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Authorship, date, and setting
The eighteen Psalms of Solomon are Jewish poems attributed to Solomon in their title, without making the king their historical author. Crawford Howell Toy connects references to Jerusalem's invasion and the invader's death with Pompey, who took the city in 63 BCE and died in 48 BCE; he proposes 70–40 BCE for the collection. This is a historical interpretation of the poems, not a date they state. The surviving Greek may translate a lost Hebrew original; the translation's date is uncertain.
Structure of the eighteen psalms
Poems 1–2 move from arrogant prosperity to invasion and judgment on the conqueror. Psalms 3–8 alternate trust, criticism of leaders, and petitions amid war. In 9–16, confession, correction, protection, and hope for Israel appear in prayers spoken by different voices. Psalms 17–18 close with hope for a just Davidic ruler and a further appeal for divine mercy. This numbering matches the eighteen local chapters.
Themes and key passages
Psalm 2 sets the invader's violence beside the judgment that overtakes him. In 3:12, hope for the righteous reaches beyond death; in 8, public disaster also prompts scrutiny of Jerusalem's own failings. Psalm 11 summons the city to receive the scattered. In 17, the request for a son of David joins legitimate rule, justice, and Israel's reunion. Psalm 18 stresses mercy and correction. Communal lament and personal prayer speak in different registers throughout the collection.
Summary by parts
1–4: The speaker acknowledges the community's presumption. Foreign attack, profanation, and the aggressor's fall follow; blessing for the righteous contrasts with criticism of a man whose pious appearance conceals his conduct.
5–8: Requests for provision, protection, and God's nearness lead to a picture of war in Jerusalem. Psalm 8 holds local leaders responsible too, rather than blaming the crisis wholly on the foreign enemy.
9–16: Memory of exile opens a sequence of confession and trust. The trumpet of Psalm 11 announces the scattered people's return; other poems seek rescue from slander, praise divine correction, and distinguish the fate of the devout from that of the violent.
17–18: Psalm 17 asks for a ruler descended from David to cleanse Jerusalem and govern justly. The last poem returns to God's goodness toward Israel and hope associated with the anointed one.
Reception and manuscripts
The Jewish Encyclopedia notes that the work is outside the Septuagint and that the known text survives in Greek and translations from it. When and why the poems received Solomon's name remain uncertain. These eighteen poems should be distinguished from both the biblical Psalter and the Odes of Solomon; their conflicts belong to Jewish life near the end of the Second Temple period.
Sources
- Crawford Howell Toy, Psalms of Solomon, The (1906).