250 TH. BOOIJ v v. 5 - 9 the praise of YHWH’s acts in nature, as found in Ps 135,6-7, is replaced by an account of creation, in the main according to Gen 1,1.14-19. Verses 10-15, focussing on the exodus, replace the Egyptian episode in Ps 135,8-9. Verses 1-15 together are made up of five strophes of three lines each 37. The loss of this pattern after v. 15 appears to be occasioned by the insertion, in vv. 17-22, of an adapted version of Ps. 135,10-12. The conclusion has to be that Psalm 136 was largely based on its predecessor. 4. Date of the texts The majority of the Songs of Ascents, as well as the Songs as a collection and Psalms 135 and 136, seem to stem from the somewhat later post-exilic period. For the Songs as a collection and most of its texts this dating is first of all justified by linguistic facts. Forms and words in the Songs occurring elsewhere only or mainly in relatively late texts are : a finite form of hyh (“ to be”) linked with a participle in Ps 122,2 38 ; l introducing a direct object in Ps 122,4b 39 ; bg as “ back (of a human)” in Ps 129,3 40 ; hjyls (“ forgiveness ”) in Ps 130,4 41. Several elements show the northern Hebrew and Aramaic influence on post-exilic Judaean Hebrew: thus v (for rva) in Ps 122,3.4 ; 123,2; 124,1.2.6; 129,6.7; 133,2.3 42 ; the construction v . . . ylwl (“ if not ... that”) in Ps 124,1.2 43 ; yza After three verses opening with wdwh (“ praise . . . ! ”), each of vv. 4-6 begins 37 with l plus participle (“who ...”); the latter form is repeated at the beginning of three thematic units, each made up of three verses (see vv. 7, 10, 13). See S.R. DRIVER, A Treatise on the Use of the Tenses in Hebrew and 38 Some Other Syntactical Questions (Oxford 31892) § 135, 5. See GESENIUS – KAUTZSCH, § 117n ; P. JOÜON – T. MURAOKA, A 39 Grammar of Biblical Hebrew (Roma 1991) § 125k. Designating a bulge or elevation apparently, the word is used for 40 “ mound ”, “brow”, “boss” (of a shield). In Ezek 10,12 it denotes a cherub’s back. The usual word for “back” is wg or we. ˛ g It is found in Neh 9,17 and Dan 9,9. 41 See the dictionaries; also G.A. RENDSBURG, Linguistic Evidence for the 42 Northern Origin of Selected Psalms (Atlanta, GA 1990) 91-92. See Targum Ps 27,13 (yd ylwla) and Ps.-Jonathan Deut 1,1 (d ylwlya); 43 cf. R. PAYNE SMITH, Thesaurus Syriacus (Oxonii 1879-1901) I, 198, s.v. ’ell l’. A Hebrew letter from Murabba‘at, dated about 135 AD, has the construction yza . . . ç yla (DJD II, 1961, 156, text 42:5).