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18 - Justice and Retribution in the Psalms

from Part IV - Wisdom/Poetic Ethics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2021

By
Tarah Van De Wiele
Edited by
C. L. Crouch
C. L. Crouch
Affiliation:
Fuller Theological Seminary, California
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Summary

Moral discussions of the so-called psalms of imprecation tend to focus on the author as the mind behind their most violent imagery, with the retributions they invoke assumed to be a product of imaginative fantasy. Debates pivot on whether this fantasy is born from justified or unjustified anger. The following discussion breaks from these assumptions altogether, arguing not only that moral reasoning underlies the so-called psalms of imprecation, but that this reasoning is deeply informed by specific patterns of act and consequence attested across ancient Near Eastern legal cultures. These patterns include talion, shame, and seat of the act. The psalter’s presentation of acts and their consequences draws on the features and logic of these patterns as they seek to compel YHWH to fulfil the retributive norms that the authors observe and therefore expect as a response to particular kinds of crime.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to the Hebrew Bible and Ethics , pp. 274 - 288
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

Further Reading

Abusch, I. T. Babylonian Witchcraft Literature: Case Studies. Atlanta: Scholars, 1987.Google Scholar
Craigie, P. C., and Tate, M. E.. Psalms 1–50. 2nd ed. WBC 19. Waco: Word, 2004.Google Scholar
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Jacobs, S. The Body as Property: Physical Disfigurement in Biblical Law. LHBOTS 582. London: T&T Clark, 2014.Google Scholar
Krecher, J. ‘Neue sumerische Rechtsurkunden des 3. Jahrtausends’. ZA 63 (1973): 145–271.Google Scholar
Lemos, T. M. ‘Shame and Mutilation of Enemies in the Hebrew Bible’. JBL 125 (2006): 225–41.Google Scholar
Malul, M. Studies in Mesopotamian Legal Symbolism. Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1988.Google Scholar
Matthews, V. H. ‘Honor and Shame in Gender-Related Legal Situations in the Hebrew Bible’. Pages 97–112 in Gendered Law in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East. Edited by Levinson, B. M. and Frymer-Kensky, T., JSOTSup 262. London: T&T Clark, 2004.Google Scholar
Oppenheim, A. Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964.Google Scholar
Roth, M. Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. 2nd ed. WAW 6. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 1997.Google Scholar
Sarna, N. M. ‘Legal Terminology in Psalm 3:8’. Pages 175–81 in Sha’arei Talmon: Studies in the Bible, Qumran, and the Ancient Near East: Festschrift Shemaryahu Talmon. Edited by Fishbane, M., Tov, E., and Fields, W.. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1992.Google Scholar
Stol, M. Letters from Yale. Leiden: Brill, 1982.Google Scholar
Strine, C. A. Sworn Enemies: The Divine Oath, the Book of Ezekiel, and the Polemics of Exile. BZAW 436. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2013.Google Scholar
Tetlow, E. M. Women, Crime, and Punishment in Ancient Law and Society, Volume 1: Ancient Near East. London: Continuum, 2004.Google Scholar
Wells, B. The Law of Testimony in the Pentateuchal Codes. BZABR 4. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2004.Google Scholar
Wenham, G. ‘The Ethics of the Psalms’. Pages 229–46 in Interpreting the Psalms: Issues and Approaches. Edited by Johnston, P. S. and Firth, D. G.. Downers Grove: Inter-Varsity, 2005.Google Scholar
Westbrook, R., and Beckman, G. M., eds. A History of Ancient Near Eastern Law. Leiden: Brill, 2003.Google Scholar

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