The ancientHebrews identifiedpoetic portions in theirsacred texts, as shown by their entitling as "psalms" or as "chants" passages such asExodus 15:1-19 andNumbers 21:17-20; a song or chant (shir) is, according to the primary meaning of the term,poetry. The question as to whether the poetical passages of the Old Testament show signs of regular rhythm or meter remains unsolved.[1] Many of the features ofBiblical poetry are lost when the poems are translated to English.
The employment of unusual forms of language cannot be considered as a sign of ancient Hebrew poetry. InGenesis 9:25–27 and elsewhere the formlamo occurs. But this form, which represents partlylahem and partlylo, has many counterparts in Hebrew grammar, as, for example,kemo instead ofke-;[2] or-emo = "them";[3] or-emo = "their";[4] orelemo = "to them"[5]—forms found in passages for which no claim to poetical expressions is made. Then there are foundḥayeto = "beast",[6]osri = "tying",[7] andyeshu'atah = "salvation"[8]—three forms that probably retain remnants of the old endings of thenominative,genitive, andaccusative:u(n),i(n),a(n).
Again, inLamech's words, "Adah andZillah, hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, harken unto my speech",[9] the two wordshe'ezin andimrah attract attention, because they occur for the first time in this passage, although there had been an earlier opportunity of using them: in Genesis 3:8 and 3:10,He'ezin = "to harken" could have been used just as well as its synonymshama' = "to hear".[10]
Furthermore,imrah = "speech" might have been used instead of the essentially identicaldabar in Genesis 9:1 and following, but its earliest use is, as stated above, in Genesis 4:23.[11] In place ofadam = "man"[12]enosh is employed.[13] (compare the Aramaicenash[14]).
Asystematic review of similar unusual forms of Hebrew grammar and Hebrew words occurring in certain portions of the Old Testament.[15] Such forms have been calleddialectus poetica since the publication ofRobert Lowth'sPrælectiones de Sacra Poesi Hebræorum iii. (1753); but this designation is ambiguous and can be accepted only in agreement with the rulea parte potiori fit denominatio for some of these unusual forms and words are found elsewhere than in the "songs" of the Old Testament.
These unusual forms and expressions do not occur in all songs, and there are several Psalms that have none of these peculiarities.
Not even theparallelismus membrorum is an absolutely certain indication of ancient Hebrew poetry. This "parallelism" occurs in the portions of the Hebrew Bible that are at the same time marked frequently by the so-calleddialectus poetica; it consists in a remarkable correspondence in the ideas expressed in two successive units (hemistiches, verses, strophes, or larger units); for example, the above-cited words of Lamech, "Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, harken unto my speech",[16] in which are foundhe'ezin andimrah, show a remarkable repetition of the same thought.
But this ideal corythmy is not always present in the songs of theOld Testament or in the Psalms, as the following passages will show:
Julius Ley[21] says therefore correctly that
Though this restriction must be made to James Robertson's view, it remains the case that:[22] "The distinguishing feature of the Hebrew poetry ... is the rhythmical balancing of parts, or parallelism of thought."
Variousrhetorical forms appear in the parallelisms of Biblical poetry. These include:
Another example of synonymous parallelism comes inIsaiah 2:4 orMicah 4:3:
External parallelism can also "accumulate" in a chiastic or "ring" structure that may include many verses. For example, Psalm 1 utilizes synonymous, synthetic, and emblematic parallelism before "turning" antithetically back to emblematic, synthetic, and then synonymous parallels.
The poetry of the ancient Hebrews is not distinguished from the other parts of the Old Testament by rhythm based on quantity, though in view of Greek and Roman poetry it was natural to seek such a rhythm in the songs and Psalms of the Old Testament.William Jones, for example,[23] attempted to prove that there was a definite sequence of long and short syllables in the ancient Hebrew poems; but he could support this thesis only by changing the punctuation in many ways, and by allowing great license to the Hebrew poets. However, on reading the portions of the Old Testament marked by the so-calleddialectus poetica or by parallelism (e.g., Genesis 4:23 and following) no such sequence of long and short syllables can be discovered; andSievers[24] says: "Hebrew prosody is not based on quantity as classical prosody is."
Many scholars hold that the Hebrew poet considered only the syllables receiving the main accent, and did not count the intervening ones. Examples contrary to this are not found in passages where forms of the so-calleddialectus poetica are used, as Ley holds;[25] andIsrael Davidson has proved[26] that the choice oflamo instead oflahem favors in only a few passages the opinion that the poet intended to cause an accented syllable to be followed by an unaccented one.
The rhythm of Hebrew poetry may be similar to that of the GermanNibelungenlied — a view that is strongly supported by the nature of the songs sung by the populace ofPalestine in the early 20th century. These songs have been described byL. Schneller[27] in the following words:
Also in Palestine,Gustaf Hermann Dalman observed:
Such free rhythms are, in Davidson's opinion, found also in the poetry of the Old Testament. Under the stress of their thoughts and feelings the poets of Israel sought to achieve merely the material, not the formal symmetry of corresponding lines. This may be observed, for example, in the following lines of Psalm 2: "Serve the LORD with fear" ('Ibdu et-Yhwh be-yir'ah, 2:11), "rejoice with trembling" (we-gilu bi-re'adah). This is shown more in detail by König;[29] andCarl Heinrich Cornill has confirmed this view[30] by saying:
Sievers is inclined to restrict Hebrew rhythm by various rules, as he attacks[31]Karl Budde's view, that
Furthermore, the verse of the Old Testament poetry is naturallyiambic oranapestic, as the words are accented on one of the final syllables.
A special kind of rhythm may be observed in thedirges, calledkinnot in Hebrew. A whole book of these elegies is contained in theHebrew Bible, the first of them beginning thus: "How does the city sit solitary—that was full of people—how is she become as a widow—she that was great among the nations—and princess among the provinces—how is she become tributary!" (Lamentations 1:1).
The rhythm of such lines lies in the fact that a longer line is always followed by a shorter one. As in theelegiac couplet of Greco-Roman poetry, this change was intended to symbolize the idea that a strenuous advance in life is followed by fatigue or reaction. This rhythm, which may be designated "elegiac measure," occurs also in Amos 5:2, expressly designated as a ḳinah (often speltqinah). The sad import of his prophecies induced Jeremiah also to employ the rhythm of the dirges several times in his utterances (Jeremiah 9:20, 13:18 and following). He refers here expressly to themeḳonenot (the mourning women) who in the East still chant the death-song to the trembling tone of the pipe (48:36 and following).Ḳinot are found also inEzekiel 19:1, 26:17, 27:2, 32:2 and following, 32:16, 32:19 and following.
This elegiac measure, being naturally a well-known one, was used also elsewhere, as, for example, inPsalms 19:8–10. The rhythm of the ḳinah has been analyzed especially by Budde.[33] Similar funeral songs of the modernArabs are quoted by Wetzstein,[34] as, e.g.: "O, if he only could be ransomed! truly, I would pay the ransom!"[35]
A special kind of rhythm was produced by the frequent use ofanadiplosis, in which the phrase at the end of one sentence is repeated at the beginning of the next. Examples include the passages "they came not to the help of the Lord [i.e., to protect God's people], to the help of the Lord against the mighty"[36] and "From whence shall my help come? My help cometh from the Lord".[37]
Many similar passages occur in Psalms 120-134, which also contain an unusual number of epanalepsis, or catch-words, for which Israel Davidson proposed the nameLeittöne. Thus there is the repetition ofshakan inPsalms 120:5–6; ofshalom inPsalms 120:6–7; and the catch-wordyishmor inPsalms 121:7–8.[38] As the employment of such repetitions is somewhat suggestive of the mounting of stairs, the superscriptionshir ha-ma'alot, found at the beginning of these fifteen psalms, may have a double meaning: it may indicate not only the purpose of these songs, to be sung on the pilgrimages to the festivals atJerusalem, but also the peculiar construction of the songs, by which the reciter is led from one step of the inner life to the next. Such graduated rhythm may be observed elsewhere; for the peasants in modernSyria accompany their national dance by a song the verses of which are connected like the links of a chain, each verse beginning with the final words of the preceding one.[39]
Alphabeticalacrostics are used as an external embellishment of a few poems. The letters of the alphabet, generally in their ordinary sequence, stand at the beginning of smaller or larger sections of Psalms 9-10 (probably), 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, 119, 145;[40] Proverbs 31:10-31; Lamentations 1-4; and also ofSirach 51:13-29, as the newly discovered (but poorly preserved) Hebrew text of this book has shown.[41]
Alphabetical and other acrostics occur frequently in Neo-Hebraic poetry.[42] The existence of acrostics in Babylonian literature has been definitely proved;[43] and alphabetical poems are found also among the Samaritans, Syrians, and Arabs. Cicero says (De Divinatione, II.54) that the verse of the sibyl was in acrostics; and the so-calledOracula Sibyllina contain an acrostic.[44]
A secondary phenomenon, which distinguishes a part of the poems of the Old Testament from the other parts, is the so-calledaccentuatio poetica; it has been much slighted.[45] Although not all the poetical portions of the Old Testament are marked by a special accentuation, the Book of Job in 3:3-42:6 and the books of Psalms and Proverbs throughout have received unusual accents. This point will be further discussed later on.
First may be mentioned poems that deal principally with events, being epic-lyric in character: the triumphal song of Israel delivered from Egypt, or thesong of the sea;[46] the mocking song on the burning ofHeshbon;[47] the so-calledsong of Moses;[48] thesong of Deborah;[49] the derisive song of victory of the Israelite women;[50]Hannah's song of praise;[51]David's song of praise on being saved from his enemies;[52]Hezekiah's song of praise on his recovery;[53]Jonah's song of praise;[54] and many of the Psalms, e.g., those on the creation of the world,[55] and on the election of Israel.[56] A subdivision is formed by poems that deal more with description and praise: the so-called Well song;[57] the song of praise on the uniqueness of the god of Israel;[58] and those on his eternity;[59] his omnipresence and omniscience;[60] and his omnipotence.[61]
Poems appealing more to reason, being essentiallydidactic in character. These includefables, like that ofJotham;[62]parables, like those ofNathan and others,[63] or in the form of a song;[64]riddles,[65] maxims,[66] the monologues and dialogues in Job 3:3 and following; compare also the reflections in monologue inEcclesiastes. A number of the Psalms also are didactic in character. A series of them impresses the fact that God's law teaches one to abhor sin,[67] and inculcates a true love for the Temple and the feasts of Yahweh.[68] Another set of Psalms ("theodicies") shows that God is just, although it may at times not seem this way to a short-sighted observer of the world and of history.[69]
Poems that portray feelings based on individual experience. Many of these lyrics express joy, as, e.g., Lamech's so-calledSong of the sword;[70] David's "last words";[71] the words of praise of liberated Israel;[72] songs of praise like Psalms 18, 24, 126, etc. Other lyrics express mourning. First among these are the dirges proper for the dead, as theḳinah on the death of Saul and Jonathan;[73] that onAbner's death;[74] and all psalms of mourning, as, e.g., the expressions of sorrow of sufferers,[75] and the expressions of penitence of sinners.[76]
Finally, a large group of poems of the Old Testament that urge action and are exhortatory. These may be divided into two sections:
It was natural that in the drama, which is intended to portray a whole series of external and internal events, several of the foregoing kinds of poems should be combined. This combination occurs inCanticles, which, in Davidson's opinion, is most correctly characterized as a kind of drama.
So sehr auch der Parallelismus die ausgeprägte Form der hebräischen Vesbildung ist, so halten sich die Dichter nicht der Art durch denselben gebunden, dass sie es nicht, wo der Gedanke es erfordert, denselben durchbrechen sollten.
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906)."Poetry - Biblical".The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
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