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'Half Way between Psalm 119 and Ben Sira
Citation for published version:
Klein, A 2013, 'Half Way between Psalm 119 and Ben Sira: Wisdom and Torah in Psalm 19. in U Schipper
& A Teeter (eds), Wisdom and Torah: The Reception of Torah in the Wisdom Literature of the Second
Temple Period. Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism, vol. 163, Brill, pp. 119-136.
<http://www.brill.com/wisdom-and-torah>
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Wisdom and Torah
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© Klein, A. (2014). 'Half Way between Psalm 119 and Ben Sira: Wisdom and Torah in Psalm 19. In U. Schipper,
& A. Teeter (Eds.), Wisdom and Torah. (pp. 119-136). (Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism).
Leiden: Brill.
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Download date: 10. Aug. 2022
1
Half Way Between Psalm 119 and Ben Sira:
Wisdom and Torah in Psalm 19
Anja Klein
1. Introduction
The close relationship between wisdom and torah in Ps 19 has long been recognised.
Recently, Alexandra Grund has demonstrated that Ps 19 can be interpreted in the context
of post-exilic torah wisdom.
1
Though the historical setting of the psalm is quite undis-
puted in modern scholarship, there is still room to discuss the literary and hermeneutical
framework that made the interweaving of the two concepts possible. Contributing to this
discussion, the following article will focus on the question, whether Ps 19 can indeed be
seen as part of an ongoing literary discourse about the relationship between wisdom and
torah. It will be demonstrated that Ps 19 serves as an important link merging the torah
theology of Ps 119 with other wisdom literature from the Hebrew Bible. As such, the
psalm can rightly be seen as a precursor for the teaching of Ben Sira.
The starting point will be some textual observations on Ps 19 that investigate its literary
unity and the underlying concept of torah and wisdom. The second part will focus on the
relationship between Ps 19 and Ps 119. Here we will argue that Ps 19 represents a sapien-
tial exegesis of Ps 119. A third section deals with the literary traces of Ps 19 in the post-
biblical wisdom of Ben Sira. Finally, the results will allow for some concluding remarks,
seeing Ps 19 as part of an exegetical discussion that aims at understanding torah in the
framework of a sapiential worldview.
2. Textual Observations
Ignoring its heading with the attribution to David in V 1, Ps 19 falls into three clear-cut
parts: While V 2-7 take the shape of a hymn to creation, V 8-11 form a hymnic praise of
the torah. The Psalm is concluded by a prayer of an individual in V 12-15, in which the
1
Alexandra Grund, “Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes”: Psalm 19 im Kontext der nachexilischen
Toraweisheit (WMANT 103; Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 2004).
2
speaker meditates upon his relationship to the law. This tripartite division has long deter-
mined the exegesis of Ps 19. Older form-critical scholarship concentrated on the break
between hymn and praise and differentiated between two independent psalms: a hymn of
creation in V 2-7 and a torah psalm in V 8-15.
2
More recent exegesis, by contrast, main-
tains the general unity of God’s praise in both creation and torah, while the prayer in V
12-15 is generally seen as being a later addition.
3
Though I accept the general unity of
creation and torah, I am not yet convinced that the prayer in the last part is the result of
redactional reworking. The reasons shall be explained below.
The superscription in V 1 labels the psalm as a work of David, which fits well into the
context of the first Davidic Psalter in Ps 3-41. The first part of the main body in V 2-7 can
be divided further into a hymnic account of God’s praise in creation in V 2-5a and the
glory of the sun’s circuit in V 5b-7. The hymnic account (V 2-5a) shows the regular metre
of parallelismus membrorum: it starts with two parallel nominal clauses in V 2 that
characterize the heavens and the firmament as being heralds of God’s glory and the work
of his hands (עיקרה דיגמ וידי השעמו לא דובכ םירפסמ םימשה). With V 3, the style changes to
verbal clauses describing the action of day and night: here, day to day is said to pour forth
speech and night to night makes known knowledge ( עד הוחי הלילל הלילו רמא עיבי םויל םוית ).
The verbal clauses of V 3 are continued in V 5, which complements the temporal procla-
mation of day and night with the territorial dimension: ‘Their measuring
4
has gone forth
into all the earth, and their words to the extremity of the world’ ( י ץראה לכב הצקבו םוק אצ
םהילמ לבת). This verse poses a number of difficulties. First of all there is the problem to
what the subjects – indicated by a plural suffix each (םוק, םהילמ) – refer. Contrary to the
usual explanation that sees the heavens from V 2 as the subject,
5
I would like to link the
2
See exemplary Hermann Gunkel, Die Psalmen (6th ed; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1986), 74-
81.
3
Cf. p.e. Herrmann Spieckermann, Heilsgegenwart: Eine Theologie der Psalmen (FRLANT 148; Göttin-
gen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1989), 60-72; Frank-Lothar Hossfeld and Erich Zenger, Die Psalmen:
Psalm 1-50 (NEB 29; Würzburg: Echter, 1993), 128-30. Opposed to this, Peter C. Craigie and Marvin E.
Tate, Psalms 1-50 (WBC 19; Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2004), 179-80, and especially Grund, Himmel, 60-
70, argue for the literary unity of the psalm.
4
The translation follows Grund, Himmel, 22; cf. in the following and note 6.
5
Cf. Spieckermann, Heilsgegenwart, 63; similarly Grund, Himmel, 28-9.
3
verse to the preceding context in V 3. What has gone out over the world is the proclama-
tion of day and night: ‘their measuring’ and ‘their word’. Similarly, the difficult reading
of םוק as ‘their measuring’ should be retained.
6
It has a parallel in Job 38:5 that allows for
an understanding of the term וק as referring to the divine creational order.
7
Apparently, in
Ps 19 this order is reflected by the structuring of day and night as the work of God.
However, in between V 3 and V 5, V 4 is rather awkward. In contrast to the preceding V
3, V 4 denies the existence of speech and words, thus revoking the possibility of oral
transmission by day and night. It is especially the negative resumption of the word רמא
(‘speech’) from V 3 in V 4 that makes any explanation along the lines of a different
quality of speech difficult.
8
Rather, the inconsistency should be explained by seeing V 4
as a later reworking that denies the cosmic elements comprehensible speech and makes
them inferior to torah.
9
The second subdivision in V 5b-7 describes the circuit of the sun, for which ‘he has
pitched a tent in them’ (םהב להא םש שמשל, V 5b). It is clear that this statement refers back
to V 2 implying that God made a dwelling for the sun. As such, the sun is singled out as
being a special example for the work of his hands (וידי השעמ, V 2). Its circuit is compared
to the bountiful stride of a groom from his chamber that covers the whole cosmic sphere
(V 6-7a), so that nothing is hidden from its heat (ותמחמ רתסנ ןיאו, V 7b). The section stands
6
The reading םוק in the MT has been vigorously debated, as the understanding of וק in terms of measuring
has been judged as being difficult to understand. Scholarship has usually been led by the witness of the
LXX that translates fqo,ggoj auvtw/n and could suggest a Hebrew Vorlage םלוק (‘their voice’); cf. Spieckermann,
Heilsgegenwart, 60; Hossfeld and Zenger, Psalmen, 130-31; Klaus Seybold, Die Psalmen (HAT I/15; Tübingen:
Mohr Siebeck, 1996), 85; Craigie and Tate, Psalms 1-50, 178. However, Grund rightly points out that the variant
of the MT not only presents the more difficult reading from a text critical point of view, but also makes sense in
reference to the measure offered by the divine creational order, cf. in detail Grund, Himmel, 26-8.
7
Cf. Job 38:5: ק הילע הטנ ימ וא עדת יכ הידממ םש ימו (‘Who determined its measurements - surely you know! Or
who stretched the measuring-line upon it?’).
8
So Craigie and Tate, Psalms 1-50, 181 (“the paradox of ‘inaudible noise’”); similarly argued by Hossfeld
and Zenger, Psalmen, 132, and Grund, Himmel, 108-12.
9
Cf. Spieckermann, Heilsgegenwart, 60, 64. Oswald Loretz, “Ugaritologische und kolometrische An-
merkungen zu Ps 19A,” UF 18 (1986): 223-30, 224, mainly because of metric reasons, assumes a literary
gloss.
4
out from its context as the poetic metre changes from bicola to tricola. This can, however,
be explained as being a poetic reflection of the sun’s circuit.
10
The second part of Ps 19 in V 8-11 comprises a beautifully composed praise of torah. It
consists of a series of eight bicola, the first six of which show a recurring composition.
The introductory naming of the ‘torah of Yhwh’ (הוהי תרות) in V 8a is varied with five
different terms in the following half verses: ‘testimony of Yhwh’ (הוהי תודע, V 8b),
‘stipulations of Yhwh’ (הוהי ידוקפ, V 9a), ‘commandment of Yhwh’ (הוהי תוצמ, V 9b), ‘fear
of Yhwh’ (הוהי תארי, V 10a) and ‘regulations of Yhwh’ (הוהי יטפשמ, V 10b). Significant is
the inclusion of the fear of Yhwh that represents not only the sole exception of a genetivus
obiectivus amongst a series of subjective genitives, but also applies a sapiential concept to
the notion of torah. All six terms open up a nominal clause in the first half of the bicola
describing the character of the torah. The first characteristic is exceptional here as the
adjective המימת attributes cultic and ethical perfection to the הוהי תרות (V 8a). It serves as
kind of an umbrella term that encompasses the following qualities emphasising both the
righteousness of the divine law (הנמאנ, V 8b; םירשי, V 9a; תמא, V 10b) and its purity (הרב,
V 9b; הרוהט, V 10a).
11
Correspondingly, each second half of the bicolas describes the
impact of the divine law upon the human being. Again, the first notion seems to carry
special weight, as torah is literally said to ‘bring back life’ (שפנ תבישמ, V 8a).
12
In this
way, creational impact is attributed to the divine law since it is regarded as being the
divine agent that grants life.
The following list of the torah’s effects covers the whole sphere of human life. It makes
the simple wise (יתפ תמיכחמ, V 8b), it lets the heart rejoice (בל יחמשמ, V 9a), it enlightens
the eyes ( תריאמםיניע , V 9b), it endures forever (דעל תדמוע, V 10a) and it is entirely right
(ודחי וקדצ, V 10b). The praise climaxes in V 11 in two comparative sayings that emphasize
torah’s worth and attractiveness. Using the plural form that stands for the entity of the
10
Similarly Spieckermann, Heilsgegenwart, 69.
11
Cf. Grund, Himmel, 222.
12
Cf. Grund, Himmel, 228.