02_Booij_351_351_374 30/10/15 13:01 Pagina 358 358 THIJS BOOIJ 358 beginning of the rainy season. It was a cheerful event, in which the Israelites rejoiced with gratitude for the gifts with which YHWH had blessed them in the past year 30. In fact, as “the festival of YHWH”, or briefly “the festival”, it must have been the most exuberant and impressive among the annual cultic celebrations. For our knowledge of Succoth as observed in the later post-exilic period, Psalm 118 is not without significance. An element of the festal ritual is disclosed by vv. 19-20, where the speaker asks to open for him the “gates of righteousness” 31, so that he may enter. It is generally assumed that the reference is to the gate that opened on the temple area, because entering there was bound by moral conditions (Pss 5,5-8; 15; 24,3-6). In fact, however, these conditions must have applied, at least ideally, to the whole area inside the city gates. Since not only Zion as a mountain, but Zion as a city was YHWH’s holy residence 32, sinners could not stay there safely (Isa 33,14). Special demands on those who wanted to enter the temple area were of the ritual kind 33. That Ps 118,19-20 refers to entering into the city is confirmed by its terminological relationship to Isa 26,2. In both texts a procession is halted before one of the city gates, the “gate of YHWH” according to our text. Ps 118,26 apparently reflects a later moment in the ritual, when those entering the sanctuary are welcomed with a blessing 34. Verses 24-25 reveal part of the festival’s character. In v. 24, ~wyh is traditionally taken as the object of hf[, “make”; the meaning of v. 24a is supposed to be: “This is the day that YHWH has made”. Besides “make”, however, hf[ can mean “do, act”, and ~wyh may be taken here as “the day when”. J. Becker has defended this reading 30 See Exod 23,16; 34,22; Lev 23,34.39-40; Deut 16,13-15; Ezek 45,25; Neh 7,72b; 8,9-18; m. Sukkah 5:1-4. 31 Thus v. 19; cf. the singular in v. 20. The plural may refer to the gate’s two leaves; or it could be a plural of excellence. 32 See Pss 46,5; 48,2-3.9; 87,1-2; 132,13-14; Zech 8,3. 33 See Ezek 44,9; 2 Chr 23,19. Cf. D. HAMIDOVIĆ, “‘Les portes de justice’ et ‘la porte de YHWH’ dans le Psaume 118,19-20”, Bib 81 (2000) 543-544, who also mentions extra-biblical texts. 34 Because of the plural in v. 26b, “he who enters” is to be understood in a collective sense; cf. e.g. P. JOÜON – T. MURAOKA, A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew (Rome 1991) § 135c. The phrase hwhy ~vb relates to $wrb, “blessed”, as indicated by the masoretic accentuation (cf. Ps 129,8; Deut 21,5; 2 Sam 6,18). For “from the house of YHWH”, cf. e.g. 2 Kgs 11,13; Ps 66,13; 2 Chr 23,3.