HEBREW POETRY

The Scope of Hebrew Poetry  The poetical books are one-fourth of the Old Testament.  Hebrew poetry, however, makes up one-third of the Old Testament.  Every book of the Old Testament contains poetry except Leviticus and Esther.  Some Old Testament books, although not classified as such, are entirely poetical: Lamentations, Obadiah, Habakkuk.  Some poetical books contain a great deal of prose: Job, Ecclesiastes.

The Sections of Hebrew Poetry  Wisdom literature makes up most of O.T. poetry and is divided into two sections:  Higher Wisdom & Lower Wisdom  There are Three Fundamental Features of Hebrew Wisdom.  First, Hebrew wisdom is God centered.  Second, Hebrew wisdom is life centered.  Third Hebrew wisdom is not a matter of capacity, but a matter of choice.

 There are Levels of Folly in Hebrew Wisdom. –"Simple" is the elementary school fool. –"Fool" is the high school fool. –"Scoffer," "Mocker," or "Scorner" is the graduate school fool. The Sections of Hebrew Poetry

The Specifics of Hebrew Poetry  The differences between Hebrew poetry and prose are not easy to specify.  Bishop Robert Lowth laid the foundation for the systematic study of Hebrew poetry in  Lowth discovered that the central feature of Hebrew poetry is parallelism.  Parallelism is the balancing of the thoughts in successive lines of poetry.  In Hebrew poetry the words do not rhyme. Instead the thoughts rhyme.

Types of Parallelisms:  Synonymous - each line repeats its own thought in different words. JOB 8:11 “Can papyrus grow tall where there is no marsh? Can reeds thrive without water?” Can reeds thrive without water?”  Antithetic - the thought of line two contrasts that of line one. PSALM 1:6 “For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.”

 Emblematic - line one contains a simile or metaphor in reference to line two. PSALM 42:1 “As a deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.” Types of Parallelisms:

 External - two parallelisms are taken together to make a unit. PSALM 27:1 "The Lord is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid?" ISAIAH 1:3 “The ox knows his master, the donkey his owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand. Types of Parallelisms:

SYNTHETIC REASON Proverbs 26:4 RSV Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself,

 Chiastic - in this parallelism there is an inverted arrangement in which the parallelism runs in reverse order. PSALM 51:1 PSALM 51:1 Have mercy on me, according to your O God unfailing love; according to your blot our my according to your blot our my great compassion transgressions. great compassion transgressions. Types of Parallelisms:

Other Literary Devices  Onomatopoeia in Judges 5:22  Hyperbole in Jonah 2:5ff  Acrostic in Psalm 119  Puns in Isaiah 5:7

PUN PUN ISAIAH 5:7 The Lord looked for: The Lord saw: mishpat mishpach mishpat mishpach “justice” “bloodshed” “justice” “bloodshed” ze dakah tze‘akah ze dakah tze‘akah “righteousness” “distress”