Genesis i aNd the Plagues Tradition in Psalm Cv

Abstract

Besides the Plagues narrative in Exod. vii-xii, Pss lxxviii and cv are the only two examples of a complete presentation of the Plagues in Egypt known to us. Ps. lxxviii and Ps. cv do not exactly correspond to the Pentateuchal traditions. Just by looking at the number of Plagues and their sequence in Pss lxxviii and cv, one may easily be led to conclude that they come from independent traditions. But a closer look at these two psalms and the Pentateuch will reveal that they cannot be totally independent of the Pentateuchal traditions. Moreover, they represent stages in the traditio-historical development of the Plagues and each of them in turn reflects the historicaltheological situations with which they are closely connected. Many scholars consider that the tradition behind Ps. lxxviii belongs to the older J (E) stratum while Ps. cv is based on the P Plagues narrative. In Ps. lxxviii 43-52 seven Plagues are mentioned as compared to eight in Ps. cv and ten in the book of Exodus. This article will mainly be on Ps. cv, leaving Ps. lxxviii for another article. B. Margulis2 has a detailed study of the Plagues tradition of Ps. cv, in which he is convinced that Ps. cv is based on the P tradition while Ps. lxxviii is independent of the P influence; probably, the J Stratum is preserved by Ps. lxxviii. But the question arises as to the absence of the sixth plague of Exod. ix 8-12 (P) and the transposition of the darkness plague to the beginning of the list in Ps. cv. In the Psalm Scroll of Qumran Cave II, Margulis finds that line 5 of Ps. cv 28-9 has more space than is required by the MT and the final word of line 4, sm, cannot be reconciled with the MT. Therefore, he reconstructs the two lines and retranslates v. 29 as follows: