The Apocryphal Psalms of David 1:15–20

You vowed of old to your servant David,

   mercifully anointing the shoot of Jesse:

You sustained his authority in your sanctity for

     he spread your praise to the ends of the earth:

You set his name as an eternal pillar;

   he repairs the breach and rebuilds the ruins:

A cornerstone despised by the builders

   you have raised to the headstone above all nations:

Joyfully you crown him with glory,

   calling him the splendor of all nations

       —translated by Azzan Yadin-Israel

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Suggested Reading

Moses and Hellenism

Steven E. Aschheim

In a provocative new work recently published in German, Bernd Witte proposes nothing less than an “alternative history of German culture,” as the subtitle of his finely wrought work of scholarship tells us. Moses and Homer: Greeks, Jews, Germans is a historical and cultural argument animated by powerful indignation. This history, he insists, has yet to be fully confronted.