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“
Behold, as the eyes of servants to the hands of their masters;
And as the eyes of a maiden to the hands of her mistress;
Even so I look our eyes to Jehovah our God, until He have mercy upon us.”
Psa_123:1-2.
“I will redeem thee from death;
O death, I will be thy plague;
O grave, I will be thy destruction.”—Hos_13:14.
As the appearance of fire round about within it;
From the appearance of his loins even upward;
And from the appearance of his loins even downward,
I saw as the appearance of fire,
And it had brightness round about.”—Eze_1:27.
Attentively regarded, many simple couplets may be so divided as to resolve themselves into this arrangement, and under this operation their significance is often brought out with increased force and plainness. Thus Psa_18:20—
The Lord hath rewarded me according to my righteousness;
According to the cleanness of my hand, hath He recompensed me,”
may be read thus—
“The Lord hath rewarded me
According to my righteousness;
According to the cleanness of my hands
Hath He recompensed me.”
And so in the following—
“Have mercy upon me, O my God,
According to thy loving-kindness;
According to the multitude of thy tender mercies
Blot out my transgression.”—Psa_51:1.
A very remarkable example, in which this introversion is carried out to considerable length, is cited and illustrated by Bishop Jebb.
The idols of the heathen are silver and gold:
The work of men’s hands;
They have mouths, but they speak not;
They have eyes, but they see not;
They have ears, but they hear not;
Neither is there any breath in their mouths;
They who make them are like unto them;
So are all they who put their trust in them.”
Psa_135:15-18
Here the parallelisms are easily marked out.In the first line, we have the idolatrous heathen; #
In the eighth, those that put their trust in idols:
In the second line, the fabrication;
In the seventh, the fabricators:
In the third line, mouths without articulation;
In the sixth, mouths without breath:
In the fourth line, eyes without vision;
And in the fifth, ears without the sense of hearing.
This parallelism of the extreme members may be rendered yet more apparent by adjusting the lines themselves in quatrains, in the order of thought thus indicated.
“The idols of the heathen are silver and gold
The work of men’s hand:
They who make them are like unto them;
So are all they who put their trust in them.
They have mouths, but they speak not;
They have eyes, but they see not;
They have ears, but they hear not;
Neither is there any breath in their mouths.”
There is a remarkable form of Hebrew poetical thought-rhythm, coining, we suppose, within the class of cognate parallelism, and which is exemplified in what are called the Psalm of Degrees. This title some have thought they derived from being used at the stations in going up to Jerusalem at the festivals; but more probably from the peculiarity of their construction—the rhythm by gradation—where the thought or expression of the preceding verse is renewed and carried on in the next.
“1. I lift up my eyes unto the hills;
From whence cometh my help:
2. My help cometh from Jehovah,
The Creator of heaven and earth.
3. He suffereth not my feet to be moved:
Thy keeper slumbereth not.
4. Lo He slumbereth not, nor sleepeth,
The keeper of Israel.
5. Jehovah is thy keeper:
Jehovah, thy shade on thy right hand.
6. The sun shall not smite thee by day,
Nor the moon by night.
7. Jehovah preserveth thee from all evil,
Preserveth thy soul.
8. Jehovah preserveth thy going out and thy coming in
From this time forth for evermore.”—Psalms 121.
This kind of arrangement is not confined to the Psalms. A very early example of it may be detected in the song of Deborah; and a later in Isaiah 26, where verses 5-6, read thus—
“The lofty city he hath laid low,
Hath laid it low to the ground.
The foot hath trodden it down—
The foot of the poor, the steps of the needy.”
It may be mentioned, among the characteristics of Hebrew poetry, that the pieces are occasionally alphabetical—a circumstance not capable of preservation in translation, though it is indicated in the names given to the parts or divisions of Psalms 119. The Hebrew alphabet has twenty-two letters; and certain of the Psalms are divided into twenty-two lines, or else periods, or stanzas, each of which begins with a word whose initial letter answers to the corresponding letter in the series composing the Hebrew alphabet. Thus the word of the first member (whether line or stanzas) of the poem will begin with þ à ý (a), the second with þ á ý (b), and so on to þ ú ý (t), which is the last letter of the alphabet. There are extant in the Hebrew Bible twelve of these alphabetical odes; Note: Psalms 25; Psalms 34; Psalms 37; Psalms 111; Psalms 112; Psalms 119; Psalms 145. Pro_31:10-31. Lamentations 1; Lamentations 2; Lamentations 3; Lamentations 4. of these four only Note: Psalms 111; Psalms 112; Psalms 119. Lamentations 2. are perfectly alphabetical, every line in them being marked by the initial letter; in the other eight, only every stanza is so distinguished. Two of the perfectly alphabetical Psalms are divided into ten stanzas of two lines each, except the last, which has three lines. The other, in Lamentations 3, has twenty-two stanzas of three lines each, and in this the same initial letter is repeated in each of the three lines that compose every stanza. In the fourth (Psalms 119), each of the twenty-two letters of the alphabet has assigned to it eight verses, each of which begins with the same letter. In all these four poems, the pauses required by the sense coincide with the pauses of the lines, as marked by the repetition of the initial letters, and of the stanzas as marked by the change of initial letters. We need not point out how important this circumstance is for proving that Hebrew lyric poetry was divided into lines and stanzas—which, without this unanswerable evidence, might have been open to question. These alphabetical or acrostic Psalms have subserved an important use. The general opinion is that of Lowth, that the plan was devised to assist the memory, and was thus confined to those compositions which consist of detached maxims or sentences without any express order or connection. The same practice is said to have been prevalent, and does still prevail in some degree, among the Syrians, the Persians, and the Arabs.
As far as we know, the only translator who has attempted to give an idea of this usage is Mr. Montague, in his recent new metrical version of the Psalms. This, however, is not in one of the proper alphabetical Psalms—but in another, Psalms 100, which the translator seems to have found best suited to his purpose. As a curiosity, we transcribe it here.
“All ye lands now come in throng,
Be ye joyful in the Lord:
Come before Him with a song,
Do Him homage, in accord.
Earth’s all nations! Him adore,
Fear and serve Him evermore.
God provides for all our needs:
He ’twas made us; his we are:
In his pastures Jah us feeds,
Keeps us with a shepherd’s care.
Laud to Him, raise every voice;
Mirthful, in the Lord rejoice.
Now Him in his temples sue:
Offer up your thanks and praise
Pay Him your oblations due.
Quickening ye, your voices raise
Raising high, his praise’s frame;
Singing, bless his holy name.
Truth and mercy are the Lord’s,
Unto everlastingness;
Vast his works are, Wise his words,
Xcellent Him all confess.
Yield Him homage, and adore;
Zealous serve Him evermore.”
In closing these necessarily brief explanations respecting the thought-rhythm which constitutes, in its various forms, the most peculiar characteristic of Hebrew poetry, it is important to remember, that this is a quality which is not lost in translation—is indeed scarcely affected by it, and is manifested in a book designed to be translated into all the languages of the earth. “While the metrical arrangements of the Greeks and Latins, as depending solely on the language, are quite lost by translation into another tongue, the rhythmical structure of the Hebrew poem is unimpaired by translation, the most literal rendering of the words preserving best the beauty of their poetic arrangement.” Note: Journal of Sacred Literature, vi. 188.