Poetry: Has been well defined as "the measured language of emotion." Hebrew
poetry deals almost exclusively with the great question of man's
relation to God. "Guilt, condemnation, punishment, pardon,
redemption, repentance are the awful themes of this heaven-born
poetry." In the Hebrew scriptures there are found three distinct
kinds of poetry,1. that of the Book of Job and the Song of Solomon, which is
dramatic;
2. that of the Book of Psalms, which is lyrical; and
3. that of the Book of Ecclesiastes, which is didactic and
sententious.
Hebrew poetry has nothing akin to that of Western nations. It has
neither metre nor rhyme. Its great peculiarity consists in the mutual
correspondence of sentences or clauses, called parallelism, or
"thought-rhyme." Various kinds of this parallelism have been pointed
out:
1. Synonymous or cognate parallelism, where the same idea is
repeated in the same words
(Psalms 93:3; 94:1; Proverbs 6:2) or in different
words (Psalms 22, 23, 28, 114, etc.); or where it is expressed in a
positive form in the one clause and in a negative in the other
(Psalms 40:12; Proverbs 6:26) or where the same idea is expressed in
three successive clauses
(Psalms 40:15,16) or in a double
parallelism, the first and second clauses corresponding to the
third and fourth
(Isaiah 9:1; 61:10,11)
2. Antithetic parallelism, where the idea of the second clause is
the converse of that of the first
(Psalms 20:8; 27:6,7; 34:11)
(Psalms 37:9,17,21,22) This is the common form of gnomic or
proverbial poetry. See
(Proverbs 10:1) ff.
3. Synthetic or constructive or compound parallelism, where each
clause or sentence contains some accessory idea enforcing the
main idea
(Psalms 19:7-10; 85:12; Job 3:3-9; Isaiah 1:5-9)
4. Introverted parallelism, in which of four clauses the first
answers to the fourth and the second to the third
(Psalms 135:15-18)
(Proverbs 23:15,16) or where the second line reverses the order of
words in the first
(Psalms 86:2)
Hebrew poetry sometimes assumes other forms than these.
1. An alphabetical arrangement is sometimes adopted for the purpose
of connecting clauses or sentences. Thus in the following the
initial words of the respective verses begin with the letters of
the alphabet in regular succession:
(Proverbs 31:10-31) Lamentations 1,2,3,4
Psalms 25,34,37,145 119 has a letter of the alphabet in regular
order beginning every eighth verse.
2. The repetition of the same verse or of some emphatic expression
at intervals Psalms 42, 107 where the refrain is in verses,
(Psalms 107:8,15,21,31) (Comp. also)
(Isaiah 9:8-21, 10:1-4)
(Amos 1:3,6,9,11,13; 2:1,4,6)
3. Gradation, in which the thought of one verse is resumed in
another Psalms 121 Several odes of great poetical beauty are found
in the historical books of the Old Testament, such as:
a. the song of Moses
(Exodus 15:1)ff
b. the song of Deborah
(Judges 5:1)ff
c. of Hannah
(1 Samuel 2:1)ff
d. of Hezekiah
(Isaiah 38:9-20)
e. of Habakkuk
(Habakkuk 3:1)ff
f. and David's "song of the bow"
(2 Samuel 1:19-27)
