| Foreword: The Book of Pslams and Its Interpreters | xix |
| Select Bibliography | xxxiii |
| Translator's Preface | xli |
| Author's Preface to the English Edition | xliii |
Volume I |
I | The Psalms and the Cult | 1 |
1 | The problem | 1 |
2 | Testimonies about the cultic use of the psalms | 2 |
3 | Allusions to the temple cult in the psalms - song, music and dance | 5 |
4 | The cultic origin of psalmody as such, and the problem of the extant psalms | 12 |
5 | What is 'cult'? | 15 |
II | The Method of the Cultic Interpretation | 23 |
1 | The form critical (form historical) view-point | 23 |
2 | The cult functional view-point | 29 |
3 | The sources for our knowledge of Israelite cult life | 35 |
4 | Preliminary classification of the psalms | 37 |
5 | Psalms outside the Psalter | 40 |
6 | Ancient oriental psalm poetry | 41 |
III | 'I' and 'We' in the Psalms - 'Royal Psalms' | 42 |
1 | 'I' and 'we'. 'Corporate personality' | 42 |
2 | What are 'royal psalms'? | 46 |
3 | The ancient Israelite conception of the king | 50 |
4 | The place of the royal psalms in the cult | 61 |
5 | Royal and national psalms | 76 |
6 | National psalms in the 'I' form as royal psalms | 76 |
7 | 'Democratization' of religion | 78 |
IV | The Hymn of Praise | 81 |
1 | Form and content, composition | 81 |
2 | Varieties of the hymn | 90 |
3 | The hymns and the annual festivals | 94 |
4 | Hymnic elements in other psalm types | 95 |
5 | The delineation of God in hymn and psalm | 97 |
V | Psalms at the Enthronement Festival of Yahweh | 106 |
1 | The meaning of 'enthronement psalms' | 106 |
2 | The poetical situation (imagery): the enthronement of Yahweh | 107 |
3 | The cultic situation: the interpretation of the enthronement psalms | 109 |
4 | Enthronement psalms: the age of the literary type and of the corresponding festival | 116 |
5 | The enthronement festival | 118 |
6 | The pre-Israelite background and prototypes of the festival | 130 |
7 | The specifically Israelite character of the festival | 136 |
8 | The festal myths | 140 |
9 | Some of the main acts and rites of the festival | 169 |
10 | Form and content of the true enthronement psalms against the background of the experiences of the festival | 183 |
11 | The emotions and mood of the festival | 184 |
12 | The retrospective and prospective elements in the festival and its psalms | 186 |
13 | The relationship of the festival to the Jewish hope of restoration and the eschatology | 189 |
VI | National Psalms of Lamentation | 193 |
1 | Days and rites of penitence | 193 |
2 | Psalms for such days of penitence and prayer | 194 |
3 | Form and content of the psalm of lamentation | 195 |
4 | Protective psalms; 'psalms of confidence' | 219 |
5 | Psalms for the annual days of penitence and prayer; petitions for the nation's return | 220 |
6 | Psalms of general petition | 221 |
7 | Intercessory psalms | 224 |
VII | National Psalms of Lamentation in the I-form | 225 |
1 | The king ('I') as the people's representative in the properly national psalms of lamentation | 225 |
2 | Royal psalms of lamentation and petitions on the occasion of public disaster or danger | 225 |
3 | The lament over wicked tongues and false accusers | 227 |
4 | Style, form, and content | 229 |
5 | Need or danger envisaged as a dwelling in the realm of the dead, a concept common to psalms of both lamentation and thanksgiving | 239 |
6 | Real suffering or cultic 'mock sufering'? | 241 |
7 | Analogies with Babylonian 'I' psalms | 246 |
Volume II |
VIII | Personal (Private) Psalms of Lamentation | 1 |
1 | Are there such psalms? | 1 |
2 | Psalms of sickness. The conception of sickness in Israel | 1 |
3 | Ritual remedies for sickness and uncleanness | 4 |
4 | Ritual psalms of sickness; enemies and 'awen | 5 |
5 | Possible other psalms of sickness | 8 |
6 | Psalms of sickness for the king's use | 8 |
7 | Content, form, and style | 9 |
8 | The psalmists' conception of sin | 11 |
9 | Sickness as an image of need and danger or as a secondary suffering | 15 |
10 | Possible other occasions for personal psalms of lamentation | 16 |
11 | I-psalms of lamentation (and psalms of thanksgiving), their relationship to the cult | 18 |
IX | Public Thanksgiving Psalms | 26 |
1 | The Victory Song | 26 |
2 | The festival of thanksgiving and the occasional psalm of thanksgiving | 27 |
3 | Public psalms of thanksgiving in the I-form | 28 |
4 | Royal psalms of thanksgiving | 29 |
5 | General psalms of thanksgiving of the community at the regular festivals | 29 |
X | Personal (Private) Thanksgiving Psalms | 31 |
1 | Festivals of thanksgiving and psalms of thanksgiving; the occasions | 31 |
2 | Content and form | 32 |
3 | Communal thank-offering festivals | 42 |
4 | The individually experienced and felt | 43 |
XI | Psalms of Blessing and Cursing | 44 |
1 | The blessing and the cursing word in the cult | 44 |
2 | The blessing word in the psalms | 50 |
3 | The cursing word in the psalms | 51 |
4 | Two-way blessing and cursing formulae | 52 |
XII | The Prophetic Word in the Psalms and the Prophetic Psalms | 53 |
1 | The cult oracle and the temple prophets | 53 |
2 | Oracular promises in conjunction with psalms of lamentation | 58 |
3 | Royal oracles | 61 |
4 | Oracles at the annual festivals | 62 |
5 | Why mere promises? | 63 |
6 | The condition for the promises: obedience to Yahweh's command | 65 |
7 | Religious and moral conditions and the 'decalogical tradition' | 68 |
XIII | Mixed Style and Liturgical Compositions | 74 |
1 | Varying 'types' in one and the same psalm an expression of the religious life in the cult | 74 |
2 | Cultic liturgies | 75 |
3 | Disintegration of style and mixture of styles | 77 |
XIV | Psalm Singing and Psalm Singers | 79 |
1 | The guilds of singers at the temples | 79 |
2 | Temple singing | 82 |
XV | The Psalmists | 85 |
1 | The temple - or private conventicles? | 85 |
2 | The psalmists' relationship to the temple in Jerusalem | 89 |
3 | The psalmists belonged to the temple singers | 90 |
4 | The genuine traditions about the psalmists | 95 |
5 | 'David' in the psalm titles | 98 |
6 | 'Moses' and 'Solomon' | 101 |
XVI | The Learned Psalmography | 104 |
1 | The wise and the wisdom poetry | 104 |
2 | Some non-cultic poetry and song in Israel | 106 |
3 | The petition as an expression of the life of piety and its dependence on the traditional forms of cultic poetry | 108 |
4 | Psalm composition a pious, inspired task | 109 |
5 | Non-cultic psalms in the Psalter | 111 |
6 | Post-canonical psalm composition | 114 |
7 | The Poems of Ben Sira | 116 |
8 | The Psalms of Solomon | 118 |
9 | Hodhayoth, the Qumran psalter | 120 |
10 | Early Christian psalm composition | 122 |
XVII | Traditionalism and Personality in the Psalms | 126 |
1 | Attachment to tradition and poetic independence | 126 |
2 | The poets and the narratory 'I' | 133 |
3 | The poet and the 'I' in certain later private thanksgiving psalms | 141 |
XVIII | The Antiquity of Psalmography and the Psalms | 146 |
1 | The rhythmical cult word | 146 |
2 | The witness of earlier literature to cultic psalm singing and composition | 146 |
3 | National temples and psalm composition | 150 |
4 | Psalms preserved from the time of the monarchy, or even of David | 152 |
5 | Psalms from the days of Judaism | 154 |
6 | Psalms from Maccabean times? | 154 |
7 | A history of psalmography? | 155 |
XIX | The Metre of the Psalms | 159 |
1 | Sense rhythm and imposed rhythm | 159 |
2 | Fundamental problems in Hebrew metrics | 161 |
3 | The basic form | 162 |
4 | Thought rhyme (parallelismus membrorum) | 166 |
5 | Rhythmical and logical units | 169 |
6 | Strophes | 170 |
7 | Uniform or mixed metres? | 172 |
8 | Changes of metre | 174 |
XX | Israelite and Oriental Psalmography | 176 |
1 | A common oriental psalm style older than Israel | 176 |
2 | Comparison with Israelite psalms. Hymns | 179 |
3 | Psalms of lamentation and of petition | 182 |
4 | Thanksgiving psalms | 185 |
5 | Canaanite and Israelite psalmography | 187 |
6 | Babylonian and Egyptian models | 189 |
7 | The metrical forms | 190 |
XXI | Earlier Collections. The Compilation of the Psalter | 193 |
1 | Testimony to gradual collection | 193 |
2 | The various smaller collections | 193 |
3 | The completion of the Psalter | 196 |
4 | The five-fold division is quite secondary and does not reflect the history of the compilation | 197 |
5 | How many psalms in the Psalter? | 197 |
6 | When was the Psalter compiled? | 198 |
XXII | The Purpose of the Psalter | 202 |
1 | The collection used as a temple hymnal | 202 |
2 | The purpose of the separate earlier lesser collections: the Asaph psalms, the Korah psalms, the second Davidic Psalter, the Elohistic Psalter, the pilgrim songs, the enthronement psalms, Hallel; the first Davidic Psalter; the psalms in the fourth and fifth 'books' | 203 |
3 | In what circles was the Psalter compiled? The 'learned' as traditionalists and canonists | 204 |
4 | The purpose of the collection | 204 |
5 | Consequences of the collection and canonisation of the Psalter. An end to cultic psalmography. Collective interpretation of older individualistic psalms | 205 |
XXIII | Technical Terms in the Psalm Headings | 207 |
A | Expressions indicating type of psalm | 207 |
B | Musical indications | 210 |
C | Information as to the psalms' liturgical purpose and use | 211 |
D | Expressions referring to the accompanying rite | 213 |
E | Expressions of doubtful significance | 215 |
| Additional Notes I-XL | 218 |
| List of Abbreviations | 268 |
| Bibliography | 271 |
| Subject Index | 290 |
| Index of Scripture Passages Treated | 296 |
| Index of Authors | 300 |