The Psalter (Forbes 1888) #2

Reading this 300 page treatise carefully will be a challenge. I haven't gone this slowly in years. So our author, Forbes, yes that's his name, begins with a surprising thesis.

Like the golden candlestick with its seven branches, three on either side being united by a central branch, the Psalter (besides its well-known division into five books) is shown to form one grand organic whole, consisting of seven divisions (Book V. being divisible into three distinctly-marked portions) —three Amen Books, or Books of Faith, taking the lead in the Devotional Manual of the Jewish Church ; and three Hallelujah Books, or Books of Praise, forming its close ; while both are united by a Central Book (xc.-cvi.) of an intermediate character, bearing as its signature one compounded of the distinctive signatures of the preceding and succeeding books, " Amen-Hallelujah " (Ps. cvi. 48). The place and number of the Amens and Hallelujahs are found to be adjusted with remarkable precision, two Amens closing each of the three Amen Books, and forming, with the single Amen of the Central book, in all seven Amens ; while the Hallelujah Books, beginning each with the words, " give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good : for His mercy endureth for ever," close with Hallelujah Psalms, the whole number of Hallelujahs in the Psalter being twenty-four (in reference to the twenty-four orders of Levites and singers), allotted in significant proportions to each of the several books.

 So - do we find indeed that Book 5 is divisible into three and the Psalter therefore into seven? The three Amen books he speaks of are Psalms 1-41, 42-72, and 73-89, the first three books of the Psalter. No dispute here, and the structure is long-lived. This old set of lecture notes from 2010 has some hints that the order of the psalms was known at least in part from the DSS. I don't have any further up to date information but this is sufficient for now as to a plausible pre-history in part.

Book 4 (90-106) then is Forbes central candle. So let's look for the three Hallelujah books. The word ksdo preceded by the root ylm occurs 34 times in the Psalms. The first is Psalms 100:5. The next begins Psalms 106. The remaining phrases occur in full exactly 3 times in Book 5 in Psalms 107:1, 118:1 and 136:1. Does each section indeed close with what he calls a Hallelujah psalm. Yes, after a fashion. Psalms 135 begins and ends with hllu-ih but Psalms 117 begins with hllu at-ihvh. Psalms 146 and following are full of hllu-ih.

Psalms 107:1 == 118:1 == 136:1 (and except for the Hallelujah = 106:1)

הֹד֣וּ לַיהוָ֣ה כִּי־ט֑וֹב כִּ֖י לְעוֹלָ֣ם חַסְדּֽוֹ		1 Give thanks to Yahweh for it is good, for his kindness is forever,
a hodu lihvh ci-'tob ci lyolm ksdo	6 6	h/d\v l/ihvh ci 'tvb ci l/yvlm ksd\v

So these are the verses where the author has made his divisions: 107-117, 118-135, 136-150. I think we would find each verse is identical. What about the count of Hallelujahs? Not quite. There are 25 by my count. One of them I translated as Praise Yah (117:2) to rhyme with its beginning. 

Here is the lot.

104	35	iitmu k'taim mn-harx urwyim yod ainm brci npwi at-ihvh hllu-ih	Sinners will be completed from the earth, and the wicked - they are no longer. Bless Yahweh O my being. Hallelu Yah.
105	45	bybur iwmru kuqiv vtorotiv inxoru hllu-ih	So that they would keep his statutes, and his instruction they would observe. Hallelu Yah.
106	1	hllu-ih hodu lihvh ci-'tob ci lyolm ksdo	Hallelu Yah. Give thanks to Yahweh for it is good. For his kindness is forever.
106	48	bruç ihvh alohi iwral mn-hyolm vyd hyolm vamr cl-hym amn hllu-ih	Bless Yahweh the God of Israel from the everlasting and unto the everlasting and let all the people say, Amen. Hallelu Yah.
111	1	hllu-ih aodh ihvh bcl-lbb bsod iwrim vydh	Hallelu Yah. I will thank Yahweh with a whole heart, Before the council of the upright, and assembly.
112	1	hllu-ih awri-aiw ira at-ihvh bmxvotiv kpx maod	Hallelu Yah. A happy person fears Yahweh. By his commandments he has much delight.
113	1	hllu-ih hllu ybdi ihvh hllu at-wm ihvh	Hallelu Yah. Praise servants of Yahweh. Praise the name of Yahweh.
113	9	mowibi yqrt hbit am-hbnim wmkh hllu-ih	who seats the barren in a house, a glad mother of children? Hallelu Yah.
115	18	vanknu nbrç ih myth vyd-yolm hllu-ih	But we, we will bless Yah, from now and unto everlasting. Hallelu Yah.
116	19	bkxrot bit ihvh btocci iruwlim hllu-ih	in the courts of the house of Yahweh, in your centre, O Jerusalem. Hallelu Yah.
117	2	ci gbr ylinu ksdo vamt-ihvh lyolm hllu-ih	For his mercy has prevailed over us, and the truth of Yahweh is forever. Praise Yah.
135	1	hllu-ih hllu at-wm ihvh hllu ybdi ihvh	Hallelu Yah. Praise the name of Yahweh. Praise O servants of Yahweh,
135	3	hllu-ih ci-'tob ihvh zmru lwmo ci nyim	Hallelu Yah, for Yahweh is good. Sing a psalm to his name for pleasure.
135	21	bruç ihvh mxion wocn iruwlim hllu-ih	Blessed be Yahweh from Zion, dwelling in Jerusalem, Hallelu Yah.
146	1	hllu-ih hlli npwi at-ihvh	Hallelu Yah. Praise Yahweh, O my being.
146	10	imloç ihvh lyolm alohiiç xion ldor vdor hllu-ih	Yahweh will reign forever, your God, Zion, from generation to generation. Hallelu Yah.
147	1	hllu-ih ci-'tob zmrh alohinu ci-nyim navh thilh	Hallelu Yah, for it is good to sing a psalm to our God, for it is pleasant. Praise is lovely.
147	20	la ywh cn lcl-goi umwp'tim bl-idyum hllu-ih	Not has he done so to all nations, and his judgments they have not known, Hallelu Yah.
148	1	hllu-ih hllu at-ihvh mn-hwmiim hlluhu bmromim	Hallelu Yah. Praise Yahweh from the heavens. Praise him on the high ground.
148	14	virm qrn lymo thilh lcl-ksidiv lbni iwral ym qrobo hllu-ih	And he will exalt the horn of his people, a praise of all those under his mercy, of the children of Israel, a people near him. Hallelu Yah.
149	1	hllu-ih wiru lihvh wir kdw thilto bqhl ksidim	Hallelu Yah. Sing to Yahweh a new song. His praise in the congregation of the-many who are under mercy.
149	9	lywot bhm mwp't ctub hdr hua lcl-ksidiv hllu-ih	To make in them judgment inscribed. This honour to all under his mercy. Hallelu Yah.
150	1	hllu-ih hllu-al bqodwo hlluhu brqiy yuzo	Hallelu Yah. Praise God in his holiness. Praise him in the expanse of his strength.
150	6	col hnwmh thll ih hllu-ih	All the breath-bearing praise Yah. Hallelu Yah.
150	6	col hnwmh thll ih hllu-ih	All the breath-bearing praise Yah. Hallelu Yah.

The author continues without dependency on his slight miscounting. And the miscounting is irrelevant to his thesis that the Psalter was deliberately put together in the order we have it.

Such nicety of arrangement and elaboration in the external form of the Psalter seemed designed for the same purpose as the study of Parallelism had before taught me was sub-served by the external arrangement in single Psalms of strophes and verses, as well as by the regular sequence of the Hebrew letters in the Alphabetical Psalms  —namely, to aid in tracing the internal connection and meaning. Availing myself of the clue thus offered, I have been enabled to trace the connection in various groups of Psalms, and even in whole books, in a manner sufficient, I trust, to satisfy unbiassed inquirers that we must not regard the Psalms merely as isolated productions, but that in the order in which we now possess them they have been arranged and connected together with very great care, so as to bring out and enforce certain important truths with a clearness and distinctness not to be mistaken. So long as each Psalm is viewed as a separate and unconnected composition, it is easy to explain away its meaning, and to put upon its language very diverse and conflicting interpretations, according to the author, the occasion, and the age to which each critic may refer it. But when the Psalms are seen, in the form in which we now possess them, to have been grouped together as parts of a connected series, in order to bring out and give expression to some definite idea or important truth, we gain a certainty, not otherwise to be attained, of the meaning to be put upon the whole series, as well as upon individual expressions in each Psalm, which might otherwise be ambiguous.

This paragraph (above) is too vague to test. 

So he concludes that there are three sections - I would hardly call them books - in Book 5. Maybe. I have pointed out that Psalms 135 and 136 share a large number of roots. In my book I note that they share upwards of 30 roots, 20 of them in the same sequence. And I report that they share 54% of their words, the highest percentage of any two consecutive psalms that I have measured. It's hard to divide this connection. They both appear to be celebrating the Psalms of ascent. Nonetheless for the moment I will defer judgment till I have read more.

As for the alphabetical psalms, I have shown the verbal chiasms between them elsewhere, e.g. here and here. Their relationships have nothing to do with parallelism but purely with repeated words.