If someone would be kind enough to define/illustrate each of these for us non theology and non linguistic majors. I struggled through freshman comp and lit.
Certainly, This is my professors piece of work, not mine.
“Some Thoughts on OT Biblical Poetry”
If your literary skills are rusty this short summary/worksheet of biblical poetry and various literary figures of speech may knock some of the rust off.
PARALLELISM
According to Bullock parallelism is “the heart of Hebrew poetry.” In Hebrew the basic form of poetry is not the end rhyme as you might remember from your grammar school or high school literature class but is parallelism.
Parallelism “is a literary pattern that states an idea in one line and focuses more closely on the same idea in the following line, either repeating the thought in different terms or focusing on the thought more specifically.”
I would suggest that in Hebrew poetry the thought of the first line is somehow intensified or heightened in subsequent lines. This method makes a deep impression on the reader as he or she contemplates the relationship between the two lines.
In your English translation the Song is laid out based on lines. Each verse is divided by individual lines. This is an attempt to capture the nature of biblical poetry (parallelism).
Different Types of Parallelism
Synonymous Parallelism: In this type of parallelism the thought pattern of the first line relates to the pattern in successive lines (not exactly but nuanced; similar, intensified but never contradicted).
Antithetic Parallelism: is parallelism that contrasts thoughts between lines.
Proverbs has a number of clear examples of Antithetic Parallelism. In your English Bibles it is represented by the pronounced use of “but.”
Proverbs 15:13-15
A joyful heart makes a cheerful face,
But when the heart is sad, the spirit is broken.
The mind of the intelligent seeks knowledge,
But the mouth of fools feeds on folly.
All the days of the afflicted are bad,
But a cheerful heart has a continual feast.
Robert Chisholm also believes that parallelism maybe reiterative or synonymous; specifying, complementary; explanatory; progressive or consequential; comparative; and contrastive parallelism. The important issue to remember in parallelism is to determine the relationship between the first and subsequent lines. Sometimes the relationship may not fall into a recognized category.
Points to Ponder
Before you proceed, think of ways that parallelism is at work in Psalm 1. Try to determine the relationship between these lines. I have made suggestions for the first four lines on the next page.
How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
Psalm 1:1-6
How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
Parallelism between lines 1 and 2: a progression of intensification of walking to dwelling
But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
Parallelism between lines 3 and 4: an intensification of action. The emotion of delight intensifies to the action of mediation.
He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
FIGURES OF SPEECH
Simile: A comparison using the words like or as.
Psalm 1:3 He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Psalm 1:4 The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
Caution: Be careful using this term w/o having had Hebrew. For instance, study the following example from Psalm 22 in the NASB.
Psalm 22:13 They open wide their mouth at me, As a ravening and a roaring lion.
The “as” which one would label as a simile is not in the Hebrew. Did the biblical author intend to use a simile as the translation renders it or did he intend to use a metaphor?
Metaphor: a comparison between two unlike objects (without using “like” or “as”). Metaphors rely on imagery. It is at the same time both concise and vague.
Psalm 59:17
O my strength, I will sing praises to You;
For God is my stronghold,
the God who shows me lovingkindness.
To understand the author’s use of the metaphor in this psalm, one must be able to answer the question, how is God to be compared to a stronghold? What is the relationship between the vehicle (stronghold) and the tenor (God)? What characteristic(s) does God and a stronghold share?
Psalm 22:16
For dogs have surrounded me;
A band of evildoers has encompassed me;
They pierced my hands and my feet.
Have dogs really surrounded David in this psalm or is he using dogs as a metaphor?
Ellipsis: is the omission of some word in a line of poetry but is assumed to be there.
Psalm 36:6
Your righteousness is like the mountains of God;
Your judgments are like a great deep.
O LORD, You preserve man and beast
(Notice the bold, italics like in the second line? It is not there in the Hebrew. The translators of the NASB supplied it based on line one. But if the translators had not supplied it, you would have probably read the line as though it was there.
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Psalm 100:4
Enter His gates with thanksgiving,
His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him; bless His name.
What is missing in the second line? I would suggest that the author had intentionally left out the verb “enter” in the second line. Even though it is not there, we read it as though it is.
Hyperbole: expressing exaggeration of some kind using common language
Psalm 69:4
Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head;
Those who would destroy me are powerful, being wrongfully my enemies;
What I did not steal, I then have to restore.
I would suggest that David is using exaggeration in the first line to communicate the multitude of people who are against him.
Psalm 141:7
As when one plows and breaks open the earth,
Our bones have been scattered at the mouth of Sheol.
It would be tough to write a psalm if your bones are scattered at the mouth of a grave! This is an exaggeration of the desperate plight the psalmist and others are in.
Psalm 78:27
When He rained meat upon them like the dust,
Even winged fowl like the sand of the seas,
Merism: the individual units stands for the entire entity. Two opposite extremes equal the whole. The phrase “from Dan to Beersheba” is a way to say the whole land of Israel.
Psalm 49:1-2
For the choir director. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.
Hear this, all peoples;
Give ear, all inhabitants of the world,
Both low and high,
Rich and poor together.
The merism is between “low and high” and “rich and poor” which encompasses everyone.
Psalm 50:1
Psalm of Asaph.
The Mighty One, God, the LORD, has spoken,
And summoned the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.
How do you know that God is summoning the whole earth and not just a portion in which the psalmist may be living?
Psalm 139:2
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thought from afar.
Metonymy: is the substitution of one word for another with which it is associated: For instance, “The White House said today….” This statement is another way of saying that the president (or his representative) made a statement today. We know that the White House cannot literally talk.
Psalm 76:12 (spirit = life)
He will cut off the spirit of princes;
He is feared by the kings of the earth.
Psalm 5:9 (tongue =words)
They flatter with their tongue.
Synecdoche: (pronounced--sy-nec-do-ke) is a specific part of something is taken to refer to the whole. It is usually understood as a specific kind of metonymy.
Psalm 50:19 (the mouth = the whole person)
"You let your mouth loose in evil
And your tongue frames deceit
Psalm 103:1 (soul = entire person)
A Psalm of David.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
Psalm 18:27 (haughty eyes = proud people)
For You save an afflicted people,
But haughty eyes You abase.
