With the words We are Thy people and the flock of Thy pasture, Psa 79:1-13 closes; and Psalms 80 begins with a cry to the Shepherd of Israel. Concerning the inscription of the Psalm: To be practised after the “Lilies, the testimony...,” by Asaph, a Psalm, vid., on Psa 45:1, supra, p. 45f. The lxx renders, εἰς τὸ τέλος (unto the end), ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀλλοιωθησομένων (which is unintelligible and ungrammatical = אל־שׁשּׂנים), μαρτύριον τῷ Ἀσάφ (as the accentuation also unites these words closely by Tarcha), ψαλμός ὑπὲρ τοῦ Ἀσσυρίου (cf. Psa 76:1), perhaps a translation of אל־אשׁור, an inscribed note which took the “boar out of the forest” as an emblem of Assyria. This hint is important. It solves the riddle why Joseph represents all Israel in Psa 80:2, and why the tribes of Joseph in particular are mentioned in Psa 80:3, and why in the midst of these Benjamin, whom like descent from Rachel and chagrin, never entirely overcome, on account of the loss of the kingship drew towards the brother-tribes of Joseph. Moreover the tribe of Benjamin had only partially remained to the house of David since the division of the kingdom,[1] so that this triad is to be regarded as an expansion of the “Joseph” (v. 20. After the northern kingdom had exhausted its resources in endless feuds with Damascene Syria, it succumbed to the world-wide dominion of Assyria in the sixth year of Hezekiah, in consequence of the heavy visitations which are closely associated with the names
- ↑ It is true we read that Benjamin stood on the side of Rehoboam with Judah after the division of the kingdom (1Ki 12:21), Judah and Benjamin appear as parts of the kingdom of Judah (2Ch 11:3, 2Ch 11:23; 2Ch 15:8., and frequently); but if, according to 1Ki 11:13, 1Ki 11:32, 1Ki 11:36, only שׁבט אחד remains to the house of David, this is Judah, inasmuch as Benjamin did not remain entirely under the Davidic sceptre, and Simeon is to be left out of account (cf. Genesis, S. 603); the Benjamitish cities of Bethel, Gilgal, and Jericho belonged to the northern kingdom, but, as in the case of Rama (1Ki 15:21.), not without being contested (cf. e.g., 2Ch 13:19); the boundaries were therefore fluctuating, vid., Ewald, Geschichte des Volkes Israel (3rd ed.), S. 439-441.
