Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Pastor Mark Eddy" <markeddy AT adams.net>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Lisbeth S. Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu>


> Dear Mark,
> Until you can demonstrate that "leDWD" means "written by"
> David, I remain unconvinced.

Let me try. I'm getting some of this information from _Introduction to the 
Old Testament_ by Roland
Kenneth Harrison (Eerdmans, 1982 reprint of 1969 edition). He writes: 
"Allusions to authorship most
frequently embrace the seventy-three compositions attributed to David." He 
also writes "Solomon was
mentioned in two titles (Pss. 72 and 127), and one psalm was attributed to 
Moses (Ps. 90)."

This last may be a place to start. I don't know anyone who claims that Ps. 90 
was written "for Moses" or
"about Moses." It certainly was NOT written about Moses. It is a prayer to 
ADONAI. It mentions the length
of life as 70 or 80 years, while Deut. testifies that Moses lived to 120. So 
what does LeMoSHeH mean? "By
Moses." I know of no one in the Hebrew Bible writing during the lifetime of 
Moses, except Moses. (I
realize that some have doubted that even Moses wrote. But from the 
perspective of the Hebrew Bible, which
is the perspective of the Psalm titles, Moses was the only one writing for 
the Hebrew Bible during his
lifetime.) I have no reason to doubt this Psalm title, but whether it is 
accurate or not, it has to mean
that Moses wrote this psalm.

Harrison lists 13 Psalms LDaWiD which also include historical references to 
the occasion concerning which
the psalm was composed (Pss. 3,7,18,34,51,52,54,56,57,59,60,63,142). Who but 
David was present at all of
those events? Who would have written such psalms "for David" to use on those 
occasions? (I consider these
rhetorical questions.) Take Ps. 51 as an example. Only David, Nathan, and 
Bathsheba would have been there.
There is no evidence that Bathsheba wrote anything. Would Nathan have written 
this psalm for David to use
in confessing his sin? I doubt it. 2 Sam. 11 shows that Nathan used a parable 
to elicit the proper
response from David. And David on his own concluded, "I have sinned." The 
depth of feeling in this (and
other) psalms fits with David's personal experience.

As I already noted in another post, 2 Sam. 23 clearly attributes the psalm in 
that chapter to David, "the
sweet psalmist of Israel:" For David to receive this title he must have 
written other psalms. Psalm 72:20
(a Psalm by David's son Solomon) ends book 2 of the Psalter with the note 
"the prayers of David Ben Jesse
are ended." What else could that mean but that the compiler thought that he 
was collecting (at least a
majority of) psalms written by king David? Later compilers evidently 
discovered more psalms by David for
conclusion in the final 150.

> Jeremiah sent a letter to the exiles in Babylon (Jer. 29:4).
> The letter was lekol ha golah.
> The letter was "addressed to" or  "dedicated to" the golah,
> not "written by" the golah.

But Jer. 29:4 lists the author of these words by using the phrase, "Thus says 
YHWH of hosts, the God of
Israel." Therefore LeKol HaGOLaH is the indirect object of the verb AMaR. It 
is not a stand-alone heading,
as are the psalm titles.

I hope this helps.
Mark Eddy