280 



PTOMAINES PUBLIC LANDS. 



that several of the Asph rwalms, notably TV Ixxir., I have the 

 Ixxix., Ixxx., and probably Ixxxiii., an- evidently later ever. 

 than the times of David. Tlie a<vount given in tin- 1 



refrain, " fur his loving kindness is for- 



(ion in .In !:ci. in the 

 i alioiit ;;.')() B. C. 



Hible seouis to be that a guild bearing Asaph's name 

 I from the time <if [David's Asaph onward. 

 From this e might naturally expect that the [tsalius 

 bearing this name would be of various dates. 



In tii 'p.KiUA UarrANNifA the psajnis just 



mentioned, together with IV. xliv., xlix., lixiii., an'l 

 Ixxxvii., arr referred in the time of an alleged revolu- 

 reiirn of Artaxerxe.s O.-lius. of 

 Hut the very existence of this 



revolution in at best a sliiuly supported conjecture, too 

 mi -ertain to IMJ justly dcscrihcil as "an hktoried situ- 

 aii.in which can be very definitely realized." It is 

 Kiid nf these psalms, "They are post-exile in their 

 whole tone, and belong to a time when prophecy had 

 ceased and the synagogue worship was fully estab- 

 lished (Ixxiir. 8, 9)." But the statement 



" We see nnt our sij*ns : 

 There is no more any prophet," 



docs not necessarily imply that the gift of prophecy 

 had ceased when the words were written, but only that 

 there were no prophets just then available (cf. 1 Sam. 

 xxviii. ti, I")). Further, the statement, "They have 

 burned up all the synagogues of God in the land," does 

 not justify the assertion that the synagogue worship 

 was then i'ullv established. There is no proof and no 

 probability that the word mned here means "syna- 



: " it may possibly mean places of religious ser- 

 vice of some sort, though this would be a singular 

 meaning for it ; it is ordinarily used to describe the 



.inual festivals, and the SeptoagUtt and Vulgate 

 translators understood that it was so used here. This 

 meaning makes good sense, for, in the thought of the 

 P>almist. the burning of the temple was the burning 

 up of all the religious solemnities that centred in the 

 temple. It is an error to say that Ps. Ixxiv. is re- 

 ferred to in 1 Mae. vii. 10. ^The reference there is to 

 Ps. Ixxix. , and this psalm is cited in Jcr. x. 2">, and 

 apparently alluded to in several places in Jeremiah. 

 The suggestion that Ps. Ixxxiii. represents Ashur as 

 " t he satrap of Syria " is quite a feat of cxegctieal im- 

 agination. "That it is not of the As-yrian age is ob- 

 vious from the mention of Arab trilios" is an assertion 

 which should be compared with the fact that all the 

 tribes mentioned in the psalm are elsewhere in the 

 Bible stid to have been in relation with Israel in the 



rf Saul or earlier. In fine each of tln-.-e psalms 

 ean IK; assigned to some (late earlier than the death of 

 Jeremiah, where it will fit some known irroup of his- 

 torical facts much more closely than they tit the situa- 

 tion that has been conjecturally created for them in the 

 tini" of Artaxerxes O.-hus. 



Tltr C'lUfctinn nf tht l^nrlmx. Our present collec- 

 tion wa< formed in part from several earlier coll. 

 So much i> evident without accepting all the *l:\i<- 

 nientaoftlx : i- KIM \ MIIITANMC \ on this sub- 



r taking space to discuss them. The statement 

 that iii "Jewish tradition" David "was held to have 

 completed and arranged the whole book 1 ' is unfair to 

 all the older and letter forms of the Jewish tradition. 

 Fairly interpreted, these simply attribute to David that 

 pre-eminence in psalm-writing which justifies the call- 

 ing of the collection by his name. There is no iva^m 

 for holding that the very ancient collection of "The 

 Prayers of David," the subscription of which now ap- 



at the close of Ps. Ixxii., was intended exclu- 

 sively or iiuinly for liturgieal use. So far as appears 

 were 1 those of a book of lyric and de- 

 votional i>o.-ms. rather than those of a public hymn- 

 li'ink. Thi- le-timotiy we hive ,-i|.- ,| from C'lronicles 

 f.ivorj the jdi-t that there WU in the hands of lh" lem- 

 ttle singers from the time nf David a collection for 

 liturgical use. different from the. collection known as 



The reasons for assigning any part of the work of col- 

 lecting the psalms to an excemjvely late date are dis- 

 proved by the same considerations that disprove the 

 excessively late alleged date.s of the psalms I heiusvlves. 

 Assertions to the contrary notwithstanding, the dux- 

 ology at the close of Ps. cvi. is natunilly to be regarded, 

 like those at the close of IV xli., Ixxii., and Ixxxix.. aa 

 Uiinging to the book closing with the ii.-alm. rather 

 than to the psalm itself. This Wing the tniM-. the lai-t. 

 that I Chron. xvi. quotes 1's. cvi., with its dcwolwy, 

 may be taken as evidence (not, perhaps, a.- entirely de- 

 cisive evidence) that the first four books of the itgalina 

 had been collected U-lore that part of Chronicles wan 

 written. In any case the five books of psakns were 

 complete before (he completing of the Old Testament 

 itself; that is. within the probable time of the life of 

 N'ehcniiah. Sec HIHI.K and CANON in this work, VoL 

 I., pp. 503, 504, and 708, teq. 



Literatim. Tht Oriqin and Grmrth of the /Vi/m*,hr Prof. 

 T. C. Murray, of the Johns-Hopkins University (1880), is a 

 monograph worth reading. The cnmmr ntnric* on the Psalmi 

 in the SchiifT- Jjtnge series, or th<e of Delitzsch, are Ihor- 

 niiL'lily KI>I|. i^ncii works as Bnrnes' Kolei or Spurgeon'i 

 Treatury oft/ie JHotiie of Daviil&re i icli in practical thought 

 ami devotional feel ing, however larking thry may Ix-incriii- 

 cal thoroughness. The purpose of The naltera Witness to tht 

 lilrinf Or mitt of the JSil'le. hy T. W. Chamhere i.N. V., 

 1876), is imlicMted hy this title. In the successive numhers 

 of the Jountnl ol'tlic .SiK-irty of Hililiral Liteniture and Kx- 

 egesis are article* by Profrssor C'. 11. Toy. mlvx-ating nn 

 extrenio late ilnte for Uie several nnm)>s of pi-alms. ReceDt 

 periodicul literature ahnumls in articles on the Psalm*. 

 Quite notahle is the articli' of 1'rof. .Sini-ntl in tin 1 Zeittchrift 

 fur A. T. /I, 1SS8, on the use of the pronoun of 



the first person iu the psalms. (W. J. B.) 



PTOMATN'KS. See SANTTARV PCIF.NTF.. 



rriiLlC HEALTH. See SANITARY SCIENCE. 



PUBLIC LANDS. The public domain of the 

 United Statis acquired hy ms-ion fn-ni the several 

 States :,nil by treaty from France. Spain. M cxieo, Texas, 

 and Russia, amounts to _'.>'.'. i;:i.").'.tl square niiles, or 

 about 1,852,310,000 acres, and its cost was, in round 

 numbers, $322, 000,000. The first sales of these lands 

 were made in blocks of townships and of 8 sections, 

 but soon in tracts of 04tt and liin acres, and later of 

 120, 80. and 40 acres. What is known as a township 

 is 6 miles square and contains 3f> i-eei ions, each sec- 

 tion being one mile square, and containing MO acres of 

 land. A quarter section is } mile square, liid acres. 

 This system of surveys originated with Judge Oliver 

 I'helps (if. r.) in 1788. The following is a diagram of 

 a township, with sections numbered according to gov- 

 ernment surveys : 



Month. 



The public, lands of the T'nited State* which are 

 still undisposed of and open to settlement lie in 19 

 and 10 Territories. The. following .-lad ne nt 



the Prayers of Darid. and in'-ludin- ill-- p-ahus that Knows the number of thousands of s|.are miles WIT- 



