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out, to defend the truth of the revealed promises, and to vindicate the justice of Jehovah, that is the chief aim of the author. His object is, then, primarily an apologetical biblical one, but this only as the groundwork of the practical, exhortative one of admonishing them faithfully and patiently to endure for the present. His answer to the questions of his suffering friends consists in directing them from the trials and tribulations of the HTR to the triumphs of the HTR, and therefore his admonitions centre in the words “hope” (96:1; 104:2, 4) and “believe” (97:1), for the day of Jehovah would surely come. It is inaugurated by “the period of the sword,” of the destruction of the sinners by the righteous; and the vividness with which this period is pictured in 99 and 100, especially 100:3, shows how important it was for the author. He is a Jew, writes for Jews, and his standard of retribution is the Jewish one of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” The character of the sin shall determine the character of the punishment, and this terrible scene of carnage inflicted by the righteous on the unrighteous in the day of vengeance, 95:3; 90:19; 91:11, 12; 94:7, 9; 95:3; 98:12, etc., can only be regarded as the development from the sufferings of the righteous in the time of the author. It should be noticed here that the Parables, which do not presuppose a condition of persecution for the faithful, say little or nothing concerning the period of the sword. But this feature of the author’s eschatological hopes are like his Messianic idea, developments out of the immediate wants and longings of his times. Here he meets an objection. The sinners say that God does not regard their actions, 104:7. The author knows better than this, for these acts are known in heaven, 98:6, 7, 8; 104:7, written on the tablets of heaven (cf. note on 81:1), and are even remembered and related by the powers of nature, 100:10; 104:8. This peculiar method of polemics is prompted by the manner in which he received his revelations as recorded chap. 12 sqq., and his intimate knowledge of the divine course of nature. An objection, however, more subtitle yet meets the author here that he must refute. The fulfilment of his prophecies rests on the assumption that there is a retribution after death, and this the sinners deny. They claim that death ends all, and no righting of the wrongs of life can be expected after death. It must be especially noticed that the author nowhere presupposes the objection that there is no life after death, but only that there is no retribution then. Thus, 102:6-11, the sinners do not boast that the souls die with the bodies, but only that the fate of all is similar after death, and that the darkness of Sheol will receive both good and bad. The same idea lies in 103:5, 6. Therefore, too, in his exalted tone, the author emphasizes the fact, 103:1 sqq., that after death the good will receive their reward, and the evil their punishment, 103:7, sqq. The simple existence of the soul after death and the resurrection of the departed are never mentioned in a polemical spirit, but always as acknowledged facts; but for the defense of aretribution after death the author brings in all his power of persuasion, He seems to appreciate the fact that he has the letter of the old covenant against him, that he must take a step beyond the Old Testament, and therefore, with a powerful appeal to the greatness of God 103:1, he assures his readers of the truth of what he says. In this way, then, he has removed the difficulties and cleared the way for the description of the manner in which this future retribution shall take place; he can now proceed to what is his main intention—to a description of the world to come, to his peculiar eschatology. Historically, his object and its origin can be easily understood. It is a well-known fact that ever since the time when Alexander and his successors attempted to establish Greek culture in the East, there had been two parties in Palestine also, the Hellenistic, or friends of progress, and the Chasidim, or those that clung to the law and to all Jewish peculiarities, and bore within their hearts all the hopes and promises of Israel. It is equally well known that this class of faithful ones were generally in the minority and subject to the persecution of the opposite party, Especially was this the case in the ever memorable conflict between the tyrannical and singular Antiochus (IV.) Epiphanes and the Maccabean party. That in this long struggle between the conservative and advanced elements the defeat and sufferings of the former, who knew that God had given them the promises, should excite doubts in their hearts such as the author meets is natural. To encourage them in their tortured we trod . 1 a 1 1 cuoeda . 14 . c condition, to defend the promises given them, to predict the downfall of their enemies and the enemies of God, this was the object and aim the author had in writing. It might be called a proclamation or manifesto to the Chasidim, exhorting them to steadfastness, announcing that the long-delayed retribution would surely and speedily come.