PSALMS IX. AND X. 283
strongest reasons (entirely independent of alpha-
betic considerations) for holding that the line
originally began with this word, and that the
traditional division of the text gives bad sense,
bad rhythm, and bad parallelism.
- Although the fourth line (x. 10 a) before the
initial q does not begin with c, there are, as I
have already shown, the strongest independent
reasons for believing that this abnormally short
line has lost a word in the course of textual
transmission.
I submit that this combination of facts—the
abnormal shortness and strangeness of the fourth
line before initial q, the occurrence of initial f
at the beginning of the eighth and of initial p at
the beginning of the twelfth line—is not acci-
dental, but is due to the fact that Psalm x.
concludes not merely with the last four but
with the last seven strophes of an alphabetic
poem.
Working back afresh from the initial q in
x. 12 we find at the beginning of the twentieth
line before it the letter n (in x. 3 b),^1 i.e. n stands
at the exact interval before q at which it should
stand in an alphabetic poem of four-lined strophes.
On the other hand, if we count downwards from
the initial in ix. 18, or the l in x. 1, it occurs
two lines too soon. Moreover the initial m,
1 For the justification of following the Greek as against the Hebrew
tradition in beginning the line with Cxn, see note above, p. 275.