Apocrypha
Psalms of Solomon
Psalmoi Solomontos
18 chapters · read and listen
Reading note
An apocryphal or pseudepigraphal text — outside the canon of the Western churches, yet widely circulated among ancient Jews and Christians. Published here from a public-domain translation, edited for continuous reading.
Chapters
Dossier
Eighteen psalms written by the generation that watched a Roman general walk into the Holy of Holies — and that had to explain to itself how God allowed it.
Where this text comes from
Composed in Hebrew in the mid-1st century BC, just after Pompey took Jerusalem in 63 BC. They survive only in Greek and Syriac. They appear in the indexes of some ancient biblical manuscripts, though the text itself is not always there.
Why it is not in the Bible
Outside the canons. They were listed among books appended to Greek manuscripts, a sign that they were treated with respect, but were never received as Scripture.
What you will find
- Psalms 17 and 18 contain the most detailed messianic description in pre-Christian Jewish literature — the Son of David who purifies Jerusalem without an army.
- Pompey's death in Egypt is read as a direct answer to the profanation of the Temple.
- The internal criticism of the priestly aristocracy is as harsh as anything said about the invader.
Frequently asked questions
- Are the Psalms of Solomon the same as the biblical Psalms?
- No. They are eighteen distinct poems, written some nine hundred years after Solomon, with no connection to the canonical book of Psalms.