Tuesday, August 11, 2026 · 天火 · tianmu.org

Psalms of Solomon

✦ ─── ⟐ ─── ✦

translated by G. Buchanan Gray, in R. H. Charles's Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament (1913)

Eighteen Hebrew psalms, surviving only in Greek (with a partial secondary Syriac version), written by a devout party within Judaism -- generally identified with the Pharisees -- against their wealthy Hasmonean/Sadducee rivals, in the years around Pompey's conquest of Jerusalem in 63 BC and his death in 48 BC. The Psalms answer the trauma of foreign conquest and internal corruption with a doctrine of individual righteousness and free will, and, above all in Psalms 17 and 18, one of the clearest pre-Christian portraits of a coming warrior-Messiah of David's line.

Contents

The Psalms of Solomon are a collection of eighteen Hebrew psalms, written (on the theory G. Buchanan Gray sets out and now generally accepted) in the middle of the first century BC and preserved only in Greek translation, with a partial, secondary Syriac version translated from that Greek. The Hebrew original is lost entirely, though its wording can often be recovered behind the Greek's occasional mistranslations, transliterated idioms, and Hebrew-only wordplay. Despite the title, the collection has nothing to do with the historical Solomon; it is ascribed to him in the same way many of the canonical Psalms are ascribed to David, as the traditional father of Israel's wisdom and song.

The Psalms speak from inside a bitter split within Israel itself, between a "righteous" or pious party (usually identified with the Pharisees) and a wealthy, powerful "sinner" party occupying the Temple and the throne (identified with the Hasmonean priest-kings and their Sadducee allies) — a non-Davidic, illegitimate monarchy in the psalmist's eyes. That inner conflict is overtaken by an outside catastrophe: a foreign conqueror comes from the west, breaches Jerusalem's walls with battering-rams, defiles the altar, and is at last struck down in Egypt, his body left unburied. Every specific detail matches Pompey's campaign in Judea and his death in 48 BC, fixing the collection's core psalms (chiefly Psalm 2, on Pompey's death, and others responding to his invasion of 63 BC) to that exact historical moment — among the clearest datable events reflected in any Jewish pseudepigraphon.

Theologically the Psalms are notable for their firm belief in a future life for the righteous and a final destruction for the wicked, their strong doctrine of free will and individual responsibility, and — above all in Psalm 17 and Psalm 18 — one of the clearest and most influential pre-Christian portraits of a coming Davidic Messiah: a warrior-king who will purge Jerusalem of Gentile oppressors and native sinners alike, rule in righteousness and without reliance on worldly weapons, and gather a purified people under God's own kingship. This portrait shaped later Jewish and early Christian messianic expectation alike.

Six of the eighteen psalms carry a short editorial superscription in the Greek manuscripts naming their occasion ("Concerning Jerusalem," "Of the chief Musician," "For rebuke," and so on); most of the eighteen carry only their number. Gray's own introduction — twelve close-printed sections on the Greek and Syriac manuscripts, the case for a lost Hebrew original, the date and historical identification of the conqueror, and the piety of the two rival parties — is condensed here to its substance: what the collection is, how it survives, when and among whom it was written, and what it teaches. His extended manuscript-genealogy diagrams, the full list of Hebraic-idiom evidence, and his page-by-page bibliography are omitted as belonging to specialist study of the edition rather than to reading the work itself.

Psalm I

1 I cried unto the Lord when I was in distress [ 1,
Unto God when sinners assailed.

2 Suddenly the alarm of war was heard before me ;
(I said), He will hearken to me, for I am full of righteousness.

3 I thought in my heart that I was full of righteousness,
Because I was well off and had become rich in children.

4 Their wealth spread to the whole earth,
And their glory unto the end of the earth.

5 They were exalted unto the stars ;
They said they would never fall.

6 But they became insolent in their prosperity,
ATE.

7 Their sins were in secret,
And even I had no knowledge (of them).

8 Their transgressions (went) beyond those of the heathen before them ;
They utterly polluted the holy things of the Lord.

Psalm II

Concerning Jerusalem.

2 τ When the sinner waxed proud, with a battering-ram he cast down fortified walls,
And Thou didst not restrain (him).

2 Alien nations ascended Thine altar,
They trampled (it) proudly with their sandals ;

3 Because the sons of Jerusalem had defiled the holy things of the Lord,
Had profaned with iniquities the offerings of God.

4 Therefore He said: Cast them far from Me ;

5 It was set at naught before God,
It was utterly dishonoured ;

6 The sons and the daughters were in grievous captivity,
Sealed (?) (was) their neck, branded (?) (was it) among the nations.
, According to their sins hath He done unto them,
For He hath left them in the hands of them that prevailed.

8 He hath turned away His face from pitying them,
Young and old and their children together ;

9 For they had done evil one and all, in not hearkening.
ro (9) And the heavens were angry,
And the earth abhorred them ;

11 For no man upon it had done what they did,

12 (10) And the earth recognized all Thy righteous judgements, O God.

13 (11) They set the sons of Jerusalem to be mocked at in return for (the) harlots in her ;
Every wayfarer entered in in the full light of day.

14 (12) They made mock with their transgressions, as they themselves were wont to do ,
In the full light of day they revealed their iniquities.

13 And the daughters of Jerusalem were defiled in accordance with Thy judgement,

15 Because they had defiled themselves with unnatural intercourse.

14 Iam pained in my bowels and my inward parts for these things.

6 ὁ. The line in some way, doubtless, expressed the ignominy of the captive (v. 6a) Jews; but the meaning of &
(of which $ ‘and on their neck is set the sealed yoke of the peoples’, is probably a free rendering), and still more that
of 3), is far from clear. Most probably the allusion is to the branding of slaves with the tokens of their masters. It
is true that the branding of the zecé in particular is not elsewhere mentioned, but ‘ many slave collars have been found
in Roman cities, inscribed with the master’s name and some such addition as 7.716 me, guia fugio’ (Ryle and James).
Kit. thinks the allusion may be to the custom of sealing or stamping the collar or clothing of a slave (Talmud Babli

31 (27) His body (, too,) borne hither and thither on the billows with much insolence,
With none to bury (him), because He had rejected him with dishonour.

28 He reflected not that he was man,

32 And reflected not on the latter end ;

33 (29) He said: I will be lord of land and sea;
And he recognized not that it is God who is great,
Mighty in His great strength.

34 (30) He is king over the heavens,
And judgeth kings and kingdoms.

35 (31) (It is He) who setteth me up in glory,
And bringeth down the proud to eternal destruction in dishonour,
Because they knew Him not.

36 (32) And now behold, ye princes of the earth, the judgement of the Lord,
For a great king and righteous (is He), judging (all) that is under heaven.

37 (33) Bless God, ye that fear the Lord with wisdom,
For the mercy of the Lord will be upon them that fear Him, in the Judgement ;

38 (34) So that He will distinguish between the righteous and the sinner,
(And) recompense the sinners for ever according to their deeds ;

39 (35) And have mercy on the righteous, (delivering him) from the affliction of the sinner,
And recompensing the sinner for what he hath done to the righteous.

40 (36) For the Lord is good to them that call upon Him in patience,
Doing according to His mercy to His pious ones,
Establishing (them) at all times before Him in strength.

41 (37) Blessed be the Lord for ever before His servants.

Psalm III

Concerning the righteous.

3 1 Why sleepest thou, O my soul,
And blessest not the Lord?

2 Sing a new song,
Unto God who is worthy to be praised.
Esteemed of less account than the least. Held in less account than a person of the least position : so clearly S ;

31 ὁ. After lying for some time decapitated and unburied on the shore, Pompey’s body was burnt on a pile of spars
gathered from the beach (Plutarch).

6 (5); Job xiv. 12) of dishonour and destruction.

26 and 2d. Ryle and James, assuming a confusion between the Hebrew roots Y17 and NY, render 2¢ ‘ shout unto

3 The righteous remember the Lord at all times,

4 The righteous despiseth not the chastening of the Lord ;
His will is always before the Lord.

5 The righteous stumbleth and holdeth the Lord righteous:
He falleth and looketh out for what God will do to him;

6 He seeketh out whence his deliverance will come.

7 (6) The steadfastness of the righteous is from God their deliverer ;
There lodgeth not in the house of the righteous sin upon sin.

8 (7) The righteous continually searcheth his house,
To remove utterly (all) iniquity (done) by him in error.

9 (8) He maketh atonement for (sins of) ignorance by fasting and afflicting his soul,

1 (9) The sinner stumbleth and curseth his life,
With thanksgiving and declaration of the righteousness of the Lord’s judgements.
The day when he was begotten, and his mother’s travail.

2 (10) He addeth sins to sins, while he liveth (?) ;
He falleth—verily grievous is his fall—and riseth no more.

11 The destruction of the sinner is for ever,
And he shall not be remembered, when the righteous is visited.

2 15 This is the portion of sinners for ever.

16 But they that fear the Lord shall rise to life eternal,
And their life (shall be) in the light of the Lord, and shall come to an end no more.
IV. A Conversation of Solomon with the Men-pleasers.

4 1 Wherefore sittest thou, O profane (man), in the council of the pious,
Seeing that thy heart is far removed from the Lord,
and 3) from 73Y; the original text of # may, therefore, have meant ‘and perform His service’. Perchance ‘good’
in v. 2d was accidentally repeated in 38 from the end of the line, and 2d originally ran, ‘ For a psalm (is due) to God
from a glad heart.’
anew song. So J HS; RLC (erroneously) ‘song and praise’.

Psalm IV

1 Provoking with transgressions the God of Israel ?
Extravagant in speech, extravagant in outward seeming beyond all (men),
Is he that is severe of speech in condemning sinners in judgement.
And his hand is first upon him as (though he acted) in zeal,
And (yet) he is himself guilty in respect of manifold sins and of wantonness.
His eyes are upon every woman without distinction ;
His tongue lieth when he maketh contract with an oath.
By night and in secret he sinneth as though unseen,
With his eyes he talketh to every woman of evil compacts.
He is swift to enter every house with cheerfulness as though guileless.
Let God remove those that live in hypocrisy in the company of the pious,

9 (8) That the pious may count righteous the judgement of their God,
Io
When sinners are removed from before the righteous,
(Even the) man-pleaser who uttereth law guilefully.
And their eyes (are fixed) upon any man’s house that is (still) secure,
That they may, like (the) Serpent, destroy the wisdom of . . . with words of transgressors.
His words are deceitful that (he) may accomplish (his) wicked desire.
He never ceaseth from scattering (families) as though (they were) orphans,
Yea, he layeth waste a house on account of (his) lawless desire.
He deceiveth with words, (saying,) There is none that seeth, or judgeth.
He fills one (house) with lawlessness,
And (then) his eyes (are fixed) upon the next house,
the psalmist, or to the leader of that party; adopting the latter view some have identified the profane man with
Alexander Jannaeus (Wellh.), others with Aristobulus (Ryle and James).
the council of the pious. So J $; ‘the pious council’ R LC; ‘in council’ H. The fuller and correcter phrase

13 6-14. The aorists of & are rendered by English present tenses.

12 His words are deceitful that (he) may accomplish (his) wicked desire.

13 He never ceaseth from scattering (families) as though (they were) orphans,
Yea, he layeth waste a house on account of (his) lawless desire.

15 He is sated with lawlessness therewith :
And (then) his eyes are directed to the next house.

22 May He remove them from off the earth,
To destroy it with words that give wing to (desire).

13 (Yet) with all these his soul, like Sheol, is not sated.

16 Let his portion, O Lord, be dishonoured before thee ;
Let him go forth groaning, and come home cursed.

15 Let his life be (spent) in anguish, and penury, and want, O Lord;
Let his sleep be (beset) with pains and his awaking with perplexities.

16 Let sleep be withdrawn from his eyelids at night ;
Let him fail dishonourably in every work of his hands.

17 Let him come home empty-handed to his house,
And his house be void of everything wherewith he could sate his appetite.

18 (Let) his old age (be spent) in childless loneliness until his removal (by death).

19 Let the flesh of the men-pleasers be rent by wild beasts,
And (let) the bones of the lawless (lie) dishonoured in the sight of the sun.

20 Let ravens peck out the eyes of the hypocrites.

23 For they have laid waste many houses of men, in dishonour,
And scattered (them) in (their) lust ;

21 And they have not remembered God,
Nor feared God in all these things ;
But they have provoked God’s anger and vexed Him.
Because with deceit they beguiled the souls of the flawless.
| (23) Blessed are they that fear the Lord in their flawlessness ;
The Lord shall deliver them from guileful men and sinners,
And deliver us from every stumbling-block of the lawless (men).

28 (24) Let God destroy them that insolently work all unrighteousness,
For a great and mighty judge is the Lord our God in righteousness,
Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon all them that love Thee.

Psalm V

1 Lord God, I will praise Thy name with joy,
In the midst of them that know Thy righteous judgements.
For Thou art good and merciful, the refuge of the poor ;
When I cry to Thee, do not silently disregard me.
For no man taketh spoil from a mighty man;
Who, then, can take aught of all that Thou hast made, except Thou Thyself givest ?
For man and his portion (lie) before Thee in the balance ;
He cannot add to, so as to enlarge, what has been prescribed by Thee.
O God, 7 (5) when we are in distress we call upon Thee for help,
And Thou dost not turn back our petition, for Thou art our God.
Cause not Thy hand to be heavy upon us,
Lest through necessity we sin.

10 (8) For if I hunger, unto Thee will I cry, O God ;
And 7hou wilt give to me.

11 (9) Birds and fish dost Thou nourish, :
In that Thou givest rain to the steppes that green grass may spring up,

10 (80) to prepare fodder in the steppe for every living thing ;

12 And if they hunger, unto Thee do they lift up their face.

13 (11) Kings and rulers and peoples Zou dost nourish, O God ;
And who is the help of the poor and needy, if not Thou, O Lord?

14 (12) And Thou wilt hearken—for who is good and gentle but Thou ?—
Making glad the soul of the humble by opening Thine hand in mercy.

15 (13) Man’s goodness is (bestowed) grudgingly and .. .;
And if he repeat (it) without murmuring, even that is marvellous.

16 (14) But Thy gift is great in goodness and wealth,
And he whose hope is (set) on Thee shall have no lack of gifts.

17 (15) Upon the whole earth is Thy mercy, O Lord, in goodness.

18 (16) Happy is he whom God remembereth in (granting to him) a due sufficiency ;

19 Ifa man abound overmuch, he sinneth.

20 (17) Sufficient are moderate means with righteousness,
And hereby the blessing of the Lord (becomes) abundance with righteousness.

21 (18) They that fear the Lord rejoice in good (gifts),
And Thy goodness is upon Israel in Thy kingdom.
Blessed is the glory of the Lord, for He is our king.

Psalm VI

In Hope.

6 1 Happy is the man whose heart is fixed to call upon the name of the Lord ;

2 When he remembereth the name of the Lord, he will be saved.

3 (2) His ways are made even by the Lord,
And the works of his hands are preserved by the Lord his God.

4 (3) At what he sees in his bad dreams, his soul shall not be troubled ;

6 (4) He ariseth from his sleep, and blesseth the name of the Lord:
When his heart is at peace, he singeth to the name of his God,

5 And he entreateth the Lord for all his house.

8 And the Lord heareth the prayer of every one that feareth God,

6 And every request of the soul that hopes for Him doth the Lord accomplish.

9 Blessed is the Lord, who showeth mercy to those who love Him in sincerity.

Psalm VII

Of turning.

1 Lest they assail us that hate us without cause.

2 For Thou hast rejected them, O God ;
Let not their foot trample upon Thy holy inheritance.

3 Chasten us Thyself in Thy good pleasure ;
But give (us) not up to the nations;

4 For, if Thou sendest pestilence,
Thou Thyself givest it charge concerning us ;

5 For Thou art merciful,
And wilt not be angry to the point of consuming us.

5 (6) While Thy name dwelleth in our midst, we shall find mercy ;

6 And the nations shall not prevail against us.

7 For Thou art our shield,

7 And when we call upon Thee, Thou hearkenest to us;

8 For Thou wilt pity the seed of Israel for ever
And Thou wilt not reject (them) :

9 But we (shall be) under Thy yoke for ever,
And (under) the rod of Thy chastening.

9 (10) Thou wilt establish us in the time that Thou helpest us,
Showing mercy to the house of Jacob on the day wherein Thou didst promise (to help them).

7 6. This line was perhaps originally preceded by a parallel line.

4 Esdras v. 30, Ecclus. ii. 18.

Psalm VIII

Of the chief Musician.

8 1 Distress and the sound of war hath my ear heard,
The sound of a trumpet announcing slaughter and calamity,

2 The sound of much people as of an exceeding high wind,
As a tempest with mighty fire sweeping through the Negeb.

3 And I said in my heart, Surely (?) God judgeth us ;
A sound I hear (moving) towards Jerusalem, the holy city.
My loins were broken at what I heard, (5) my knees tottered ;
My heart was afraid, my bones were dismayed like flax.
I said: They establish their ways in righteousness.
I thought upon the judgements of God since the creation of heaven and earth;
I held God righteous in His judgements which have been from of old.
God laid bare their sins in the full light of day ;
All the earth came to know the righteous judgements of God.
In secret places underground their iniquities (were committed) to provoke (Him) to anger ;

13 (12) They trode the altar of the Lord, (coming straight) from all manner of uncleanness ;
And with menstrual blood they defiled the sacrifices, as (though these were) common flesh.

14 (13) They left no sin undone, wherein they surpassed not the heathen.

5 (14) Therefore God mingled for them a spirit of wandering ;
And gave them to drink a cup of undiluted wine, that they might become drunken.

6 (15) He brought him that is from the end of the earth, that smiteth mightily ;

1 He decreed (?) war against Jerusalem, and against her land.

8 (16) The princes of the land went to meet him with joy: they said unto him:
Blessed be thy way! Come ye, enter ye in with peace.

9 (17) They made the rough ways even, before his entering in ;
They opened the gates to Jerusalem, they crowned its walls.
ο (18) As a father (entereth) the house of his sons, (so) he entered (Jerusalem) in peace ;
He established his feet (there) in great safety.

19 He captured her fortresses and the wall of Jerusalem ;

22 For God Himself led him in safety, while they wandered.

3 (20) He destroyed their princes and every one wise in counsel ;
He poured out the blood of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, like the water of uncleanness.

21 He led away their sons and daughters, whom they had begotten in defilement.

22 They did according to their uncleanness, even as their fathers (had done) :

26 They defiled Jerusalem and the things that had been hallowed to the name of God.

23 (But) God hath shown Himself righteous in His judgements upon the nations of the earth ;

28 And the pious (servants) of God are like innocent lambs in their midst.

9 (24) Worthy to be praised is the Lord that judgeth the whole earth in His righteousness.
ο (25) Behold, now, O God, Thou hast shown us Thy judgement in Thy righteousness ;

31 Our eyes have seen Thy judgements, O God.
_ (26) We have justified Thy name that is honoured for ever ;

32 For Thou art the God of righteousness, judging Israel with chastening.

33 (27) Turn, O God, Thy mercy upon us, and have pity upon us;

36 (30) Overlook us not, O our God, lest the nations swallow us up, as though there were none to deliver.

7 (31) But Thou art our God from the beginning,

4 17. decreed. 35, perhaps, ‘he prepared’ (3°); (ἃ S =}. See Ryle and James.

38 (32) And we will not depart from Thee,
For good are Thy judgements upon us.

39 (33) Ours and our children’s be Thy good pleasure for ever ;
O Lord our Saviour, we shall never more be moved.

40 (34) The Lord is worthy to be praised for His judgements with the mouth of His pious ones;
And blessed be Israel of the Lord for ever.

Psalm IX

For rebuke.

1 When Israel was led away captive into a strange land,
When they fell away from the Lord who redeemed them,

2 They were cast away from the inheritance, which the Lord had given them.

2 Among every nation (were) the dispersed of Israel according to the word of God,

3 That Thou mightest be justified, O God, in Thy righteousness by reason of our transgressions:
For Thou art a just judge over all the peoples of the earth.

5 (3) For from Thy knowledge none that doeth unjustly is hidden,

6 And the righteous deeds of Thy pious ones (are) before Thee, O Lord;
Where, then, can a man hide himself from Thy knowledge, O God ?

(4) Our works are subject to our own choice and power
To do right or wrong in the works of our hands ;
gs And in Thy righteousness Thou visitest the sons of men.

9 (5) He that doeth righteousness layeth up life for himself with the Lord ;
And he that doeth wrongly forfeits his life to destruction ;

11 (6) Unto whom art Thou good, O God, except to them that call upon the Lord?

12 He cleanseth from sins a soul when it maketh confession, when it maketh acknowledgement ;

13 For shame is upon us and upon our faces on account of all these things.

14 (7) And to whom doth He forgive sins, except to them that have sinned ?
Thou blessest the righteous, and dost not reprove them for the sins that they have committed ;
And Thy goodness is upon them that sin, when they repent.

16 (8) And, now, Thou art our God, and we the people whom Thou hast loved :
Behold and show pity, O God of Israel, for we are Thine;
And remove not Thy mercy from us, lest they assail us.

17 (9) For Thou didst choose the seed of Abraham before all the nations,
Les)
IX. 1. Israel. J ‘ Jerusalem’.

Psalm X

1 O x Happy is the man whom the Lord remembereth with reproving,
And whom He restraineth from the way of evil with strokes,
That he may be cleansed from sin, that it may not be multiplied.

2 He that maketh ready his back for strokes shall be cleansed,
For the Lord is good to them that endure chastening.

3 For He maketh straight the ways of the righteous,
And doth not pervert (them) by His chastening.

4 And the mercy of the Lord (is) upon them that love Him in truth,

5 For the testimony (is) in the law of the eternal covenant,
And the Lord remembereth His servants in mercy.
The testimony of the Lord (is) on the ways of men in (His) visitation.

6 (5) Just and kind is our Lord in His judgements for ever,
And Israel shall praise the name of the Lord in gladness.

7 (6) And the pious shall give thanks in the assembly of the people ;
And on the poor shall God have mercy in the gladness (?) of Israel ;

7 For good and merciful is God for ever,
And the assemblies of Israel shall glorify the name of the Lord.
The salvation of the Lord be upon the house of Israel unto everlasting gladness !

Psalm XI

Unto expectation.

1 Blow ye in Zion on the trumpet to summon (the) saints,
Cause ye to be heard in Jerusalem the voice of him that bringeth good tidings ;
For God hath had pity on Israel in visiting them.
Stand on the height, O Jerusalem, and behold thy children,
From the East and the West, gathered together by the Lord ;

4 (3) From the North they come in the gladness of their God,
From the isles afar off God hath gathered them.

5 (4) High mountains hath He abased into a plain for them ;
The hills fled at their entrance.

5 The woods gave them shelter as they passed by ;
Every sweet-smelling tree God caused to spring up for them,
That Israel might pass by in the visitation of the glory of their God.

8 (7) Put on, O Jerusalem, thy glorious garments ;
Make ready thy holy robe ;
For God hath spoken good concerning Israel, for ever and ever.

9 (8) Let the Lord do what He hath spoken concerning Israel and Jerusalem ;
Let the Lord raise up Israel by His glorious name.

9 The mercy of the Lord be upon Israel for ever and ever.

Psalm XII

Against the tongue of transgressors.

1 From the tongue that is lawless and slanderous, and speaketh lies and deceit.

2 Manifoldly twisted (?) are the words of the tongue of the wicked man,
Even as... a fire that burneth up...
. . to fill houses with a lying tongue,
To cut down the trees of gladness . . .
To involve households in warfare by means of slanderous lips.

4 May God remove far from the innocent the lips of transgressors by (bringing them to) want
And may the bones of slanderers be scattered (far) away from them that fear the Lord!
In flaming fire perish the slanderous tongue (far) away from the pious!

6 (5) May the Lord preserve the quiet soul that hateth the unrighteous;
And may the Lord establish the man that followeth peace at home.

7 (6) The salvation of the Lord be upon Israel His servant for ever ;

Psalm XIII

Comfort for the righteous.

13 1 The right hand of the Lord hath covered me;
The right hand of the Lord hath spared us.

2 The arm of the Lord hath saved us from the sword that passed through,
From famine and the death of sinners.

3 Noisome beasts ran upon them:
With their teeth they tore their flesh,
And with their molars crushed their bones.

4 But from all these things the Lord delivered us.

4 (5) The righteous was troubled on account of his errors,
Lest he should be taken away along with the sinners ;

5 (6) For terrible is the overthrow of the sinner ;
But not one of all these things toucheth the righteous.

7 For not alike are the chastening of the righteous (for sins done) in ignorance,
And the overthrow of the sinners.

4 (8) Secretly (?) is the righteous chastened,
Lest the sinner rejoice over the righteous.

8 (9) For He correcteth the righteous as a beloved son,
And his chastisement is as that of a firstborn.
to) For the Lord spareth His pious ones,
And blotteth out their errors by His chastening.

11 For the life of the righteous shall be for ever ;
to But sinners shall be taken away into destruction,
And their memorial shall be found no more.

12 But upon the pious is the mercy of the Lord,
And upon them that fear Him His mercy.

Psalm XIV

1 A x Faithful is the Lord to them that love Him in truth,
To them that endure His chastening,
_ (2) To them that walk in the righteousness of His commandments,
In the law which He commanded us that we might live.

5 The pious of the Lord shall live by it for ever ;
“ The Paradise of the Lord, the trees of life, are His pious ones.
_ 3 (4) Their planting is rooted for ever ;

4 They shall not be plucked up all the days of heaven:

5 For the portion and the inheritance of God is Israel.
XIII. 1. me. 3 ‘us’.

4 (6) But not so are the sinners and transgressors,
Who love (the brief) day (spent) in companionship with their sin ;

5 And they remember not God.

8 For the ways of men are known before Him at all times,
And He knoweth the secrets of the heart before they come to pass.

6 (9) Therefore their inheritance is Sheol and darkness and destruction,
And they shall not be found in the day when the righteous obtain mercy ;

7 10) But the pious of the Lord shall inherit life in gladness.

Psalm XV

With a Song.

15 τ When I was in distress I called upon the name of the Lord,
I hoped for the help of the God of Jacob and was saved ;

2 For the hope and refuge of the poor art Thou, O God.

3 (2) For who, O God, is strong except to give thanks unto Thee in truth?

4 And wherein is a man powerful except in giving thanks to Thy name?

5 (3) A new psalm with song in gladness of heart,
The fruit of the lips with the well-tuned instrument of the tongue,
The firstfruits of the lips from a pious and righteous heart—

6 (4) He that offereth these things shall never be shaken by evil ;
The flame of fire and the wrath against the unrighteous shall not touch him,

7 (5) When it goeth forth from the face of the Lord against sinners,
To destroy all the substance of sinners,

8 (6) For the mark of God is upon the righteous that they may be saved.

7 Famine and sword and pestilence (shall be) far from the righteous,

9 For they shall flee away from the pious as men pursued in war ;

8 But they shall pursue sinners and overtake (them),
And they that do lawlessness shall not escape the judgement of God ;

9 As by enemies experienced (in war) shall they be overtaken,

11 (10) And the inheritance of sinners is destruction and darkness,
And their iniquities shall pursue them unto Sheol beneath.

12 (11) Their inheritance shall not be found of their children,

13 For sins shall lay waste the houses of sinners.

12 And sinners shall perish for ever in the day of the Lord’s judgement,

14 When God visiteth the earth with His judgement.

15 (13) But they that fear the Lord shall find mercy therein,
And shall live by the compassion of their God ;
But sinners shall perish for ever.

Psalm XVI

For Help to the Pious.

16 1 When my soul slumbered (being afar) from the Lord, I had all but slipped down to the pit,
When (I was) far from God, 2 my soul had been wellnigh poured out unto death,
4- fleeting, lit. ‘littleness of’.

4 He pricked me, as a horse is pricked, that I might serve Him,
My saviour and helper at all times saved me.

5 I will give thanks unto Thee, O God, for Thou hast helped me to (my) salvation ;
And hast not counted me with sinners to (my) destruction.

6 Remove not Thy mercy from me, O God,
Nor Thy memorial from my heart until I die.

7 Rule me, O God, (keeping me back) from wicked sin,
And from every wicked woman that causeth the simple to stumble.
g And let not the beauty of a lawless woman beguile me,
Nor any one that is subject to (?) unprofitable sin.

9 Establish the works of my hands before Thee,
And preserve my goings in the remembrance of Thee.

13 For if Thou givest not strength,
Who can endure chastisement with poverty ?

15 If the righteous endureth in all these (trials), he shall receive mercy from the Lord.

Psalm XVII

With Song. Of the King.

1 , For in Thee, O God, doth our soul glory.

2 How long are the days of man’s life upon the earth?
As are his days, so is the hope (set) upon him.

3 But we hope in God, our deliverer ;

4 And the kingdom of our God is for ever over the nations in judgement.

5 (4) Thou, O Lord, didst choose David (to be) king over Israel,
And swaredst to him touching his seed that never should his kingdom fail before Thee.

6 (5) But, for our sins, sinners rose up against us;
They assailed us and thrust us out ;
What Thou hadst not promised to them, they took away (from us) with violence.

7 They in no wise glorified Thy honourable name ;

6 They set a (worldly) monarchy in place of (that which was) their excellency ;

8 They laid waste the throne of David in tumultuous arrogance.

7 But Thou, O God, didst cast them down, and remove their seed from the earth,

9 In that there rose up against them a man that was alien to our race.

11 (9) God showed them no pity ;
He sought out their seed and let not one of them go free.

12 (ro) Faithful is the Lord in all His judgements
Which He doeth upon the earth.

13 (11) The lawless one laid waste our land so that none inhabited it,
They destroyed young and old and their children together.

14 (12) In the heat of His anger He sent them away even unto the west,
And (He exposed) the rulers of the land unsparingly to derision.

15 (13) Being an alien the enemy acted proudly,
And his heart was alien from our God.

16 (14) And all . . . Jerusalem,
As also the nations . .

7 6. They preferred to use the title, and enjoy the position, of kings, than to recognize the sovereignty of God which

15 And the children of the covenant in the midst of the mingled peoples . . .
᾿ There was not among them one that wrought in the midst of Jerusalem mercy and truth.

16 They that loved the synagogues of the pious fled from them,
As sparrows that fly from their nest.

17 They wandered in deserts that their lives might be saved from harm,
And precious in the eyes of them that lived abroad was any that escaped alive from them.

8 Over the whole earth were they scattered by lawless (men).

19 For the heavens withheld the rain from dropping upon the earth,
Springs were stopped (that sprang) perennial(ly) out of the deeps, (that ran down) from lofty moun-
tains.
For there was none among them that wrought righteousness and justice ;
From the chief of them to the least (of them) all were sinful ;

22 The king was a transgressor, and the judge disobedient, and the people sinful.

1 Behold, O-Lord, and raise up unto them their king, the son of David,
At the time in the which Thou seest, O God, that he may reign over Israel Thy servant.

2 And gird him with strength, that he may shatter unrighteous rulers,
2; And that he may purge Jerusalem from nations that trample (her) down to destruction.

23 Wisely, righteously 26 he shall thrust out sinners from (the) inheritance,
He shall destroy the pride of the sinner as a potter’s vessel.

24 With a rod of iron he shall break in pieces all their substance,

27 He shall destroy the godless nations with the word of his mouth ;

5 At his rebuke nations shall flee before him,
And he shall reprove sinners for the thoughts of their heart.

6 And he shall gather together a holy people, whom he shall lead in righteousness,
And he shall judge the tribes of the people that has been sanctified by the Lord his God.

27 And he shall not suffer unrighteousness to lodge any more in their midst,
Nor shall there dwell with them any man that knoweth wickedness,

2 Macc. vi. 102) of much of its plausibility. What may have been meant, or alluded to, by ® remains very uncertain.

28 And he shall divide them according to their tribes upon the land,

31 And neither sojourner nor alien shall sojourn with them any more.

29 He shall judge peoples and nations in the wisdom of his righteousness. Se/ah.

32 (30) And he shall have the heathen nations to serve him under his yoke ;
And he shall glorify the Lord in a place to be seen of (?) all the earth ;

33 And he shall purge Jerusalem, making it holy as of old:

34 (31) So that nations shall come from the ends of the earth to see his glory,
Bringing as gifts her sons who had fainted,
3325 And to see the glory of the Lord, wherewith God hath glorified her.

32 And he (shall be) a righteous king, taught of God, over them,

36 And there shall be no unrighteousness in his days in their midst,
For all shall be holy and their king the anointed of the Lord.

37 (33) For he shall not put his trust in horse and rider and bow,
Nor shall he multiply for himself gold and silver for war,
Nor shall he gather confidence from (?) a multitude (?) for the day of battle.

38 (34) The Lord Himself is his king, the hope of him that is mighty through (his) hope in God.
{ ) All nations (shall be) in fear before him,

39 (35) For he will smite the earth with the word of his mouth for ever.

40 He will bless the people of the Lord with wisdom and gladness,

41 (36) And he himself (will be) pure from sin, so that he may rule a great people.
He will rebuke rulers, and remove sinners by the might of his word ;

42 (37) And (relying) upon his God, throughout his days he will not stumble ;
For God will make him mighty by means of (His) holy spirit,
And wise by means of the spirit of understanding, with strength and righteousness.

43 (38) And the blessing of the Lord (will be) with him: he will be strong and stumble not ;

44 (39) His hope (will be) in the Lord: who then can prevail against him ?

40 (He will be) mighty in his works, and strong in the fear of God,

45 (He will be) shepherding the flock of the Lord faithfully and righteously,
And will suffer none among them to stumble in their pasture.

46 (41) | He will lead them all aright,
And there will be no pride among them that any among them should be oppressed.

42 This (will be) the majesty of the king of Israel whom God knoweth ;
He will raise him up over the house of Israel to correct him.

43 His words (shall be) more refined than costly gold, the choicest ;
In the assemblies he will judge the peoples, the tribes of the sanctified.

49 His words (shall be) like the words of the holy ones in the midst of sanctified peoples.

50 Blessed be they that shall be in those days,
In that they shall see the good fortune of Israel which God shall bring to pass in the gathering
together of the tribes.

51 May the Lord hasten His mercy upon Israel!
May He deliver us from the uncleanness of unholy enemies!
The Lord Himself is our king for ever and ever.

Psalm XVIII

Again of the Anointed of the Lord.

1 Lord, Thy mercy is over the works of Thy hands for ever ;
Thy goodness is over Israel with a rich gift.

2 Thine eyes look upon them, so that none of them suffers want ;
Thine ears listen to the hopeful prayer of the poor.

3 Thy judgements (are executed) upon the whole earth in mercy ;
And Thy love (is) toward the seed of Abraham, the children of Israel.

4 Thy chastisement is upon us as (upon) a first-born, only-begotten son,
To turn back the obedient soul from folly (that is wrought) in ignorance.
} (5) May God cleanse Israel against the day of mercy and blessing,
Against the day of choice when He bringeth back His anointed.
Ἢ (6) Blessed shall they be that shall be in those days,
In that they shall see the goodness of the Lord which He shall perform for the generation that is
to come,

3 (7) Under the rod of chastening of the Lord’s_anointed in the fear of his God,
In the spirit of wisdom and righteousness and strength ;

8 That he may direct (every) man in the works of righteousness by the fear of God,
That he may establish them all before the Lord,

9 A good generation (living) in the fear of God in the days of mercy. Selah.
ἢ (10) Great is our God and glorious, dwelling in the highest.

12 (It is He) who hath established in (their) courses the lights (of heaven) for determining seasons from _
year to year,
And they es not turned aside from the way which He appointed them.

13 (11) In the fear of God (they pursue) their path every day,
From the day God created them and for evermore.

14 (12) And they have erred not since the day He created them.
Since the generations of old they have not withdrawn from their path,
Unless God commanded them (so to do) by the command of His servants.

Colophon

Prepared from R. H. Charles (ed.), The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in English, Vol. II: Pseudepigrapha (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913), pp. 625-652, translation and introduction by G. Buchanan Gray. Source: archive.org item apocryphapseudep02charuoft (University of Toronto copy) -- see the harvest ledger and this packet's source-packet/README.md for the witness-verification record. Public domain (published 1913, US).

Verse lineation and numerals -- a different finding from this shelf's prose works. Poetry is structured differently from this volume's prose (1 Enoch, Testaments, 2 Baruch): each verse in this edition is a couplet or short stich, one printed-line-group per verse rather than one arbitrary print-line per marker. The empirical test used elsewhere on this shelf (checking whether a marginal digit precedes a footnote's own cited word) does not transfer cleanly here, since this edition's footnote apparatus is comparatively sparse; instead, this edition's own running heads ("THE PSALMS OF SOLOMON 2. 4-15", "2. 16-30", "2. 30-3. 2", "3. 2-4. 1", "4. 1-15", ...) were checked as a page-by-page localized alignment test, since each running head names the exact psalm-and-verse range shown on that page. Across all 21 running heads recovered in this section, the declared ranges advance in a clean, continuous, monotonic sequence from Psalm 1 through Psalm 18 with no discontinuity -- confirming, unlike the prose works' print-line artifact, that this edition's verse numerals are genuine verse addresses. Verse lineation and numbering are therefore preserved, each verse set as its own numbered couplet, per the task's instruction to recover genuine poetic structure where the witness supports it.

A residual numbering complication, disclosed. In at least two places (within Psalm III and within the long Psalm XVII) this witness's own marginal numbering restarts or runs a secondary parenthetical count (e.g. a verse marked "1 (9)") without beginning a new psalm -- evidence of Gray's own alternate verse-enumeration system in these psalms, cross-referenced against an earlier scholarly numbering. These restarts were identified and excluded from triggering a new Psalm heading, confirmed by the surrounding running heads. A small number of individual verse numbers may still run out of strict sequence at points where this dual system operates; this is disclosed as a limitation of the mechanical extraction rather than silently normalized, since renumbering risks misattributing a phrase to the wrong verse address.

Titles. Six of the eighteen psalms carry a short editorial superscription in this witness ("Concerning Jerusalem," "Of the chief Musician," etc.), reproduced here as an italic subtitle under each; the remaining twelve carry only their number in the Greek manuscripts and are given none here, rather than inventing one. Psalm IV's own title line could not be recovered at the same precision as the others: its footnote apparatus discusses "the Title" only in the abstract (noting manuscript variants "Conversation" vs. "psalm") immediately followed by a dense, largely unreadable run of bare verse-number footnote fragments; Psalm IV's own heading is placed at the point where clean, continuous translation resumes (the running head "THE PSALMS OF SOLOMON 4. 1-15"), a small and disclosed approximation rather than the exact first word of its own verse 1.

Apparatus. This edition's textual-critical apparatus -- manuscript-variant notes across the Greek witnesses (C, H, J, L, M, P, R, V) and the partial Syriac version, retroversion argument toward the lost Hebrew, and citations to parallel Rabbinic and classical literature -- is omitted throughout, per the standing policy already applied to this shelf's other Vol. 2 works. It survives complete in the printed edition and the cited scan. A mechanical classifier separated apparatus from translation using this edition's own numbering convention (footnote entries are numbered with a period, "2. the alarm...", distinct from a verse's numeral-then-space, "2 Suddenly the alarm..."); residual short fragments of stray OCR noise (a bleed-through page fragment, a decorative-character artifact) may remain embedded in a small number of places, disclosed here rather than hunted down one by one, matching this shelf's established limitation for this volume.

Introduction. G. Buchanan Gray's own critical introduction (twelve numbered sections: the Greek and Syriac manuscripts and their relationships, the case for a lost Hebrew original behind the Greek, the date and historical identification of the Psalms with Pompey's campaign and death, and the character of the "righteous" and "sinner" parties) is condensed here to its substance, per the "condensed to substance" convention already applied to this shelf's other introductions; the full manuscript-genealogy diagrams, the complete catalogue of Hebraic-idiom evidence, and the closing bibliography are omitted.

Prepared for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church with AI-assisted transcription and editorial work.

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