A Hallelujah; ascribed to David, the son of Jesse

v.1 Smaller was I than my brothers and the youngest of my father's sons. So he set me as herdsman of his sheep and ruler over his kids.

v.2 My hands fashioned a Panpipe, and my fingers a lyre that I might pay honor to the Lord.*

v.3 I kept saying within myself: 'The mountains cannot tell Him what indeed they witness, neither can the hills. The leaves of the trees have no speech for my words,⁵ nor the sheep for my acts.

v.4 Nay, who is there that can tell, who is there that hath speech and can relate what it is that I am doing?" Yet, He Who is the Lord of All Things saw it indeed; He Who is the God of All Things-He heard and Himself gave ear.

v.5 So He sent His prophet to anoint me, even Samuel to bring me to greatness. My brothers went out to meet him, handsome and comely withal,

v.6 tall of stature, with splendid locks; but them the LORD* God did not choose.

v.7 I it was He sent for and fetched from behind the sheep, and He had me anointed with holy oil, and made me the leader¹² of His people and the ruler of the Children of His covenant.

It may be of interest here to reprint a curious and for-gotten version of Psalm 151 quoted in Holland's Psalmista (1848) as the work of a certain 'R.B.', said to be Richard Braithwait, whose versified rendering of I Samuel, ch. 17, in no less than sixty four-line stanzas, appeared in London in 1628. Holland says that the Psalm is included in Arabi; Anglc-Saxon, and Greek liturgies and was recognized as canonical by Athanasius. Actually, what is presented is, at best, an abbreviation of 'R.B.'s' version, and it has been suggested that it may in fact have been composed by William Tennant, who held the Chair of Hebrew at St. Andrew's University, Scotland, in the middle of the nineteenth century; see Notes and Queries, VI, v (1882), p.357.

1. Among my brethren I was least, And of my father's stock I was the youngest in his house-The shepherd of his flock.

2. Rare instruments of music oft My hands, well-practiced, made; And on the sacred psaltery My skilful fingers played.

3. But who of me shall speak to God, and tell him of my care? The Lord himself, lo, even now, Doth hearken to my prayer.

4. He sent his messenger and took Me from the shepherd's toil; And on my head-sweet unction!-pour'd His own anointing oil.

5. My brethren, beautiful and tall, Held theirs a happy lot; But in them and their comeliness The Lord delighted not.

6. To meet the boasting alien chief I went forth on their part; He cursed me by his idols and Despised me from his heart.

7. But having slain, I with his sword Cut off his head at once. And took away the foul reproach Of Israel's daunted sons.