Feb 23, 2016

Did David Author 4,050 Psalms!

Recently while doing some reading I was reminded of a statement in one of the Dead Sea Scrolls that David might have been much more prolific than might be indicated by the 73 psalms associated to him in the Psalter. In fact, we are told that David composed 4,050!

Col. XXVII (Compositions of David Sam 23:7) I and the haft of his spear and he cast them in the fire
leaving no trace of them.

2 Blank And David, son of Jesse, was wise, a luminary like the light of the sun, learned, 3 Blank knowledgeable, and perfect in all his paths before God and men. And to him 4 Blank YHWH gave a wise and enlightened spirit. And he wrote psalms: 5 three thousand six hundred; and songs to be sung before the altar over the perpetual 6 offering of every day, for all the days of the year: three hundred 7 and sixty-four; and for the sabbath offerings: fifty-two songs; and for the offering for the beginning 8 of the month, and for all the days of the festivals, and for the day of atonement: thirty songs. 9 And all the songs which he composed were four hundred and forty-six. And songs 10 to be sung over the possessed: four. The total was four thousand and fifty 11 He composed them all through the spirit of prophecy which had been given to him from before the Most High. Blank (11Q5 27:2–11)

Translation from Florentino García Martínez, The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated: The Qumran Texts in English (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 309.

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