26, 32, 37,
38. Jerusalem was lying under a heavy visitation, the people delivered
over to the enemy, almost denationalized, and deprived of the
sacrificial worship to which they had been accustomed. Yet this position
of affairs is spoken of as if it were not one of very long standing.
(_Cf._ the use of ????¦?? in vv. 31, 33, 42, though in the last of these
instances its use may not perhaps be temporal.)
It has been objected, quite unnecessarily, that v. 38 is inconsistent
with v. 53, the one implying the destruction of the temple, the other
recognizing its existence; v. 84, too, may be taken as supposing priests
to be still capable of performing their offices. It is even possible
that the corrections of Cod. A in v. 38 may have had behind them some
idea of softening a discrepancy. This supposed lack of consistency has
been taken as an indication of double authorship of the Prayer and the
Song; and of course, if the Prayer were a later interpolation than the
Song, even the appearance of contemporary inconsistency is avoided.
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