Pride and the suffering of the poor in the Persian period: Psalm 12 in its post-exilic context

Abstract

This paper contends that Ps 12 should be read, as part of the composition \nPss 9–14, as a response to and an explication of Prov \n30:1–14 by exponents of Wisdom thinking in the Persian period. The \nsuffering of the righteous people in Ps 12 is described as the result \nof arrogant Jewish and also non-Jewish rulers who use speech as an \ninstrument of deception, fraud, flattery, boasting, and questioning \nYahweh’s authority in order to oppress and intimidate believers. It \nis proposed that the historic context of the final form of the text was \nthat of the “piety of the poor,” a theology which developed from the \nneed to restore dignity and provide hope to victims of social and \nreligious oppression in the post-exilic era. It would seem that these \npeople sought comfort in the word of Yahweh and that they found \nvindication for themselves in those sections of the developing \n“canon” which promised that Yahweh would intervene on behalf of \nthose people who represented true humility and piety.

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