PREFACE THIS Commentary is the fruit of forty years of labour. In 1867, when making special studies in Berlin with Dr. Emil Rödiger, I began a critical Commentary on the Psalms, the Ms. of which is still in my possession. In 1872 the translation of Moll's "Commentary on the Psalms" in Lange's Bibelwerk was published in the series edited by Philip Schaff. I translated and enlarged the Commentary on Pss. 1-41 51-72 with twentyfive per cent additional matter, and edited the Introduction with additional notes. In 1874 I began teaching as professor of Hebrew and cognate languages in Union Theological Seminary, and lectured on the Psalms every year until 1890 when I became Edward Robinson Professor of Biblical Theology, in which position I continued to lecture on the Criticism and Theology of the Psalter until 1904, when I was transferred to my present chair. In the plan of the International Critical Commentary I undertook the volumes on the Psalms, and have been at work upon them ever since. In addition to my work on the theological terms of the new edition of Robinson's Gesenius' Hebrew Lexicon, BDB., I have made a complete lexicon to the Psalter, based on a revised Hebrew text, which I hope ere long to publish. I have spared no pains upon the text of the Psalter, not only in the study of the Versions, but also in the detection and elimination of the glosses in the search for the original texts as they came from their authors. The Theology of the Psalter has been carefully investigated; only the limits of space prevent me from giving it in this volume. I have made a careful study of the chief commentaries and have referred to them so far as practicable in the notes, but the most that could be done was to distribute credit to my predecessors in fair proportions. The amount of literature is so vast that no other course was possible. The Commentary will show |