood as the perspective of the human speaker of the psalm, who interruptsthe speech of God to comment on the false gods: 'They do not know, they do notdiscern. They wander around in darkness, all of the foundations of the earthtremble.' The false gods are declared to be incapable of knowing or discerning.109

The speech of God resumes:

'I say,110 "You may be gods,sons of the Most High, all of you,

however, like humans you shall die,and like one of their princes you shall fall."'

Rise up, O God! Judge the earth!For you possess all the nations! (vv. 6-8)

106. Miller, Interpreting the Psalms, p. 120.107. Jeremias does relate Psalm 82 to those psalms (Kultprophetie und Gerichtsverkundigung in

der spaten Konigszeit Israels, pp. 120-25).108. Mowinckel, The Psalms in Israel's Worship, II, p. 132.109. Note that these accusations are similar to the accusations that the enemies make about God

in the enemy quotations, who assert that God cannot see, does not know, etc.110. The repetition of the subject in is understood here as emphatic (see Waltke and

O'Connor, Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax, pp. 293-97). K. Budde ('Ps. 82.6 ff.\JBL 40(1921), pp. 39-42) understands to be a standing formula that always introduces

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The phrase 'I say' that begins v. 6 indicates that the character of vv. 6-7 differsfrom the words that God spoke earlier: this is the juridical sentence that God isimposing upon the gods. The sentence consists of consigning the gods to mortality.Because the gods have not fulfilled their divine responsibilities to judge withequity, the LORD condemns them to share the fate of mortals.

The most important element of the psalm in its present form, however, is thefinal verse of the psalm in which the psalmist calls on God to rise up and judge theearth. It is unclear whether this verse is a later addition to the psalm or was part ofthe original composition. Most likely, the petition was added to an earliercomposition, which in effect turned a mythic poem into a prayer for help. In thefinal form of the psalm, w. 1-7 serve as a mythic prelude to the request of v. 8:'Rise up, O God! Judge the earth!' In this appeal, the psalmist reverses the vocabu-lary of the first portion of the psalm: God stood to judge the gods (v. 1;compare also v. 3); the psalmist now asks God to arise and judge becauseof the neglect of the gods the earth was made to shake, God is now asked tojudge the earth . Even more important than these transformations of vocabu-lary are two conceptual transformations that occur in v. 8. First, God hadeffectively judged the gods, now God is asked to accomplish the lesser task ofjudging the earth. Second, the logic of the sentence that God passed on the godswas that because they had failed to judge equitably, divinity and immortality wereremoved from them. The petition of v. 8 implies a similar threat to God: if Goddoes not respond to the prayer and establish the justice for which the psalmistprays, God will have proven that God has no more right to divinity than the gods!It is this closing petition that makes the God quotations of Psalm 82 function sodifferently from those of Psalms 50, 75, 81, and 95. In those psalms, the Godquotations function primarily to instruct and warn the congregation. In Psalm 82,similar to Psalm 89, the God quotation functions primarily to urge God to respondto the closing petition.

Psalms 60 and 108. An identical passage that contains a God quotation occurs inPss. 60.5-12 and 108.6-13. In both cases, the twin sections are the final verses ofthe psalm. The difference between the psalms is found in the opening verses of thetwo psalms: Psalm 60 begins as a communal prayer for help, and Psalm 108 beginsas an individual hymn of praise. It can be concluded that in Psalm 108, the passagehas clearly been used secondarily, because the first verses (1-4) of Psalm 108 are

a false conception. Budde cites Isa. 49.4; Jer. 3.19-20; Zeph. 3.7; Ps. 31.23; and Job 32.7 asexamples of this formula. He translates Ps. 82.6 as 'Ich hatte gedacht, ihr waret Gotter / Und Sohnedes Hochsten allesamt...'. (p. 39). It is unlikely that Budde is correct aboutbeing a fixed formula that necessarily introduces a false conception. In the passages he cites, theformula does not introduce statements that are all unequivocally false (see especially Ps. 31.23; Job32.7). The formula can introduce a false conception (as can any verb of speaking) but does notinevitably do so. Moreover, the speech introduced by Ps. 82.6 should not be understood as acondition contrary to fact, as Budde's use of the German Konjunktiv suggests. Compare also J.H.Neyrey, ' "I said: You are Gods": Psalm 82.6 and John 10', JBL 108 (1989), pp. 647-63; H.-W.Jiingling, Der Tod der Gotter: Eine Untersuchung zu Psalm 82 (Stuttgarter Bibelstudien, 38;Stuttgart: Verlag Katholisches Bibelwerk, 1969), especially pp. 72-78; 94-104.

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also borrowed (from Ps. 57.7-11), making the entire psalm a composite poem. Thisdoes not mean, however, that the passage with the divine speech is original toPsalm 60. It is very possible that the passage was used secondarily in Psalm 60 aswell and that the original context of the God quotation is lost. The passage as itoccurs in Psalm 60 reads:

In order that your beloved ones may be delivered,save with your right hand, answer us! [Ps. 108.6 reads 'answer me']1'l

117God promised by his holiness.'I will exult, I will divide Shechem,the valley of Succoth I will parcel out.Gilead belongs to me, Manasseh belongs to me,Ephraim is the helmet of my head, Judah my sceptre.Moab is my washing bowl, on Edom I throw my shoe;over Philistia I triumph.'

O, that he would bring me to the fortified city!113

O, that he would lead me against Edom!Have you not rejected us, O God?

Do you not go out with our armies?Give to us your help against the foe,

for human help is worthless.With God we can prove mighty,

he will trample our foes. (vv. 5-12; compare Ps. 108.7-13)

The structure of the passage is fairly clear: petition (v. 5), a quotation of a divinespeech (vv. 6-8), complaint (vv. 9-10), petition (v. 11), and confession of trust (v.12). The interpretation of the passage—especially the interpretation of the functionof the God quotation—is less clear. As one might guess, there are two major views:those who view it as a 'salvation oracle' in response to the petition of v. 5, andthose who view it as an older oracular tradition that is quoted to motivate God toanswer the petition of v. 11.

Those who see the God quotation as a salvation oracle can cite several data in sup-port of their view. First, the passage ends (and thus both of the psalms that containthe passage end) with a confident expression of trust (v. 12) that can be explainedas a response to a word of assurance spoken by a priest or prophet in the cult:

This is not merely a motivation of the prayer, like the declaration of confidencefound in the body of the psalm... [the closing expression of confidence] cannotmerely be explained psychologically, by saying that through his prayer the sup-pliant has now achieved confidence and assurance.. .it was part of the very ritualof the penitential festivals that (the priest or) the temple prophet would promisethe suppliant salvation and the granting of his prayer by means of an oracle or apromise to that effect.

111. A qere here agrees with Ps. 108.6, which has 'answer me', rather than Thischange was introduced in Psalm 108 to conform to the individual voice in the opening verses ofthat psalm. The communal voice of Ps. 60.1-4 demands a plural.

112. For this translation of see below.113. Reading with Ps. 108.10.114. Mowinckel, The Psalms in Israel's Worship, I, pp. 217-18. Emphasis in original.

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Second, the divine speech follows immediately upon the petition of v. 5, as if inanswer to it. Third, the quotation frame can be translated,'God has promised in his sanctuary', indicating an oracle delivered by a priestor prophet in the sanctuary, for which there are many biblical and extrabiblicalparallels. Fourth, the divine speech contains God's territorial claim on neighbouringlands. Writing specifically about the use of the passage in Psalm 60, Miller wrote,

One must assume that parts of the northern kingdom had been taken over byforeign powers, and the salvation oracle is God's promise to take them back butalso to take possession of nations that have oppressed Israel and Judah. The com-munity prayer is answered by a promise of salvation that speaks to the nationalsituation broadly but appropriate to the petition that precedes it.115

Fifth, the salvation oracle inscribed on the walls of the cave at Khirbet Beit Lei,'I will accept the cities of Judah, I will redeem Jerusalem', offers a convincingparallel for understanding how such a geographically specific oracle could functionas a response to both the communal petition 'answer us' of Ps. 60.5 and theindividual petition 'answer me' of Ps. 108.6. Sixth, the repetition of the passage inthe two psalms can be viewed as evidence that cultic prophets relied on 'stockoracles of salvation':

From Pss. 60 and 108 we can see that the same promise might reappear in dif-ferent psalms, at different times. Oracles might, in other words, be used overagain. This very fact shows that they made up a permanent feature of the liturgyitself, and that the wording would usually be rather stereotyped and according topattern...116

Those who understand the divine speech as a quotation of an older tradition thatfunctions here to motivate God can point to equally impressive arguments. First,the God quotation immediately precedes the complaint of vv. 10-11 and thepetition of v. 11. In this sequence, the quotation functions to remind God of God'spromises. The description of those who pray in Isa. 62.6-7 supports such a view:'You who remind the LORD, take no rest, and give him no rest until he establishesJerusalem...'117 Second, the closing confession of confidence is typical of all theprayers for help. There is no firm evidence for assuming that a word of assurancehas to precede such expressions of trust. Even Gunkel himself—an advocate of thesalvation oracle interpretation—understood this: 'There are numerous complaintsongs which have never presumed such an oracle, those without cultic ties. One hasto consider these as the consequences of a fixed style.'''8 It can also be pointed outthat Begrich's original argument was that oracles of assurance explain the suddenshift from petition to trust. But the speech of God in this context does not occurbetween the petition and the confession of trust but between two petitions. Third,the formal marker of the oracle of salvation in both biblical and extrabiblical

115. Miller, They Cried to the Lord, p. 172.116. Mowinckel, The Psalms in Israel's Worship, II, p. 59.117. See Tate, Psalms 51-100, p. 107.118. Gunkel, Introduction to Psalms, p. 183.

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material—the injunction to 'fear not' or its equivalent—is missing here. This canbe explained by assuming that the original oracle included such an injunction butthat it was removed when it was used secondarily in these psalms. Note that thisline of argument parallels Starbuck's argument about the removal of regnal namesas part of the reappropriation of royal oracles in the royal psalms. Fourth, thequotation frame can be translated,' God has promised by hisholiness', as a parallel in Ps. 89.35 attests: 'I have sworn by my holinessNote that this parallel occurs precisely within a God quotation about the Davidicmonarch (see also Ps. 105.49; Jer. 23.9; and Amos 4.2). If this translation isadopted, it is likely that the quotation frame implies the quotation of an olderoracular tradition, similar to Ps. 2.5.119 Fifth, because the content of the divinespeech assumes Judean hegemony over both the northern tribes and the vassalnations of Edom, Moab, and Philistia, the tradition from which the oracle is quotedprobably dates to the early monarchy, the only time such southern hegemonymakes sense.120 Neither Psalm 60 nor 108 can be dated so early (one reason forthis is that the complaint of Ps. 60.1 -5 makes no sense in Davidic times). Thereforethe God quotation here appears to represent an older tradition that has been re-appropriated in a later psalm. Sixth, it is even possible to understand the KhirbetBeit Lei inscriptions as support for this interpretation. At Khirbet Beit Lei, belowthe inscription that quotes God's voice, a second inscription records a petition:

pqd yh '1 nn nqh yh yhwhBe mindful, Yah Gracious God; Absolve, Yah Yahweh.

If the sequence on the cave walls is taken seriously, then the God quotationprecedes this petition. It can also be noted that the divine speech on the cave wallslacks the assurance to 'fear not'. Rather than understand these inscriptions as aprayer that is answered by an assuring oracle, they should perhaps be understood asa reminder to God of the divine promise, followed by a petition. This sequence andlogic would certainly make sense of the setting: refugees hiding in a cave while theland is being overrun. Seventh, the repetition of the passage in two psalms can beinterpreted as evidence that the divine speech was a part of a tradition that wasreused in many contexts. Aubrey Johnson, a champion of understanding the Godquotations as oracles spoken through prophets in the cult, concluded that the divinespeech of Psalm 60 should be understood as 'an appeal to an earlier divineutterance, whether quoted verbatim or not, which has been used here as a basis forhope in connection with the present urgent plea that Yahweh should abandon Hisobvious anger towards His followers and thus deliver those who are really so dearto Him...'122

Both of the possible interpretations of the role of the God quotation in Psalms 60and 108 are plausible, neither is definitive, and perhaps, both are valid (see below).

119. Thus Nasuti, Tradition History and the Psalms ofAsaph, p. 129.120. See Kraus, Psalms 60-150, p. 5.121. Miller, 'Psalms and Inscriptions', p. 328. The twoy/7 words may be vocative rather than

proper nouns. See also Renz and Rollig, Handbuch der althebrdischen Epigraphik, I, p. 248.122. Johnson, The Cultic Prophet and Israel's Psalmody, p. 171.

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Summary and Conclusions. In these psalms, the God quotation precedes thepetition in the argument of the psalm (although in Psalms 60 and 108, the Godquotation both precedes and follows petitions). Scholars have debated whetherthese God quotations should be understood as reminding God of God's promises—and thus motivating God to answer the prayer for help—or as a salvation oracledesigned to assure a petitioner that her prayer will be answered. As was suggestedabove in relation to Psalm 132, the function of the God quotations that precede thepetitions depends more on which audience an interpreter imagines for the psalmthan upon any other variable. If the implied audience for a psalm is thought of asGod, then the quotation is to be interpreted as a reminder to God of promises madein the past that now seem endangered. If the implied audience for a psalm isimagined as a community praying to God, then the quotation is to be understood asan assurance of God's fidelity. One interpretation need not exclude the other. In acommunal worship setting, for a worship leader to include a quotation of God'searlier promises in a prayer will serve both to remind God that God should keepthose promises, and also serve to remind the community that God has made such apromise and—presumably—that God will keep those promises. Seen in this light,an interpreter is mistaken if he forces a choice between these two interpretations.

iv. The Role of God Quotations that Offer AssuranceThe above conclusion should not be taken to suggest that there are no divinespeeches in the Psalter that unequivocally offer assurance. Such God quotationsoccur in Psalms 46, 91, and 12.

Psalm 46. The main theme of Psalm 46 is the assurance that the LORD promises toZion. This is clear from the confession of trust that begins the psalm: 'God is ourrefuge and strength...Therefore we will not fear' w. l-2a).Note especially the positive reformulation of the normal injunction 'fear not'. Thepsalm moves from an indicative confession of confidence, to an imperative call tobehold the works of the LORD, to the quotation of a divine promise of protection:

Indicative 1-7 Confession of trust (vv. 1-3)Reasons for trust (vv. 4-6)Refrain (v. 7)

Imperative 8-9 Imperative call to behold the works of the LORD10 God quotation

The confident assurance of the confession of trust in vv. l-2a has already beencited. The psalm follows this confession with a rehearsal of threatening images thatwould normally consist of good reasons to fear, but which do not evoke fearbecause of the protection that the LORD affords Zion. The images of the list—theearth melting, the mountains shaking, the seas raging, and so on—are borrowedfrom the motifs of the chaos conflict. The cosmic instability of these images alsoimplies a historical instability that is symbolized by the images of nations andkingdoms in chaos (v. 6a). At v. 4, the psalm lists the main reason for Zion'ssafety: the LORD dwells there. Verses 7 and 11 contain a refrain that repeats this

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assurance: 'The LORD of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge.'123

Similar to Psalm 50, the psalm speaks of God's coming in theophanic terms: 'Heutters his voice, the earth melts' (v. 6b). The psalm then turns from the indicativeto the imperative: 'Come! See the works of the LORD, what devastation he wreakson earth!' (v. 9). The divine speech of v. 10 then follows: 'Be silent! Know that Iam God! I am exalted throughout the nations! I am exalted throughout the earth!'The LORD'S assertion of exaltation over the nations on one hand, and over the earthon the other, is not merely poetic parallelism. The LORD figuratively stills theraging of the dual threats that were cited earlier in the psalm: that of the nationsand kingdoms (v. 6, compare v. 9), and that of creation (the waters, the mountains,the earth, see vv. 2b-3, 6b). The psalm ends with a repetition of the refrain: 'TheLORD of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge.'124

As one might anticipate, interpreters differ as to whether the divine speech of v.10 should be understood as spoken by a prophetic voice under the influence ofsome sort of immediate inspiration, or as a literary and liturgical device that doesnot imply a present encounter with the deity in the cult. Nasuti, for example,interprets the lack of any introductory quotation formula as a sign that the passageimplies a present encounter:

in Psalm 46, the transition from the preceding descriptive verses to the divinespeech of v. 10 is totally abrupt, with nothing to prepare the audience for such ashift in perspective. This is not a mere quotation to buttress an ongoing argument.Rather, it is only by envisioning a cultic situation in which the speech of the Deityis a present reality that one can explain such a verse.125

As noted above, Nasuti understands the 'mechanics' of the divine speech to haveoccurred through some sort of 'possession' or 'trance behavior' ,126 Two facts argueagainst this view. First, the theophanic description of the LORD'S coming asdescribed in v. 6b can be understood as an introduction to the divine speech: 'Heutters his voice the earth melts!' While the clause is separated fromthe God quotation by vv. 7-9, it certainly excludes the view that the psalm contains'nothing to prepare the audience for' the divine speech of v. 10. Second, therefrains of w. 7 and 11 probably indicate that this is a liturgical compositiondesigned for repeated use in the cult. As such, explanations of the God quotationmust account for repeated performances. This would seem to exclude any sort ofpossession or trance explanation. Craigie's judgement on the matter should befollowed: 'the divine words of [v. 10] might more appropriately be interpreted in

123. It is possible that this refrain once also followed v. 3, and some scholars restore it there.This restoration would create a balanced psalm of three strophes, each of which ends with therefrain.

124. Many commentators interpret the imperatives of vv. 8 and 10 to be directed not only at theworshipping community but also at the nations. Building on this interpretation, E. Zenger has sug-gested that Israel alone speaks the refrain in v. 7, but that the nations and Israel speak the refrain ofv. 11 together (Hossfeld and Zenger, Psalmen I, p. 288).

125. Nasuti, Tradition History and the Psalms ofAsaph, p. 130.126. Nasuti, Tradition History and the Psalms ofAsaph, p. 144.

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literary terms'. 'The divine words.. .are probably not in the form of an oracle.'127

Just because the mechanics of the divine speech should not be thought of in termsof possession or trance behaviour, however, does not mean that the God quotationwould not have effected an encounter with the LORD in the cult. The use of the Godquotations in the psalms considered above, as well as in Psalm 46, suggests that inthe Jerusalem cult, the quotation of divine speech by a priestly figure effectedprecisely such an encounter for the community. One of the central tenets of Ziontheology was that God was present in the temple. The quotation of a divine speechin the temple would most likely have been understood by the ancient Israelites asno less of an encounter with the deity than would the transmission of an oraclethrough a seer.

At any rate, the function of the God quotation in Psalm 46 seems clear. Itliterally 'answers' and 'silences' the raging sounds of the nations and the earth, andit assures the worshipping community of divine protection against such threats. It isinteresting that this God quotation follows the community's confession of trust that'We will not fear' (v. 2a). Dating back to Begrich, the assumption has been thatoracles of salvation precede confessions of trust. The fact that this divine utterancefollows the confession of trust again argues against understanding the divine speechas a 'salvation oracle' designed to assure petitioners that God has heard theirprayer.

Psalm 91. Psalm 91 may be divided into two parts. Verses 1-13 are a didactic poemaddressed to an individual; the poem assures the individual of the protection ofGod. Verses 14-16 are a passage of divine speech that seconds the assurancepromised in vv. 1-13.128

The poem of the first thirteen verses contrasts images of danger with images ofsafety. The snare of the fowler is contrasted with wings that surround and protect.The image of flying arrows is contrasted with the image of the shield. A thousandwarriors falling at one's side is contrasted with the image of the safe tent and theimage of guardian angels. And so on. The poem as a whole is an eloquent series ofpromises spoken in the third person: 'he will cover you with his pinions', 'he willcommand his angels concerning you', and so on. In the last three verses of thepsalm, however, the verbs shift into the first person:

For he who loved me, I will deliver,I will set him on high because he knew my name.

127. Craigie, Psalms 1-50, pp. 343, 345.128. MowinckePs view was that this psalm is a liturgy spoken by a priest to a worshipper who

has come to the cult in a time of suffering (The Psalms in Israel's Worship, II, pp. 50-51). Whilethe psalm may rely on such a liturgy for its background and content, the present form of the psalmis clearly not a liturgy. Following a similar line of thought, H.D. Preuss argued that the closingverses contain a salvation oracle delivered to a petitioner in the form of a quotation ('... ich will mitdir sein', ZAWSO (1968), pp. 139-73). This view is unlikely, because the closing verses are notdirected to a specific individual (not 'you') but to a generic individual ('him'). Starbuck advancedthe view that Psalm 91 is a democratized version of a royal psalm, in which all royal court motifshave been transferred to common usage (Court Oracles in the Psalms, pp. 195-203).

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He will call on me and I will answer him.I will be with him in distress,I will rescue him and I will glorify him.

I will satisfy him with length of days,and 1 will show him my salvation, (vv. 14-16)

This closing passage is not a response to a petitioner's trust, but functions toemphasize and underscore what was taught in vv. 1 -13.129 As Tate noted, the shiftto God's speaking voice lends 'added authority and intensity' to what is taughtthroughout the psalm. 'The whole is given divine authenticity in the form of theoracle in w. 14-16, where God declares that he does indeed do what the speakerhas said.'130 The function of this God quotation can therefore be described as bothgiving assurance and lending credibility. It gives assurance to those who hear thepoem, because it promises safety. It lends authority to the speaker of the psalm,because it supports what she has taught in vv. 1-13.

Psalm 12. As was mentioned in an earlier chapter, Psalm 12 contrasts the speech ofthe enemy with the speech of God. In the psalm's chiastic structure, the speech ofGod stands at the centre of the psalm as the answer to the speech of the wicked:

1—Opening petition2-3—Description of the wicked's speech

4—Speech of the wicked quoted5—Speech of God quoted

6—Description of God's speech7-8—Closing confession of trust

The enemy quotation identifies the central theological problem that the psalmaddresses: Will the false accusations of the wicked—the violence that the wickeddo against the poor by uttering false testimony—be allowed to stand? The threat thatthe enemies pose to the weak and poor is portrayed completely in terms of speech:

They speak falsely, each man to his neighbour,with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.

May the LORD cut off all flattering lips,every tongue that boasts great things,

Those who say, 'By means of our tongues we prevail,our lips are ours, who is lord over us?' (vv. 2-4)

The lips, voices, and tongues of the wicked are the weapons with which theyoppress the poor and exert themselves against the LORD.

The speech of the wicked is answered by the speech of God:

'Because of the hurt of the poor ones,because of the groaning of the needy ones,

now I will arise!' says the LORD,'I will establish in safety the witness in their behalf. (v. 5)

129. Thus Brueggemann, The Message of the Psalms: A Theological Commentary (AugsburgOld Testament Study Series; Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1984), pp. 156-59.

130. Tate, Psalms 51-100, pp. 450, 458.131. On the translation of as 'witness', see Miller, 'yapiah in Psalm XII 6', pp. 495-500.

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In terms of the structure of the psalm, the speech of God answers the speech of thewicked, and thus the speech of God also answers the theological problem raised bythe speech of the wicked. The LORD promises to provide an upright witness whowill testify truthfully on behalf of the innocent. Moreover, the content of God'sspeech directly contradicts the assertion that the wicked make: God does see thesuffering of the downcast, God does have effective power to intervene on theirbehalf, and God will soon act. As Miller has noted, the God quotation

is the turning point of the Psalm as it announces Yahweh's decision to intervene inthis situation... Yahweh will act because of the violence done to the poor and inresponse to their groaning under this oppression. The detailed description inverses 3-5 of that violence entirely in terms of what and how people speak leadsquite naturally to the divine promise to protect the one who speaks truly and withintegrity for the poor and the afflicted, the one who is a witness in his or her behalfover against any [false witness].

The psalm closes with a confession of trust. Because the divine speech of v. 5precedes the confession of trust of v. 7 and because the divine speech promises aspecific salvific action, the God quotation in Psalm 12 fits the category of an oracleof assurance. The function of God's speech here is certainly to assure thecommunity of faith that God will not abandon the innocent to the violence of falsewitnesses. It should be noted that this is a prayer for the community and not for anindividual petitioner. The psalmist prays: 'You, O LORD, will protect us; you willguard us from this generation forever' (v. 7). In the God quotation, the referentsshould also be understood as communal: ' "Because of the hurt of the poor ones[1T'']U], because of the groaning of the needy ones now I will arise!"says the LORD, "I will establish in safety the witness in their133 behalf."' Psalm 12,therefore, is best understood as a psalm in which the voice of God promisessalvation to the community.134

Summary and Conclusions. In these psalms, the divine speech comes either at theend of the psalm (91) or prior to a confession of trust (12 and 46). Because of thisplacement within the argument of these psalms, these God quotations can bedescribed as functioning to give assurance and confidence. It is worth noting thatthese three psalms have different genres: Psalm 12 is a prayer for help, Psalm 46 isa communal psalm of trust, and Psalm 91 is a wisdom psalm.

Miller notes that the wordypyh = 'witness' is attested in Ugaritic as well as Prov. 6.19; 12.5; 24.5,25; 19.5, 9; Ps. 27.12; and Hab. 2.3. He also notes that the Targum's translation of with theverb shd ('witness, testify') may reflect an understanding of as 'witness'.

132. Miller, 'yapiah in Psalm XII 6', p. 499.133. The3mssufnx (lit: 'for him') refers to a plural and not a singular antecedent and should

be translated, 'on their behalf. It is common in Hebrew poetry for singular suffixed pronouns torefer to plural antecedents; see Pss. 73.18; 59.9; 12; 12.6; Isa. 28.6, and so on.

134. See Mowinckel, The Psalms in Israel's Worship, II, 60. Mowinckel understood v. 6—'Thepromises of the LORD are promises that are pure...'—as the petitioner's thanksgiving, which wasspoken after the oracle was delivered (I, p. 218). Gunkel thought of the psalm not as a liturgy butas an imitation of a prophetic liturgy. Craigie is surely correct that an original setting for the psalmcannot be recovered (Psalms 1-50, p. 137).

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v. The Role of Quotations in which God's Word Represents God's Effective PowerThe God quotation that can most accurately be described as an oracle of salvationis found at the beginning of Psalm 35:

Dispute, O LORD, against those who dispute against me,fight against those who fight against me!

Grab hold of shield and buckler,and rise up to help me!

Draw the spear and javelin to meet my pursuers,say to my soul, 'I am your salvation!' (Ps. 35.1-3)

Most scholars understand the quotation in Ps. 35.3 as a petitioner's request for anoracle of salvation. For example, Hossfeld: 'In [v. 3b] the pray-er requests ahealing oracle.'135 The God quotation does lack the diagnostic injunction 'Do notfear/Fear not!', but perhaps this can be explained by the fact that this is a requestfor a salvation oracle. The similarity of the language of this request to languagethat is found in undisputed oracles of salvation makes it clear that the psalmist isrequesting an oracle of salvation: 'Do not be afraid, for I am your God' (Isa.41.1 Ob); 'Do not fear...I will help you' (Isa. 41.14); and 'Do not fear...For I amthe LORD your God' (Isa. 43.Ib, 3a). It must be stressed, however, that the Godquotation in Psalm 35 is not an oracle of salvation but a request for one. That is, inthe context of Psalm 35, the request for salvation oracle is a request for theeffective power of God.136 The words of God represent the decision of God to beon the psalmist's side. If the words are spoken, they do more than represent apromise or a hope for the psalmist. Rather, they represent the action of God on thepsalmist's behalf.

In two other psalms, God quotations serve similarly to refer to God's effectivepower. That is, in order to indicate the action that God takes, the psalmist uses thedevice of divine speech. Consider the following examples:

You turn humans back to dust,and you say, 'Return, O mortals!' (Ps. 90.3)

[God] did not allow any human to oppress them [Israel],and he rebuked kings on their behalf,

'Do not touch my anointed ones,and do not harm my prophets.' (Ps. 105.15)

The point of the divine speech in each of these passages is not literally to refer towords that God speaks, but to refer to an action that God takes or can take. Thequotations serve to represent God's will or God's intention to take a particularaction. In Ps. 90.2, for example, God does not literally say, 'Return, O mortals!'

135. Hossfeld and Zenger, Psalmen /, p. 220, my translation. This view goes back at least as faras Begrich ('Das priestliche Heilsorakel', p. 81). Compare C.G. Broyles, Psalms (NIBC, 11;Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1999), p. 170. Hossfeld wrote, 'A cultic prophet may have mediatedit' (p. 204, my translation). He later partially withdrew this interpretation ('Das Prophetische in denPsalmem', p. 23).

136. See Craigie, Psalms 1-50, p. 286.

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Rather, the quotation indicates that mortality is God's will for humans, the fate thatGod confers upon humans. Likewise, in Ps. 105.15, the quotation does not indicateany literal commandment that God gave to nations that threatened Israel. Thequotation merely expresses the protection that the LORD gave to Israel in the days'when they were few in number'.

Perhaps the God quotation in Ps. 68.22-23 should also be understood as speechthat indicates God's action: 'The LORD said, "From Bashan I will bring them back,I will bring them back from the depths of the sea, in order that you may wash137

your feet in their blood, the tongues of your dogs may have their portion138 of theenemies".' The meaning of the verses is obscure, but apparently it refers to God'sdefeat of the enemies. The quotation, it should be noted, does not refer to anyverbal communication that God had with humans; rather, it serves to refer to theaction God took in defeating the enemies of Israel.

It can be recalled here that Clark and Gerrig argued that one of the functions forwhich quotations are useful is performing 'impossible demonstrations'.139 Theactions of God certainly fall under the category of impossible demonstrations. Itwould, for example, be impossible for a reporter to 'demonstrate' God's will toimpose mortality upon human beings, but the psalmist can convey that meaning byuse of direct discourse.

Because these quotations serve primarily to indicate some action that God takes,however, does not mean that the quotations are not formally important in thepsalms in which they occur (although the God quotations in Psalms 68 and 105 donot seem to play as significant a role in those psalms). The command of God that isquoted in Ps. 90.3, for example—'Turn back O mortals'—is precisely theword that the psalmist uses in the psalm's petition: 'Repent , O LORD!'(v. 13). Thus, the vocabulary of God is reversed by the psalmist and returned toGod as a request. As such, the vocabulary of the God quotation becomes the keyrhetorical device around which the argument of the psalm pivots.

3. The Rhetorical Function of God Quotations

If the above analyses are correct, then many—if not most—of the God quotationsof the Psalter are quotations from earlier tradition. This is the case with the fourroyal psalms (2, 89,110, and 132), which draw on older material about the Davidiccovenant. This also seems to be the case with the God quotations in the festivalpsalms (50, 75, 81, and 95), which quote older legal material related to theDecalogue; and with the God quotations that precede petitions (82, 60, and 108),which quote older mythic and covenantal material respectively. One can also makethe case that this is the situation in Psalms 12, 46, and 91, psalms in which thedivine speech functions to give assurance.

137 , 'shatter', makes little sense. Reading here with LXX and Syr, both of whichhave passive verbs with the sense 'to wash/dip'.

138. is problematic, but is read here a s ' h i s [the dogs'] portion'.139. Clark and Gerrig, 'Quotations as Demonstrations', p. 794: 'Some events are impossible to

demonstrate in their entirety, yet speakers can depict some of their aspects.'

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One way to describe the function of these God quotations that represent earliertradition is to say that they are bearing the authority of the theological tradition.That is, the God quotations from the tradition are quoted in later psalms becausethey carry the authority of the tradition. To be precise, the God quotations carryauthority because they purport to be the speech of God: they are God's words, andthus they bear God's authority. The psalmists quote these God quotations becausethey wish to draw upon this authority; they wish to use the power of God'sauthority in their psalms.

But having said that, one has not said enough. A more important question is:Toward what rhetorical goals do the psalms employ the authority borne in the Godquotations! As Sternberg argued so forcefully, rhetorical effect depends primarilyon context.140 Because of this, in different contexts, quotations that are nearlyidentical can have almost opposite rhetorical effects.

i. God Quotations Used to Construct SocietyOne of the primary uses to which the psalms put the God quotations is theconstruction of an ordered, ethical society. The best examples of this use are thefour quotations from the communal/festival psalms (50,75, 81, and 95), as well asPsalm 2. In these psalms, the voice of God is used to restrain the wicked impulsesof the community by threatening punishment to the wicked and to encourage thevirtues of covenant obedience by promising reward to the good. The God quota-tions are an incredibly powerful rhetorical device for these purposes because inthem God directly addresses the gathered 'you' of the community. Note especiallythe rhetorical power of God speaking to the congregation using second personpronouns and verbs: 'You hate discipline.. .you cast my words behind you.. .youtake up with adulterers', and so on (Ps. 50.17-18).

The purpose of the speech is to encourage proper behaviour (behaviour bene-ficial to society) and to discourage improper behaviour (behaviour that woulddamage society). A wide range of undesirable behaviour is discouraged: adultery,false witness, theft, disobedience, rote performance of sacrifice, worship of foreigngods, following of human counsel, despising the LORD, testing God, having hardhearts, boasting, pride, and so on. All four of the psalms seek to enforce theprohibitions against these things by promising punishment for those who do them.It must be underscored that these vices are prohibited because of the negativesocial impact they have: they destroy community and the structures that promotethe common good. An equally wide range of desirable behaviour is encouraged:fulfilment of vows and sacrifices, obedience to God's 'ways', joyful participationin worship, faithful fulfilment of festival obligations, joy in God's judgement, trustin God's providence, thanksgiving, and the like. Psalms 50, 75, and 81 promiserewards for those who follow God's ways. In a similar fashion, Psalm 2 isconcerned with the social order. It has often been pointed out that in Psalm 2, thespeech of God legitimates the rule of the Davidic king, and this is certainly

140. Sternberg, 'Proteus in Quotation-Land'.

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correct.141 But there is a social concern in the psalm and a societal function to thedivine speech. It promises punishment for those who rebel against the LORD'Sanointed and happiness for those who obey.

This function of divine speech is not unique to the Psalter or to the Old Testa-ment. In the Pentateuch—especially in the second half of Exodus and throughoutNumbers, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy—commandments and laws are placed inthe mouth of God. Most notably, Moses speaks face-to-face with God in order toreceive God's laws (and the Decalogue from God was 'written with the finger ofGod' (Exod. 31.18)). Many more examples of this phenomenon could be given, butthe point has been made: the authority of God is used to establish proper andimproper behaviour for the good of the community.

The use of the God quotations to comfort and assure may also be considered asfunctioning to construct an ordered society. As was argued above, in Psalms 12,46, and 91, the God quotations assure the community of God's protection, and theGod quotations in Psalms 132, 60 and 108, and 82 function partly to assure thecommunity. All of these psalms are communal psalms, with the exception of Psalm91, which is an instructional psalm to a generic individual. These psalms assurethat God will not abandon Zion, nor will individuals who place their trust in Godbe abandoned. To focus only on the fears and emotions of individuals wheninterpreting the function of these assuring God quotations is to miss the point thatfear and assurance also have public aspects. Recall that Jeremiah was bothpunished and then jailed because his prophecies made the authorities uneasy (see,for example, Jer. 20.1-6; 32.1-3), Elijah was branded the 'troubler of Israel'because of the content of his prophecies (1 Kgs. 18.17), and Amos was warned notto prophesy any more (Amos 7.12-13). The point is that there was (and is) a publiccharacter to security and confidence on the one hand, and fear and insecurity on theother. The fact that these 'assuring' divine speeches have survived mainly incommunal psalms suggests that their public effect of helping to create a stablesociety was important in antiquity.

In terms of the theories of quotation that were presented in Chapter 1, thisfunction of the God quotations draws upon the ability of quotations to confer'solidarity' and also upon the ability of quotations to effect 'engrossment'. Clarkand Gerrig argued that solidarity and engrossment are two of the functions ofquotations. The first of these functions draws upon the character of quotations as'depictions' of a speech event, and refers to the ability of quotation 'to serve wellin the expression of solidarity... '.142 The psalmists use the God quotations to claimownership of reported speech, that is, to apply the God quotations to the purposesthat they desire. They are, in effect, co-opting the voice of God to say what theywant to say to the community. The second function, engrossment, draws upon the

141. There have been many valuable studies into the Judean royal theology that is characteristicof Psalms 2, 89, 110, and 132. The quotations in these psalms—especially because they preserveancient ideological aspects of the Jerusalem temple ideology—are valuable resources for this lineof research. The focus here, however, is on the rhetorical function of the quotations in the finalform of the psalms.

142. Steinberg, 'Proteus in Quotation-Land', p. 793.

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ability of quotations to shift perspectives so that the audience temporarily hears thewords of an absent or unavailable speaker as they are spoken through a man orwoman who is present. This 'engrossment' function of quotations accounts for therhetorical power of God directly addressing the congregation as 'you' . Rather thanhearing a human priest tell them what to do and not to do, the device of quotationallows the congregation to become engrossed in the perspective of God, and so torom God what they should do and should not do.143

ii. God Quotations Used to Challenge GodA second use of the God quotations in the Psalter is the use of the God quotationsto motivate God to answer the requests of the supplicant. In the above analysis ofthe God quotations, it was argued that those God quotations that precede peti-tions — Psalms 60 and 108, 82, 89 — function to remind God of God's promises, andthus function to motivate God to act on the supplicant's behalf.

Two aspects of the linguistic theories that were presented in Chapter 1 can helpillumine this function of the God quotations. The first relevant linguistic theory isAustin's speech-act theory. It will be recalled that according to Austin, some utter-ances do not function simply by referring, but function by performing events.144

According to Austin, one type of events that words can perform is 'contractual'events. Two examples of contractual speech acts are the words 'I bet you fivedollars', or 'It's a deal, I will buy it for two hundred dollars'. The first phrase,when uttered while agreeing to a wager, creates a wager (a type of contract)between a speaker and a listener. Note that the speech act not only creates thewager, but also commits the participants to a specific financial investment: fivedollars. The second phrase also creates a contract that includes specific actions onthe part of the participants. In this case, one participant agrees to pay two hundreddollars for some undefined 'it', and the other agrees to sell 'it'.

A part of Wierzbicka's theory of quotations as role-play also illumines the Godquotations that are used to motivate God to answer prayer. Wierzbicka argued thatwhen a person quotes, her utterance has a double illocutionary force: According toWierzbicka, in direct discourse, a reporter wants an audience to know what anoriginal speaker said, and under what circumstances the original speaker said it.145

In terms of the God quotations that are turned backed against God, the psalmist canbe understood as saying to God in effect: 'I want you to remember what you said,and I want you to remember that when you said it, you were committing yourselfto a covenant. '

To use the example of Psalm 89, the psalmist wants God to remember that whenGod spoke to David, God performed the contractual speech act of making acovenant with David. That covenantal speech act, furthermore, included specificcommitments on God's part: You promised to punish David's heirs, but never tobreak the covenant with them (vv. 30-34); you promised that David's heirs would

143. Sternberg, 'Proteus in Quotation-Land', p. 793.144. Austin, How to Do Things with Words.145. See Wierzbicka, 'Semantics of Direct and Indirect Discourse', pp. 274-75.

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be as sons to you and you as fathers to them, that they could cry to you and youwould answer (v. 26); and you promised that you would give David's heirs victoryin battle (w. 22-23). In the same way that the English word 'bet'—in the phrase 'Ibet you five dollars'—functions as the legally binding word that performs thecontractual speech act, the Hebrew word can be taken as the legally bindingword that God spoke and that committed God to the covenant: 'I have swornby my holiness' v. 35; compare also: 'The LORD has sworn'

Ps. 110.4 and Ps. 132.11)). The fact that the psalmist quotes exactlythat phrase back to God can be interpreted as the citation of the legally bindingelement in the covenantal contract. Presumably, the psalmist holds out hope thatGod will 'remember' the covenant that was made with David, and will intercede onbehalf of David's heir.

iii. God Quotations as Characterizations of GodA third way that God quotations function in the Psalter is to characterize God. Inthe same way that the self quotations characterize the self and the enemy quota-tions characterize the enemies, the God quotations help to image the character ofGod for those who read and pray the psalms. As noted in the previous chapter,direct speech is useful for characterization, because it lets 'the characters speak forthemselves. For, of course, what characters say and how they say it may tell usmuch about the kind of people they are.'146 Several aspects of the God quotationshave significant impact upon the way that God has been imagined by those whouse the Psalter.

God Speaks to the Community through the Cult. One of the most important aspectsof the character of God has to do with whom God speaks and through whom Godspeaks. The God quotations portray a God who speaks to the king and through thecult. Even though the analysis presented here has declined the usual interpretationof the God quotations as oracles delivered by prophetic figures, the cultic or com-munal nature of the psalms in which many of the God quotations occur has beenemphasized. Psalms 2, 12, 46, 60 and 108, 50, 75, 81, and 95 all are communalpsalms in which God speaks.

It might be tempting to explain away these details of the God quotations eitheras residual traces of the cultic setting for which many of the psalms were composed(which the God quotations are!) or as indications of the ancient Near Easternmilieu from which the Old Testament stems (which is certainly the case!). But suchgenetic explanations - as accurate as they surely are - fail to acknowledge theongoing theological effects that the God quotations have for modern communitiesthat still use the Psalter. People today still pray the psalms, and therefore theirimages of God are still being constructed in part by the God quotations. It will behelpful to recall again the frequent cry by the supplicants, 'Answer me, O God',and the frequent attack by the enemies, 'God does not hear'. These two outcriesboth touch upon a common human desire to be in communication with God, to be

146. Gunn and Fewell, Narrative in the Hebrew Bible, p. 63.

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spoken to by the Other. The implicit message of the God quotations is that God isencountered primarily in the cult. The message is that God's law, a relationshipwith God, God's forgiveness, and God's help are all mediated primarily throughthe cult.

God is also portrayed as speaking to the king. In Ps. 2.7, the king reports, 'Hesaid to me...' In Ps. 132.11 the psalmist recalls that 'The LORD swore to David...'(see also Pss. 89.3 and 110.1). The only specific individual to whom God isportrayed as speaking in the Psalter is David. And in addition to speaking to thegathered community (as noted above), God speaks to the king. This has had alasting effect on how Christian communities of faith have understood the will ofGod to be mediated. Since New Testament days, Christians have interpreted God'sspeech to the king christologically (see, for example, Acts 2.34-35; 13.32-34; andso on).

The LORD of the Covenant Who Protects and Punishes. A second aspect of thecharacter of God that is portrayed by the God quotations concerns the type ofactions that God takes when God acts. In the divine speeches of the royal psalms(2, 89, 110, and 132), the festival psalms (50, 75, 81, and 95), as well as in thepsalms where God's speech offers assurance (12,46, and 91), God's speech showsthe LORD to be a God who protects and punishes. These dual aspects are, of course,understood as part of God's covenantal role - God promised to do these things inthe covenant with David. On the one hand, God protects the innocent and rewardsfidelity. Recall that in the royal psalms, God promises to establish the monarchyforever, treat the Davidic king as a son, give victory in battle, answer when theking calls, and give the king dominion over nations. Corresponding to this, Godpromises to discipline the Davidic kings when they prove unfaithful and to punishenemies who rise up against the kings. Similarly, in the communal psalms, Godpromises to protect Jerusalem, protect the weak and falsely accused, establishpeace, and reward those who follow God's ways. On the other hand, God promisesto punish the wicked, defeat foreign nations who rise up against Jerusalem, andjudge those who break God's laws.

One aspect of this characterization of God should be underscored. In thesequotations, the LORD claims to have the sovereign power both to protect and topunish. In antiquity, in modernity, and at times in between, there have been peoplewho have argued that the LORD exists but does not possess the necessary power toprotect or to punish. In antiquity, one way in which people denied that the LORDhad such power was to assert that other gods were stronger or had proved vic-torious. In modernity, many sceptics have argued that the existence of sufferingand evil prove either that God exists or that God lacks effective power to intervenein human affairs. In times in between, the Deists were another group that deniedthe effective power of God: They believed in a watchmaker God who created theearth and set it running but no longer interferes with its operations. Against theseand other similar views, the God quotations stand—at least in the literary world ofthe Psalter—as God's assertion of power:

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'Mark this, then, you who forget God,or I will tear you apart,and there will be no one to deliver.

Those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honour me;to those who go the right way,I will show the salvation of God.' (Ps. 50.22-23)

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Chapter 5

'LET ISRAEL SAY':THE FUNCTION OF THE COMMUNITY QUOTATIONS

A final set of quotations that occurs in the Psalter consists of those instances inwhich a voice or voices from the psalmist's community is quoted. Various voicesfrom within the psalmist's community are quoted explicitly fourteen times intwelve different psalms.1 These explicit 'community quotations' may be dividedinto two groups. First, some quotations consist of a literal liturgical refrain orresponse spoken by a choir or the congregation. Second, some quotations consist ofwords that the psalmist desires or imagines people within the community to say.

1. The Function of Quotations that Represent Liturgical Refrains or Responses

The first group of quotations attributed to the community consists of liturgicalactions explicitly assigned to members of the community. In addition to the fivepsalms treated in this section, various parts of other psalms may represent wordsspoken by the community. For example, Pss. 115.9-11; 46.7, 11; and the secondhalf of each verse in Psalm 136 likely represent liturgical refrains spoken by thecommunity. In addition, some scholars have proposed that various verses of certainpsalms were once spoken by either a priest or a liturgical leader (for example Ps.32.8-9) or by a choir (118.20, 25-27). The present investigation is limited to thoseplaces where liturgical speech is specifically attributed to a group. One reason forthis limitation is that the various proposals for understanding individual verses ascommunal speech are so legion that they exceed the scope of this project.

Psalm 118Psalm 118 is a good example of those psalms in which a liturgical response orrefrain is quoted, because it demonstrates well the function that the voice of thecommunity plays in these psalms. Psalm 118 may be divided into two sections: ahymnic frame (vv. 1 -4,29), and a main body that consists of an individual song of

1. Pss. 29.9; 35.27; 40.16; 70.4; 52.7; 58.11; 66.3; 91.2; 96.10; 118.2, 3,4; 124.1; and 129.1.The NRSV renders community quotations in Ps. 87.4,5,6, and 7. These quotations, however, maybe more the result of the obscure text of Psalm 87 than of genuine direct discourse in the psalm.Because the overall meaning of the psalm is obscure and because the individual quotations are indoubt, the psalm is excluded from this investigation.

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thanksgiving (w. 5-28). In the hymnic frame, the community is quoted intoning aformulaic response:

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;for his steadfast love is eternal.

Let Israel say:'For his steadfast love is eternal.'

Let the house of Aaron say:'For his steadfast love is eternal.'

Let those who fear the LORD say:'For his steadfast love is eternal.'

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;for his steadfast love is eternal, (vv. 1-4, 29)

Three groups are mentioned in w. 2-4: Israel, the house of Aaron, and those whofear the LORD. These three groups most likely represent the congregation as awhole, the priesthood, and non-Israelite Yahwistic worshippers, respectively.2

In terms of the function of the direct discourse in Psalm 118, the important thingis that the psalmist expects his call to praise to be answered by groups of peoplefrom his larger community. The phrase that the community voices—'for his stead-fast love is eternal'3—is the most typical hymnic refrain in the Psalter.4 It is acondensed formula that contains in nuclear form the basic reason why Israelpraises God: because God has shown steadfast love to Israel.

The body of the psalm (vv. 5-28) consists of an individual song of thanksgiving,in which the psalmist tells that the LORD rescued him from desperate danger: 'TheLORD punished me indeed, but did not give me over to death' (v. 18). The psalmistdoes not use the term 'steadfast love' in the body of the psalm, but the frameworkof the hymn indicates that he calls upon the community to recognize that the LORD

2. The same groups are also mentioned in Ps. 115.9-11, in which they also respond to a call topraise:

O Israel, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield.O house of Aaron, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield.O fearers of the LORD, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield.

3. F. Crusemann (Studien zur Formgeschichte von Hymnus und Danklied in Israel(Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener, 1969)) has argued that in phrases such as inthe hymns of praise, the particle should not be translated as causal ('because' or 'for') but ratheremphatic ('indeed' or 'surely'; pp. 32-35). Crusemann bases his analysis largely on the occurrenceof the phrase as a communal refrain in Psalms 118 and 136. Crusemann is mostlikely correct that in Psalms 118 and 136 the phrase does represent a communal refrain, but hisunderstanding of as emphatic rather than causal is questionable. One may translate the phrase as'for his steadfast love is everlasting' and still understand it as a refrain. For a more detailed critiqueof Criisemann's argument, see Miller, They Cried to the Lord, pp. 358-62. It should be noted thatin Psalm 118, it is possible that only in vv. 2-4 is the phrase a communal refrain, and in vv. 1 and29 the refrain is sung only by an individual leader. One must admit that it is impossible to knowexactly how this psalm may have been performed, and that it may have been performed in morethan one fashion.

4. SeePss. 106.1; 107.1; 117.1; and 136 (the second half of each verse).

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has indeed shown him 'steadfast love'. That is, the psalmist is calling upon thecommunity to affirm that God has shown him steadfast love.

The sense that the psalmist is seeking validation of his experience from thecommunity is confirmed by the implied setting of the psalm. Two passages in thebody of the psalm imply that this song of thanksgiving is part of a procession intothe temple:

Open to me the gates of righteousness,that I may enter by means of them and give thanks to the LORD.

This is the gate of the LORD;the righteous shall enter through it.

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD.We bless you from the house of the LORD.

The LORD is God, and he shined light upon us.Bind the festival procession with branches,

even up the horns of the altar, (vv. 19-20, 26-27)

The implied processional setting of the psalm indicates that in both conceptual andspatial terms, the psalmist is approaching the community of faith and asking thatthe community welcome him on the basis of the welcome that the LORD has shownhim. Thus, the call and response quotations of vv. 1-4 and 29, in which thecommunity voices its affirmation of God's steadfast love, are symbolic of a morespecific social response that the psalmist is seeking: that the community wouldaccept and affirm him as one whom the LORD has accepted.

Psalms 124 and 129Psalms 124 and 129 begin in parallel fashions. A liturgical leader speaks a sentenceand calls on the congregation ('Israel') to repeat the sentence, which the congrega-tion dutifully does:

124 129If the LORD had not been for us, Often have they assailed me since my youth,— let Israel say — — let Israel say —If the LORD had not been for us, Often have they assailed me since my youth,when a people rose up against us, yet they have not defeated me. (vv. 1 -2)then they would have swallowed us alive.(vv. 1-3 a)

The quotation formula—'let Israel say' -found in thesepsalms is identical to that of Ps. 118.2. These two psalms share other features.Although the first person subject of Psalm 124 is plural while that of Psalm 129 issingular, both psalms are communal songs of thanksgiving; the first person singularsubject of Psalm 129 represents the community.5 Both psalms have as their subject

5. Criisemann (Studien zur Formgeschichte von Hymnus undDanklied in Israel, pp. 160-68)takes the opposite view. He argues that both psalms were originally individual psalms, and basedupon vocabulary and features in psalm 124 that are normally found in individual rather thancommunal psalms, that the first person plural language of that psalm is secondary. Criisemann

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matter the history of attacks that Israel has suffered. Both psalms credit the LORDwith preserving Israel through this history of oppression. Both psalms use theformula 'in the name of the LORD' in their closing verses.6

The function of the liturgical quotations in each of these psalms is for the com-munity to take the words of the quotation and make them their own: 'Israel shouldmake these expressions its own.'7 In other words, a liturgical leader speaks a sen-tence and the community echoes the sentence, and in the process, adopts therespective ideas. This is similar to the function of the community quotations inPsalm 118, in which the community was approached and asked to adopt the beliefthat the psalmist had been welcomed by God. In Psalms 124 and 129, by repeatingthe words offered by the liturgical leaders, the community is to confess the beliefthat it owes its history deliverance from attacks to God's saving help.

Psalm 29The structure of Psalm 29 is simple: an introductory call to praise (w. 1-2), a mainbody (w. 3-8), and a closing confession of trust (w. 9-10). The direct discourse inthe psalm comes in v. 9b, and functions as a bridge between the main body and theconfession of trust.8

The introductory call to praise consists of a fourfold injunction for the heavenlycouncil to ascribe honour to the LORD. The leitmotif of the psalm—the LORD'S'glory' is introduced here: 'ascribe to the LORD glory and strength;ascribe to the LORD the glory of his name' (w. lb-2a). The main body of the psalmis constructed of seven verses that begin with 'the voice of the LORD', representingthe coming of God's glory in a thunderstorm. The glory motif appears in the firstand last of these seven verses (w. 3 and 9). Although 'the voice of the LORD' isnamed seven times, no words are attributed to it. Rather, the LORD'S voice is aspeechless voice. There is one word that characterizes this speechless voice,however. The community recognizes the LORD'S appearance in the thunderstorm

admits that the phrase 'let Israel say' stems from the cult, but argues that it is secondary in Psalms124 and 129 and thus doubts whether these are authentic communal psalms. Whether the psalmsare genuine or not, it seems clear that in their present form that they functioned communally: 'Thepositioning of the summons... seems to imply that v. 1 ab is to be repeated and that vv. 2-8 are to berecited communally or by a choir representing the community' (Allen, Psalms 101-150, p. 164).

6. It is possible that both psalms in their entirety were to be repeated in antiphonal fashion.This is the view of Schreiner, 'Wenn nicht der Herr fur uns ware: Auslegung von Psalm 124',BibLeb 10 (1969), pp. 16-25; and Allen, Psalms 101-150, p. 164.

7. Criisemann, Studien zur Formgeschichte von Hymnus undDanklied in Israel, p. 167, mytranslation. See also Kraus, Psalms 60-150, p. 440: 'Israel is to make specific (cited) statementsand their insights its own.'

8. Cross does not understand the verse to contain direct discourse (Canaanite Myth andHebrew Epic, pp. 151 -56). He reconstructs the psalm in Canaanite orthography. He eliminatesas a dittography and repoints as a stative-passive with the meaning 'to see', thus garnering thetranslation, 'In his temple (his) glory appears.' This may be a plausible reconstruction of a Vorlageof the verse, but the phrase as it stands without question contains direct discourse. Further, Cross'ssolution obscures the way that the quotation functions as a communal response to the openingsummons to praise.

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and speaks the proper word: 'and in his temple all say, "Glory!" '9 The communityhears the call to praise 'the glory of his name', witnesses 'the voice of the LORD'proclaiming glory in nature, and then responds with the appropriate exclamation:'Glory!' This communal affirmation of the presence of God's glory in the thunder-storm provides the transition to the closing confession of trust, in which the com-munity confesses God's power: 'The LORD sits enthroned over the flood' (v. lOa).

The community quotation in Psalm 29, therefore, functions similarly to thoseabove. By speaking the prescribed words, the people acknowledge some reality (inthis case God's glory), and thus adopt some belief (in this case the belief that Godreigns over heaven and earth).

Psalm 66In Psalm 66, a song of thanksgiving, the speech attributed to the community doesnot indicate an actual liturgical action of the community, but a liturgical action thatthe psalmist desires of the community. In this psalm, the concept of speech plays asignificant role. The psalm begins with a standard call to praise: 'Make a joyfulnoise to God, all the earth!' (the identical summons occurs in Pss. 98.4 and 100.1;compare also Pss. 47.2 and 81.2). Then the psalmist supplies the words that thecommunity is to say:

Say to God, 'How wondrous are your works!Because of the greatness of your power,your enemies cringe before you.

All of the earth worships you;they sing to you, they sing to your name!' (vv. 3-4)

These words are not to be understood as a literal liturgical response by the congre-gation. Rather, the psalmist is explicitly stating the liturgical response that thecongregation is to sing. She offers two reasons that the congregation should joinher in praise. First, she rehearses the history of the LORD'S saving acts on behalf ofIsrael (vv. 5-12). Second, she rehearses the specific saving help that she hasreceived from God (vv. 13-19). Speech features prominently in the psalmist'saccount of God's actions on her behalf. She recalls that while in danger, she spokevows to God: 'I will fulfil to you my vows, which my lips uttered and my mouth

9. Many interpreters have disputed over the years about whether those ' in his temple' refers tothe divine council in the heavenly sanctuary (corresponding to v. 1) or the human congregation inthe earthly temple (corresponding to the geographic names—Lebanon, Sirion, Kadesh—in vv. 5-7). See, for example, Craigie's discussion of the issue in Psalms 1-50, p. 348. The supposeddispute between heavenly and earthly locales is over a false issue, however, as Hossfeld hascorrectly seen: 'One can ask whether the heavenly or the earthly temple-palace is meant. Butaccording to the ancient Near Eastern conviction, the heavenly and earthly sanctuary belongtogether' (Hossfeld and Zenger, Psalmen I, p. 185, my translation). The earthly sanctuary wasviewed as a microcosm of the heavenly sanctuary. Any actions performed in the earthly sanctuarywere understood as happening simultaneously in the heavenly sanctuary. This is clear from manyiconographic renderings in which mirror images of the same action are portrayed as occurringsimultaneously in both sanctuaries. For more on this issue and for a thorough discussion of theiconographic data, see Keel, The Symbolism of the Biblical World, p. 179.

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spoke to you while I was in trouble' (vv. 13b-14). Then she calls on the congre-gation to 'hear' her account of the deliverance God performed for her (v. 16), andshe reports that God listened when she spoke: 'To him my mouth cried out, Iexalted him with my tongue.'10 The psalmist then asserts that 'God listened; hegave heed to the sound of my prayers' (v. 19). The psalmist then closes with a briefsentence of praise (v. 20).

The function of the direct discourse in this psalm, similar to the liturgicalquotations treated above, might best be described as serving to second or affirm thepsalmist's confession that God has saved her. The psalm contrasts several differentspeech acts of the psalmist. In the past, she cried to God for help and made vows topraise. God listened to her cries. Therefore, in the present, she is both fulfillingthose vows and telling others about God's actions on her behalf. On the basis ofthese present and past words, she calls on the community to join her in praise ofGod. If one assumes that the community joins in the praise, then it affirms both herexperience of rescue and also the steadfast love (v. 20) of the God who rescued her.

SummaryIn all of these psalms—118, 124,129,29, and 66—the community quotations canbe described as functioning to second or affirm some belief that the psalmist wishesthe community to adopt. By speaking the appropriate refrain, the communityaccepts the proffered belief and takes ownership of it.

2. The Function of Quotations that thePsalmist Desires the Community to Say

A second group of community quotations consists of words that the psalmist attri-butes hypothetically to the community—either as words that the psalmist adjuresthe community to speak or as words that the psalmist imagines the communityto speak.

Psalms 35, 40, and 70As was argued in the chapter on enemy quotations, sections of Psalms 35,40, and70 are nearly identical. As was the case in the earlier chapter, these psalms will betreated together. Because Psalm 40.13-17 is almost identical to Psalm 70, for thepurposes of this analysis, they are considered as being one psalm.11

In these three psalms, the psalmist experiences some situation of crisis fromwhich she desires rescue. She contrasts the speech of those in the community whoare her enemies with the speech of those in the community who are not herenemies. The enemies speak words of derision and glee over the psalmist's demise.Others in the community speak words of praise for the God who rescues her.Where the texts of the psalms are identical in Hebrew, the translation is italicized:

10. MT's , literally'he was exalted under mv tongue', makes little sense.The reading here follows LXX, which reflects

11. Psalm 70 is the elohistic version of Psalm 40.13-17.

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Psalm 35 Psalms 40.13-17 and 70May they be put to shame and be confused May they be put to shame and be confused.. .who rejoice at my misfortune, (v. 26) .. .who delight in my misfortune. (40.15)

They open their mouths against me, May they be appalled because of their shame,who say, 'Aha, aha! who say, 'Aha, aha!'(40.16)Our eyes have seen!' (v. 21)

May they shout and may they rejoice May they exalt and may they rejoicewho delight in my vindication, all who seek you

May they say continually, May they say continually,'Great is the LORD.' who delights 'Great is the LORD!'in the welfare of his servant!' (v. 27) all who love your salvation. (40.16)

As was argued in the earlier chapter, there is no theological content to the speechattributed to the enemies. They say nothing about God, rather, they take delight inthe misfortunes of the psalmist: 'Aha, aha!' In contrast, there is theological contentto what those who rejoice in the psalmist's vindication say: 'Great is the LORD!''Great is the LORD' is typical of praise spoken by those who beholdGod's righteous deeds and acknowledge them (compare 2 Sam. 7.26; Mai. 1.5;1 Chr. 17.24). By attributing two sets of contrasting speeches to her enemies and tothe rest of the community, the psalmist seeks to move both God and community toside with her and against her enemies. Her strategy is intricate and subtle. She doesnot simply contrast those for her with those against her. Rather, she constructs aworld in which those for her are those for God. Using the text of Ps. 40.13-17, notethe way the psalmist draws the lines:

All who seek to snatch away my life All who seek you [God]Those appalled by their shame Those who love your salvationThose who say, 'Aha aha!' Those who say, 'Great is the Lord'

The comparison that the psalmist sets up functions to align God with those whoare on the psalmist's side (note that in Ps. 35.27 God is specifically 'God whodelights in the welfare of his servant') and to align those who are on God's side(who else praises God?) with the God who is already on the psalmist's side. Thepsalmist thus has created an 'unbalanced' comparison. Rather than having bothgroups say contrasting things about herself (perhaps 'aha, aha' compared with 'sheis righteous') or having both groups say contrasting things about God (perhaps'There is no God' compared with 'Great is the Lord'), the psalmist uses an un-balanced comparison in which her enemies simply scorn her but her supporterspraise God.

The community quotations in these psalms thus have two functions. On a socio-logical level, these quotations function to align the community with the psalmistand God. On a theological level, the quotations function to align God with both thepsalmist and those who praise God. One of the common reasons that the psalmistsuse to convince God to answer a prayer is in effect, 'If I die, there will be one lessvoice in the choir.' For example, one psalmist recalls praying, 'What profit is therein my death? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness?' (Ps. 30.9).

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The community quotations in these three psalms amount to a sophisticateddevelopment of that type of reason. The psalmists argue that if God acts, not onlywill they sing God's praises, but the entire community will join in song. If Godchooses not to act, however, then the derisive mocking of the enemies will be theonly refrain.

Psalm 52Psalm 52 is a confession of trust that the present unjust state of the world will betransformed by God, who will judge the wicked. The psalm begins in the style ofdirect address to a person who trusts in his own power: 'Why do you boast, Omighty one , of evil against the faithful All day long you plotdestruction ' (w. 1 -2a).12 The concept of speech is a significant motif in thepsalm. Three different types of speech are contrasted. The first type of speech is theviolent speech of the mighty one: 'Your tongue is like a sharpened razor... Youlove all words that devour, O deceitful tongue' (vv. 3b, 4b). This violent speech ofthe mighty one is a present reality for the psalmist.

The second type of speech in the psalm is the mocking joy that the psalmistimagines the righteous will speak when God has intervened to judge the mightyone: 'The righteous will see and fear, and they will laugh at him: "Theman who did not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of hiswealth, who sought to prevail through his destruction °"' (v. 9). This secondtype of speech will be the mocking laughter of the righteous. This is theonly place in the Psalter where the subject of is anyone other than God (com-pare Pss. 2.4; 37.13; 59.9; 104.26). The verb normally reflects the victory of oneparty over another—in this case, the victory of the LORD over the wicked.14 Bycharacterizing the future speech of the righteous as laughter over the judgement ofthe mighty one, the psalmist casts the conflict between the psalmist and hispersecutors as a conflict in which God is an active agent on the psalmist's side. Theimagined speech of the righteous assumes a transformation of the present order.The mighty one who now flourishes through destruction will becomethe man who was judged because he trusted in his destruction

The psalm closes with a third type of speech: the faithful confession of trust ofthe psalmist in w. 8-9. This confession is no longer direct address to the wicked,but direct address to God. It is no longer the hypothetical future speech of therighteous, but the present confession of trust of the psalmist. The theme oftransformation is continued in this closing speech, as vocabulary introduced earlierin the psalm is retrieved. In v. 1, the psalmist had asked the mighty one why he didevil against 'the faithful' In v. 9, the mighty one was said to t r u s t i nhis wealth. The psalmist now confesses: 'I trust in the steadfast love

of God... I will proclaim your name, for it is good, in the presence of yourfaithful ul ' (w. 1 Ob-lib). The psalm thus ends with the psalmist

12. This translation follows the Svriac, which reflects MT reads LXXprobably reflects for at the end of v. 1 is read with v. 2.

13. Syriac reads 'in his wealth'. The above translation retains MT.14. See Seow, Myth, Drama, and the Politics of David's Dance, pp. 93-97.

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contrasting his own present confession of faith with the present violent speech ofthe enemies.

It should be stressed that the future speech of the righteous is hypothetical; itdoes not yet exist. By quoting the hypothetical, future speech of the righteous inthe present moment, however, the psalmist lends those future words a reality thatfunctions to deny apparent present victory of the wicked. Quoting the future wordsof the righteous also functions to motivate God to act. As was the case with thedirect discourse in Psalms 35, 40, and 70, the community quotation will onlybecome a present reality when God has acted. That is, only when God acts to judgethe wicked, will the communal choir sing.

Psalm 58Psalm 58 is similar to Psalm 52. This psalm also begins in the style of directaddress to a third party—this time to the gods who are accused of plotting violenceagainst the earth (vv. 1-2). The psalm continues with a description of the wicked(vv. 3-5) and then a plea for God to judge the wicked (w. 6-9). The theme ofspeech is again prominent. The wicked 'speak lies' (v. 3) and their mouths arefilled with 'venom' (v. 4). God is implored to 'break their teeth' and 'tear out thefangs' (v. 6). The psalm ends with a promise of the praise that the community willspeak once God has judged the wicked: 'A man will say, "Surely there is a fruit [areward] for the righteous; surely there is a God who judges on earth"' (v. 11).

Similar to the hypothetical quotations of Psalms 35, 40, 70, and 52, this quota-tion is a development of the frequent argument that God should act in order toreceive praise. Once God judges the wicked, the psalmist promises, people willacknowledge that there is both a reward for righteousness and a God who judgeson earth.

Psalm 96Psalm 96, one of the enthronement psalms, is a call to praise addressed to 'all theearth' (v. 1). The enthronement formula itself— —is the phrase that isquoted in direct discourse: 'Say among the nations, "The LORD reigns!"' (v. 10).15

One of the most prominent features of the psalm is the universal sphere claimed forthe LORD'S dominion. The psalm repeatedly asserts the universal scope of Israel'sGod: 'sing to the LORD, all the earth' (v. 1), 'declare his glory among the nations...among all the peoples' (v. 2), 'all the gods of the peoples are idols' (v. 5), 'Ascribeto the LORD, O families of the peoples' (v. 7), 'tremble before him, all the earth'(v. 9), 'he will judge the people with uprightness' (v. 10), and 'he will judge.. .thepeoples in his faithfulness' (v. 13).

Within the psalm's insistence on the universal scope of the LORD'S rule, the key

15. NRSV translates most of v. 10 as a quotation: 'Say among the nations, "The LORD is king!The world is firmly established; it shall never be moved. He will judge the people with equity."' Itis a better solution to understand the quotation to be limited only to the assertion, 'The LORDreigns', as, for example, does NJPS. The primary reason for limiting the quotation is that

constitutes a well-known, well-defined formula that occurs often in the Psalter (see Pss. 47.1;93.1; 97.1; and 99.1).

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assertion of the psalm is found in verse 10: 'The LORD reigns'. This verse isimportant because the formula, 'The LORD reigns', is a compact announcement thatIsrael's God is the true God. It is difficult to capture all of the contours of the verb

in any English translation. The syntax of the Hebrew allows both a nominaldenotation—The LORD has become king—and a verbal denotation—The LORDreigns (actively). The explosive nature of the formula can be seen by the factthat the identical formula was used when new kings usurped the throne: 'Absalomhas become king' 2 Sam. 15.10), and 'Jehu has become king'

2 Kgs. 9.13).16 In the same way that the heralds that Absalom sent tothe tribes of Israel were to announce, 'Absalom reigns', so the people of thecommunity were to become messengers who would announce among the nationsthat 'The LORD reigns'. 'To say "the LORD rules" is to say that the gods whomother nations worship do not. In the thought world of the ancient Near East, nationswere thought of as religious as well as political communities; each had itsparticular god for whom it made claims.'17

The function of the direct discourse in Psalm 96, therefore, can be described asemphasizing the general claim of the psalm. The verb 'to say' marks the followingformula as a specific proclamation that Israel is to issue throughout the world. Theformula, 'the LORD reigns', announces that Israel's God is the true ruler of theuniverse. The qualification that Israel is to proclaim this formula 'among thenations' means that the community is to deny the reality of all other gods and teachall nations to do the same.

Psalm 91Psalm 91 is a wisdom psalm in which the psalmist instructs the audience in propertrust of God. The psalm may be divided into two parts. Verses 1-13 are a didacticpoem addressed to an individual; the poem assures the individual of the protectionof God. Verses 14-16 are a passage of divine speech that seconds the assurancepromised in vv. 1-13. The community quotation functions as a description of thetrusting attitude toward God that the psalmist desires the community to adopt. Thepsalmist says that 'those who dwell in the shelter of the Most High' say to God:'My refuge and my fortress.'18 The words that the community speaks here aretypical of the words spoken in psalms of trust or in the confessions of trust that arefound in individual prayers for help. That is, those whom God protects, show acorresponding trust in God. In vv. 9-10 of the psalm, the psalmist repeats the sametheme using the same vocabulary: 'Because you have made the Lord your refuge,the Most High your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you.' The psalmist desiresthe community to take on such a trusting stance. As Broyles correctly notes, thepsalmist 'seeks to elicit from the hearers a confession' of trust.19

16. See Mowinckel, Psalmen studien, II, pp. 6-10.17. Mays, Psalms, p. 308. Mays has, in fact, argued persuasively that the formula, 'The Lord

reigns', is the 'organizing center for the theology of the psalms' (The Lord Reigns: A TheologicalHandbook to the Psalms (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1994), p. 13).

18. is pointed here as a third-person, qal, imperfect (following LXX) rather than as a first-person, imperfect as in MT.

19. Broyles, Psalms, p. 361.

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Psalm 129A final community quotation is a unique case. As was argued above, the first verseof Psalm 129 contains a liturgical quotation in which the community takes up thewords, 'often have they assailed me since my youth'. The last verse of Psalm 129also contains a community quotation, but of a very different sort. One of theaspects of direct discourse that makes it such a flexible literary device is that,through direct discourse, one not only can quote what a person does say but alsowhat a person does not say. Such a quotation occurs at the end of Psalm 129. Thecommunity asks that all who hate Zion may be like grass that withers, whichreapers do not pick up and binders do not tie: 'And those who pass by do not say,"The blessing of the LORD be with you!" We bless you in the name of the LORD'(v. 8).20 As Ruth 2.4 makes clear, reapers in the field would exchange the greeting,'The LORD be with you', 'the LORD bless you'. Psalm 129, however, envisions theenemies as dead grass, over which such blessing are not spoken. The quotationhere is used to voice a non-entity—that which is not said.

The ending to Psalm 129 thus creates a unique play of real and unreal, spokenand unspoken words. The literal sense of the text is that the quoted words ofblessing are not spoken. If taken in this sense, the words are not real words. Rather,they signify a particular type of silence: a silence consisting of the absence ofblessing. However, the words of the psalm were indeed spoken, perhaps by aliturgical leader and perhaps responsively by the community also.21 Therefore the'unreal' words of the blessing were actually spoken by members of the communityto each other—thus making the words real words of blessing. By saying aloud theblessing that the fictive reapers and binders do not say to each other, the people infact do bless each other 'in the name of the LORD'.

SummaryIn many of these psalms—35, 40, 70, 52, 58—the community quotations can bedescribed as functioning to motivate God to answer the psalmist's prayer. Theyperform this function by arguing that God should rescue the psalmist in order toreceive praise from the community. These quotations are similar to the vow topraise found in the prayers for help; they are promises of praise issued against thetime when God intervenes on the psalmist's behalf. The quotation in Psalm 91describes the stance of faith that the psalmist wants the community to adopt. Thehypothetical community quotations in Psalms 96 and 129 are each unique. Thequotation in Ps. 96.10 is a command to proclaim the reign of the LORD amongthe nations. The citation in 129.8 quotes words of blessing that people will notsay over the enemies, but by speaking this non-quotation, the community in factblesses itself in the name of the LORD.

20. Mays argues that the second half of the verse is not part of the community quotation, but aseparate final blessing spoken by the community (Psalms, p. 405).

21. This is the view of Schreiner, 'Wenn nicht der Herr fur uns ware: Auslegung von Psalm124', pp. 16-25; and Allen, Psalms 101-150, p. 164.

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3. The Rhetorical Function of Community Quotations

i. Community Quotations as Sociological AlignmentOne of the most important rhetorical functions of community quotations is thatthey function to align the psalmist with the community of which she is a part. Thatis, the words that the psalmist calls on the community to speak require that thecommunity affirm both what the psalmist says, and by extension, affirms his placein society. According to the above analysis, in the explicit liturgical quotations, thecommunity affirms or seconds something that the psalmist says, and makes thebelief its own by repeating it. For example, in Psalm 118, the communityacknowledges that the LORD has shown steadfast love to the psalmist, and thus, thecommunity acknowledges the psalmist as a legitimate and full member of thecommunity. The hypothetical community quotations in certain psalms—35,40,70,52,58—perform the same function. In these psalms, the psalmist's distress is eithercaused by or aggravated by the presence in the community of people hostile to thepsalmist. In these psalms, the psalmist does not directly call on the community toside with her against these hostile enemies, but looks ahead to the time when thecommunity will join in praise of God. Without denying that the psalmist genuinelydesires God to act on her behalf, one can interpret these hypothetical quotations asfunctioning to align the community with her.

The linguistic theorists who were discussed in the first chapter offer two theoriesthat illumine why community quotations might function in this fashion. First,according to Clark and Gerrig, one of the functions of quotation is to effectsolidarity between the reporter and the original speaker: 'quotations.. .serve well inthe expression of solidarity, or positive politeness'.22 Second, and related to this,one of the most important features of direct discourse is that it involves a shift inperspective. Wierzbicka wrote: 'The person who reports another's words by quot-ing them, temporarily assumes the role of that other person.'23 Coulmas describedthe perspectival shift in terms of point of view: 'In direct speech the reporter lendshis voice to the original speaker and says (or writes) what he said, thus adopting hispoint of view, as it were.'24 When some reporter takes on the perspective of someoriginal speaker in that original speaker's hearing (as is the case with thecommunity quotations) one effect of this might be for the original speaker to feelsympathy for the position of the reporter. This will especially be the case when thereporter quotes the words of the original speaker in a positive or affirming way orwhen the psalmist takes words that the community normally would say and caststhose words as supporting her position. These are frequently the cases in thecommunity quotations. For example, in Psalm 35, the psalmist invites 'those whodesire my vindication' to say, 'Great is the LORD'. Anyone who is accustomed tosaying 'Great is the LORD'—as one may assume is the case with the worshipping

22. Clark and Gerrig, 'Quotations as Demonstrations', p. 793.23. Wierzbicka, 'Semantics of Direct and Indirect Discourse', p. 272.24. Coulmas, 'Reported Speech', p. 2.

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community—would be cast in a position where repeating that refrain becomes asimultaneous affirmation of the psalmist.

The community quotations—especially the explicit liturgical quotations—alsoeffect this 'alignment' of the community with the psalmist in reverse, by taking theperspective of the psalmist and asking the community to 'quote' it by repeating itin a refrain. This effect may be described from a semantic perspective by sayingthat when the psalmist invites the community to quote him by repeating a refrain,he is seeking to merge the first person singular T of his own perspective with thefirst person plural 'we' of the community. He is creating a pattern of call andresponse in which the dividing wall that separates the T and 'we' can be brokendown. For example, Psalm 129 begins, 'Often have they attacked me since myyouth'. If the congregation repeats this phrase, as they are invited to do, thedistinction between the psalmist's person and the community's person is erased—both are the 'me' who has been attacked since youth. This rhetorical function ofcommunity quotations may be summed up by saying that they function to createsolidarity or allegiance between the reporter and the original speaker by creatingsyntax in which the original speaker speaks from the perspective of the reporterand the reporter speaks from the perspective of the original speaker.

ii. Community Quotations that 'Reproduce' Future EventsIn the formal analysis of the community quotations, it was argued that some of thequotations function to motivate God to answer the psalmists' prayers. This functionwas seen as an extension of the common argument in the psalms that God shouldsave the psalmist because God will be pleased by the psalmist's praise. Thecommunity quotations are rhetorically useful for this purpose because theyreproduce words that have not yet been spoken. By doing so, the hypotheticalcommunity quotations can literally speak in the present that which is promised forthe future.

Two of the functions of quotations that Clark and Gerrig pointed out illustratethis rhetorical effect. First, Clark and Gerrig argued that quotations are useful forverbatim reproduction^ In this function, the words of the original speaker arereproduced as accurately as possible. Second, they pointed out that quotations arealso useful for reproducing impossible demonstrations: 'Some events areimpossible to demonstrate in their entirety, yet speakers can depict some of theiraspects.'26 The reproduction of that which does not exist, or does not yet exist,certainly qualifies as an impossible demonstration. But note that quotations canreproduce impossible demonstrations, and thus the psalmists can quote speech thathas not yet been spoken.27 And the psalmists can use quotation to quote that speechverbatim. In so doing, the psalmists can report to God the exact praise that Godwill receive if God acts on the psalmists' behalf.

25. Clark and Gerrig, 'Quotations as Demonstrations', p. 792.26. Clark and Gerrig, 'Quotations as Demonstrations', p. 794.27. The quotation of the non-speech in Ps. 129.8, in which the words that the reapers will not

say to each other are quoted, is another example of quotation functioning to reproduce animpossible demonstration.

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Psalm 58 is a good example of this function. After petitioning God to judge thewicked, the psalmist reproduces the future:

The righteous one will rejoice when he has seen vengeance.He will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked one.

A man will say, 'Surely there is a reward for the righteous;surely there is a God who judges on earth', (vv. 10-11)

The psalmist quotes verbatim the words that she tells God cannot be spoken in thepresent, the words that will only be spoken after God has done what she wants Godto do—judge the wicked.

iii. Community Quotations as the Voice of the ReaderA third rhetorical function of community quotations is that they provide a voice formodern readers who approach the psalms. Readers, which is a term that is usedhere to signify those who read the psalms silently, pray them aloud, or performthem in worship, seek to find themselves in texts. Mieke Bal has observed that'literature is written by, for, and about people'.28 One ramification of this simpleobservation is to realize that the people who read literature will read it as beingliterature, in part, about themselves. Gunn and Fewell speak of the power ofliterature 'to evoke a world that is like ours.. .to recreate people that we understandand to whom we relate'.29 Because Gunn and Fewell are describing biblical narra-tive, they concentrate on 'people' or 'characters'. This emphasis is less appropriateto poetry such as the psalms than to narrative, however, since the psalms do notfunction by creating characters and plots. But poetry does create voices. Thesevoices do evoke responses in readers and readers will tend to resonate morestrongly to those voices that are like them.

One rhetorical function of the community quotations is that they create a voiceto which readers can relate. The psalms are often written from perspectives that donot resonate immediately with a modern reader's life situation. At any givenmoment, a modern reader may not be in a situation of desperate need such as thosepresupposed by the lament psalms, or in a situation of confident trust such as thosepresupposed by the trust psalms. A reader may find little resonance with the royalideology of those psalms written from the king's perspective, or little affinity withthose psalms that are composed from God's perspective. But when the psalmsexplicitly invite a response from the community, it may be that such quotationslend a language that the psalmist can borrow in order to join in the conversationbetween the psalmists and God.

For example, in Psalm 96, the psalmist commands the community: 'Say amongthe nations, "The LORD reigns"' (v. 10). Many communities that have continuedto read, pray, and sing the Psalter have heard the imperative—say!—as directedat themselves. In a like manner, readers may hear the trifold call to praise of

28. M. Bal, Narratology: Introduction to the Theory ofNarrative (Toronto: Toronto UniversityPress, 1985), p. 80.

29. Gunn and Fewell, Narrative in the Hebrew Bible, p. 47.

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Ps. 118.2-4 not as directed at three vanished groups who once inhabited the templein Jerusalem, but as imperatives directed at themselves:

Let Israel say:'For his steadfast love is eternal.'

Let the house of Aaron say:'For his steadfast love is eternal.'

Let those who fear the LORD say:'For his steadfast love is eternal.'

Readers may even hear the non-blessing that is quoted at the end of Psalm 129 aswords that they can take upon their lips and speak to each other in parting:

'The blessing of the LORD be upon you!We bless you in the name of the LORD!' (v. 8)

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CONCLUSION

The purpose of this study has been to map the contours of direct discourse in theHebrew Psalter. The quotations were analysed according to who speaks them: theenemies, the self, God, or the community. Specific attention was paid to therhetorical function that various quotations play in different psalms and differentpsalm types. The insights of modern linguists who have studied the nature andfunction of quotations were drawn upon in order to help describe the rhetoricalfunction of quotations in the Psalter.

1. Enemy Quotations

The enemy quotations belong to two categories: those that attack God and thosethat attack the psalmist. The enemy quotations that attack God assert the power-lessness of God to intervene as an effective presence in the world; or they attackthe fidelity of God, who allows God's servants to suffer; or they assert that theLORD has been defeated. The accusations that God lacks power or fidelity arecharacteristically found in the individual prayer for help (and psalms related to theindividual prayer for help), while the accusation that God has been defeated ischaracteristically found in the communal prayer for help (and psalms related to thecommunal prayer for help). These enemy quotations often function to provide thecentral arguments that drive the psalms in which they occur, by naming a pressingtheological problem and then addressing this problem through petition, confessionof trust, and instruction. A variety of strategies is used to integrate the enemyquotations into the arguments of the psalms in which they occur. A commonstrategy is for the vocabulary of the enemy quotation to be reversed by the psalmistin the petition and the confession of trust. A second common strategy is for theenemy quotation to occur in the opening phrase or thought of the psalm in order toset up a theological problem that the psalmist answers in the remainder of thepsalm. A third rhetorical strategy is the juxtaposing of the enemy quotation with aGod quotation (the God quotation carries more authority and thus acts to refute orrespond to the enemy quotation). The enemy quotations also often come as theculmination of the they-complaint or comprise the entire they-complaint. Theconsistent occurrence of the enemy quotations as the culmination of the they-com-plaints suggests that the enemy quotations were considered among the strongestcomplaints that the psalmists could raise against the enemies.

The enemy quotations that attack the psalmist display a less consistent pattern ofuse. They are less about what the enemies say and more about to whom and howthe enemies are speaking. These quotations are primarily quoted in order to move

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God to side with the psalmist (who is being attacked by people unfaithful to God).The issue appears to be whether God will be faithful to those who have beenfaithful to God. The psalmist expects this kind of covenant loyalty from God.

Several functions of the enemy quotations can be discerned on the basis ofmodern linguistic theory. First, the enemy quotations can function as the personallament of the psalmists. The psalmists place words in their enemies' mouths thatthey cannot speak themselves. By placing those words in their enemies' mouths,however, the psalmists are able to expand the range of the complaints that they canlevel against God. Second, the enemy quotations can function as the re-per-formance of the enemies' blasphemy. That is, the psalmists quote what the enemiessay so that God will hear the blasphemous words of the enemies and (the psalmistshope) will take vengeance on the enemies.

2. Self Quotations

The self quotations report words spoken in the past, in the present, in the future, orhypothetical words. When words that were spoken in the past are quoted, theymainly function to narrate some prior event in order to support the presentargument of the psalm. The most important variable concerning these quotations,therefore, is what type of argument the psalm as a whole is making. When thesequotations occur in psalms where the main point is to give thanks, they occur aspart of the description of distress and deliverance. In these cases, the psalmistquotes some part of an earlier prayer that God had heard and answered. When thesequotations occur in psalms where the main point is to pray for help, the psalmisteither quotes an earlier act of faithfulness in fulfilling a vow to praise or quotes anearlier act of sin for which forgiveness is now being sought.

Self quotations reporting words spoken in the present occur in individual prayersfor help. In some cases, self quotations function to emphasize the quoted words.When the quotation reports a confession of trust, it emphasizes this expression oftrust as both the psalmist's trust over against the dire present circumstance and thepsalmist's trust over against others who lack trust. When the quotation reports apetition for help, the quotation emphasizes the plea by weighting it with extraurgency. The self quotations can also serve to de-emphasize the quotation inset—as in Psalms 55 and 77. In such cases, the quotation performs the function ofshowing the limited human perspective from which the words are spoken. Thus,self-quotations can both emphasize and de-emphasize; the context in which a selfquotation occurs determines its function.

Psalm 35 is the only example of a self quotation that reports words to be spokenin the future. In this psalm, the quotation functions as a down payment on thepraise the psalmist promises to speak if God will save the psalmist.

Hypothetical self quotations are a very flexible device, so much so, that theirfunction cannot be defined too narrowly. The basic function of such quotations isto posit a possibility that has not yet come into existence so that the psalmist canplay off of this 'possibility' in some way. The quotation may posit a way of life

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that the psalmist rejects, or posit a prayer that God would answer if the psalmistwere to ask it, or posit something about God that the psalmist denies.

Self quotations re-perform past actions that the psalmist wants God toexperience again. They also serve to characterize the psalmists in certain ways fortheir audiences. By quoting particular words, the psalmists 'show' a specific side ofthemselves that they want their audiences—usually God—to see. The enemyquotations and self quotations also both function to instruct—to teach the readerwhat to say and what not to say.

3. God Quotations

The quotations that concern the monarchy, that occur in festival psalms, or thatprecede petitions are cited because of their authority. The God quotations in thesepsalms—most likely drawn from the theological tradition—function as authoritativetexts and are being used and reused in new contexts for new rhetorical goals. In thefestival psalms, the God quotations are responses to liturgical actions of the people,such as praising God, and in all four psalms a commandment or commandmentsare included in the God quotation. This functions to connect the liturgical andethical dimensions of life. The two responses that God demands of the people—sacrifice/worship and obedience/ethics—are not separated but are rather heldtogether. The God quotations in these psalms also function as a response to thetheological problem of sin. In these psalms, God is not silent or absent as theenemies so often assert, but speaks and takes action. These psalms give a divineanswer to the problem of sin and the seeming absence of God. These divineanswers can be heard as God's response both to the frequent charge of the enemiesthat 'God does not hear' and to the frequent plea of the psalmist, 'Answer me,OGod!'

In those psalms in which the God quotations precede the petition, the function ofthe God quotations that precede the petitions depends more on which audience aninterpreter imagines for the psalm than upon any other variable. If the impliedaudience of a psalm is thought of as God, then the quotation is to be interpreted asa reminder to God of promises made in the past that now seem endangered. If theimplied audience for a psalm is imagined as a community praying to God, then thequotation is to be understood as an assurance of God's fidelity. One interpretationneed not exclude the other. In a communal worship setting, for a worship leader toinclude a quotation of God's earlier promises in a prayer will serve both to remindGod that God should keep those promises, and also serve to remind the communitythat God has made such a promise and—presumably—that God will keep thosepromises. Seen in this light, it is a mistake to force a choice between these twointerpretations.

In those psalms in which a God quotation offers assurance, the divine speechcomes either at the end of the psalm or prior to a confession of trust. This type ofquotation does not occur in any fixed type of psalm, but is found in a prayer forhelp, a communal psalm of trust, and a wisdom psalm.

Last, the God quotations can serve as a representation of the power of God. That

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Conclusion 149

is, they describe God's ability or intention to do some action. Clark and Gerrigargued that one of the functions for which quotations are useful is performing'impossible demonstrations'.1 The actions of God certainly fall under the categoryof impossible demonstrations. It would, for example, be impossible for a reporterto 'demonstrate' God's will to impose mortality upon human beings, but the psalm-ist can convey that meaning by use of direct discourse, as in Ps. 90.3, where thepsalmist quotes the word of God: 'Turn back O mortals.'

God quotations function in the Psalter first to construct society. The voice ofGod carries more authority than that of human beings, so ethical instruction isplaced in God's voice. Second, God is characterized through these quotations: Godis characterized to God (in those quotations that precede petitions) and to humans(in those quotations that offer assurance or represent God's power). Thesequotations especially function to emphasize that the cult is the medium of God'sintervention in the world and that God does take action to protect the weak andpowerless.

4. Community Quotations

The community quotations fall into two categories: those that represent theliturgical voice of the community and those that represent what the psalmist wishesthe community to speak. The former quotations function to second or affirm somebelief that the psalmist wishes the community to adopt. By speaking the appro-priate refrain, the community accepts the proffered belief and adopts it as its own.The latter quotations function to motivate God to answer the psalmist's prayer.They perform this function by arguing that God should rescue the psalmist in orderto receive praise from the community. These quotations are similar to the vow topraise found in the prayers for help (and to the self quotation of Psalm 35 thatreports future speech of the psalmist); they are promises of praise issued against thetime when God intervenes on the psalmist's behalf.

In accord with linguistic theories of quotation, the quotations function to alignthe community with the psalmist—merging the T of the psalmist with the 'we' ofthe community. These quotations also serve to 'reproduce' future words—that is,to praise God for what God has not yet done (and to promise more such praise onceGod has done it). Finally, the quotations help the reader find a place in the psalms.Such quotations are often introduced by verbs of speaking in the imperative mood.The reader can understand such imperatives as directed at himself or herself. InPsalm 96, for example, the psalmist commands the community: 'Say among thenations, "The LORD reigns" ' (v. 10). A reader could do worse than to echo such athought.

1. Clark and Gerrig, 'Quotations as Demonstrations', p. 794.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Allen, L., Psalms 101-150 (WBC, 21;Waco, TX: Word Books, 1983).Alter, R., The Art of Biblical Narrative (New York: Basic Books, 1983).—The Art of Biblical Poetry (New York: Basic Books, 1985).Austin, J.L., How to Do Things with Words (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,

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University Press, 1959).Brichto, H.C., Toward a Grammar of Biblical Poetics: Tales of the Prophets (New York:

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1956).Clark, H.H. and R.R. Gerrig, 'Quotations as Demonstrations', Language 66 (1990), pp. 764-

805.Clark, H.H., Using Language (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).Coulmas, F., (ed.), Direct and Indirect Speech (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1986).—'Reported Speech: Some General Issues', in F. Coulmas, (ed.), Direct and Indirect Speech

(Berlin: de Gruyter, 1986), pp. 1-12.Craigie, P.C., Psalms 1-50 (WBC, 19; Waco, TX: Word Books, 1983).Crim, K.R., 'Hebrew Direct Discourse as a Translation Problem', BT24 (1973), pp. 311-36.

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Dahood, M., Psalms (3 vols.; The Anchor Bible; Garden City: Doubleday, 1966-70).Davidson, D., 'Quotation', in F. Coulmas (ed.), Inquiries in Truth and Interpretation (Oxford:

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INDEXES

INDEX OF REFERENCES

BIBLE

Genesis2.5

Exodus5.215.1115.1320.14-1623.16-1928.3031.18

Leviticus8.823.24-2523.33-43

Numbers5.11-281328

Deuteronomy6.48.1720.329.2133.8

Joshua13.21

Ruth2.4

67

427446, 4710810893126

93108108

1103765

10762637393

104

141

7 Samuel1-32.2-833.1323.2628

2 Samuel4.477.2615.1015.25

1 Kings9.131818.1718.27

2 Kings4.247.47.159.25-2618.33-35

7 Chronicles17.24

2 Chronicles32.13-15

847455556393

6310013714046, 47

14042, 4512640, 42

7575639240

137

40

Ezra2.63

Nehemiah7.65

Job1.510.213.2332.738.340.3-440.740.23

Psalms2

2.1-32.3

2.4-92.4-62.42.52.6

93

93

80646411464656563

40, 48, 4984, 90, 9194, 95, 9798, 103,105, 106,111, 124-26, 128,12948, 10321, 22, 28,10410482, 103138101, 11748

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Index of References 157

2.7-9

2.7

2.82.10-1133.1-33.279-10

99.89.1910

10.1-1110.4

10.6

10.11

10.1210.13

10.1410.1510.1611

11.1-312

12.112.2-412.2-312.212.312.4-512.4

48, 82,10321, 89, 94,104, 12995, 104103, 10428, 39, 493928, 398829, 30, 32,49, 8828, 291042928, 29, 33,552921, 28, 29,33, 5428, 29, 62,8028, 29, 54,572928, 29, 54,8029302827, 31, 33,492830-32, 43,48, 49,88-90, 93,118, 121,122, 124,126, 128,12930, 12130, 12130, 12130308, 2830, 121

12.5

12.6

12.7-812.712.111313.514

14.1

14.214.4-514.514.71515.11616.116.2-416.2-316.2

16.821.8-122222.122.7-822.822.1022.202424.325.527.827.1227.14282929.1-229.129.3-829.329.5-729.9-10

20, 30,121, 12230, 36, 82,121, 12230, 12130, 1224850, 524933, 44, 49,50, 885, 10, 26,28, 54, 80333333, 823333222, 6825682222, 23, 67,68628433, 34, 495326, 34, 3927, 28, 3368343326860, 821228488134-36134135134134135134

29.929.1030

30.1-530.230.3-430.6-1030.6-830.6

30.8-1030.9-1130.9-1030.930.11-1230.1131

31.14-1631.14-1531.1431.1531.19-2431.19-2131.21-2231.2131.2231.23-2431.2332

32.1-232.3-732.3-432.5

32.6-732.8-932.1133.16-1734.7-1034.11-1435

131, 134104, 13521,61,63-65, 77,78, 81626264626226, 61, 62,77, 80216261, 62, 7813762, 786222, 23, 62,68, 88222322, 67, 68236263636361, 63, 666311428, 63, 78,81, 9063636461, 63, 64,78, 818282, 1316333848250-52, 74,79, 90,123, 136,

157

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158 Many are Saying

35.1-1035.1-335.3

35.8-1035.9-1035.1035.11-1835.13-1535.19-2835.21

35.25

35.2635.27

3637.133838.1-438.15-1838.16-1738.1638.1738.1839

39.139.239.3-939.439.5-1339.5-639.739.839.9-1139.939.1139.1340

Psalms (cont.)137, 139,141, 142,147, 1497412382, 84, 92,1232674, 7960, 6174747411, 49,50,13711,49,51,8050, 13751, 131,137881386969697067, 707069, 7023, 24, 64,65, 67, 78,8161, 8023, 242423, 24, 61652424646524642450, 52, 66,67, 136,

40.240.540.7-1040.7-840.740.840.13-17

40.15

40.16

41

41.1-341.4-1241.4

41.541.841.11-1341.1241.1342-43

42.1-442.3

42.442.5-642.6-1042.642.742.942.10

42.1143-4343.1-443.143.243.3-443.343.544.4

139, 141,1426660666661, 666650, 66,136, 13711, 49, 50,13750, 51,131, 13749, 51, 63,6449, 636351, 61, 63,6449, 513,49, 5149516340, 44, 70,7344, 7026, 28, 40,45, 7145, 464444, 70454567, 7028, 40, 45,7144, 464044, 704568, 70454544, 4633

44.646

46.1-746.1-346.1-246.2-346.246.346.4-646.446.646.7-946.7

46.8-946.846.946.10

46.11

47.147.24848.248.64949.1650

50.1-650.150.250.350.450.550.650.7-15

3347, 89, 90,118, 120,122, 124,126, 128,129118118118119120119118118118, 119119118, 119,13111811911921, 82, 93,118, 119118, 119,1311391354747631119384, 86,88-90,106-12,114, 119,124, 125,128, 12910710710710710782, 10710721, 82,107

Page 172: Many Are Saying': The Function of Direct Discourse in the Hebrew Psalter (JSOT Supplement Series)

Index of References 159

50.750.14-1550.16-2350.16-2050.17-1850.2150.22-2350.2250.2352

52.1-252.152.252.352.452.752.8-952.952.10-1153

53.153.4-653.555

55.4-855.6-855.655.955.1555.16-1855.22-2355.235757.7-1158

58.1-258.3-558.358.458.6-958.658.10-1158.1159

107, 10810782,107107125108130107109, 112138, 139,141, 14213813813813813813113813813833, 44, 49,50, 84, 8628, 54, 80338271, 73, 74,88, 147726772727272277288115139, 141,142, 144139139139139139139144131, 13934, 48, 49

59.6-859.7

59.9

59.12

59.1360

60.1-560.1-460.5-1260.5

60.6-8

60.860.9-1060.10-1160.1160.1260.1362.263.26464.3-764.5-664.664.864.96666.3-466.366.5-1266.13-1966.13-1466.1666.1966.206868.1268.22-236969.35-3669.35

3421,28, 34,3836, 122,13831, 36,1223688, 96, 97,114-18,124, 126-28117115114, 11597, 115,11682, 97,11589115116115, 11611533626834, 49, 883528, 54, 57353535135, 13613513113513513613613613689, 1248282, 12496, 979696

70

70.370.47171.471.771.971.10-1171.1071.1171.1371.1871.247272.673

73.8-973.11

73.13-1573.1373.15

73.1773.1874

74.4-874.875

75.175.2-5

75.275.575.6-975.675.775.10

76

50, 52,136, 139141, 14211, 4913111,393939403928, 39113940, 743984, 868335, 36, 5875, 1113528, 35, 547536, 753636, 75,11136, 11112233, 40, 4647, 494628, 4788-90,106, 109-12, 114,124, 125128, 12910982, 109,11011011011011011082, 109,11047

Page 173: Many Are Saying': The Function of Direct Discourse in the Hebrew Psalter (JSOT Supplement Series)

160 Many are Saying

77.1-977.7-1077.7-977.777.1077.11-2077.1677.197878.178.9-1178.19-2278.19-2178.1978.2278.6078.67-7079

79.479.579.6-1279.10

79.1279.13-1479.1879.2281

81.1-581.181.281.3-481.581.6-1681.6-781.8-1081.1181.1382

Psalms (cont.)77 72, 74, 76,

1477372602167, 7373737337, 58, 5937, 583737372837373740, 42, 43,46, 49, 5743444326, 28, 40,42-454346464684, 86,88-90,106, 108-12, 114,124, 125,128, 1291121081351081088210810810910984, 86, 89,

82.1-782.182.2-482.282.3-482.382.582.6-882.6-782.682.883

83.483.1183.12848585.8-1386.286.586.1587

87.487.587.687.788.589

89.1-1889.1-489.189.2-389.289.3-4

89.389.4

98, 113,114, 124,126, 127114113, 11482, 11311311311411382, 11311411411440, 43, 46,47, 4928, 4646, 104284788, 898468686847, 89, 90,13113113182, 13121, 1316384, 89-91,98, 101,103, 104,106, 111,114, 124,126, 127,1291011011012110121, 82,101129101

89.5-1489.5-889.6-789.889.9-1489.9-1089.1389.1489.17-1889.1789.19-3789.19

89.2189.22-2489.22-2389.2489.2589.a2689.2789.28-2989.30-3489.35-3789.3589.38-5189.38-3989.39-5289.40-4289.4289.43-4589.4789.5089.5290.290.3

90.1391

91.1-13

91.291.591.9-10

10110110274101102102102101101, 10282, 101101, 103,104102, 103103102, 128102102, 103102, 128102, 103102102, 127102117,12810110310310310310310310310312382, 123,124, 14912489, 90, 97,111, 118,120, 122,124, 126,129, 140,141120, 121,14013193140

Page 174: Many Are Saying': The Function of Direct Discourse in the Hebrew Psalter (JSOT Supplement Series)

Index of References 161

91.14-16

91.1491.1593.194

94.4-894.7

94.1194.12-2394.1895

95.1-295.3-595.695.7-1195.795.8-995.895.10-1195.1095.1196

96.196.296.596.696.796.996.10

96.1397.198.499.1100.1102102.1102.3

82, 93,120, 121,1402195, 9613938, 49, 75,763825, 28, 39,54, 5738767588-90,106, 109-12, 114,124, 125,128, 12910910910910910910910982, 109109109139-41,14413913913962139139131, 139-41, 144,149139139135139135707070

102.11-13102.17102.18-20102.20102.23-24102.24-27102.24102.28104.7104.26105105.11105.15

105.49106.1107.1108

108.1-4108.6-13108.6108.7-13108.7-9108.7108.10108.13109.6-19110

110.1-3110.1

110.2-3110.2110.3110.4-7

110.4

110.5-7113.5115

70707070707067, 7070631381248221, 22, 82,123, 12411713213289, 114-18, 124,126-28114114115, 1161158289115332783, 84, 90,91, 97, 98,105, 106,111, 124,126, 12983, 10582, 83, 95,105, 1291051068383, 105,10682, 89,105, 1281057440, 44, 48,49

115.1-2115.2

115.3115.4-8115.9-11116116.4116.6116.7116.10-11116.10

116.11

116.13116.17117.1118

118.1-4118.1118.2-4118.2118.3118.4118.5-28118.18118.19-20118.20118.25-27118.26-27118.28118.29119.123119.82120.1120.2121.3122122.1-2122.8-9122.8123.2124

124.1-3124.1

4426, 28, 40,454444131, 13265, 7861, 65, 786646, 656534, 61, 667861, 63, 66786565132131, 132136, 142131-33132132, 145131, 13313113113213213313113113368131-33606060606247216060104133, 134136133131

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162 Many are Saying

126.2-3129

129.1-2129.1129.8

132

132.1-10132.1-9132.1132.2132.3-7132.3-5132.6-9132.8132.9132.10-16132.10132.11-18132.11-13132.11-12132.11

132.12132.14-18132.14-16132.14132.16132.17-18132.17136137137.3137.7137.8139139.7-12

Psalms (cont.'126 88

26, 59133, 134,136, 141,143, 145133131141, 143,1455, 6, 47,84, 85, 90,91, 96-98,100, 106,111, 118,124, 126,129989998-100989698, 999999999999, 10098, 100996, 82, 996, 89, 98,99, 128,1299921, 82, 999999999999, 101131, 13240, 4728284175-7776

139.8-11139.8139.11140140.6-8140.6142142.5146.3

Proverbs6.1912.519.519.924.524.25

Isaiah1.92.261010.5-1910.9-1013.2-14.2314.12-1414.29-3228.62929.153636.18-203737.437.10-1237.1337.14-1737.1740-6640.1840.2541.8-1341.1041.14-1641.1441.21-2443.1-31

75757522, 23, 682223, 67, 6868, 6967, 6833

122122122122122122

76328445404092389236, 1225738, 5441, 45, 574057, 58575757575760414184123841234184

43.143.343.543.22-2844.2-544.84547.148.17-1949.449.749.14-1551.7-853.854.4-862.6-7

Jeremiah3.19-205.129.1-29.3-912.420.1-623.925.3025.5030.10-113132.1-346-5146.27-2850.4251.33

Lamentations3.183.543.57

Ezekiel3.26-2788.7-138.1299.1024.27

123123844184304141841148484846384116

114387272381261174647

84

6612660844141

316384

64575454575464

Page 176: Many Are Saying': The Function of Direct Discourse in the Hebrew Psalter (JSOT Supplement Series)

Index of References 163

28.1832.3033.22

Daniel9.2710.15

Hosea1-24-14

Joel1.41.61.112.172.20

Ezekiel (cont.)3110464

3064

6060

41414140-42, 4541

Amos4.27.12-13

Jonah12.4

Micah1.55.47.8-207.97.107.18

Habakhuh2.3

117126

9363, 67

104104414140, 41,4541

122

Zephaniat3.7

Zechariah2.79.1-11.3

Malachi1.5

Mark15.2-3

Acts2.34-3513.32-34

QUMRAN4QPs 89

2

129129

102

NEW TESTAMENT

114

4192

137

Page 177: Many Are Saying': The Function of Direct Discourse in the Hebrew Psalter (JSOT Supplement Series)

INDEX OF AUTHORS

Allen, L. 100, 134, 141Alter, R. 1, 17-19Austin, J.L. 16, 17, 56, 77, 127

Bal,M. 144Baumgartner, W. 30Begrich, J. 84, 85, 87, 88, 92, 93, 120,

123Bellinger, W.H. 83, 88, 89Berlin, A. 1, 17, 18Borger, R. 93Botterweck, G.J. 33Bouzard, W.C. Jr. 42, 43Brichto,H.C. 17-19Brown, W.G. 105Broyles, C.G. 123, 140Brueggemann, W. 36, 111, 121Budde, K. 113, 114

Church, A. 7, 13Clark, H.H. 9-13, 18, 53, 56, 58, 78, 124,

126, 142, 143, 149Coulmas, F. 7, 8, 10, 14, 52, 53, 77, 142Craigie, P.C. 30, 69, 108, 119, 120, 123,

135Crim,K.R. 20Cross, F.M. 101, 134Criisemann, F. 132-34

Dahood, M. 46Davidson, D. 7, 13Dobbs-Allsopp, F.W. 104

Ebeling, E. 74Edgerton, W.F. 94

Fewell, D.N. 17-19, 79-81, 128, 144Foster, B.R. 74

Fox, M. 20Fraser, B. 17Fretheim, T. 99, 100

Gerrig, R.R. 9-13, 18, 53, 56, 58, 78,124, 126, 142, 143, 149

Gerstenberger, E.S. 2, 64, 70, 71Gillingham, S.E. 1Goffmann, E. 7, 10Gordis,R. 20, 27Gunkel, H. 35, 41, 46, 86, 87, 90, 91, 94,

100, 108, 116Gunn, D. 17-19, 79-81, 128, 144

Haldar, A. 87, 88, 94Killers, D. 41, 96Hirose, Y. 7Hossfeld, F.-L. 66, 69, 70, 82, 90, 92,

111, 119, 123, 135

Jermi, E. 33Jeremias, J. 88, 106, 113Johnson, A. 87, 117Jungling, H.-W. 114

Keel,O. 95, 135Koehler, L. 30Koenen, K. 90, 92, 111Kraus, H.-J. 34, 35, 42, 46, 70, 83, 105,

106, 108, 110, 117, 134Kugel,J. 1

Levinson, S. 11Li, C. 7Limburg, J. 2, 41Lonergan, B.J.F. 2

Mays, J.L. 28, 37, 39, 45, 47, 65, 70, 83,

Page 178: Many Are Saying': The Function of Direct Discourse in the Hebrew Psalter (JSOT Supplement Series)

Index of Authors 165

100, 103, 105, 106, 109, 112, 140,141

McCann, J.C. 58, 62, 64, 68Meier, S.A. 20, 60Mettinger, T.N.D. 100Miller, C. 20, 21, 25Miller, P.D. 1-3, 28, 31, 43, 44, 57, 82,

84, 95-97, 113, 116, 117, 121, 122,132

Miosi, F.T. 92Morawski, S. 7Mowinckel, S. 30, 84-86, 94, 104, 105,

113, 115, 116, 120, 122, 140

Nasuti, H.P. 83, 89, 90, 92-94, 111, 112,117, 119

Neyrey, J.H. 114

O'Connor, M. 1, 20, 30, 31, 104, 113

Partee, B. 7Paul, S. 104Preuss, H.D. 120Prinsloo, G.T.M. 31

Quine, W.V.O. 13

Renz, J. 96, 117Ringgren, H. 33Roberts, J.J.M. 47, 94Robinson, D. 16Rollig, W. 96, 117

Savran, G.W. 20Schreiner, J. 134, 141Searle,J.R. 17, 56, 77Seow, C.L. 99, 100, 138Seybold, K. 105Spieckermann, H. 90Starbuck, S.R.A. 83, 90, 91, 93, 94, 105,

117, 120Sternberg, M. 12-19, 53, 56, 58, 77, 78,

97, 125-27

Tate, M. 35, 46, 102, 103, 116, 121Tournay, R.J. 82, 91Trible, P. 17

vonRad, G. 94, 104

Wade, E. 9, 13Waltke, B.K. 30, 31, 104, 113Watson, W.G.E. 1Weis,R.D. 92Weiser, A. 100Westermann, C. 2, 28, 33, 37, 55, 92, 93Whitley, C.F. 30Wierzbicka, A. 7-10, 14, 52, 53, 77, 78,

127, 142Williams, RJ. 43, 67, 76Wilson, J.A. 94Wilson, R.R. 84, 88

Zenger, E. 66, 69, 119, 123, 135