in the twelfth month of the sixth year of Darius, Ezr 6:15. So Stier. These references to contemporary history have all three more or less in their favour. The first if favoured more especially by the fact, that at the time of the second Temple Psa 118:25 was the festal cry amidst which the altar of burnt-offering was solemnly compassed on the first six days of the Feast of Tabernacles once, and on the seventh day seven times. This seventh day was called the great Hosanna (Hosanna rabba), and not only the prayers for the Feast of Tabernacles, but even the branches of willow trees (including the myrtles) which are bound to the palm-branch (lulab), were called Hosannas (הושׁענות, Aramaic הושׁעני).[1]
The second historical reference is favoured by the fact, that the narrative appears to point directly to our Psalm when it says: And the builders laid the foundation of the Temple of Jahve, and the priests were drawn up there in official robes with trumpets, and the Levites the descendants of Asaph with cymbals, to praise Jahve after the direction of David king of Israel, and they sang על־ישׂראל בּהלּל וּבהודת ליהוה כּי טוב כּי־לעולם חסדּו; and all the people raised a great shout בּהלּל ליהוה, because the house of Jahve was founded. But both of these derivations of the Psalm are opposed by the fact that Psa 116:19 and Psa 118:20 assume that the Temple-building is already finished; whereas the unmistakeable allusions to the events that transpired during the building of the Temple, viz., the intrigues of the Samaritans, the hostility of the neighbouring peoples, and the capriciousness of the Persian kings, favour the third. In connection with this reference of the Psalm to the post-exilic dedication of the Temple, Psa 118:19-20, too, now present no difficulty. Psa 118:22 is better understood as spoken in the presence of the now upreared Temple-building, than as spoken in the presence of the foundation-stone; and the words “unto the horns of the altar” in Psa 118:27, interpreted in many different ways, come into the light of Ezr 6:17.
The Psalm falls into two divisions. The first division (vv. 1-19) is sung by the festive procession brought up by the priests and Levites, which is ascending to the Temple with
- ↑ Vid., my Talmudic Studies, vi. (Der Hosianna-Ruf), in the Lutherische Zeischrift, 1855, S. 653-656.
