Book Review: The JPS Bible Commentary: Psalms 120–150. The Traditional Hebrew Text with the JPS Translation

The JPS Bible Commentary – Psalms 120–150. The Traditional Hebrew Text with the JPS Translation. Commentary by Adele Berlin. Sidebars on Ritual and Liturgical Uses of Psalms by Avigdor Shinan and Benjamin E. Sommer. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2023) xli + 206 pp. Reviewed by David J. Zucker.

In the Introduction to this work, Adele Berlin (who before her retirement, was Robert H. Smith Professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Maryland) points out that the “primary aim of a commentary on the Book of Psalms is to explain what the psalms mean, and how that meaning is generated” (xvii). Yet whose meaning? The composer of the psalm, or how it was perceived by the editor of the book, or by later interpreters? In this case the focus of this book is on the ancient meaning of the text, and what “contemporary scholars think the psalms meant to the ancient community for whom they were written.” Berlin further notes that “Psalms 120–150 are thought to have been written in Judah in early Second Temple times” (xviii). This means that the superscriptions linking certain psalms with named biblical figures like David or the sons of Korah “are not indicators of historical authorship” (xxi). Indeed, it “is likely that the Levites of the Second Temple were the editors and compilers the Book of Psalms as a whole” (xv).

This work is enhanced by numerous sidebars that “provide an overview of the ways in which each psalm has been used in prayer and ritual over two millennia in Rabbinic Judaism” (xxvii). Subsections deal with Psalms in Daily, Sabbath, and Festival Prayers; Psalms and Fasts; Psalms for the Sabbath, Holidays, and Special Occasions; Psalms in Women’s Prayer Books; Magical Use of the Psalms; and Ritual Recitation of the Entire Book of Psalms or Large Sections of the Book (xxvii–xl). This is the first of a JPS multi-volume set dedicated to the Book of Psalms.

A careful reader of this work will immediately notice that although this volume was published in 2023, the English rendering of these psalms follows the JPS TANAKH of 1985 and 1999. This means that the Deity is termed LORD and is referred to with the masculine pronouns, He/His. For example, in this volume Psalm 138:6 reads: “High though the LORD is, He sees the lowly; lofty, He perceives from afar.” This stands in contrast to the 2023 JPS translation THE JPS TANAKH, Gender-Sensitive Edition which renders this line: “From way up high GOD sees the lowly; aloft, yet perceiving from afar.” A second example: In this volume Psalm 132:13 reads: “For the LORD has chosen Zion, He has desired it for His seat.” In the gender-sensitive version, known as RJPS [Revised JPS], the text reads: “For GOD has chosen Zion, desiring it for a seat.” (See the review of the RJPS – THE JPS TANAKH, Gender-Sensitive Edition in Jewish Bible Quarterly 2024 – 52(2): 128–130). Berlin coincidentally wrote the insightful Commentary for the 2001 JPS volume on Esther. In this volume on Psalms, she explains that this research on Psalms was completed in 2018 with only minor changes or updates made thereafter (xi). The next installment to this set may reflect the newer 2023 gender-sensitive edition.

The JPS Bible Commentary – Psalms 120–150 is enhanced by numerous endnotes, an Excursus on the Songs of Ascents (Psalms 120–134), and a Bibliography for the Commentary.